Creativity, reflecting & influencing society

I talked recently of the ‘avant garde’, a term that conjures up things that go against the expected norm... things pioneered... things that we are not used to seeing... NEW THINGS. However in terms of the discipline of painting and music particularly, we must be very careful about the original roots and birth of these. We need to have new expressions of creativity birthed by the Spirit of God. These will be of lasting value and ultimately they even change the atmosphere and pattern of society.

Let me give you an example, in the negative:
New avant garde ideas were being produced at the turn of the last century. Society was very disillusioned and the seeds of war existed. This in turn was reflected in creative terms. Philosophy at the turn of the century, about 1910, declared... ‘God was dead’(Nietzsche). German expressionist art tried to vent emotion whilst new developments in technology were de humanising society. Out of all this ‘Dada’ was born as a rebellious art movement, and in turn ‘surrealism’. All this of course was rooted in the thoughts that God had turned away or in fact that He didn’t even exist. These brief movements led to massive changes in the way in which we now see creative expression. We know what came later, maybe not directly as a result of art but this had a huge influence and effected the perception of many.  Creativity should be an indicator, RELEVANT to what is really going on.

God is raising up many different ways of expressing Himself.  But it must be rooted in His peace and order and pure motivation.

We are products of our society but only God can change what needs to be changed.  God’s creativity must be harnessed. When unchecked you get true innovative people but in rebellion.

What is happening in our society that must be reflected in creative expressions. But we must go further and reflect God’s values so that God is once more declared as ALIVE.  The Spirit of God comes to every generation and we all have a part.

So lets look at the roots. Lets come up higher and see what must happen.

Daniel Chuter