The message or the medium?

In ancient Aphrodesius was a famed school of sculpture. Sculpture had its own language. The way a statue was dressed, what the hands were doing, the very pose – it all conveyed a message. Contemporary society could easily “read” and understand the message being conveyed. It was a language for common man. The culture it was in, however, was pagan. So the messages the statues conveyed were the messages of a pagan worldview.

Christianity swept through that area during its early first centuries, and when the city of Aphrodesius was touched by the good news and began to follow Christ, a growing church was established there. The leaders of that early church took over the school, shutting it down and destroying much of the art. After all, it told a pagan message so why be involved in sculpture?

What would have happened if instead, as those young sculptors began to be influenced by their Christian neighbors, they created art that conveyed a message of Truth? In a language readily understood by its society? We can only wonder. Now barely a remnant of Christianity survives in this city today. Is it possible it would have looked different there now if they had embraced speaking truth through sculpture then?

God still speaks to us in pictures and stories. It’s a powerful medium that conveys a message. What are the cultural conveyers of messages today? And, how does God continue to tell His story? How might the world be touched with some very good news?

5 Responses

  1. It seems like this is still something people of faith wrestle with today... we try to differentiate ourselves from the "pagan", rather than trying to convey biblical themes through current cultural mediums.
    • WTWN
      Agreed! We need community to figure it out together.
    • Charlene
      Yes, I believe this is the whole "being in the world, but not of it" concept. We have to go engage the lost where they are as Jesus did...not just wait for them to come to us in our separate churches, etc. We don't have to view secular mediums with fear, rather with victory, knowing that they hold no power over God and that what was intended for evil, God can use for good!
  2. Debbie
    Don't you think that is our default today? It seems like there are attempts to communicate through the popular mediums. Although it seems we are communicating our own message rather than the Good News of Jesus.
  3. This lament sounds similar to what I heard on an Biola Appologetics CD by John Mark Reynolds on "Christianity and the Problem of Popular Culture". Reynolds talked about how at the birth of the film industry, Christians stayed away from the medium as being too dangerous or, at least, unholy. Instead of adopting the fim medium as a way to get the Christian worldview across, they shunned it and left it to people of other worldviews to take over and promote their way of living. (and the same can be said of the Internet today.) There are some "quality" fims out there with a Christian worldview, but not many. Most are cheesy or poorly done. (and what's this about Nicholas Cage redoing the "Left Behind" movies?) One example Reynolds gave was Mel Gibson. While Mel sometimes misses, he has gotten to the point where he owns his own film production company and can therefore promote a (pre Vatican II) Catholic worldview in a positive light. Another example Reynolds gave was "The Bells of St. Mary's", which was produced to show Catholics in a favorable light when most of the US professed a Protestant-leaning faith.

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