Art and Meaning

Recently I was reading in Francis Schaeffer's book The God Who Is There. In the opening chapters of this book he evaluates the degradation of philosophy and art past what he calls "the line of despair." Specifically I found his evaluation of art particularly enlightening. He move through an evaluation of Van Gogh, Gaugin and Cezanne as they search for what Schaeffer calls the "universal." In short this concept is an attempt by the artist to capture and depict beauty and meaning outside of cultural moles and in a form that is open to all people at all times. Unfortunately this attempt moved slowly away from understandable forms until the attempt reached new heights in Picasso. Schaeffer aptly describes the conclusion. "If you go far enough, your abstracted women can become 'all women' or even everything. But the difficulty is that when you get to that point the viewer has no clue what he is looking at.You have succeeded in making your own world on your canvas, and in this sense you have become god. But at the same time you have lost contact with the person who views your painting. We have come to the position where we cannot communicate."

It is clear that such progression has and will continue to manifest itself in many forms of art or communication medium. When mankind wants to be greater than man or to manifest his own meaning, the end result is a lessening of communication. What God started at the Tower of Babel practically plays out as people seek their own fulfillment and meaning on their own power. Art (and its manifestation in commercialism) continues to appeal either to the senses (thus sensual) or to pride. Some art wants a response or to entertain while others supposes itself high art. This art appeals to people's pride as they seek to understand it when in actuality the emperer has no clothes but nobody is willing to say so. Beauty and art will always be most profitable when it attempts to depict reality based upon cognizant realization of order and meaning. God's creation at the beginning of time was good in its form and function and communicates the artist's nature. We must not become wise in our own minds and seek by our own power to manifest new meaning and reality but shape our lives and actions upon pleasing God while living in His creation.

Be Consistent

In a recent class discussion, we examined the chapter of Ezekiel 40-48. In these chapters, the prophet Ezekiel details the dimensions and decorations of a new temple to be erected sometime in the future. Likewise, in these chapters, a renewed system of killing animals similar to that described in Leviticus is described. The basic discussion was to evaluate whether each aspect of these chapters both the temple and the "sacrifices" were to be understood literally or figuratively and when their completion would be realized.

I found that a large majority of my class felt that the temple was a as yet future literal building. Due to various reasons, they almost unanimously stated that this temple was an actual building to be realized sometime in the future of the nation of Israel. However, when the discussion moved to the "sacrifices," they almost equally unanimously stated that these were to be seen as figurative. Their reason was that due to the death and resurrection of Jesus such actions were obviously no longer necessary. Thus these described actions were a figurative picture of something else.

As I read these comments and arguments I realized how shallow many people are when it comes to difficult hermeneutics. It is easy to interpret what fits your beliefs. However, in this case, it was clear that these people had not thought it all completely through. When the temple and the "sacrifices" are described together, it is not appropriate to interpret one as literal and another as figurative just because it makes the most sense immediately. You have to be consistent with your interpretation, even with difficult passages.

It was a stark reminder that I need to evaluate the flippant way in which I approach passages which I think I know very well. It is not wise to trust my own wisdom and intuition when it comes to teaching or interpreting the Scriptures. Careful study and diligent prayer should accompany the reading and study of the Word of God so that man's wisdom does not cloud the revealed truth of God.

(P.S. - If people are interested, I can post my answer to the interpretation and understanding of those chapters of Ezekiel.)