Christmas art can easily veer toward the kitschy. (Think Hallmark movies and ugly sweaters.) So can Christian art. (Think “faith-based” movies that are really just Hallmark movies with altar calls, and goofy bumperstickers.) As a piece of Christian Christmas art, then, the song “The Little Drummer Boy” would seem to be exponentially kitschy.
Read MoreIn a previous essay, I made the case that Christian art should be defined, quite literally, as art about Christ. [1] Truly Christ-ian art, though it comes in various ways, shapes, and forms, is always ultimately about the gospel of Jesus Christ, the message “of first importance” (1 Corinthians 15:3): that Christ the Son of God, the sovereign Lord over all things, became a man, died for our sins, rose again, and is someday returning to judge the world and to gather up the church that He died to save. [2]
Read MoreI’ve come to realize that much of one of my favorite examples of Christian culture-making growing up, Big Idea’s long-running animated series VeggieTales, was not all that distinctly Christian. What I mean, taking the word very literally, is that VeggieTales has little to it that is uniquely Christ-ian. Is VeggieTales theistic? Certainly. Does it teach biblical morality? Yes—but morality without Christ creates moralists, not Christians. Though theistic, biblically moral, and embedded in the fabric of the evangelical, American, cultural Christianity of the past twenty years, not much of VeggieTales is centered around a theology of Christ the cosmos-creating, cosmos-sustaining, incarnate, crucified, resurrected, ascended, someday-soon-returning, and eternity-reigning Lord.
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