Philosophical Thought Permeates All Art

I told my Pastor a week ago that I did not have a good theology of aesthetics. He recommended a few passages of Scripture, and a few books to read. He had in his library a book from Francis Schaeffer called HOW SHOULD WE THEN LIVE? This was not one of the resources he recommended to me at first, but it was what he had in his library.

I have been skimming it for the past two mornings. I just finished reading a chapter called "Modern Art, Literature, Music and Films." It was most helpful to begin my study of aesthetics. I wanted to share briefly what I learned so that you to may glean some wisdom.

All of these cultural forms of expression; art, literature, music, and film, come from the philosophers of the day. There was a time when the philosophers were Christian theologians. The philosophers were writing profound things that were consistent with a Christian worldview (a world of design, order, unity, reason and beauty). The Artists would read the Philosophers. They would then paint and sculpt art that was consistent with this worldview. Next, the Writers would come along and reflect upon the art forms of the Artists. These writers would write poetry, novels, music, drama, and cinema. Thus the cultural forms of expression of the 1600 and 1700's were consistent with a Christian world and life view.

It does not take a genius to see that the art expressions of our day are no longer consistent with a Biblical world and life view. Painting are fragmented and disorderly. Movies are void of a moral standard of right and wrong. Music is not harmonic or orderly. Novels do not represent reality. Drama does not represent a true characteristic of humanity. Poetry and song lyrics are random, immoral and fantasy. And all of these art expressions (aesthetics) are a product of the philosophical writings of our day, or the philosophical ideas of the past that are still adhered to today.

I was reflecting on the chapter I read this morning in Schaeffer's book. My iPhone is docked next to my computer and performing a sync. It finished syncing and my computer hibernated, then my screen saver popped up. It is a light that is brightest in the center, and has light legs that flow out of the center like a slow moving octopus. I was struck as I was gazing at my screen, that this was not consistent with reality. There is nothing I can find in nature that looks like this exactly. It is a combination of light moving underwater like a octopus, but is it neither of these. It is nothing real. It was designed out of a philosophy of randomness and chance that is not consistent with the world around me that God has designed. I would imagine that I will see many things around me today that I have been blind to for 38 years.