This article is part of a larger research project focused on Christian innovation and design, in which I assert that Christian innovation and design is not only our God-given mandate but our present prophetic call to once again become missionary people. Increasingly, I am concerned that the Christian heritage of art and aesthetics, technology and innovation, are being set aside in favor of an uglier and more destructive faith.
One of the great tragedies of our time is the destruction of ancient arts and artifacts by ISIS. Motivated by religious zealotry, these men have broken into countless temples and smashed statues, idols, and decorative walls. ISIS has destroyed entire ancient churches, mosques, and even cities (Hatra, Nimrud, large portions of Palmyra) all in the name of establishing tawhid-monotheism.
It’s brutal. Thuggish. And unimaginably shortsighted.
Sadly, many well-regarded Christians did the same thing during the Protestant Reformation. John Calvin was responsible for “cleansing” Christianity of icons (cf. Out of the Cocoon: rethinking our selves, by John William Kuckuk, p.34) and some reports go so far as to suggest he would pay for evidence of broken icons, destroyed paintings, and other ruined religious imagery.
I don’t point this out merely to suggest that Christianity has as many reasons to be ashamed as radical Islam, but to lay the foundation for why there is still such reluctance toward the inclusion of the arts within our present context: we’re afraid.
We’re afraid to take creative risks because others may scream about it; because others may hate it; because others may seek to destroy what we have lovingly made.
We’re afraid to spend money on creative pursuits because that money could be better used elsewhere (here it’s always important to forget the telling story of Mary pouring expensive perfume on Jesus’ feet, an act that is mindlessly loving and one which Judas roundly condemns).
We’re afraid to create art because it is provocative and open to misinterpretation—this, after all, is at the root of iconoclasm. We destroy images and artwork about God for fear that those images might somehow lead us astray in our estimation of God.
We’re afraid to create for fear that we make God angry as well—because our art is too raw, too honest, and our expressions of fidelity and conflict will not always have a biblical precedent.
Just because something is ugly doesn’t mean it isn’t beautiful
“He hung therefore on the cross deformed, but his deformity is our beauty.”
– St. Augustine
The term ‘Philistine’ has become synonymous with a kind of troglodyte ugliness. It is the very opposite of someone who appreciates things like beauty, wholeness, and culture. It is the desire to destroy everything that doesn’t meet our liking. It is the desire to remove or desecrate art that offends our sensibilities. It is the desire to silence every critic, opponent, or outspoken malcontent no matter the cost. It burns books. It burns music. It burns people.
Sometimes, though, this narrow-minded barbarism is protected by pious rhetoric. Sometimes Christian people think that if something is unpleasant to God it must be destroyed. The reason I take issue with this violence is, of course, that I frequently disagree with things that people assume God must hate. I don’t think God hates ‘secular’ music, so I’m certain we shouldn’t force our kids to throw it away. I don’t think God hates Hindus, so I’m quite certain we shouldn’t advocate the destruction of their sacred places and their sacred texts. Yet these are all things that Christians in the West are trying to do because they think that it makes them more pleasing to God. But that kind of thinking isn’t Christian …it’s violent religious fundamentalism, tantamount to the destruction of cities and temples like those examples cited above. Just because you think something is bad, even offensive, doesn’t mean you can authoritatively declare it idolatrous and then smash it to bits.
Spirituality is not only about absorbing great teaching, or living well, but also about cultivating a taste for the beautiful and an accompanying distaste for the profane. Our world is rife with competition between the two, and it falls to us to acknowledge the beautiful instead of staying enslaved to the ugly. Good taste is that spiritual capacity to appreciate the difference between that which is truly beautiful and that which is fake, gaudy, pornographic, or ostentatious.
“The human soul needs actual beauty even more than bread.”
– D.H. Lawrence
This article serves to clarify the biblical perspective on creativity and innovation in the Bible, particularly with regards to art and aesthetics. This is only a primer, but it is enough to get the conversation started, to reclaim our God-given call to cultivate beauty in an ugly world, and to arrest those who would both oppose and dispose of art in Church.
Let’s begin with the most obvious question: Why is creativity important to God?
Creativity is important to God because God is our Creator, and we have been created by our Creator to perpetuate Creation.
God’s very essence and nature is revealed through creativity. The first time we are introduced to God in scripture, God is creating (Gen.1.1). God is The Creator, and God has created us to create (Gen.1.28). Both the beginning and the end of the Bible are hallmarked by Creation—the original, Edenic Creation in Genesis (Gen.1-2) and the climactic New Creation in Revelation (Rev.21-22). The destiny of human beings involves cooperative creativity with God for all eternity (Rev.5.10).
What is an example of God’s creativity in the Bible? The most obvious answer is, of course, God’s creativity in nature. We see the glorious creative capacity of God in the mountains and rivers and fjords and fields and valleys and highlands…indeed, “the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it, the seas and the fullest thereof” (Ps 24.1). “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands” (Ps 19.1). Like the Psalmist says, God merely spoke and “the heavens were created. He breathed the word, and all the stars were born. He assigned the sea its boundaries and locked the oceans in vast reservoirs. Let the whole world fear the Lord, and let everyone stand in awe of him.” (Ps.33.6-8).
But God’s creativity is not exhausted by that which was wrought in nature. Far from it! Certainly, the crowning achievement of God’s creative expression is people, for only we have been made by God to be like God (Gen.1.28). We’re meant to pick up where God left off. God granted us agency, power and instrumentality to perpetuate Creation. We serve as God’s vice-regents, working together as one human family in emulation of our Creator. We’ve been charged by God to do the things God does.
Remember, the Hebrew word for “image” can also be rendered as “shadow.” It means when we’re at work in the world, God’s presence is felt and God’s authority is remembered. So, all our creative work—whether that of fixing or making, the two chief creative pursuits in both business and art—is cooperative. We work with God to heal the world. We walk in the Spirit. We stay in step with the Word. For in Christ we live, and move, and have our being.
What is the biblical meaning of creativity? Creativity entails making something that wasn’t there before. This can arise from the combination of existing materials to form something new, or in the case of the Creation account in Genesis 1, creativity can also include making something out of nothing (creativity ex nihilo, a power attributed only to God). Creative work can also include fixing or repairing that which has been broken or decayed. Such creative restoration can include new qualities, attributes, or flourishes—particularly in design (cf. Neh.1-7).
Of particular importance is the meaning of creativity in the Bible, which is our first and primary function. God made us to perpetuate Creation, and we have never been released from our holy calling. In the Cultural Mandate (sometimes called the Creation Mandate, in Gen.1.26-28, Gen.2.15, and Gen.9.1), human beings are tasked with developing the latent potential in all the world. Creation is our charge, and manifesting God’s glory through acts of creative goodness is our divine privilege. Even Jesus takes up this theme in Mark’s version of the Great Commission where he instructs us to preach the gospel to all Creation (Mk.16.15), reminding us that our responsibility is to the world not just to a preferred few humans here and there.
What does the Bible say about creativity? Throughout scripture, creativity represents human emulation of the divine. God is the Creator (Gen.1), and we are never more like God than when we create (Gen.1.26-28). Creativity is god-ly (Ex.35.10), and to perpetuate Creation is to live in obedience to our Creator (Gen.9.1), our design, and our holy calling (Mk.16.15).
If you’re looking for a great Bible verse about art and creativity, then the most significant passage is definitely Exodus 35.30-35, which demonstrates the way God employs craftsmen for holy purpose.
“Then Moses said to the Israelites, “See, the Lord has chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills— to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood and to engage in all kinds of artistic crafts. And he has given both him and Oholiab son of Ahisamak, of the tribe of Dan, the ability to teach others. He has filled them with skill to do all kinds of work as engravers, designers, embroiderers in blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen, and weavers—all of them skilled workers and designers.”
– Ex 35.30-35
There are other holy craftsman in scripture, most notably Jesus who was a tekton (artisan) and lived the majority of his life in humble obedience apprenticed to his earthly father, Joseph.
Another great Bible verse about art and creativity is Exodus 28.3, where God instructs skilled designers to make garments for the priests.
“Tell all the skilled workers to whom I have given wisdom in such matters that they are to make garments for Aaron, for his consecration, so he may serve me as priest.”
– Exodus 28:3 NIV
And one more great Bible verse about art and creativity (then I’ll stop, I promise!), is Exodus 35.10, where “All who are skilled among you are to come and make everything the Lord has commanded…”
What does the Bible say about creativity and innovation? In the Bible, creativity manifests in both innovation and art, which are two sides of the same coin. Innovation means putting creativity to “work”, whereas the aesthetic application of creativity results in “art”. Of course, the two can overlap (as they did in the Second Temple), but the distinction is a helpful one since many modern hearers despair that they are not creative because they are not artistic. Yet creativity manifests in architecture, mathematics, economics, and theology as readily as painting, pottery, and music.
You can see examples of creativity and innovation in the Bible in Ezekiel’s elaborate description of the temple (Ez.40-48), which describes many architectural features designed to solve problems (protection for guardsmen, shade for dignitaries, etc.) alongside many aesthetic details designed to please visitors (bronze walls, high altars, elaborate curtains, etc.).
And though there are myriad verses pertaining to creativity in scripture, here are my top 7 Bible verses about creativity. A quick survey of these passages demonstrates how integral creativity is to God, to people, and to the story of God’s plans to heal the world.
”In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”
– Genesis 1.1
“So God created mankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”
– Genesis 1.28
“He has filled them with skill to do all kinds of work as engravers, designers, embroiderers in blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen, and weavers—all of them skilled workers and designers.”
– Exodus 35.35
”But God made the earth by his power; he founded the world by his wisdom and stretched out the heavens by his understanding.”
– Jeremiah 10.12
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”
– 2 Corinthians 5.17
“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
– Ephesians 2.10
”Then I saw ’a new heaven and a new earth,’ for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.”
– Revelation 21.1
What does the Bible say about art and creativity? While the Bible rarely gives instruction on art, the Bible does provide much precise instruction to artists—particularly in the construction and design of the Temple. Consider God’s extreme preference for exact measurements, fabrics, and elements in the design of the tabernacle, the Temple, and of the New Jerusalem.
This tells us we ought never be afraid of having sharply defined preferences. Every designer has them—especially God! We ought to have the courage to say “No” to all that we don’t want, and make space for all God will create through us to heal the world.
That is one of the chief inferences of God’s Temple design—creativity involves saying “No.”
No to things that don’t fit.
No to things that aren’t quite right.
No to things that seem out of place.
No to things that don’t feel like you.
And while this might seem temperamental to outsiders, the truth is that every No creates space not just for a Yes, but for an imaginative answer to the question “Now what?”
There’s empty space… Now what?
There’s room for improvement… Now what?
There’s a need that must be filled… Now what?
We know what this space is for, and who it’s meant to serve… Now what?
We create holy space through sharply defined preferences. Such space is ripened for holy opportunity, holy imagination, and holy encounter!
If we were made by God to become more like God, certainly that includes having better taste.
Is creativity an attribute of God? Yes, but it would be fairer to say that creativity is essential to God’s character and identity. You could no more remove creativity from the Creator than you could remove oxygen from air or wetness from water. There is no division between Creator and creativity, as all that God makes flows from God. That’s why God breathes into people, giving us the inspiration of the Spirit (Gen.2.7). That’s why God speaks and hovers in Genesis (Gen.1). That’s why we need no Temple or Sun in Revelation (Rev.21.22). Our God is “over all and through all and in all” (Eph.4.6 ESV).
There are, of course, many bible stories about creativity, but one of my favorites demonstrates Jesus’ creativity as representative of both God and men. In John 8, Jesus’ adversaries drag a woman before him who was caught in adultery. This did this to trap Jesus, placing him in a position where he either had to show mercy (and thus demonstrate his unwillingness to keep the Law) or condemn (which would have compromised his popularity among the crowd). Jesus recognizes the trap and designs a magnificent counter. He refuses to play their game and uses his intellectual and rhetorical creativity to respond in a completely unexpected manner, writing *something in the sand that diffused tension, exposes hubris, dismissed his adversaries, and saved the woman’s life. Jesus demonstrated a creative means of escaping the trap, a creative means of responding to criticism, and a creative means of honoring a dishonored woman.
Who in the Bible was creative? Does a poet create? Does a storyteller create? Does an architect or a stonemason or a craftsman create? What about someone who designs clothing, or fashion, or ceremonial dress? Is a non-fiction work of prose, like an essay, considered an act of creation?
The answer to all of these questions is, of course, YES, which means the entire Bible is itself a manifesto on creativity. From prophetic imagery like Ezekiel‘s two eagles and a vine (Ez.17), or the valley of dry bones (Ez.37), to Jesus crafting of the parables, to Jude’s creative use of metaphor (1.13), to Nathan‘s subterfuge in confronting David (2 Samuel 12)…there is no end of creative expression and modality in scripture. And that creativity sometimes runs afoul of our polite sensibilities, such as Isaiah’s reference to filthy rag righteousness (Isa.64.6), or Paul’s reference to skubala (Phil.3.8-11), or Ezekiel laying on his side in filth (Ez.4) or Elijah taunting the prophets of Baal (1 Ki.18). These are but a few of the crass, creative expressions and images offered by holy people in the holy scriptures. All of these confront and challenge our contemporary delicacy. Even Jesus’ use of the invective raka (Mt.5.22) was a creative means of jolting his audience out of their ruts and into the dangerous and wild adventure of faith.
And let us not forget the most creative woman in the Bible, Deborah, who not only demonstrated her intelligence in warfare but equally in hymnody (Jud.5). Of particular significance is the way Deborah crafted her song to not only elevate herself and Barak, her general, but also Jael—the clever woman who succors the enemy with milk before taking his life while he slept. Deborah not only celebrates the victory of her people, but also the wiles of this one particular woman who used the only weapons available to her—comfort and conviction.
Conclusion: it’s time for greater creativity and innovation in the Church
Friends, it’s no surprise that our churches are struggling. Many are struggling to survive, and many others that appear to be thriving are filled with artists struggling to find some meaning in the “safe, same, repeat” model of Churchianity.
The answer to both struggles lies with creativity.
God made us to create. Whenever we get stuck doing the same old thing (or even stuck doing the same new thing cause it works) a little part of holy selves decays. Let us reclaim our divine called as God’s agents and cooperate with the Spirit to cover the earth in glory.
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