“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” -1 Cor 13:13
I’ve often heard it said in Christian circles that “real art” (which is notoriously difficult to determine, for what I believe are many good reasons) involves three elements:
- Truth
- Beauty
- Goodness
I am unconvinced.
I’ve read materials on this (the excellent Art for God’s Sake, by Philip Graham Ryken for one), but “beauty” invalidates much of what’s truly resonated with mankind over the past century (I’m looking at you, Giacometti), and “goodness” for most amateur artists seems to be a mushy ground of “stuff that’s not mean.”
I’m kicking around the idea that art is what deals, positively or negatively, with the themes of faith, hope, and love. By these I think I mean…
- Faith: man’s relationship with truth/eternity/God
- Hope: conceiving of what could be as better than what is
- Love: relationships between people, or a person’s emotional relationships
Whenever I’m truly moved by something and I seek to understand why, these three often crop up. I’m not saying this is a definitive way to understand art… I’m a 24 year-old with a bachelor’s, for crying out loud… but I find these categories much more compelling, rich, and nuanced than truth, beauty, and goodness.
Aside: For those of you who are interested, this is why I’d say that LOST falls into the category of commercially-driven-but-real art (dealing with faith, hope, and love), but Dark Knight (which seemed to me to deal strongly with hope and love, but left out faith) fell short of the mark.
Again, I barely know what I’m talking about. I’d love any input anyone may have on this… especially those who have found the Truth-Beauty-Goodness definition helpful. And it’s possible the two systems are complementary rather than contradictory. I don’t know. I just thought I’d post it up here to get it out of my brain.