social justice

Let me preface this with two statements:

1. Evangelism and social justice are necessary and normative to the Christian life.

2. Art has a place in shining light on and practicing in both these issues.

For years, Christian writers have been decrying the idea that every book by a Christian author must be evangelistic. I don't think anyone means that a book necessarily can't have an evangelistic idea in it. After all, conversion is central to story, whether that conversion be Christian or not (meaning, the conversion could be that someone realizes something about themselves or solves a murder or gets the girl).

As we've been discussing this, I've seen a rise of books addressing social justice issues. These books have been celebrated for their message. And while many of these books are good, and, as I mentioned above, I believe art has historically had (and should have) a connection to social justice and other concerns of its day, I wonder if we are simply substituting one message for another. 

I'm wondering aloud here, mind you.

Art does something--that I'll concede. It draws you to beauty or works through suffering or lets you know you're not alone, for example. 

My question, then, is how much does it need to do? At what point do we subjugate it to utility? At what point does it stand alone?

Small print: Title quote from Woody Allen

Sandra Glahn is the author of fiction (including a Christy-nominated book), nonfiction, and Bible studies. She's editor of the award-winning magazine, Kindred Spirit, and adjunct professor at Dallas Theological Seminary. She's mentored and encouraged me and my writing, and is a fascinating person who would probably be the in-demand teammate for Trivial Pursuit (the woman's brilliant).

I added some new links to my Incarnating Christ page:

Under Social Justice--

Global Girlfriend, fairly-traded apparel and accessories handmade by women and communities in need

My husband and I love to go camping. Of course, you can't go camping without a campfire, and my husband loves campfires.

He's a master at making things burn.

The secret to a great fire is getting the big, exciting flames to transform the wood itself and to continue spreading to other pieces of wood as you add them to the fire. As the fire transforms the wood, the wood becomes coal. The fire infuses the wood. These coals are hotter than the huge flames that leap as you ignite the fire. It is with these coals that you can keep yourself warm, cook your meal, and spread the fire to other logs.

It hit me that this is the Christian life.

Christians shouldn't be in the business of fighting culture or merely trying to keep up with its trends. They should be joining God in His work of transforming it.

The Christian's hope lies in the future, in the physical resurrection of creation. While we won't see fulfilment of that resurrection until heaven comes to earth in the culmination of God's kingdom (Revelation 21-22), God has initiated His kingdom of peace, healing, and restoration. His agents for this redemption are human. The agents are believers.

Jesus' resurrection demonstrated His victory over death and evil. It is also a foretaste of the physical resurrection all believers will experience at His return. His work on earth demonstrated that the transformation begins now.

It begins in a restored relationship with God, but it doesn't stop there. That restored relationship spills out into restored relationships with other humans and with the earth. Only in Christ do we discover what it means to be fully human. Only in Christ do we defeat the power of death and evil in our lives and on earth. As we join in Christ's death, so we join in His victory.

Though at a future time, this victory will culminate in an instant, in the present, it happens in a process of persevering in the faith, acting out in the present our future hope.

This is what I call spiritual formation. Spiritual formation is done by the power of the Holy Spirit, who dwells in us. It's based on God's revelation of who He is through creation (i.e. the arts, sciences, beauty, cultures, humans), through community, through Scripture, through the Holy Spirit, and through Jesus' incarnation--God's ultimate revelation of Himself in the God-man. We learn of the revelation of the Word become flesh (the incarnation) through Scripture, which contains the witness of God's people, God's prophecy, God's story. We understand Scripture in community, in relationships where God most fully reveals Himself through different personalities and gifts that together present a more full understanding of who He is.

Spiritual formation's purpose is to become more human. Through formation (or transformation), we become not the same as each other, but more fully ourselves.

In becoming more human, more fully ourselves, we learn God's purpose for humanity: to love the Lord our God (Matthew 22:37), to love our neighbor as ourselves (Matthew 22:38), and to care for God's creation (Genesis 1:28). As we fulfill this purpose using the spiritual gifts God has given each of us through the power of the Holy Spirit, we become agents of God's redemptive plan for the earth.

We learn how to fulfill God's purpose from Christ's ministry. Indeed, as his body, we continue his work, incarnating his love to a hurting world. We seek to live our lives as he lives his. Christ's ministry included healing the sick, providing for the poor, preaching the gospel, extending forgiveness to the repentant, challenging the sinner, encouraging the discouraged, and discipling the follower.

Christ's work was creating and recreating. He embodied the sufferings of this world and the resurrection. His victory over death and evil becomes our victory over death and evil. God transforms us, guides our minds, forms our wills, and fill our imaginations. We become more alive in our thinking, in our love, in our creativity and art.

So we participate in transforming culture by embodying His victory as we share God's story and redemption, as we create and embody theology in art, and as we fight oppression in all its forms.

Below, I've provided resources to help facilitate intentional relationships and ministry that carries on Jesus' work for God's kingdom in order to glorify God. There's nothing magical about the resources. The magic occurs in the relationship between God and other believers as they together serve God's kingdom. As God transforms us, we take these heated coals and start new fires, spreading His kingdom of love and peace. This happens in our art, our workplaces, our families, our neighborhoods, our friends in the physical, messy, daily life.

For suggestions for engaging in art in your everyday life, click here.

Spiritual Formation Resources

Transforming Life series:

• About
• Download (free): Part One (Identity), Part Two (Community), Part There (Integrity), Part Four (Ministry)
• Purchase

Experience the Life

Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming by Henri Nouwan

The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives by Dallas Willard

Spirit, Soul and Body

Social Justice Links: Links to help you incarnate Christ's love to the hurting

Adopt a Legacy, a ministry to the poor, widows, orphans, and AIDS victims of Africa

International Justice Mission, a human rights agency that secures justice for victims of slavery, sexual exploitation and other forms of violent oppression

All God's Children, an orphanage in Honduras

Blood:Water Mission, promotes clean blood and clean water to address the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa

People not Profit, an organization that works with artists who donate their art to raise funds for the poor

Imagine Art, an organization that works with artists with disabilities

Art from the Streets, an organization that teaches art classes in homeless shelters and sells the artwork, giving the homeless an income

Arts Link, an organization that connects artists with short- and long-term mission opportunities that uniquely use the gift of the artist to minister in foreign contexts

ICE (International Council of Ethnodoxologists), a group of ethnomusicologists with a vision to see Christians in every culture expressing their faith through their own music and arts

Global Girlfriend, fairly-traded apparel and accessories handmade by women and communities in need

Tom's Shoes, based on an Argentine shoe, for every pair of shoes you buy, Tom donates a pair to a child in need.

Responsible Shopper, alerts the public about the social and environmental impact of major corporations, and provides opportunities for consumers and investors to vote with their dollars for change.

Come Let's Dance, a non-profit, grassroots organization dedicated to empowering and inspiring the youth of Africa to initiate change in their own communities, one kid at a time

Arts Resources: Links to connect artists with other artists and to inspire your creativity

Infuze Mag, an online magazine

Artist Melanie Weidner

Artist Makoto Fujimura

Picasso catalogued

Philosophy Cafe

Burnside Writer's Collective

Early Christian Art: Mind, Body, and Soul Connection, an article on the beginnings of Christian art

Relevant Magazine

The Master's Artist, a group blog of writers

Belle Aerie, an online forum for artists

Jubilee, a non-profit band with jazz-influenced sounds that donates half their sales proceeds and 10% of their booking fees to International Mission Justice

The Christian Pulse

Image Journal

by Faith Magazine

Holy Week Art and Theology, an article connecting art and the resurrection

Act One Program, comprehensive training and mentorship to train the next generation of Christian artists and professionals

Inspire Me Thursday, "weekly invitation to amuse your inner muse. Be inspired to reflect, connect, explore, journal, and create."

Artcyclopedia, search or browse art by artist, medium, subject, or movement--a great place to figure out what movement was doing what and who was creating in that them

Artchive, same song, second verse

Teesha Moore's site, art, journal pages, and a blog to boot

A very cool recommended reading list put together by Imago Dei Community on God-centered theology of arts and culture

The Doorpost Film Project, short films on themes such as hope, freedom, love, pain, energy, and others

Ten Dreams gallery of art, specifically art featuring symbolism, magic realism, and fantasy.

Craftster, how to take old items and thrift store finds and create something new with them 

Noise Trade, a great place to discover and support emerging musicians.

I've ranted about our unwillingness to step outside ourselves to serve. I've raved about our desire for comfort and safety over our desire to participate in God's kingdom work.

Today, I want to point you to a friend who chose the dangerous yet loving path. She, her husband, and her three kids took a Christmas meal to inmates at a prison.

Fun surprises: the gratitude of the inmates.

More than that, how she was blessed by them.