The Bible Provocateur
The Bible Provocateur
Our Aesthetic God - Jeff Smith
Discover how a Christian worldview can transform your understanding of nature, aesthetics, and purpose in life. In this thought-provoking episode, we explore the profound insights of Francis Schaeffer on Charles Darwin's late-life disillusionment with nature and the arts. We'll discuss how the biblical account of creation in Genesis reveals an orderly and purposeful design, starkly contrasting the randomness of evolutionary theory. Through this lens, we examine the deep implications of a faith-based perspective that upholds absolute truth and objective meaning, standing in opposition to the skepticism common in postmodern thought and art.
Additionally, we'll delve into Schaeffer's compelling argument that Christianity should more actively reflect God's glory through aesthetics. Even in modest and plain surroundings, there's a powerful call to maintain beauty and care, aligning with the doctrine and gospel of Jesus Christ. This episode will challenge you to rethink how you incorporate aesthetic values into your daily life, regardless of financial limitations. Join us as we explore how even the simplest environments can honor divine beauty and inspire a deeper appreciation for God's creation.
Hello, welcome to Pastor Smith's Shepherd's Talk, number four. Some years ago I was reading a sermon, actually by Jeff Thomas, and he made reference to a work by Francis Schaeffer. I have some of his works here in my study and this is found in volume five of Francis Schaeffer's work. It's entitled Pollution and the Death of man the Christian View of Ecology and in that article at work he points out, quoting him, that near the end of his life, charles Darwin the man who was so influential in developing the theory of evolution that he acknowledged, quoting several times in his writings that two things had become dull to him as he got older One was his joy in the arts and the other was his joy in nature. Shaver comments on the irony of this famous naturalist losing his enthusiasm for the very thing that he made his life's calling. He wrote. Darwin offered his proposition that nature, including man, is based on the impersonal, plus time, plus chance, and he had to acknowledge at the end of his life that it had these adverse effects upon him. Then Schaeffer argues that what we've seen and, I would add, continue to see in the Western world is the same loss of joy in our total culture. We've lost the sense of sacred joy in creation, because, after all, nature is nothing more than the product of impersonal chance. That's what young people are being taught in our schools. Is it any wonder that we are marked in our society by a joyless, depressed generation of young people?
Speaker 1:One of the most striking things about the world that God has made is its order and its amazing beauty. There is an orderliness to the creation, a symmetry to it. This is evident in the creation account in Genesis, chapter 1. We have God creating beauty and structure and order out of chaos, dividing light from darkness, sea from sky, land from sea, then covering the earth with vegetation and filling the skies with heavenly bodies. Then he fills the seas and then the earth with living creatures and, of course, it all culminates in the highest of creation, the creation of man. And the highest of creation, the creation of man. And the text focuses our attention on this matter of the orderly, structured nature of God's creating work. And this is telling us something about God himself. Remember, the creation itself declares the glory of God Psalm 19, 1-6, romans 1, 19-20. It is intended to reveal to us something about who God is, and one of the things the scriptures emphasize is that our God is a God of order.
Speaker 1:The message of the Bible is that this world we live in is not a product of meaningless chance and chaotic randomness. No, we are told that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. But God spoke into the darkness and said Let there be light. And there was light. He created a world of order in which every plant and every creature fits into its own particular place and role. He did not create a mass of unrelated, chaotic matter, but a world that operates according to the fixed and orderly laws of nature that he has established and upholds by his active providence. Everything in God's world reflects this reality that God is a God of order, plan and purpose.
Speaker 1:The Scriptures also reveal God to us as the God of providence who is working all things after the counsel of his own will. Everything in history and time is moving to God's appointed end. There is meaning to it all. Nothing is haphazard. It's not all just a bunch of meaningless confusion. God is methodically and deliberately governing all of his creatures and all of their actions.
Speaker 1:Furthermore, we who are Christians have heard and believed the good news of the gospel. The gospel has shined into our hearts in saving power. Just as God caused the light to shine into the darkness in the first creation, we have been made new creations in Christ Jesus and we have come to know the Almighty God as our Heavenly Father. So the Christian has come to understand life as having positive meaning and purpose. He understands that the ups and downs of life are not the reflection of a world of chaos or the result of the whims of unknown gods playing cat and mouse with us human pawns. He understands that the ups and downs are rather the result of the wise guidance of an almighty Father in heaven who loves his people and who sent his Son to die for us, a God who is working all things together for good. For those who love God and are the called according to his purpose For the Christian, life makes sense. There is purpose and concord and order to life and reality. Now, this is important.
Speaker 1:This is the exact opposite of the worldview that characterizes the postmodernism that has infected our culture. One of the characteristics of postmodernism is an aversion to absolute truth claims, or to what's called metanarratives, that is, one story that claims to give meaning to all of life, one overarching reality that claims to explain the meaning of life for all mankind. According to this thinking, there is no real overarching purpose and meaning. There's nothing we can really be certain about. Everything is subjective. One of the places this philosophy of life is reflected is in postmodern art and architecture.
Speaker 1:The postmodern artist seeks to reflect this worldview. For example, one characteristic is the effort to collapse the difference between what is artistic and what is not, and you'll find ordinary objects such as Coke bottles, sleds or toilets displayed as if they are art. A postmodern artist may make meticulously realistic paintings of such things. A postmodern artist may make meticulously realistic paintings of such things. Apparently, as I've read, one artist displays his bowel movements. Rather than making art that is beautiful and pleasing, some postmodern artists experiment with art that is purposely ugly and infuriating, and this is done deliberately. There's a message being conveyed here. The message is what does it matter? Who cares? What is beautiful anyhow, what is art anyway? It's whatever you want it to be. There's no real objective standard of meaning or meaning, or meaning to anything.
Speaker 1:By contrast, the Christian worldview is that everything is not meaningless chaos and relativity. Under God, there is purpose and order and beauty to life and reality, though marred by sin. Now, this Christian worldview should be reflected by God's people. For example, christians ought to be concerned about aesthetics. What is aesthetics? Aesthetics is the way something looks or the way something sounds, so it's a word also used to refer to the study of beauty and order and proportion. Christians are not intended to be indifferent to the matter of aesthetics. Drab and colorless is not somehow more holy. Indifference to structure and beauty is not somehow a mark of being more heavenly minded. Aesthetics matters because we have been called to reflect the glory of the God who has saved us, the God who created this orderly, structured and beautiful world. It matters. It matters in worship 1 Corinthians 14, 40, in our music, in our place of meeting. It matters in our dress 1 Timothy 2, 9, in the care of our homes, in all of life, the beauty and order God has built into creation is something to be enjoyed, celebrated and appreciated and to be reflected in God's people.
Speaker 1:Let me conclude these thoughts by referring to a story that was told by Francis Schaeffer about an occasion when he visited a Christian school in the 1960s. Just across the ravine from the school was what they called a hippie community. I still remember the hippies from back when I was a little boy. A young man, schaeffer, was curious to find out about these people and perhaps to have opportunity to share his faith with them. So he crossed the ravine to learn more about it. He discovered that the community was pagan and conducted pagan earth rituals. But he was also struck with how beautiful the community was and how carefully they kept it up. Beautiful the community was and how carefully they kept it up. The leader of this pagan community looked across at the Christian school and said to Schaefer look at that, isn't that ugly? And it was ugly, schaefer says, quoting him. I could not deny it. It was an ugly building without any trees. It was then that I realized what a poor situation this was. When I looked at the Bohemian people's place the hippies it was beautiful. They had even gone to the trouble of running their electric cables under the level of the trees so they couldn't be seen. Then I stood on pagan ground and looked at the Christian community and saw ugliness.
Speaker 1:Schaeffer's point is that this is not the way it ought to be. Here you have a Christianity that is failing to take into account man's responsibility to show forth the glory of God in this area of aesthetics. Now, of course, that Christian school may have been very low on money and could barely even afford to pay its teachers. We have to be fair. That may have been part of the reason the grounds looked the way they did, but at the same time, the point is well taken, and isn't it true that even the most modest and plain can still be kept neat and tidy. Well, my dear brothers and sisters, may we take these things to heart. Here we see a very practical way in which we may adorn, that we may show forth the beauty of the doctrine of God, our Savior, the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, in all things. One way is by giving attention to aesthetics. Well, I trust this has been helpful until the next Shepherd's Talk. May God richly bless you.