Ch 1 - Art in a Post-Modern Age

"Deconstructed, Disillusioned and Distrusted: Conflicting influences on the Christian artist"


Summary:
This chapter takes a look at the values and ideas that post-modernism has imparted on to our pluralist society that we are now living in - a society where it is accepted for all to pick and mix what we perceive to be true to create "my story" but not "The Story". But since everything is accepted, it gives us the chance to put out the Truth through our work and trust that, amongst all the fallible human stories, God's Truth will penetrate through. 


Notable notes/quotes:

• "The end of the second millenium has witnessed a seismic change in the world of the arts..." (p.4) namely, the arrival of TV and internet, meaning that "there are no national boundaries in this world - and no commitments either."
• "alongside the technological revolution has come an equally revolutionary change in ideas."
• "No part of the world could not be tamed, no problem was beyond the reach of scientific solutions, God was no longer needed. " (p.5)
• Beneath modernism's dominant theme of optimism grew a minor theme of pessimism and cynicism. 
• "Faced with so many conflicting truth claims, the easiest response is to trust none of them." (p.7) It is common for the people of this post-modern world to assume that anyone making a truth claim is in the business of manipulation and abusing power (pessimism and cynicism reign). 
• "The whole world and its history is seen as a vast supermarket from which to pick information and theory according to taste. Even religion has become pick and mix" (p.9)
• In a pick and mix society, our identity has become what we make it, shifting "easily from 'Who am I?' to 'What image shall I adopt today?'" (p.11). With this freedom to choose how we want to be seen, we may convince others but we may not convince ourselves. "We are in danger, not of creating an identity, but losing one." (p.11) We are in danger of replacing our God-given identity with one we have picked and mixed ourselves.
• "in such a barren landscape people are thirsty for meaning and wide open to anything which offers genuine hope...In an age when bold statements of capital-T Truth are discounted, society turns to its poets and artists for the most truthful accounts of the human condition...people will listen to any number of stories on a human scale, especially those that come from the depths of experience." (p.15). This could give us the opportunity to create something that comes from our experiences as a God-created human. Overtly human, subtly Christian... so that on closer inspection, the Truth of our humanity can be seen. 

Application:

"The values and ideas that will shape the third millennium are not yet in place. As we go into that millennium, Christian artists have an unparalleled opportunity to help set the agenda." (p.15)

How can we influence the next generation?

We have such an opportunity to "set the agenda" and reshape society through our work!