This week a new biography has been released on perhaps the most famous person ever associated with our movement, Charles Schulz, the creator of the Peanuts comic strips. Schulz and Peanuts was written by David Michaelis, and has already raised some controversy for its depiction of the cartoonist.
Of interest to me is a review in the New Yorker. According to the article, in the book Michaelis describes Schulz's Christian roots, and states that "the Church of God has no defining style of architectural tradition. It barely announced itself". The reviewer, John Updike, takes it a step further with, "It was to this colorless permutation of Christianity, founded in Indiana in 1881, that the young Schulz attached himself, becoming a tithing pillar and part-time preacher."
What caught my attention is the perception of outsiders of our movement, particularly as it relates to the arts. While the above quotes might seem somewhat unfair or over-generalized, I believe they are not too far off in recognizing that the Church of God has not been a bastion of artistic flair. Our pietistic and holiness background have certainly relegated the arts to the background. Much of our past architecture has been bland and utilitarian, and while music has been one of our passions, other forms of artistic expression have been largely lacking.
There is probably much more that could be said about this by those who would wish to analyze this historically, socially and theologically. Suffice to say here, it provides an interesting look at ourselves and our own culture by those peering in from the outside.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Wow, sad but true. I can't think of really good artistic expression on a Movement level, other than music. And that sometimes on a movement scope is fairly homogeneous. One could argue that overall there's two choices: Gaither and Black Gospel. Ok, maybe Hilsong of the mid-90s, not entirely Gaither. Our buildings, our "liturgy"/the church bulletin, etc, all pretty bland. I'm sure there's more, but the only creative building that comes to mind quickly if Fairfax [fairfaxcomunity.net] This is a big challenge for us in the changing world. Being that this is a designer culture. A lot of the high school kids I know, use photo shop, not MS Word, or Power Point to edit graphics. That's something that I get, but as I see publications and websites of ChOGers they don't give me much hope on the short term that we are speaking to our culture about God. God the creator. We need to be more creative.
Post a Comment