Essay | Unpacking "The Christian Imagination" by Leland Ryken
Logic can be a useful
tool when sharing the gospel, particularly with certain personality types.
However, art has the ability to transcend logic in order to reach the soul.
This does not mean that we should abandon logic in our art development.
Instead, a believer’s art ought to wrap around the bones, muscles and organs of
the truth to deliver a body of art that can move. It should breathe and interact with another
person’s soul rather than presenting merely the skeleton of the cold, hard
facts.
Art “moves” us. It
moves us upward towards heaven, or downward towards hell. It moves us closer or
further away from relationships. The influence of art is seen every day, while
logic is (to our detriment) often ignored because in no way does it grab hold
of our emotions. Our souls will respond to what they desire. If a soul desires
God (love, truth, light, goodness), art that is traveling towards him will put
the observer in transport to him. The same is true for a soul that does not
desire God; it will travel in the opposite direction (hate, lies, darkness,
evil). These are the two narratives a soul can choose by which to live.
Madeleine L’Engle states that “...the purpose of the work… (art) is to further
the coming of the kingdom, to make us aware of our status as children of God,
and to turn our feet toward home” (Ryken, 206).
Modern art often hits
a glass ceiling or a wall because it no longer promises the hope of anything beyond
this material realm. The soul flies upwards thinking it will find heaven, only
to dash itself against the dome of despair and fall back to earth more wounded
than ever. “Why?” people ask “would we subject ourselves to a desire that could
never be fulfilled?” Janine Langan argues that a believer’s art ought to be
“eschatological” (Ryken, 70). “It perceives the paradox at the heart of
creation, which must find fulfillment in another new and incommensurable
world.” A believer’s art ought to help quench the thirst for the hope that lies
beyond. This will never come from pure logic.
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