I would like to speak to the general art discussion of Grant and Dan rather than the specific movie Adaptation:
What does art appeal to? I would say in no particular order
1) Emotions
2) Mind
3) Spirit
So when something “speaks to us”, to understand it, we should ask what is it speaking to and what is it saying. Pornography may “speak to me”, but I know I don’t want to expose myself to that. One may say that pornography may be good if it’s true— if it gives an accurate portrayal of sexual immorality—because truth is from God.
We have to be careful with that idea. The Bible instructs us to speak the truth in love, otherwise it is twisted and not from God. Eg. Satan told Adam and Eve that they would be like God, which was true, but it was a twisted and demonic truth. Something may be true, but if it is not uplifting, we should not expose our minds and emotions to it.
Our primary purpose for existing is to glorify God and enjoy him. We are called to crucify our “flesh”, or sinful nature. We need to ask ourselves if the art is appealing to our sinful nature or whether we are being transformed in the likeness of Christ.
There’s a fear that holding art up to God’s standard will result in boring art. That we need some sin and self-indulgence in there to spice things up. God himself is not boring, he’s a wild God. His creation is infinitely more magnificent than any piece of art. So why wouldn’t we want to look to the source of truth and beauty?
JasonBuursma
Jul 10 2003
12:50 pm
I would like to speak to the general art discussion of Grant and Dan rather than the specific movie Adaptation:
What does art appeal to? I would say in no particular order
1) Emotions
2) Mind
3) Spirit
So when something “speaks to us”, to understand it, we should ask what is it speaking to and what is it saying. Pornography may “speak to me”, but I know I don’t want to expose myself to that. One may say that pornography may be good if it’s true— if it gives an accurate portrayal of sexual immorality—because truth is from God.
We have to be careful with that idea. The Bible instructs us to speak the truth in love, otherwise it is twisted and not from God. Eg. Satan told Adam and Eve that they would be like God, which was true, but it was a twisted and demonic truth. Something may be true, but if it is not uplifting, we should not expose our minds and emotions to it.
Our primary purpose for existing is to glorify God and enjoy him. We are called to crucify our “flesh”, or sinful nature. We need to ask ourselves if the art is appealing to our sinful nature or whether we are being transformed in the likeness of Christ.
There’s a fear that holding art up to God’s standard will result in boring art. That we need some sin and self-indulgence in there to spice things up. God himself is not boring, he’s a wild God. His creation is infinitely more magnificent than any piece of art. So why wouldn’t we want to look to the source of truth and beauty?