In this essay I will be addressing the question of whether Christian artists and professionals should operate in the mainstream of life and culture or in a religious subculture and should they be active in the popular arts.
Text written by Steve Turner and also the Bible will be used to support the essay. I will begin by exploring different art forms and a few hang-ups some Christian cultures have with them, then I will share some reasons why I believe we, as Christian artists, should be active in the ?popular arts'. I will also be looking at why God has charged us with such an important job, as artists and professionals, to be in the mainstream of culture and not just sit back in the comfort of a religious subculture.
Whether it be in dance, singing, acting, painting, writing or some other medium, the ?arts' are becoming more popular then ever. With governments pushing the arts more and more in to the public domain, festivals and art weeks celebrating the uniqueness of each individual artist are becoming more of a regular occurrence. Adelaide boasts a great many of these festivals and art weeks, an example of these being the Fringe Festival which is a celebration of all forms of art.
Many Christians will almost shun going to these kinds of festivals because they think that they are vulgar and unsuitable for Christians to view.
In some cases they would be very correct. In Steve Turner's Book titled ?Imagine: A vision for Christians and the Arts,' however he states that,
"Rather than asking, is this artist saved? Ask, is this piece of work technically excellent? Is it a valid expression of the artist's world view? Are forms and content well integrated? Is truth communicated?"
(pg 11 Steve Tu ...