The promise of the 20th century, which dawned with labor unions successfully negotiating for shorter work weeks, was that it would be the age of leisure. And leisure, many believed, would be used for the refining and cultivating pursuits of art, music, and literature.

Needless to say, life today is more harried and hectic than those pundits predicted. The irony is that the busy-ness of today's 24/7 culture is induced not only by work, but also by emerging forms of art and entertainment, especially music and film. Our culture of entertainment, like an invasive species, monopolizes any and all free time with distracting ads, jingles, muzak, sitcoms, re-runs, and must-see films. Although 17% of the people in one recent poll reported that background music is "the thing they detest most about modern life," we are all participants in this bargain to keep ourselves from thinking about the meaning of life. Apple computer sells 100 iPods per minute; perhaps we had already committed diversion in our hearts, and technology merely facilitated consummation of the desire. In any case, it is hard to argue with Neil Postman's famous formulation that we are "amusing ourselves to death."

If it is the case that much art and entertainment facilitates further restlessness rather than real rest, then how are we as Christians to reflect on modern forms of art and entertainment?

There are at least two ways to miss the mark. On the one hand is the "accommodationist error" of failing to be critical and discerning in our engagement with the arts. Especially if we consider our faith too exclusively a matter of inner piety, we will likely just embrace that which is popular, including "Christian kitsch." On the other hand is the "separatist error" of drawing unnecessarily narrow and constrictive boundaries. This may take the form of dismissing art that is not explicitly serving some evangelistic or moral purpose, or, in the case of some intellectual Christians, confusing one's own high-brow tastes with biblical standards, thereby dismissing much art that is good just because it happens also to be popular.

The challenge is thus to steer a middle course between promiscuous relativism that refuses to make distinctions, and rigid elitism that too quickly dismisses popular arts as necessarily constituting kitsch. This is what Christian aesthetician Frank Burch Brown calls critical pluralism--"inclusive and yet discriminating, appreciative and yet critical."

Finding this middle course is easier said than done, and raises complex issues of form and content. Ralph Wood, for example, argues that Peter Jackson's film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings is inferior to Tolkien's novel in part because film is an inherently passive and inferior medium. After all, he notes, "the biblical tradition elevates word over picture, hearing over sight." Other Christian scholars take issue with Wood's formalism, noting that God reveals himself not just aurally but also visually, as in the Passover ritual, the Feasts, and Jesus as the "Word become flesh."

Regardless of how one adjudicates this particular debate, the sad truth is that many Christians do not think critically at all about the arts and entertainment. Despite the church's long history of contributions to the arts, Christian artists tend to feel lonely and misunderstood--in part because so many of their pew-mates care more about morality than beauty, and in part due to the lack of Christian art critics and aestheticians available to help bridge the gap between artists and their audience. Indeed, "Christian aesthetics" does not roll off the tongue as easily as "Christian ethics."

In addition to Brown, Christian aestheticians in the Protestant tradition include the likes of Hans Rookmaaker and Calvin Seerveld, after which the list starts getting rather short. One scholar who has given considerable thought to a theology of entertainment is Dr. William Edgar, a professional jazz pianist and Professor of Apologetics at Westminster Theological Seminary. Although Edgar agrees that "entertainment for its own sake is a plain distraction," he is among those who would have us resist the rigid formalism of the McLuhan-Postman school of criticism, which identifies medium with message. I strongly suspect, for example, that Edgar would side with Wood's critics in the debate over film.

Interestingly, Edgar grounds his theology of entertainment in biblical teachings on rest. In God's ecology of time, the Sabbath is a sign--"a forecast of heaven." We rest in imitation of the divine patterns of creation and redemption. This principle of Sabbath rest extends beyond the Sabbath to include sleep, laughter, sports, meals, and the arts. "Real entertainment," Edgar writes, "is a profound reflection of the presence of God, which we now have (already realized), and will have in full measure (not yet fully appropriated)."

Dr. Edgar has much more to say on this and many other topics, and we are privileged to host him as our guest for this year's Institute of Biblical Studies, "Christ and Culture: The Good, Beautiful, and True," Feb. 10-12. The weekend visit will include a lecture on the Cornell campus Friday evening, three more lectures at Bethel Grove Bible Church on Saturday, a special concert/lecture on the history of jazz Saturday evening (hosted by New Life Presbyterian Church downtown at the Women's Community Building), and then a final sermon on the topic of Calling Sunday morning.

More information on this and other Chesterton House events can be found below and on our website. Many thanks for your generous support of Chesterton House at the end of 2005, and a reminder that we have a matching grant opportunity that continues to multiply your gifts to the ministry. We hope to see you soon.

Bill Edgar's recent article on theology of entertainment is "Good Company, Good Art, and a Good Laugh," available at ByFaithonline. Edgar also published a review, "Why All This?", of Rookmaaker's Complete Works, a recently published six-volume set. Frank Burch Brown's book is Good Taste, Bad Taste, Christian Taste: Aesthetics in Religious Life (Oxford, 2000). Byron Borger of Hearts and Minds Books has posted a review of Calvin Seerveld's works. Ralph Wood has an article that elaborates on the theme of Christian kitsch. Finally, on the topic of sleep, see Lauren Winner's recent article, "Sleep Therapy," in Books and Culture.

"Of all modern phenomena, the most monstrous and ominous, the most manifestly rotting with disease, the most grimly prophetic of destruction, the most clearly and unmistakably inspired by evil spirits, the most instantly and awfully overshadowed by the wrath of heaven, the most near to madness and moral chaos, the most vivid with deviltry and despair, is the practice of having to listen to loud music while eating a meal in a restaurant."