Imagine: A Vision for Christians in the Arts

132 Pages·2001·4.238 MB·English

by  Steve Turner

i m a g i n e .
a vision for
christians
in the
arts
steve
turner
“There are those who would ask, ‘What has New York to do with Jerusalem or
the arts with religion?’ Steve Turner answers that question as he calls the believ-
ing aesthete and the Christian church to come to the table, sit down and talk. In
this informed and rare treatment, Turner challenges the Christian community
to encourage the artist’s voice to be heard and then challenges believing artists
to allow their art to be influenced and enhanced by sound theology.”
JIM THOMAS, MUSICIAN & AUTHOR
“Imagine is a wake-up call to the Christian community to fulfill the cultural
mandate and to develop a theology of creativity that both embraces our
humanness and engages the world with ‘muscular’ Christianity. Author Steve
Turner addresses the church and its involvement in the arts with a prophetic
challenge, an appeal to be salt and light in our world instead of withdrawing
into mere Christian subculture or pietistic retreat. But he is eminently balanced
in his challenge to those of us who have accepted a call to be ‘in the world’ of
arts/entertainment but not of it. He helps us break out of the compartmental-
ization and secular-sacred dichotomy that so often paralyzes the Christian art-
ist and community from real impact on our world.
“As a screenwriter in Hollywood, my heart was exhorted with his warning of
those who have gradually shipwrecked their faith through incremental assimi-
lation of the very world they are trying to reach. With a strong and decisive
commitment to Christ, Scripture and truth, he helps draw guidelines for avoid-
ing the ignorance of all extremes when approaching the arts.
“If you are a Christian who consumes culture without discrimination, then you
need to read this book. If you are a Christian who considers arts and entertain-
ment to be worldly or a waste of time, then you need to read this book. And if
you are a Christian who thinks you want to serve the Lord by being a light in
the darkness of any creative industry today, you need to read this book.”
BRIAN GODAWA, SCREENWRITER, TO END ALL WARS
“I have long been a fan of Steve Turner’s poetry and journalism—he has a way
of illuminating the intersection of the sacred and the secular in our lives. Now,
in Imagine he lets us glimpse behind the curtain and see the philosophy that
undergirds his work. Highly readable, insightful and provocative, Imagine
draws on historical and contemporary examples and biblical insights to offer a
refreshing and balanced perspective on how faith can inform our creativity.
Turner challenges us to move beyond our ghetto mentality and engage our cul-
ture with art that is creative, authentic and relevant. His book should be
required reading for every Christian interested in the arts.”
TERRY GLASPEY, AUTHOR, BOOK LOVER’S GUIDE TO GREAT READING
& NOT A TAME LION: THE SPIRITUAL LEGACY OF C. S. LEWis

i m a g i n e .
a vision for
christians
in the
arts
steve
turner
InterVarsity Press
Downers Grove, Illinois
InterVarsity Press
P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515-1426
World Wide Web: www.ivpress.com
E-mail: [email protected]
©2001 by Steve Turner
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from
InterVarsity Press.
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All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International
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Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.
Cover: Clavushrez/Dreamstime.com
ISBN 978-0-8308-7567-2
To Nigel Goodwin, who rescued me, and
to my wife, Mo, who keeps me going.
“How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?”
PSALM 137:4 (KJV)

c o n t e n t s
introduction 9
1 the vision 11
2 the church 23
3 the world 37
4 the split 47
5 the bible 65
6 the mind 79
7 the times 93
8 the witness 105
9 the life 117
notes 129

Introduction
The origins of this book grew out of a lecture I gave to two groups of
musicians in Nashville and Los Angeles in 1998. Steve Taylor,
recording artist and producer of Sixpence None The Richer, in
whose home the Nashville meeting took place, then published the
text of the talk through his multimedia company Squint under the
title of “Being There: A Vision for Christianity and the Arts.”
The response to the lecture and the booklet convinced me to con-
sider expanding the argument into a book. I wasn’t kidding myself
that I had something original to say, but I knew that there were a lot
of people out there who still needed to hear that it was possible to
integrate their faith with their art.
At one of the meetings a young musician came up to me and
explained that his father, a pastor, thought he should be using his music
for the glory of God and that if he didn’t use it for the glory of God, he
was sinning. He wanted to know what I thought he should do.
Where do you begin? I don’t doubt that the father was a sincere
believer genuinely concerned that his son live his life in the right way.
I also don’t doubt that the son was a sincere believer concerned to live
his life in the right way. The problem comes because the word glory
comes with cultural overtones. Some people think you are only really
glorifying God if you are doing something religious.
Over the years I have met many artists who have found themselves
in a dilemma similar to that of the young musician. They want to
“serve God,” but they don’t particularly want to be confined to a nar-
row religious market. They want to create something that reflects the
passions and concerns of their faith, but they want to compete along-
side their nonbelieving contemporaries. On the one hand, they are usu-