We here take up again our look at the meaning of the Bible’s form and the implications of that form for Christian artists.  In the course of the past several weeks, we saw that God has constructed Reality in such a way that symbols (whether verbal, visual, tactile, etc.) must be used for communication.  We also learned that everything that exists in Creation is a symbol of God (Gen 1; Ps 19; Rom 1; etc.).  We saw also that every symbol communicates knowledge or content, since it represents what it stands for, and that the knowledge symbols communicate symbolically addresses the intuitive aspect of a person primarily, transcending (but not contradicting) logic.

We saw, in addition, that symbols communicate multiple layers of meaning or content simultaneously (representing more than one thing at the same time).  This scriptural teaching is the basic building block of all Art, in all of Art’s forms.

In the last post, we explored the fact that, though forms of expression that are deliberately less symbolic (like discursive communication) still cannot escape completely from symbolic and artistic embodiment, communication that is symbolic (and thus artistic) deliberately communicates to a much broader range than just the rational part of mankind: Art communicates on emotional, supra-rational, intuitive levels as well as to the rational part of men.

Symbolic and artistic expressions deliberately aim at communicating on multiple levels that interlock and are complementary, e.g., on a nexus, or web, or interfacing and overlapping layers of meaning.  Deliberately less symbolic expressions seek to limit meaning to one (or as few as possible) meaning(s) (this is not bad, of course, since didactic or teaching forms need this form, but there is a problem in that the Evangelical Church is addicted to didactic forms at the expense of more symbolic ones).

Art, of course, is symbolic in its nature, and deliberately aims at the whole man (not just the intellect).  This is a mysterious process, which is not co-incidentally like Creation itself, which is one vast symbolic structure.

The components of artistic expression, such as musical sequences, musical notes, sculpture, painting, dance positions, architecture, etc., as part of Creation, all carry multiple layers of meaning.  The task of the artist of whatever stripe is largely taken up with arranging the elements of his art in such a way that his vision in communicated through the various layers of meaning to his audience.  For a Christian, it goes without saying that the artistic vision is to be realized within the vision of Scripture as the Word mediates God’s vision to transform and conform to itself to the vision of the artist.

As we discussed last week, men are not simply rational creatures.  We exist and comprehend and need ministry on a variety of complex levels.  Artistic expression, as it addresses a great number of these levels of existence, is vital to the life of man, and thus to the mission of the Church.

This is one of the reasons why the Word (Logos), the Second Person of the Triune God, incarnated as enfleshed, physical man, rather than existing as an idea or impression or propositional construct.  He came to redeem not just the intellect, but the whole range of human existence on every level.

This is also why the ancient Church (and much of the Church since) has always had a two-pronged worship form: the Word and the Table, discursive and symbolic communion with God (the Word is more discursive; the Sacrament is more symbolic).  We need both, but in its present state of devaluing and denigrating the symbolic, the Evangelical Church today needs to redress in its theology, worship, and practice, the loss of godly symbol (and, thus, Art).

If the Church fails to do so, we will continue to see our culture dominated and controlled by pagan artists and symbol users.