A Question of Aesthetics
One of my recent obsessions has been the design blog Design*Sponge. I love design, and I love to think about ways to re-decorate around our place.
The world of Christian design is wide open, from iconoclastic white washed Baptist churches to flying-buttressed cathedrals, Thomas Kinkade kitsch and Makoto Fujimura abstraction, and simple lecterns to rock and roll stages. Design in Christianity is deeply tied to function: the need to communicate spirituality and to actually perform spiritual actions and works: preach, baptize, serve communion, read, play music, etc.
This begs the question: Do you think that the design of the church—colors, architecture, ambiance—should be a central focus of church?
And more: How do you think they influence worship? Do you think they should influence worship?
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The design of the church should serve the gospel and if it does that then it can be one of the foci. But the design of the church cannot be separated from the gospel otherwise it does not serve a purpose. So I guess the question is what is the gospel. For my denomination and myself the gospel is Christ the living God. There is definitely no easy way to know how the design of a church serves Christ. It is probably something that needs to be worked out in each context. However I do think that design plays a role on how the gospel is presented to the world. For example a church that is long and slender with the altar far away says that God is far away. But it also says that God is to be revered. A church that is in the round and is close to the altar says that God is close to us and intimately involved. One of the questions is who is God and how does design reflect that.
Thanks Fleming, great thoughts. I think the tension of design in certain types of churches brings up interesting questions, most importantly: how should the church community be involved in the design of their own church so that those in charge of design don’t try to say “God is to be revered” and the congregation hears, “God is far away.”
It is interesting to me that God spends so much time dictating to Moses the aesthetics of the tabernacle–and this to a people in the midst of wilderness, wearing the same shoes for 40 years. Beauty was (and should be) an important aspect to worship. As Fleming said, how beauty is created in the church building (or home) has to be worked out in each local body, reflecting both the connection with the universal church and the life of the local church all within our relationship with God.
I think it would be an interesting study to see how songs and poems, like in the Psalms, were influenced by the design of the tabernacle. How did the worship space influence the art of worship?
Also, apparently I can’t spell my own name.