christianity and art
An appropriate Christmas topic I suppose. I was just pondering why I like Dostoevsky....I think of him as essentially a Christian artist, before Christianity killed art. It's interesting to me that some people think of him (just anecdotally from snippets of conversations I've had) as an atheist artist. I'm confident that anyone who thinks that has not read any of his last several major novels, beginning with "Crime and Punishment". One thing I didn't like about Crime and Punishment, probably the only thing really, was the tacky, cliche, weak Christian voice that ties up the end of the book, after a long and feverish ride through the intricate hell-scapes of a nihilist turned murderer. By the time he wrote "The Brothers Karamazov" though, he had fixed this problem. His spiritual and religious characters were as lush and intricate as his nihilist and atheist characters. I was thinking though of my first sentiment, specifically "before Christianity killed art". Why do I think that? I can certainly think of modern Christian artists that are wonderful--Tom Waits and Sufjan Stevens immediately come to mind. They, like Dostoevsky, have also managed to marry art and religion, without diminishing the strength of either. In fact I think they're spirituality feeds their art, and their art feeds their spirituality, and it's beautiful. Also, another interesting point is that often when I tell people, "Oh yeah, so-and-so is deeply Christian," they often act surprised, if they're somewhat familiar with the artist. Because you can't tell really, or at least not in a way that makes one think, "aw, quit your preaching!" I feel like they've internalized their religion to a point where it's just a natural part of them--it's become their muse, and they're reason for feeling the need for creating their art. There is nothing obligatory or pedantic about it in the slightest. But then I think of Bob Dylan's "Christian phase". I think Dylan has possibly always been Christian--there are certainly bible references in his earlier songwriting--and there are probably interviews out there to answer this question, but I'm too lazy to search for that right now. It's not the fact that Bob Dylan is Christian that I find weird, it's the fact that he sacrificed his art for his religion. He became a pedagogue for his religion, briefly, which seems so surprisingly insincere for such a historically great artist. Granted, I did find the word "sacrifice" interesting when I had this thought. I can imagine his "Christian phase" as a possible intentional sacrifice of art before the alter of Christianity. It's obvious in his songs that he finds this teaching of Christianity to be deeply meaningful. Unfortunately this Christian doctrine is the key doctrine that keeps me from calling myself Christian, so I hardly find this literal sacrifice pleasing to listen to, even if it is a bit interesting. Anyway, I guess what I meant when I mentioned Christianity killing art, is that so much of the modern Christian art that I know of is of the pedantic type not of the personally spiritual type. But I wonder though what it was like in 19th century Russia? Was there just as much Christian propaganda under the guise of crap art? Is that really a new thing of today? I don't tend to prefer the view of history as a fractal--the same patterns repeating individually, familialy, politically, no matter where you decide to zoom in on the timeline--I believe that things change over time, albeit slow and jerkily. Unfortunately, though I think of myself as an optimist, when I see something negative in my own time, I often fall into the "now-a-days" trap of "things are so much worse today". Anyway, I've reached the limit of my historical knowledge, unfortunately--I really know nothing of the history of Christian art, and would have to do research to conjecture further about it. Maybe there are actually more Sufjans and Dostoevskys out there now than they're used to be--I'd like to believe that maybe that is the case, and that Christianity hasn't really killed art. Though, in truth, I think what I really believe is that organized religion kills art, and so in any case where one has not seen past the doctrine into the spiritual wellspring, then when they try to produce art, it will truly be awful.