Some time ago I ran across an article titled Manifesto for Christian Art. Last night I finally began reading it. This South African project was edited by a pastor named Craig Bartholomew and contains a lot keen observations relevant to the American church as well. The following are a few things I highlighted:

• Christians in South Africa have often been reticent to either take the aesthetic dimension of the whole of life seriously or to become meaningfully involved in the arts and media. Almost across the Christian spectrum in South Africa neither the aesthetic dimension nor the arts are taken seriously as legitimate and necessary avenues of service for the Lord Christ.

• The results of such attitudes of Christians have been and are very costly. To a significant extent the arts have been left under the domain of nonChristians and it is therefore not surprising that they have often developed in a nonChristian direction. Furthermore those Christians called to serve God as artists have often found themselves caught between the pressures of nonChristian developments in the arts world and the rejection of fellow, critical Christians.

• . . . we see the urgent need for the development of a perspective that will enable a long term and deep penetration of the world of the arts outside the church door to take place.

• While we recognise that all the structures of creation have an aesthetic dimension or aspect to them we also see that God created the world with art as a potentially distinct sphere of activity.

• Many factors have contributed to the situation as outlined in section I above. However, it is our conviction that the underlying and fundamental problem is the widespread tendency among Christians in South Africa, and of course in other countries in the world, to think of and interpret the world in an unbiblical fashion.

• Image bearing for humans involves exercising dominion in such a way that creation reverberates to the glory of God. Thus there is a dynamic to the image; it is as humans live under the reign of God and work in a Godglorifying way that God is seen in his creation most clearly. God’s workmanship is delightfully creative and so creativity is a vital part of that dominion which humans are called to exercise. Certainly creative workmanship is part of the “cultural mandate”.

• There is no room in a Christian worldview for a relegation of the arts to the secular or unspiritual category of activities. The cultural mandate has not been rescinded and Christ has come to restore humans to full humanity. The allembracing nature of God’s creation and Christ’s redemption means that just as Christians take family and church life seriously so too the aesthetic dimension of life needs to be taken seriously. Of course not all Christians work or are called to work in the arts world. However it is vital to be aware that the imaginative and aesthetic aspect of life impinges on all areas of life and that in this often “hidden art” we are also called to delight in and glorify God.

• Amongst the people of God a hierarchy of vocations must be guarded against. In the institutional church the vocation of artist has often been deprecated. Outside the church it has sometimes been exalted above all other vocations. Neither of these positions is acceptable. The vocation of art practitioner and art theoretician stand alongside the economist, the teacher, the carpenter, the pastoral minister and the theologian as a legitimate Christian vocation.

• Local churches need to not only help Christians discern the call to the pastoral ministry and the mission field but also those to the economic sector, the political arena and of course the world of the arts.

• We recognise that to have God as our Father is to have the church as our “mother”. Thus, although dualism has often alienated Christian artists from the institutional church, we do not see this as an excuse for opting out of involvement in the church. Christ retains his deep commitment to the church in all its brokenness and the artist is to follow his example.

• Christ calls his people to preserve and renew all areas of his creation and this includes the arts. We are to be salt and to hold back the rampant decay in the arts in South Africa. This decay has often not been held back because Christians have opted out of the arts.

• A Christian worldview alerts us to the importance of the practice of art in our society. God has created our world with the joyful possibility of the careful, human crafting of objects, texts and events characterised by an imaginative, allusive quality and it is important that this possibility is being worked out by those called to and gifted for this task. Art has its own kind of service to neighbours just as do medicine, plumbing or fishing. It is not an optional luxury for a society but is comparable to the minerals or vitamins in one’s food; one can survive without them for a time but it is unwise and ultimately dangerous to do so.