Missing Persons
Where Are All the Great Evangelical Artists?
Richard Wilkinson
July 1, 1996
HOW FREE SHOULD THE CHRISTIAN artist be? What are the limits of his or her freedom—in the depiction of sex and violence, for instance? Similarly, how free should the Christian patron of the arts be? Which artistic subject matters and themes can't be viewed, read about, or listened to without sin? These questions confront almost every Christian in our society—not only every Christian artist but also every Christian who reads novels, listens to popular music, or watches movies or television. Questions about artistic freedom divide not only Christians but also the culture as a whole, as exemplified in recent controversies over government funding of sacrilegious, erotic, and anti-patriotic art through the National Endowment for the Arts. To determine the degree of freedom that the Christian artist and patron of the arts enjoys, we need to examine the historical roots of the way in which devout Christians currently view the arts. We must also look at how God himself positions the arts and portrays the world within the Scriptures that Christians believe he inspired. Examining the Bible is especially important when considering the evangelical Protestant church's relationship to the arts, because the Protestant church was founded on the maxim of "sola scriptura": that is, the Bible should be used to judge and interpret Christian tradition, not the other way around. The Protestant Record in the Arts
Before proceeding, though, we need to ask ourselves: "How much has the theologically orthodox Protestant church embraced the arts during the relatively recent past?" Consider, for example, the art of literature. During the hundred years from 1860 to 1960, one could make a case that only two Protestants of orthodox faith have achieved international ...
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