Can Christians Create Secular Art

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Can Christians Create Secular Art?

When people use the terms secular and sacred, they often believe there’s a real divide between everything which is religious in the art world and everything which is not religious. And in fact, by extension, they often believe all of life is divided into these two categories of sacred and secular.

But the problem with seeing everything in these two categories, is it’s not biblical. Join us in this video to understand why.

 

Let us know your thoughts in the comments!

Copyright © 2023 Joel & Michelle Pelsue. All Rights Reserved. Used with Permission.

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4 comments on “Can Christians Create Secular Art”

  1. Dr. Alan C. Hueth Reply

    Great video! One question:

    Where does a Christian “draw the line?”

    Blessings on you and yours!

    • Joel Pelsue Reply

      Alan,

      Thank you for the question. Ah, I need to finally answer that question! Of course, we cannot create art that glamorizes or glorifies sin and violence. We also cannot create art that leads someone to sin by making sin attractive. In the overarching considerations, I believe we need to either depict redemption of sin, or judgment of sin (I am assuming sin will always be part of the narrative as long as we are dealing with reality). Too many mainstream works of art fail on either account. Either they depict sin as acceptable and therefore leave it unaddressed, or they glorify it (vengeance, theft, seduction, etc.). The one case where the world seems to handle sin appropriately is when it is judged or punished. We want the evildoer to pay for his or her deeds, and this is the one place Hollywood most often coincides with a Biblical Worldview. Your thoughts, as a long-time professor?!?!?

  2. Terry Olson Reply

    It was during my college years that I grew to understand the nature of our loving and all powerful and creative God – the worldview you just talked about. I don’t remember if it was Nigel Goodwin of the Arts Centre Group or Calvin Seerveld (Rainbows for a Fallen World) that helped me develop the measuring rod of . . . Does the art exhibit truth as truth or truth as untruth? Likewise does it exhibit untruth as untruth or untruth as truth. That is the “line” we can use to guide our participation. Mixing them up is deception and certainly not pleasing to God. He is not afraid of our facing the truth or the lies of our world.

    Joel, We are gathering some fellow believers from around the continent that have been or are professionally engaged in the theatre in Orlando in October for a weekend of fellowship and discussion. You would fit right in and be a welcome addition to the group. We’ll nail down more details in a couple weeks in case you are interested.

    • Joel Pelsue Reply

      Ah, yes! I first met Nigel when I spoke at an IAM conference back in 2000. What a fun character! Seerveld and Kuyper…those Dutch reformed theologians have been a gift to creatives, indeed.

      I forgot about the truth as untruth.

      And as to Orlando…sounds cool.

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