Fine Arts and Christian Education

In viewing a piece of classical art of literature, we often say, “What a beautiful portrayal in art that picture is,” or “What a masterpiece of dramatic literature that story, drama, or poem is!” Why do we say this? Because the painting, poem, story, drama, or music arrests our attention and so moves us intellectually and emotionally that we are constrained to acknowledge the beauty and truth which the particular piece of art contains for us.

Art in any form, whether in pictures, poetry, stories, drama, or music, portrays truth in a form of beauty, but only the quality of inherent beauty and perfection earns for a subject the title of fine art.

THE MODERN TREND

Never in the history of the Church has the educational value of great religious art been more widely recognized than it is today. This is due partly to modern “scarcity” of time, and art masterpieces being timesavers serve a valuable purpose. They present to the eye that which would require a much longer time to say. The Chinese express the truth accurately when they say, “One picture is worth ten thousand words.”

Psychologists tell us that sense impressions received through sight are of a higher order than those received through any other sense perception. The use of great art in teaching religious concepts, therefore, rests upon the sound educational principle that truth reaching the mind through the eye-gate and the eargate at the same time doubles the impression. Therefore, if teachers of children, young people and adults, want to reach the minds and hearts of their pupils, they may sow that truth through use of the major fine arts, namely, pictures with their interpretations, stories, poetry, drama, or music. Truth thus sown and grown will never die.

For nearly two decades it was my privilege to handle the poetry trail, art trail, or story trail in young people’s summer conferences which reached annually hundreds in their teens and early twenties. Attendance at the afternoon trails was elective, not compulsory, which meant that the leader of each trail had to be able to make truth live through skillful use of one of the arts in order to inspire continuing attendance. After many years, young adults, now active with children or young people in their own churches, or young men serving as army chaplains, have written to me for a certain story, picture, or poem I had used as an illustration in one of the fine arts’ trails. Such interest verifies the teaching power of the fine arts in Christian education.

TRUTH IN BEAUTY

Truth portraved in a form of beauty, which is what the fine arts are, never dies. It is relived in the memory of others especially in times of need.

One reason Jesus was followed so eagerly and persistently by the multitudes during his earthly life and ministry was that he is and was God’s truth in human form and spiritual beauty. The Gospels say of him, “He was full of grace and truth.” The memory of the marvelous parables that fell from his lips on mountain sides and by lake shores has changed the destiny of man throughout the centuries. “Truth crushed to earth will rise again.” It has within it the seeds of immortality. The fine arts are the most effective means, I believe, of presenting God’s eternal truths to human hearts.

There have been many long and involved discussions of art in religious publications and journals. Notable was the Fine Arts issue (Feb. 1959) of the International journal of Religious Education. However, most of such publications have limited the discussions wholly to Christian painting. Let me stress the fact that pictures (and any masterpiece of art) are only one of the art forms accessible to religious leaders.

POETRY AND MUSIC

Poetry is also a fine art. Richard Le Gallienne said: “Poetry is that impassioned arrangement of words, whether in verse or prose, which embodies the exhaltation, the beauty, the rhythm, and the truth of life.” And Edwin Markham said: “Poetry is the expression—under the light of the imagination—of the unfamiliar beauty in the world, the beauty that is ‘the smile upon the face of truth.’ Poetry is the revelation of the strange in the familiar, of the eternal in the transitory. It is the impassioned cry of the heart in the presence of the wonder of life.”

The poet comes into our life to judge the world as it is, in the light of what it ought to be. He comes to infuse into the hearts of men the loftier courage of life, to create for their consolation and joy that nobler “wilder beauty than earth supplies,” in poetry that faces the sordid, tragic facts of life in the light of the spiritual forces available for its purging and renewal. If such be the function of poets and poetry, no program of Christian education would be complete that did not include the fine art of poetry in its curriculum.

Music is a fine art. Religion has much to learn from music, for music is the most perfect symbol of life:

God is its author, and not man; he laid

The keynote of all harmonies; he planned

All perfect combinations, and he made

Us so that we can hear and understand.

Before men developed the art of either oral or written language for communicating with one another, it is probable that they sang imitatively. The first articulate sounds by which mind communicated with mind were probably musical echoes or imitations of melodious sound heard in nature. Language and the art of music grew from the same common stem; and, as with all other arts, music was born out of the attempt to express what was strongly and pleasantly felt.

The songs of a people keep alive their spiritual aspirations. They cheer, refine, comfort, and elevate. They furnish the atmosphere and wings by which mortals can rise to the realm of pure beauty. Thus by the aid of music, they may be lifted, if they will, nearer to God.

Recently I visited a newly dedicated church auditorium in Los Angeles that seats 5,000 people. A choir of 90 voices, under the leadership of a true musician, sang the great hymns of the church with such richness of modulation, resonance, and enunciation of words that the universally loved hymns came alive again. There is no need for operatic music in the local church to fill pews.

MASS SINGING

Worshipers who know deep in their hearts that Jesus Christ is “King of kings and Lord of lords” will sing because the fine art of sacred music regularly testifies to this universal truth.

Out of mass singing of the magnificently beautiful hymns of the church, a religious yearning for a better and cleaner life surges up from the hearts of those who listen and those who sing.

STORIES AND DRAMA

Stories and drama are also fine arts, because they express truth in forms of beauty and are therefore worthy to live forever in the memories of those who enjoy and participate in them. A knowledge only of the facts of the Bible will never conserve the values of the Christian religion. Religious ideas and ideals must be diffused with emotion, which is the driving power in human behavior. Nobody ever accomplishes anything worthwhile until they feel tremendously that something must be done. We ought never to underestimate the power of human emotions in Christian education. Whether great stories or dramatic literature are to be vital and become great moral teachers depends not only on the character or message of the story but the ability to make truth live and touch the heart.

No book in all the world contains or has inspired more great stories and dramas than the Bible; and, when presented realistically, they can convey to children, young people, and adults the true meaning of what the mind and heart of God is like, as they see him incarnate in Jesus Christ. Stories and dramas help us to see and feel what the friendship and companionship of Jesus did for people. A story is not only what one says, but what one sees; not merely what one hears, but what one feels. It is the best method of sharing experiences with others, because it is about the only painless process of teaching known. If a person can be taught at all by any method, he is taught by the time he comes to the end of a story, for whatever he has seen and felt in the deepest recesses of his heart as a result of the shared experience is the permanent, abiding, spiritual enrichment which he can share with you.

I believe that if one lives with the story he is planning to present to others, until that story fairly lives in him, he will be able to tell it with the emotional response that was living experience for the personalities in the story. An audience will see and feel only what you see and feel as you share experience through intelligent use of great stories and dramatic literature.

There are many things one may do to become an outstanding Christian leader with children, young people, or adults. Perhaps the greatest task is to master in one’s own personality the ability to make truth live through the artistic use of the fine arts; for in and through them one is privileged to sow the seeds of immortality in the lives of those with whom he comes in contact. Armored not only with a knowledge of the fine arts but with the ability to make them live in others in beautiful and rugged simplicity, one may become a torch-bearer even to unborn generations.

Jacob J. Vellenga served on the National Board of Administration of the United Presbyterian Church from 1948–54. Since 1958 he has served the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. as Associate Executive. He holds the A.B. degree from Monmouth College, the B.D. from Pittsburgh-Xenia Seminary, Th.D. from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and D.D. from Monmouth College, Illinois.

Have something to add about this? See something we missed? Share your feedback here.