This is a series to further explain the articles of “A Conservative Christian Declaration.” . We affirm that beauty exists in reality and is to be the pursuit of every believer (Phil. 1:9–11). We also affirm that the recognition of beauty is fundamental to worship and devotion, and a right approach to God entails both a… Continue Reading
One of the most difficult matters when having debates over aesthetics (that is, beauty and meaning in the arts) is the terms we employ. For example, the following terms often lack precision in discussion and thus cause confusion: relative subjective objective universal The first two terms are often equated with each other, as are the… Continue Reading
Jonathan Edwards has some fairly well-developed theories of art and aesthetics that can inform discussions of Christian aesthetics today. In particular, Edwards discussed the importance of the imagination, which he saw as a sign of the work of the Holy Spirit since it helps believers perceive spiritual reality. Here is a relevant passage from Experiencing God:… Continue Reading
Leading 20th century Roman Catholic theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar contended that Protestantism had no place for beauty in its theology. “Contemporary Protestant theology nowhere deals with the beautiful as a theological category,” he wrote. “For the time being, the only question posed by Protestants is that concerning the relationship between revelation and this-worldly beauty—certainly… Continue Reading
Imagine I tell my wife that I want to take her to a special place for our anniversary. We arrange for a babysitter for our children, we dress in our finest clothes, and we hop into our car to set off for our romantic “mystery” destination. Becky’s excitement soon turns to bewilderment as I pull… Continue Reading
Conservative evangelicals admirably repudiate emergent leaders who argue that both content and form must be contextualized; evangelicals insist that since God’s Word is inspired and inerrant, God’s truth transcends culture and must be preserved intact. But since even most conservative evangelicals consider culture as entirely neutral in itself and beauty as in the eye of… Continue Reading
In a striking work published a century ago the Italian philosopher Benedetto Croce pointed to a radical distinction, as he saw it, between art properly so-called, and the pseudo-art designed to entertain, arouse or amuse…[He was] right to believe that there is a great difference between the artistic treatment of a subject matter and the… Continue Reading
Probably the greatest difference between a thoroughly conservative Christian church and more nominally conservative Christian churches will be found in differences over the religious affections. Conservative Christian churches want to conserve a Christian understanding of the religious affections. In the next few posts, I hope to suggest some ways that churches may recover a right view… Continue Reading
I have argued to this point that preserving the truth must include not only the preservation of right doctrine, but also the preservation of right imagination. As we have already seen, the imagination is shaped and cultivated through aesthetic forms. We have focused most specifically on literary forms since this is what we find in the Bible, but… Continue Reading
My argument in this series will be that conservative worship is essential to the preservation of truth for this reason: we will have preserved truth successfully only if it is truth rightly imagined, and our imagining truth rightly depends heavily on the forms of worship that we employ. What is Truth? We must first clarify what it is… Continue Reading
I have suggested that the twin pillars of conservatism are 1) an affirmation of transcendent absolute principles of truth, goodness, and beauty; and 2) a commitment to conserve those institutions and forms that best reflect a recognition and respect for this transcendent order. In this post I will examine the first of these pillars. A… Continue Reading
I continue to receive e-mails concerning seemingly more and more common explanations of Sola Scriptura that in effect strip it down to nothing more than what Kevin Bauder calls Nuda Scriptura. You can read a good explanation of the doctrine by Jason Parker here, along with links to more pertinent articles. Along the same lines,… Continue Reading
If God does indeed imbue creation with his own value judgments, we are obligated to order our loves in analogy to his. If what I’m arguing is true, we are blameworthy, not only when we believe mistakenly (and thereby do not conform to God’s knowledge of himself or of his creation), but also when we… Continue Reading
Characteristic of our age is the wholehearted embrace of relativisms; I speak of relativisms (in the plural) because we can consider relativism from several (interrelated) perspectives. I often make use of a tripartite conception of man (as mind, will, and emotion) to classify some important relativistic views. If relativism is applied to mind, we relinquish… Continue Reading
How can we conserve biblical worship? We can conserve biblical worship by regulating our worship by God’s Word, by learning to distinguish between ordinate affection and appetite and choosing worship forms that foster those affections for God, by cultivating those worship forms that have been nurtured within the community of faith, and by proactively transmitting… Continue Reading
We recently received an excellent question submitted through the “Article Suggestions” module in the right column of this site: “What areas of aesthetics are preferences that are relative to individuals (if any)?” I recently argued in a post on this site (from a chapter in Sound Worship) that it is the responsibility of Christians to… Continue Reading
The following is taken from Sound Worship: a Guide to Making Musical Choices in a Noisy World. Part 1: Introduction Part 2: The Source of Beauty Part 3: The Marring of Beauty Part 4: The Redemption of Beauty Part 5: The Judgment of Beauty Change Your Taste During the years I was in college and… Continue Reading
The following is taken from Sound Worship: a Guide to Making Musical Choices in a Noisy World. Part 1: Introduction Part 2: The Source of Beauty Part 3: The Marring of Beauty Part 4: The Redemption of Beauty The Judgment of Beauty Once a person becomes a Christian — once his capacity to recognize beauty… Continue Reading
The following is take from Sound Worship: a Guide to Making Musical Choices in a Noisy World. Part 1: Introduction Part 2: The Source of Beauty Part 3: The Marring of Beauty The Redemption of Beauty Since sin marred beauty in creation, the atoning work of Christ on the cross and subsequent regeneration of individuals… Continue Reading
The following is taken from Sound Worship: a Guide to Making Musical Choices in a Noisy World. Part 1: Introduction Part 2: The Source of Beauty The Marring of Beauty If not for the presence of sin, all creation would still be beautiful, and by extension all creations of man would also be beautiful. Yet… Continue Reading