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God and art-making (4/4) | Scripture, the artist’s bread

And he said to me, ‘Son of man, eat what is before you, eat this scroll; then go and speak to the people of Israel.’ So I opened my mouth, and he gave me the scroll to eat.

Then he said to me, ‘Son of man, eat this scroll I am giving you and fill your stomach with it.’ So I ate it, and it tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth.

EZEKIEL 3:1–3

Faith in God endows art-making (and, indeed, human endeavour more generally) with an expansive confidence. I’m called to cultivate the stuff of creation in ways that bring glory to my Maker. Such confidence is, yes, thankful and humble; but it’s also venture some, wondering, active, and amazed.

As we’ve considered, this spacious, creaturely, humble life of making with God is nourished in the intimacy of prayer. Scripture, too, is a key source of nourishment, particularly for vision – what the psalmist calls ‘this meditation of my heart’. So, how might Scripture, along with prayer and Christian fellowship, sustain art-making? What does this look like?

By mentioning Scripture in the same breath as art, you might assume that I’m talking about the ‘content’ or ‘message’ of Christian art. Certainly, Scripture has long inspired great art. But as profound as biblical themes continue to be, the Bible’s relevance to the arts is not simply as a sourcebook or interpretive frame. Rather, Scripture feeds the arts, like eating a loaf of bread.

Let me explain. Artists are called to bear witness – to speak faithfully of the world and God. Bearing witness is not only evangelistic but also prophetic: art – by representation, but also by its existence in the world – speaks about the truth of things. It’s interested in what’s wrong with the world, who God is, and how God responds to the world. It’s not sentimental or naïve. It’s faithful, joyful, and unafraid.

Such a posture reflects the understanding given to us in Holy Scripture, which is deeply honest about the darkness of the world, but even more deeply hopeful about God’s purpose. How, then, do we arrive at this understanding? How do you become someone whose life and work are saturated with this vision? Because for all art’s insight and intuition, it’s not something we arrive at naturally.

Instead, a bit like the scroll given to the prophet Ezekiel, it’s given to us through inspired Scripture. How can artists bear faithful witness? How might they offer up the life of creation to God in works that are truthful, joyful, and unafraid? Such art needs to eat.

And so, each day, we take up the book and eat it: we put its words in our mouths, chew on them in our hearts, swallow them down into our lives, and let the book’s vision come out of our pores.

Dr John Dennison
John is a poet, essayist, and Director of Resources at Venn Foundation in New Zealand. Venn is an education institution that helps people embrace the riches of Scripture and the Christian tradition for the good of their homes, workplaces, universities, churches and communities. John’s the author of Letter to An Artist, a beautiful, practical, and readable reflection on the nature of art-making and its place in God’s purposes.

How might you integrate Bible reading into your art-making, or other daily work?

Comments

  1. I try to live with an open heart, to capture inspiration in whatever is around me and in myself. Themes that touch me are vulnerability, the unseen, gratitude, living in surrender to what is. Through everything I seek lightness, the source of which is ultimately in Christ.

    John 8:12 – “Then spoke Jesus again to them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”

    Matthew 11:28/30 – “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

    By Dorienke  -  27 Jan 2025
  2. Thank you so much for your insight…how wonderful

    By Iris White  -  27 Jan 2025
  3. Thank you John for a lovely, powerful and provocative piece. “For in Jesus all things have been created ….. through Him and for Him” Col 1. 16

    By David Child  -  27 Jan 2025

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