Essay: What the Church Can Learn from Artists?

HUFFINGTON POST
By Derek Flood

I'd like to take a look at what doing theology as an artist looks like, and how that differs from the way theology has typically been done. First of all, art is not just about creativity. Art in particular is about taking something in your heart, and putting it out there (on paper, a movie screen, a song, etc.) in such a way that another person can connect with it in his or her heart. It moves us because we relate to it personally. In that sense, the Incarnation can be understood as God's art. It is God's heart, presented in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. That's why the Apostle Paul calls Jesus the "image of God" (Colossians 1:15). Jesus is God's own self-portrait, and the artistic medium of the Creator is not oils or clay, but life itself. With art, to be unaffected by it is to not get it, and the Christian story, at its very heart, is God's art.  You don't need to know how to paint to do that. [link]