Art And Creativity In Art

Throughout the history of the world, many ideas and thoughts have been communicated from one person to another. Humans in surrounding nations hold vast views on how society is progressing on a daily basis. Every person in this world has their own opinions and ideas on how others live. Each human is created uniquely and special. We all have special features and gifts. One of those gifts is the idea of creativity. We display our creativity through the medium of art. Throughout mankind, thousands of artists have displayed their works and they continue to do that to this very day. But, many people have questioned the validity of the works done by a variety of artists. During the Greek times, this was a major issue. In this time during history,

"But art can be made that flies directly in the face of God. We can just as easily point to paintings that go against the very nature of who God is" (Stuart para. 15). As artists created their works for the world to see, the pagans viewed the works of the artists as creative and of mastery. A vast majority of the artists also had attributes of being imposters. When they created their works, artists sometimes sent off false messages to their audiences by making it look like they had the ability of the gods. Since artists portrayed themselves as having abilities of the gods, this made pagans believe that certain artists should be viewed as a god because of their creative and masterful works. "In pagan theologies, the very act of creativity is a form of worship, magic, and reverence" (Shakur para. 2). From this last source, pagans believed that creativity should be respected and honored. Creativity was held at high level for the pagans. When they observed an artist who had exceptional works, they believed that they were one of the gods. For the most part, many of the artists were considered imposters because they were falsely portraying their works. The pagan view is also opposite of what God calls on His people. "You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led" (1 Corinthians 12:2). Here, Paul explains that the pagans were led astray to mute

God is the ultimate creator of all things. He made humans in precisely different ways. "From the perspective of a Christian world view the answer is found in how we are created. Since we are made in God's image that must include the glorious concept that we too are creative. Perhaps this explains the reason why creating anything is so fulfilling to us. We can express a drive within us which allows us to do something all humans uniquely share with their Creator" (Solomon & Williams para. 10). When humans create things, specifically Christians, this group of people are able to share their creation with Christ. We are to thank Christ for giving us abilities to create things. "Understanding this dichotomy allows Christians to genuinely appreciate something of the contribution of every artist, composer, or author. God is sovereign and dispenses artistic talents upon whom He will. While Scripture keeps us from emulating certain lifestyles of artists or condoning some of their ideological perspectives, we can nevertheless admire and appreciate their talent, which ultimately finds its source in God" (Solomon & Williams para. 13). Our artistic talents should not be held as high of a level as the pagan view. "For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do" (Ephesians 2:10). We as humans are created to do good works under Christ. All of our