Here's another entry from my Creativity and the Christian book reports. This volume gave me a lot to think about and is one of the bigger influences on my year. I recommend it.

Key Contributions

We humans tell stories. It's a trait that distinguishes us from the animals, and is consistent across the divides of race, culture, and history. Stories are ubiquitous and unavoidable. We tell them amongst ourselves, we record them in every medium imaginable, and we long for them during every stage of our lives. We know that stories matter, but the Christian community in particular seems unsure of how to respond to them. Some Christians embrace all stories, immersing themselves with little thought to their influence. Others treat the stories from outside their community as dangerous and to be avoided.

Mike Cosper offers a way of thinking about stories that takes in account both reality of the Gospel and the unique power that stories hold over us. He believes that "the Big Story of the Bible - creation, fall, redemption, and consumption - is so pervasive, so all-encompassing of our world, that we can’t help but echo it (or movements with it) when we’re telling other stories." But he also believes that stories get under our skin and shape our desires in ways that can't be measured merely by morality. "I believe we’re watching because TV and movies are both echoing and forming our desires, and I want to level into what those desires really are."

In his book, Cosper examines many examples of moving pictures that echo, distort, and provoke the storyline of redemption and the desires of our hearts. Our stories search for the innocence; they examine the fall of man and the frustrations of a broken world; they plunge the depths of human evil; they seek redemption and heroes. Having shown us how our culture's stories echo the truth imperfectly, like broken shards of glass reflecting the reality of the real world, Cosper returns us to the true story that will ultimately satisfy: the Gospel. Only after being saturated in it will the lesser stories around us reveal meaning and truth.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Mike Cosper understands the pervasive power of the Gospel. I grew up with the conviction that the only stories worth listening to were those written by Christians. But if the biblical account of redemption is in fact the very storyline of history, than its truths will be echoed by everyone who is created in the image of God. The result is a freedom to enjoy the stories told by every image bearer, recognizing that the divine image is not limited to our own tribe and creed.

Cosper describes stories and our imagination as forces of great power that do more to orient our desires than we typically assume. The imagination is the "more mysterious and sneaky part of us, ruled by love, desire, and hope." It is this imagination that hooks us into stories and "gets ahold of our hearts and minds and moves us in ways that textbooks... never could." This is why we are addicted to stories. As Christians, this shouldn't come as a surprise, for we are made in the image of a storytelling God.

But it does give us even more reason to be careful about the stories we consume. What are they saying to us? How are they lingering in our subconscious, forming our desires, our hopes, and our loves? "The profound and dangerous power of TV and movies is that they have a way of getting inside of us, shaping the way we see the world by captivating our imaginations." Cosper does an excellent job dissecting stories, revealing what they assume about us and the human longings that drive them. He also identifies the need to be rooted in the storyline of Scripture. Although his book gave me further permission to enjoy the craft of storytelling, it also cautioned me against its subtle powers. If these stories are so sneaky in shaping our desires, should we not be even more cautious around their influence? How do we avoid having them shape our desires in ways that are wrong? Perhaps the book could have further addressed this question.

Personal Application

Stories We Tell taught me a greater awareness of the immersive nature of stories. It taught me to see them as a volatile force - not necessarily evil or good itself - but that can be used to shape our desires towards God or away from him. The answer is not to avoid stories, but rather to seek a greater immersion in the Gospel story. Regular worship with the local body of Christ reforms our desires. Immersion in God's Word and times spent with Him in prayer reorient our hearts to this true realty, the true story of salvation. And through His Spirit, we are being sanctified by a power that is greater than that of our culture's stories.

Thus baptised in the water of life, we can step into the world of stories with boldness. "Remarkably, in the light of the gospel, these other stories become brighter and more encouraging... When you see the bigger story, these others aren’t diminished, but are held in their proper place. In fact, they become more beautiful and more interesting." We can now see the world with joy and wonder, and understand it better through the gifts of the storytellers. “We can step into the world with a sense of invitation. This is our Father’s world. What do we want to explore today?"

Reading this book, I was struck by the ways I use social media to project an edited version of how I want to be seen by the world. "What we share and don’t share on social media is shaped by how we want the world to see us... Your Facebook timeline is your version of a reality show... On the web.... we glory in ourselves.” Many times I catch myself scrolling through my Facebook timeline, impressed by the quality of my posts, dissecting what they say about me. Becoming aware of this forced me to challenge how social media was affecting my identity. Posting excellent content isn't wrong, but making that my salvation is.

Questions for the Author

“The profound and dangerous power of TV and movies is that they have way of getting inside us, shaping the way we see the world by captivating our imaginations.” What concrete steps can we take to protect ourselves from having our world formed by what we watch?

Mike's observations about how we careful edit our social media presence was incredibly insightful. Does Mike ever recognize himself doing this? How does he respond?

Mike describes himself as a TV addict. Technology and the new ways we release content has developed a culture of binge watching. What questions does Mike ask of himself as he becomes addicted to a show?

How does this apply to music? Music certainly tells stories, but in different, less straight forward manners. Songs also have a way of rattling around our heads in more subtle and persuasive way than other mediums. Since Mike is a musician and worship leader, I'd love to hear his reflections on how the book's principles change when applied to music.

"As believers, we need to pay attention to the kinds of stories we are telling, even among ourselves, about sex, satisfaction, and ultimate joy." We are all storytellers, placing ourselves in the context of a story, building habits and desires rooted in them. In what ways do we tell these stories? How do we become aware of them and, if necessary, change them?

How do you keep yourself rooted in the story of the Gospel while being bombarded by other narratives?

How do we tell better stories? Not everyone is a film maker or a writer of fiction, but we are all creatives, whether we invent stories for our kids or post videos online

Over the summer, I participated in a course called Creativity and the Christian. It was a challenge and a joy to be forced to write essays again. I'll be posting what I worked on over the next couple weeks, beginning with three book reports. Each of these books is excellent and I recommend reading. Here is my report for Frances Scaheffer's classic volume, Art and the Bible.

Key Contributions

The Christian faith has enjoyed a historically rich relationship with the arts. The writings of Dante, the music of Bach, the paintings of Rembrandt, and the songwriting of Bono are small sampling of this heritage. So why is the Evangelical church marked by both an aesthetic barrenness and an attitude of fear and avoidance towards the arts? Is our church's understanding of the arts actually rooted in a proper understanding of the Bible? Francis Schaeffer's seminal work, Art and the Bible, provided a much needed clarity when it was first published in 1973 and continues to offer a reorienting view of a proper doctrine of creativity.

The Bible's portrayal of reality is not limited to matters of the soul. The doctrines of the creation, the redemption, and the future resurrection provide a framework that permeates all aspects of reality. Christ is Lord over everything, giving us context and boldness for our own acts of artistic creation. With such an anchoring in the objective, true reality, we have both the strength and the freedom to pursue knowledge and art.

We see the character of God both in his creation of the world and in how he directs us through his word. And both point to a God who is himself creative and who made us to worship him creatively. "God is interested in beauty. God made people to be beautiful. And beauty has a place in the worship of God." Observe the beauty and complexity of His creation. Read the descriptions on the various types of art God commissioned for the tabernacle and the temple. Notice the wide range of writing styles that are included in scriptures. If we are made in the image of God, we too are called to be creative and our art has value in itself. "Why? Because a work of art is a work of creativity, and creativity has value because God is the Creator."

Strengths and Weaknesses

For Schaeffer, art is an expression of "the nature and character of humanity." We can recognize the excellence of an artist's work without having to agree with his outlook on life. To enjoy an author's skill with words or a director's vision of the world is a way to honour the image of God in those people. But that doesn't necessarily mean we embrace what that artist is saying morally. Every man, artist or not, is bound to the Word of God.

Schaeffer's articulates the minor and major themes in the Christian message and how Christian art should include both. The minor theme includes the reality of the fallenness of man, the resulting sense of meaninglessness and tragedy, and the "defeated and sinful side to the Christian life." The major theme is the joy that opens up when we realize that God is real and knowable, and that there is hope through redemption and the future resurrection. To underemphasize the minor theme is to be false to reality. "But in general...the major theme is to be dominant - though it must exist in relationship to the minor."

He also distinguishes between using art to worship God instead of worshipping the art itself. He observes that the Law "does not forbid the making of representatives art but rather the worship of it." If our art finds its worth as an offering to God rather than to men, then there is meaning and significance to our efforts. But our tendency, as humans and as artists, is to instead worship the work of our hands and elevate it over God. "Fixed down in our hearts is a failure to understand that beauty should be to the praise of God." Hezekiah destroys Moses' bronze serpent "because men had made it an idol. What is wrong with representational art is not its existence but its wrong uses." May our worship be only to the True King, so that our art may serve Him instead of taking His place in our lives. The book was so rich I struggled to pick out weaknesses.

Personal Application

Schaeffer's charge to keep our art contemporary is an important challenge. "If you are a young Christian artist, you should be working in the art forms of the twentieth century, showing the marks of the culture out of which you have come, reflecting your own contemporaries and embodying something of the nature of the world as seen from a Christian perspective." This requires vigilance, being constantly aware of how the content of your messages fits within the style of your art. There is no easy answer. We must ask careful questions of our audience and listen closely to their feedback. Does the medium distract or confuse the content? "The Christian...must wrestle with the whole question, looking to the Holy Spirit for help to know when to invent, when to adopt, when to adapt, and when to not to use a specific style at all. This is something each artist wrestles with for a lifetime, not something he settles once and for all."

Ultimately, Schaeffer's book offers me freedom. "The Christian is the really free man - he is free to have imagination." It is a freedom rooted in a proper doctrine of our God and his world. It is a freedom offered through the redemption of our hearts in Christ and the guidance of His Spirit, replacing the paralyzing effects of idolatry. It is also a freedom coming from the realization that we are given a lifetime to express everything that needs to be said. "No artist can say everything he might want to say... into a single work... If a man is to be an artist, his goal should be in a lifetime to produce a wide and deep body of work."

Over the years, I've struggled with feelings of inadequacy or failure when my creative endeavours don't succeed. Through this book, I've realized how much of this stems from finding my identity in the art, rather than using my art as a means to worship God. My prayer is that my work would be to an audience of One and that my satisfaction would come from this alone.

Questions for the Author

If, through Christ, our "whole capacity as man is refashioned" - our soul and our mind and body - how does this apply to taking care of our bodies; health, fitness, and beauty?

"The arts and the sciences do have a place in the Christian life - they are not peripheral." It's clear from this book that having proper doctrine is central to holding the arts and sciences in place. What focus then should churches place on teaching these other topics?

He talks about the ugliness of many evangelical church buildings and compares it to the construction of the temple, which was full of physical beauty. How do these guidelines from the Old Testament era apply to building churches in the New Testament?

In what ways can our contemporary church's architecture and physical aesthetic provoke praise? How should we balance our emphasis on this with the other purposes of the church? How should we convey the importance of this to leaders in the church who overlook it?

Hezekiah "had the temple cleansed and worship reformed according to the law of God." In what ways does the church's contemporary worship need reforming?

How does he interact with nudity in art? This applies to viewing classical art, like paintings and sculpture, but also modern art, like film and literature. Sexuality and the body are beautiful and matter to God, but we are also accountable to a higher moral standard.

He talks about art that is produced within the Christian framework, even if the artist is him or herself not a believer. Does this happen less and less on our culture? Also, there are some who find truth and beauty and echoes of the Gospel in all art, regardless of who created it. What would Schaeffer say to this? When should we be critical of a work's worldview and when should we enjoy and learn from what it says?