Arts & Aesthetics
On behalf of God…..
by Jeff Miller
Our book group recently finished discussing Paradise Lost by John Milton. It was a fascinating read on many levels. One discussion thread that repeated itself was the issue of problems that arise when God is in the cast of characters.
Any time you set about to describe the ways of God to man in a story, film, hymn, poem or whatever, you inherit some problems. Since God can’t be completely comprehended, he cannot be fully communicated. That’s why metaphors in hymns/songs and descriptions in stories can be confusing; they simply cannot show all of God or even a complete picture of a single attribute. Any of these must be hung against the backdrop of Scripture to be judged as consistent/accurate relating to God.
In the case of Milton, his purpose was, in his words, to “justify the ways of God to man”… Well, the 8-ball is cast directly in front of Milton, as the assumption is that Milton knows God’s ways and can communicate them. Taken to conclusion, this could, in some minds, eliminate or diminish the role of Scripture in the Christian’s life. Granted it was in the late 1600s when Milton wrote and people were learning to read and acquiring their own copies of Scripture (en masse) for the first time. So, I understand the didactic concept involved in culture.
While I tend to see what Milton wrote as generally more consistent with, and reverential of, Scripture, the problem he has is the same one that modern film & novel writers have:
“What would God say in situation X?” Since humans are doing the writing, they fill in the blanks of God’s verbage.
Even as cautious as Milton was, there are many questions in his work. However, looking at portrayals of God by George Burns, Morgan Freeman, etc. and the pithy little black & white Quotation by God books & billboards- I’ll take Milton.
There’s often a problem whenever someone says “God told me……” in a real life, experiential situation.
The problem is a different one, but just as real and sometimes more powerful when someone says in print or in character: “God said….”
What say ye?
Posted by Jeff Miller at August 29, 2008 10:42 AM
There was some good discussion in the group about this issue, and it’s an important issue, especially now when both secularists and “Evangelicals” seem intent on trivializing God. I have often heard the self justifying “God told me to…” or “God wants me to…” and I cringe each time (except when it’s a TV huckster, then I get angry.) My first response is “Where in the Bible did God say that?” but that is a response not always possible to articulate under some circumstances. One of the most bizarre was in another city many years ago. I heard a young woman, who was seeing a man other than her husband, state that “God wants me to be happy.” Well, no. God wants you to be a good wife to your husband and a good mother to your kids. Period. He cares not for your sensory “happiness” outside of His law, and it’s borderline heretical to assign your personal sin as something God wants and has “told” or “led” you to. And no, I have no special instructions regarding that except that it is Biblical.
I experience the same cringe when I see George Burns smoking a cigar in the back of a taxi while playing the role of God, and will confess to some of the same feelings in Paradise Lost hearing a conversation between the Father and the Son about the necessity of redemption for man. It was a feeling totally different from, say, the conversations between the archangel Michael and Adam.
There is a place, a wonderful and fulfilling place, for art that glorifies God and explores man’s relationship with Him, of which Paradise Lost is a wonderful example in many ways. Some of this art has some wild and unexpected turnings (see Flannery O’Connor) but they don’t make me nervous. God has spoken in His Word, in creation and in His Son, and it seems arrogant to me for man to add literal words. And it does make me nervous.
I’ll add my $.02 about “God told me.” This type of assertion is respected in many evangelical churches today, and to me it is a symptom of how post-modern relativism has crept into the church. If a person says, “God told me X,” then the assumption is that X is beyond discussion. After all, how can an outsider possibly question what God has said?
I have an acquaintance (an orthodox Christian) who does not believe that women should be ordained as ministers and would not go to a church where this is allowed. Yet, this person will not say that women who seek ordination are wrong. This person’s rationale is that if those women feel called to the ministry, then that cannot be questioned. Pointing out the inconsistency is to no avail.
Bryan Bond was fond of saying that if you get sin wrong, you get everything else wrong. I think this really is at play here. Our own perceptions of what God might say or want are tainted with our own sin. To think that we can discern God’s wishes apart from the revealed Word of God in Scripture is to fail to recognize our own sin. The church used to point this out. Not so much anymore.