Dear Editor,
It was good to see the article by Becca Nunes in June 2026 en, giving advice on a Christian approach to art.
However I must challenge her assumptions about the authenticity of art, as she addresses a Christian readership but without reference to a Biblical authority.
May I recommend a slim volume by Francis Schaeffer, entitled Art and the Bible, in which he suggests Biblical standards by which all art may be judged.
His first criterion is technical skill. By that standard, an unmade bed does not qualify as art at all. Nor does a banana taped to a wall.
The second value is honesty. Most of commercial art and design will fall at that hurdle, and possibly a proportion of religious themes seen in many church buildings.
The third hurdle is content, the message and worldview evident in the work. However skilled the art and attractive the result, if the theme is immoral or unhelpful it may not score highly. Many war posters fail in that category, with a striking design but promoting violence and racism for example.
Fourth is consistency, how the style of the work is appropriate to the message. Many examples of modern art present a clear message of a fractured and fallen world, with clear overtones of the sadness the artist perceives.
Hopefully, these are Biblical standards by which we can honestly judge art from all ages. And dismiss the oft-quoted aphorism “All life is art” (H.Bonham-Carter) .
Yours sincerely,
Chris Watts
New Milton
