I didn’t want to leave. I was nine and my mother had given me an unexpected privilege: the permission to go to the library alone. I’ve always loved stories, even so, it wasn’t until then I showed real interest in reading. I started off reading out of fascination for stories, but I soon found myself driven to read because the world, though big and contradictory, was more manageable in books. I could made better sense of the world and people in books.
Years passed and my reading grew into writing. I write for the same reasons I read. That is, I write because through the very act of writing I can make sense of the world using the power of words. But even with all my reading and writing, I can’t thrive on the words of humans alone. It took a number of conversations and long reflections on the topic to reconcile my love for the written word with faith.
At first, the only obvious point of intersection was the Bible. Art falling into the “Christian” genre qualified as a loose second. Art and faith didn’t seem opposing or mutually exclusive, but there didn’t seem to be a huge amount of overlap. I needed to learn how to see faith in art and decide for myself just what art should be.
Such wondering was roused again at a graduation party when conversation turned to books. A few wallflowers had congregated in a corner mostly free of colorful streamers and confetti. Young adult fiction was the topic and I listened to a friendly girl’s prattle about the characters in a popular dystopian series. Her commentary soon gathered attention from other guests.
A woman with a party hat and a nervous smile interrupted the girl. “You shouldn’t talk like that. Those books aren’t good for you. I know I don’t let my kids read that sort of book. It’s too violent to be any good.”
“Besides, they aren’t very useful book," agreed her husband. "They aren’t educational or anything.”
Clearly, Christians aren’t alone in their disregard for literature. It seems that art isn’t valued because it isn’t thought useful or practical. I remember feeling quite exasperated by now, but I had little to offer in defense of the girl’s choice to read that contested series or my own beloved books.
Another man (the graduate’s father) offered a slightly different perspective. “Those books are violent and we should avoid reading that. But what is worse than the graphic content is what they suggest about life. The astute reader will notice that nothing good comes out of the bad stuff that happens. Those books promote a very empty perspective on life. Christian readers should evaluate and be extra careful about what they read. Maybe we shouldn’t read these books at all.”
Conversation soured with the mention of religion. The man made an awkward joke I don’t remember about the price of college textbooks. He changed the subject away from books, but I didn’t join. I had what I’d been looking for. I felt a wary sort of awe; I didn’t agree with what he said. Not about modulating violence in media so strictly, nor his conclusion that some books shouldn’t be read because they promote different ideas and philosophies. He treated secular thinking like an illness contagious to the righteous. I didn’t want to buy into his idea of a overly scrupulous Christian reader.
Even so, there was something to what he said about evaluation. A story is more than series of events and the ideas a story suggests about life are important. I now try to sort out the unhelpful and unbiblical from the more worthy things in what I read. There are, of course, some things that Christians shouldn’t read. But that doesn’t mean I’ll stop reading every secular work to protect myself from differing worldviews or unpleasant realities.
Writing is ultimately an art form. In general, the best kind of art has some resonance of truth. As such, faith doesn’t have to stand apart from art except for some special occasions or narrow genres. To a careful reader, God is some degree present in all good art since he is the first creator and his world the first inspiration.
Rather than find a few small points of overlap, I’ve discovered there is vast open space where art naturally meets faith. They are more than compatible, instead they are almost mutually inclusive. I can’t live on words alone if I expect a human’s words to be worth reading whilst untouched by a greater truth. And I think I can find the best or most true art there is at those intersections of faith and art.
