The goal of this book is to provide a deeper discussion of what a believer practicing their discipline for God’s glory would (or should) look like. Rather than a defense of the believer’s place in the arts — which has been done very well in other works — this book is intended to be primarily about art MAKING. The premise of this work is that a Christian looks at the world differently than the non-christian due to a restored relationship with the Creator. Imagine a christian sitting down to create a piece of pottery, write a novel or paint a picture. This believer has decisions to make: color, form, content, theme… as well as where they fit into their church and larger community. Of course this book can’t dictate things such as, “Paint a red bird… write the song in standard time… the pot should have three handles…”. But decisions do need to be made and it is the intent of this book to give the readers ideas to work through so they can develop the internal tools needed to carry out their artwork with a biblical worldview. In this way, It Was Good: Making Art to the Glory of God will offer both theoretical and practical insights into the making of art from a biblical perspective. We as believers in the arts can show through the common grace of art a fleeting picture of Eden. We should not allow the arts to be the sole dominion of the enemies of God but instead we should join with Martin Luther in affirming our desire to see all the arts “in the service of Him who has given and created them.”

Contributors

Ned Bustard / Good
Bill Edgar / Evil
Mako Fujimura / Form and Content
David Giardinere / Community
Tim Keller/ Church
Edward Knippers / Theme and Subject
Charlie Peacock-Ashworth / Making
Ted Prescott / Identity
Krystyna Sanderson / Light
Steve Scott / Truth
Gaylen Stewart / Symbolism