Zaymer

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There is only so much time in a day.
There is only so much time in a life.
Question being: how best should that time be used?

The most important question to answer regarding the usage of time is whether one believes in a reality beyond bodily death, and if so how does one best secure a 'good end' and avoid a 'bad end'. Christians certainly believe this and further that there are limitations on activities in order to achieve a 'good end'; remember the parable of the wide and narrow gates.

Art-culture mediums (books, games, images, movies, music, etc) are forms of expression and transmission for emotions and ideas and can inspire one positively and/or negatively.

Now then, it should be clear that we live in a culture-society of consumption, and that we are being inundated with tidal waves upon tidal waves of art-cultural content/works beyond which any person could ever possibly hope to experience all of, and indeed frankly much of it being of rather dubious quality (both artistically as well as morally) anyway.

How should the Christian engage with art-culture?
What does the parable of the wide and narrow gates mean in this context?
How does one properly determine which content/works are beneficial or detrimental to the Christian walk?

What is the proper nature of beauty?

What are the best explicitly Christian works of all time?

Can a catalog of the best works for a Christian to experience be made? What might be included? (Even including those perhaps not explicitly Christian, accounting for artistic quality, but also limiting based on redundancy/time expense too)
 

Sunshinee777

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I would say use your God given discernment. I mean, to me it’s very easy to spot ”dark art” from ”light art” as I like to say. There are lot of ”light art” from people who are not professed Christians, yet their work seems to have like inspirated by Holy Spirit. Which has been given me something to think. Well God works mysterious ways. I guess I want to say that don’t judge art by labels but use your own discernment. There are also those ”professed” fake Christians who paint pictures of Jesus but you obviously see their intentions are not clean as Christians should have, altough no one is perfect. But labels can deceive, Spirit never deceives.
 
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Eftsoon

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I think that all art is capable of elevating the soul - even when the creators are total heathens. The impulse to create art is God given. As Christians we should be able to discern that. Secular art, of course, comes bearing other 'gifts'. It's always risky to steep oneself in the secular art world if one is not deeply, thoroughly and profoundly steeped in Christ.

Music for example is just incredibly seductive, popular music is often , for me, transcendent, but it comes with a worldview. When I listen to a great album, I'm caught up bodily, spiritually and emotionally into that world. There always has to be an active process of reinterpretation where one is bringing the sensory data into alignment with Christ before it hits the pleasure centres.
 
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