Art and the formation of the soul

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As an artist I believe that I must not only be really, really good at my craft, but I must understand what beauty is and how it forms us as human beings. As a filmmaker I don’t want to just create more and more videos, I want to create something beautiful that moves people to action and causes them to think and stare deep into their souls.

As I was studying aesthetics, like a good philosopher I begin to ask myself questions. One of the questions I begin to wrestle with was that of the role that art plays in the formation of the soul.

Today I still don’t have a concrete answer, however I do believe that art shapes us and forms us.  The movies we watch, the books we read, the music we consume all play a role in forming our souls.  We’ve all had them, those encounters where we walk away a little bit different after encountering a certain piece of art.  We might appreciate life more or feel called to do something radical, whatever the case we encountered great art and were moved for some unexplainable reason.

Leo Tolstoy saw art as a means of communication.  The degree to which the art was considered great was determined by the following three criteria.

1. The individuality of the feeling transmitted.
The thought here is that the more the art can speak directly to an individual, the greater chance it has of communicating its message.
2. It’s clarity.
If the message can be interpreted too many ways, perhaps the art is not great because the message is diluted or weak.
3. The sincerity of the artist.
The degree to which the artist deeply cares about the subject will ultimately determine the greatness of the art because the artist is being genuine and is trying to say something unique through the art.

As church creatives we have the opportunity to create art that will in essence form souls for the good.   When church members encounter our art they are not encountering a design, a song or a video, they are encountering a message that has the power to change the way they think about something as it forms them.   Let us begin to create in such a way that the people in our churches are moved in such a way that they don’t just see the art, but they receive its message in a powerful way.

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