Here is Lewis on his "pre-conversion" to Christianity via good books:"Indeed, I must have been as blind as a bat not to have seen, long before, the ludicrous contradiction between my theory of life and my actual experiences as a reader. George MacDonald had done more to me than any other writer; of course it was a pity that he had that bee in his bonnet about Christianity. He was good in spite of it. Chesterton had more sense than all the other moderns put together; bating, of course, his Christianity. Johnson was one of a few authors whom I felt I could trust utterly; curiously enough, he had the same kink. Spenser and Milton by strange coincidence had it too. Even among ancient authors the same paradox was to be found. The most religious (Plato, Aeschylus, Virgil) were clearly those on whom I could really feed. On the other hand, those writers who did not suffer from religion and with whom my sympathy ought to have been complete—Shaw and Wells and Mill and Gibbon and Voltaire—all seemed a little thin; what as boys we called ‘tinny.’ It wasn’t that I didn’t like them. They were all (especially Gibbon) entertaining; but hardly more. There seemed to be no depth in them. They were too simple. The roughness and density of life did not appear in their books.... The upshot of it all could nearly be expressed in a perversion of Roland’s great line in the Chanson—‘Christians are wrong, but all the rest are bores.’" -CS Lewis
Here is my question: is art produced by Christians (I'm thinking of music and writing mainly) still "rough and dense" these days--or is it quite "tinny?" If yes to the first, who do you have in mind? If yes to the second, why the reversal?
3 Comments:
It's out there, but those Christian artists who make rough and dense material rarely identify themselves, and are rarely identified in the media, as Christian artists. It seems that the most widely circulated media outlets aren't comfortable giving critical accolades to good Christian artist for making relevant, dense, and thoughtful work.
If they did, then the perspectives of those artists must also be seen as relevant, dense, and thoughtful, and that makes people uncomfortable to think that Christian artists might have something powerful and meaningful to say.
It's easier instead to amplify the tinnier Christian artists who have little creative or philosophical value. In this way, Christian perspectives can be more effectively ignored and dismissed as being as thin and vapid as a Scott Stapp lyric.
Mike Donahoe
i think there is plenty of rough and dense art produced by christians, as much as ever. but you won't find it in "christian" isolated media.
Joe,
I don't do it nearly often enough, but when I do, I love catching up on your blog. I wanted to say hey and send my best to you and the Mrs. Hope you're doing great man.
Andrew
Newport.andrew@gmail.com
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