Shallow Optimism

Does it ever bother you when art intended to cater to Christians is covered with smiling faces, blue skies and labels such as "uplifting and encouraging"?

Is it somehow anti-Christian to overflow with joy or bask in the beauty of a sunny afternoon? Is the Christian life devoid of uplifting and encouraging news? Of course not. What bothers me is that we---speaking collectively on behalf of American Christendom---focus almost exclusively upon the good news to the exclusion of the really bad news.

What is the bad news? The bad news is that man is lost. The Fall, an event which really happened (not merely a tale composed to convey some religious truism) dealt a major blow: fixing a massive gulf between man and God, ushering chaos into the world with divisions between man and other men, man and nature, man and himself, etc.

This bad news must not be overlooked; for, without it, there is little meaning to the good news. What does it mean to say man is "saved" if he was not first lost? What does it mean to say man can be restored to a relationship with his Savior if we don't understand the depth of the division?

And yet so many songs, books, screenplays written specifically for those working from a Christian world view eschew this critical theme. Listening to Christian radio, for example, one will quickly be convinced that Christians are to be happy, cheerful people whose days will be filled with rainbows---but, it is rare to hear artists singing of the "bad news" to which all men (not only Christians) can relate.

Indeed, man's lostness is something all men experience---not only Christians. For, while not all have placed faith in Christ, all have fallen. Because of this, oftentimes those who do not profess Christianity nevertheless capture so well in their art what it means to be lost. I think, for example, of Carolina Liar. Both the lyrics and music video of "Show Me What I'm Looking For" capture so well the one side of what it means to be fallen human---namely, that we are lost in the truest sense of the word.

In Art and the Bible, Francis Schaeffer refers to this as the "minor theme" of the Christian world view: "the abnormality of the revolting world." In short, there is something wrong with this world. The Fall is felt by all. The unredeemed perceive their meaninglessness and see themselves as truly dead. Even the redeemed are fraught with defeat in the midst of battling their own sin.

But, that is not the whole story. There is also what Schaeffer calls the "major theme": "the meaningfulness and purposefulness of life." All is not absurd. There is truth grounded in the God who really is there (not merely in our imaginations). Veritable morals do exist. There is meaning. This is not shallow optimism---"this optimism has a sufficient base. It isn't suspended two feet off the ground, but rests on the existence of the infinite-personal God who exists and who has a character and who has created all things, especially man in His own image" (Art and the Bible).

Schaeffer argues that both of these themes ought to be present to some level in Christian art. To focus solely upon man's perceived meaninglessness is to champion despair. However, to ignore the minor theme is to create a baseless romanticism which, while playing to our emotions, remains simply that: romanticism which is the stuff of dreams, not the real world.

Indeed, it is destructive to dwell solely upon man's lostness without leading to redemption. Imagine, for example, how it might alter one's experience of watching The Dark Knight to see the Joker embody man's lostness without any champion of goodness (Batman) not only fighting but ultimately conquering him in the end? One would be left with the impression that there is no hope for man. As it stands, however, we are terrified by the evil present in the Joker, but it is that terror which makes the salvation so meaningful.

However, while we should not dwell solely upon man's lostness, we ignore it at our peril. Consider many of the sermons being preached from America's pulpits. They champion "steps to success" and our best lives now, but how often do they speak of the fact that apart from Christ we are doomed? While that may not feel like our best lives now, it is indeed the lives real men living in this real world lead.

If we hide the bad news and simply tell people that God makes us happy and that he can do the same for them, not only are we diminishing the greatness of the good news, but we are also exchanging for the real Christian message something which is of little use: a baseless romanticism which has little resonance with the real world.