In Out of the Silent Planet, C. S. Lewis introduces the idea of 'bent.' In that book the protagonist, a philologist from Cambridge, goes to Mars where he meets creatures who don't have the word 'bad' in their vocabulary; therefore he uses the word 'bent,' a visual term, in order to describe 'bad.' Toward the end of the story, Lucifer is referred to as 'the Bent One' during a discussion of Lucifer's rebellion against God. Using the word 'bent' to describe the situation we experience in the world around us is helpful because we know from Romans 8:22 that creation is groaning under the burden of the Fall. Yet it is not completely perverse because we are still able to see God's goodness as we look into His handiwork (Romans 1:20). Furthermore, we can still find the image of God in the faces of mankind in spite of our total depravity.
The Christian worldview has the ability to address the issues of a bent world with a message of redemption, hope, and goodness. Therefore the follower of Christ has the usually unrealized potential of having a greater insight into the true nature of goodness than someone who does not follow Christ. But the believer's effort to portray goodness in art can possibly run into problems, even if a truly Christian worldview is utilized, because the Christian cannot control or determine the perception or reception of the art itself. Frequently goodness may be misunderstood or simply not even perceived. This wrong perception is due to living an entire life in a bent world. In other words, when we view and create art we are not able to escape the fallen world we live in. We can neither rise above it, nor go around it. We are bound to it. It pervades everything we think and do. There is a communication problem when trying to portray a proper understanding of good to those whose catalog of images and experiences is thoroughly bent.
The assertion that a believer has a greater insight into the true nature of goodness does not imply an in inherent superiority of potential to understand goodness better than his neighbor. In fact, the good news of Christ boldly asserts that it is only by the mercy of God and His grace that followers of Christ are given new hearts and therefore a sensitivity to the Spirit. And then it is only as we resist conforming to the world's mold and instead be transformed by the renewing of our minds that we are able to begin to understand true goodness.
Once we are in Christ we are a new creation with a new worldview and new experience of reality, making us different from those around us. We then have the possibility of finding ourselves in situations like the turtle with the fish, where true understanding of the former's condition is simply beyond the latter's experience. As believers making art, part of the story we have to tell, part of the meta-narrative, is the idea of 'good.' So then where do we go for an understanding of 'good' that we can use to begin building bridges across chasms of misconception?
A Good Foundation
The first thing required of Christ's followers when engaging the concept of 'good' is that we look to God for insight because 'goodness' is one of His attributes. Unfortunately, because 'good' is a perfect attribute of an infinite Creator and we are only finite creatures, a complete grasp of good is beyond our reach. Though we can't know goodness fully, we can know it truly if the Creator reveals it to us His creatures.
The almighty, infinite and personal God has revealed Himself through Scripture so it is to Scripture we must turn. If we are to even attempt to communicate good in our art we must push out beyond our bent understanding of it and draw from the depths of God's character. By using the means of grace made available to us--those things that God uses to strengthen our faith--we can begin building the spiritual and philosophical foundation required for greater insights and discovery about good during the creative process.
To begin 'unbending' our understanding of good we must read, memorize, meditate on, and receive through preaching God's holy Word. And when we study Scripture, we must approach God's Word mindful that we carry bent presuppositions or 'filters' of what we think God has said before we bother to find out what is actually written there. A. D. Bauer has observed, 'Believers read the Bible through filters that deny the reality of God and preachers preach the Bible using filters that make "good" not truly good.'
In addition to Scripture study, other means of grace available to us for mining the depths of God are fellowship, prayer, and the sacraments. We learn much about God when we spend time with the body of Christ and when we tell others of the amazing grace offered through Jesus. We need to practice 'good' to understand more about 'good.' When meditating on the attributes of God such as His goodness, during sacrificial fasting, giving and serving others, God is often generous in revealing aspects of His person. And when we focus on the person of Christ and His deity during prayer and worship, He helps us understand more adequately the attributes of God, including goodness.
By applying these means of grace in our lives, under the supervision of the Spirit, we can grow in our sanctification, becoming the new creatures that we already are in Christ. Then we can also begin to really see things--such as goodness--as it truly is. It is at this point, after the foundation has been laid by the means of grace, that we learn something new of God. We can add the dimension of that insight to our palette, enabling us to discover much more in the process of creating art, then make something new within our artistic discipline. Each of us must wrestle with what goodness is and expand our knowledge of goodness before attempting to portray it in art."
- Ned Bustard from "It Was Good: Making Art to the Glory of God"
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