The idea of art for art’s sake, that art should serve no other purpose outside of its own existence is a relatively new idea in terms of human history. The idea begins to crop up in various writings starting in the 1850s. This is also about the time that the idea of the tortured artist, sacrificing all for his art, living a poor existence in a drafty garret (that’s the attic, kids) all for the sake of being true to his artistic vision, begins to take hold of the public imagination.
Poppycock.
For the majority of human existence, thousands of years before the “modern age,” art served a purpose, it served a community.
American society tends to celebrate the individual, to prize the pioneering spirit. But as Christians we are asked to see things differently than the rest of the world. There are no individuals there is only the one undivided Body. Those qualities that separate us, our different-ness, is not for us as individuals, but is intended for the good of the entire Body.
All of our gifts, talents, and abilities are not given to us for our own use. They are pieces of a whole, and all are necessary for the Body to function properly.
Chesterton put it this way: “The dignity of the artist lies in his duty of keeping awake the sense of wonder in the world. In this long vigil he often has to vary his methods of stimulation; but in this long vigil he is also himself striving against a continual tendency to sleep.”
We must constantly be on guard against falling into the sleep of self-indulgence. If we use our gifts selfishly, if we seek to use our art only to please ourselves, society as a whole is diminished.
As we live in the ever present “today” of Christ, we live for Him, and for each other. Each of us has been given a specific task, a task that is necessary and irreplaceable for the well-being of the entire community. When we accept this task, when the foot stops trying to be an eye and sees the value in being a foot, then we truly begin to live outside of ourselves, in love for all and for the One.