Notre Dame and the Balancing Act of Art Appreciation

It was fascinating to watch the global response to the burning of Notre Dame in real time. Most people in this somewhat self-obsessed age of social media immediately reflected on, themselves. Every one of the millions of tourists who had been there posted their pictures of themselves in front of the church. They can be forgiven. Of course this moment meant more to them than the burning of the national museum in Brazil with its countless, also-irreplaceable works of art. They hadn’t been THERE. It was more important to them than the tearing down of the Immerather Dom, because even had they been there, no one had heard of IT.

But more shocking were the people equating the fire to the damage brown immigrants were doing to white Europe. Or the historic ignoramuses declaring the loss of the Judeo-Christian heritage (France persecuted and kicked Jews out as they built Norte Dame) or expressing joy that a product of colonialism was passing away (France was not colonial during the construction of Notre Dame).

One interesting and though provoking take came from a Sam Rocha:

“The Atheist who mourns Notre Dame as the loss of one of the world’s great treasures is closer to God than the Catholic who rushes to pervert it into a burning sacrifice to their own cultural gods.”

As with all tweets, there is not enough context in this statement to declare fully what the intent was. However, there is a bite of truth there. The fact is that contemporary Europe is a mixture of atheists and cultural Christians, both very far from what could be called as a genuine relationship with the God of the Bible. The statements on the media as the church burned were all about how it was a symbol to humanity's achievements, an expression of the soul of the nation of France. Hardly anyone talked about the God that the building was erected to worship. Even then, it was merely the cultural-religious aspects of the faith that were talked about.

Sam Rocha might be skewing too far to one side of the delicate balance of art appreciation. Both the atheist and the religious idolater place their faith in the same source: themselves, humanity, our own potential. But in many ways it is easier to win over the atheist who has genuine appreciation for the artistic side of humanity and creation.

So how does the believer approach art in such a way as to not fall off one side of the balance beam or the other? To not lean too far into idolatry and worship of the object instead of what it represents, but also to not to become legalistically condemning of the pursuit of creativity? And how does one do art that is honest, meaningful, and of good quality, instead of excusing garbage in the name of over-simplified, unconvincing, messages that don’t reach anyone with anything like an epiphany of Truth?

You only need look to the current “Christian” movie industry today to see bad examples of the later. (Whoever said that “Christian” is a great noun but should never be used as an adjective made a true statement!)

I think a starting point is to not get caught up in judging the art itself, but in addressing each individual as they approach it. We should come alongside people engaging with all sorts of art from all kinds of perspectives. In our genuine dialogue and interaction, we can engage people with the hints of truth captured therein. And, we should learn to appreciate all kinds of art for what they are. Less right or wrong, less bad or good, more as statements of worldview striving for truth and beauty.