http://culture-ish.com/what-ever-happened-to-handel read. listen. watch. respond. Thu, 21 Aug 2008 18:52:12 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.1 http://culture-ish.com/what-ever-happened-to-handel#comment-425 David Greusel Fri, 29 Feb 2008 22:44:25 +0000 http://culture-ish.com/what-ever-happened-to-handel#comment-425 Good rant, Andrew. The reasons for the dearth of great Christian art (today) are numerous, but I would boil it down to: 1) The truncated gospel. If the only use of the gospel is to get individuals into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ, art is unneccessary. Or worse, art is only a tool for presenting the gospel. Art has intrinsic as well as instrumental value, but the evangelical church has forgotten all about this. So we have devalued both art and artists. 2) The Enlightenment. Starting with Descartes, and then on through Marx, Freud and Darwin, God has been moved off center stage in the thought centers of the Western world (i.e., the universities). Is it any wonder that Christian artists are marginalized when God himself has been relegated to the status of a weird hobby? Good rant, Andrew. The reasons for the dearth of great Christian art (today) are numerous, but I would boil it down to:
1) The truncated gospel. If the only use of the gospel is to get individuals into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ, art is unneccessary. Or worse, art is only a tool for presenting the gospel. Art has intrinsic as well as instrumental value, but the evangelical church has forgotten all about this. So we have devalued both art and artists.
2) The Enlightenment. Starting with Descartes, and then on through Marx, Freud and Darwin, God has been moved off center stage in the thought centers of the Western world (i.e., the universities). Is it any wonder that Christian artists are marginalized when God himself has been relegated to the status of a weird hobby?

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