2010 National Conference on Christian Apologetics
Beauty is one
of God’s tools
By Paula R. Kincaid, The Layman, October 25, 2010
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – “We don’t really use beauty much in contending for the faith,” said Glenn Stanton, director of Family Formation Studies at Focus on the Family. “I want to make the point from a Christian perspective that beauty is one of God’s great gifts, tools and powers that truly transform us.”
Stanton was speaking at the 17th annual National Conference on Christian Apologetics sponsored by Southern Evangelical Seminary along with North Carolina Baptists, Breakpoint, Summit Ministries, the American Family Association and World Magazine. It was held Oct. 15-16 at Northside Baptist Church in Charlotte, N.C.
In his workshop, “The Necessity of Beauty in Communicating God’s Truth,” Stanton said the early church fathers used to talk about three transcendent ideas – truth, beauty and goodness. “They transcend, they cover everything,” he said.
Stanton said the evangelicals understand truth, and cited Focus on the Family’s Truth Project as an example of evangelicals ministering in truth.
“Goodness is a big thing as well,” he said. When Hurricane Katrina hit the coast, he said, “The Church rocked the world in helping, … hauling trailers down there and feeding people … The church did it. It knew what it was doing.
“We understand goodness, to serve our fellow man,” he said, “but beauty is something the leftists do, the artists do.” Related Articles
He asked who is the author of beauty? “Our God is the author of beauty so we can be interested in beauty,” Stanton said. “We have made beauty sort of like Precious Moments stuff … not gritty, good, powerful beauty and what it does to us.”
Stanton spoke of the respect he has for Josh McDowell and the work McDowell has accomplished in “stacking up evidence, upon evidence and boom we are there. … God invented facts, but it is not the only tool He gave us.”
Christians should be logical, he said. “God gave us logic, but we are not confined to logic, because God gives us more than logic.”
Stanton said that Christianity is a unique belief system in the world because Christianity proclaims beauty exists, beauty can be spoken of and beauty can be experienced.
“Beauty is real it is out there,” he said. “We can talk about it.”
Stanton encouraged Christians to not only think about Christian movies, but to look at the art of the day.
As an example, he referred to Acts 17:22-33, when Paul spoke in the midst of Areopagus.
Paul knew the Athenians did not know the Old Testament, so he quoted from their own poets to make his point. “Paul knew the poetry, he studied it,” said Stanton.
“It is fine for us as Christians to study the art of the day to know what is going on.”
Stanton showed four clips from secular movies, and asked those in the workshop to question as they watched the clips: “Does beauty have a power? Does art have a power? Who is the author of art? Who is the author of beauty?”
The clips included:
The Titantic – the scene where the musicians were playing as the ship was sinking. As they finished a song, instead of trying to flee the sinking ship and possibly save their lives, they continued to play.
“Hollywood is communicating something to us in that small scene,” he said. “In the last moments of life, that’s the way we want to go … the power of spending out last couple of moments appreciating what God has given us. It comes from God, and God placed it into each one of us.”
– the scene was when a prisoner locked himself into a room and played music over the intercom system for all the prisoners to hear. The prisoners all stopped whatever they were doing and listened to the music.
“Think a little a bit more openly,” Stanton said about the connection of the Gospel with that scene. At one point all of the prisoners were free, he said, “just like us, before the fall.”
The prisoners were sent to prison, just as humans experienced the fall. The music plays at the prison and there’s a line in the movie at that point, when the music was playing “every last man in Shawshank prison was set free.” For Christians, Christ came, died, rose and believers were set free.
“A taste if you will, of what the Gospel is,” he said. “As Christians, the story and power of the Gospel is not just in Christian films, but in places where someone doesn’t even know what they are doing.”
The other film clips Stanton showed were from the Sound of Music and A Beautiful Mind.
“Beauty is a powerful tool,” said Stanton. “As we read literature and watch movies, look for the fingerprints of the Gospel in lots of unlikely places. … Christians can say, ‘see how this connects with the power of God.’”