Life-enhancing culture vs. life-debilitating culture [Rookmaaker and Rock and Roll]

[ChristianTrader]

The cultural war debate often centers on life and death issues such as abortion and euthanasia, and the question of whether we are living in a culture of life or a culture of death. However, we seldom talk about whether our aesthetic culture of art, music, poetry, and literature is life-enhancing or life-debilitating.

Life-enhancing culture vs. life-debilitating culture

 

[he beholds]

Thanks for the link. I really enjoyed reading this article and thinking about the ideas in it!
Here are a few quotes that I particularly found thought-provoking:

Dooyeweerd said that if we split our life into incompatible spheres--such as a public self vs. a private self, sacred vs. secular, religion vs. culture, career vs. family, mind vs. body, the moral vs. the morally neutral--we will live a schizophrenic, debilitated life. Even though each piece of life has its own built-in laws and nature, God designed life to be lived as a whole and not in separate pieces. All the pieces need to be harmonized together.

This is SO true! I feel twisted up inside if I even do something that I'd be afraid for my family, friends, pastor-friends, PB-friends, former students, etc, to see me write about on facebook! Like if I watch a TV show, would I be OK commenting on it in public (like FB)? OF course perhaps some things, like drinking a beer, might improperly influence an under-aged kid or something, but for the most part, I feel that my public life should be the same as my private life.

Great point:

Aesthetic creations should be harmonious so that one is given an intuitive understanding of the harmony of human life. Of course, the harmony that God designed for man was shattered by man's fall into sin. Mere culture cannot heal souls shattered by the fall. Only Christ can do this. However, a harmonious symphony, painting, or poem can give one an intuitive sense of what beauty and wholeness can be and this insight can impart hope and a sense of meaning to the human heart.

Very interesting idea:

A culture of beauty and harmony has meaning and is life-enhancing. Such a culture is complimentary to Christianity. It would not be unreasonable to call the art and music that conforms to God's laws of beauty and harmony Christian art and Christian music. It would be unreasonable to call music that defies the principles of beauty and harmony Christian music even if it has Christian lyrics.

I have a hard time calling anything but hymns or devotionals "Christian" or "un-Christian," since things cannot be saved. And I tend to think that even music that sounds terrible, but has scripture infused, is still as Christian as music that I'd prefer to listen to.


Speaking of two Christian "high art" performers, the author says, "I suspect that the long life of Derek and Jerome has partly to do with distancing themselves from subcultures of temptation and partly to do with their lifelong creative involvement in the fine arts of beauty and harmony. (emphasis mine.) He is positing that not only is art life-enhancing, but life-sustaining. (Not eternally...he says above that only Christ does that!)

On New Years Eve, a roster of all the famous people who died in 2005 was published in the newspaper. Four famous people in the fine arts died in 2005, including a symphony orchestra conductor, an artist, an architect, and a poet. The average age at death of these four people was 91. Five celebrity rock musicians died in 2005, and their average age of death was 60. Wow! The celebrities on the list in the fine arts lived 50% longer than the celebrities in rock music! In contrast to the rock musicians, the five celebrity musicians in genres other than rock lived to be an average of 80 years old, one-third longer than rock musicians. Seven singers other than rock singers lived to be 79, almost one third longer than rock musicians.