Christianity's Minor Theme

May 2, 2008 | By: Bill Walsh
Category: Commentary

(This post is reason #8 in the series, “9 Reasons I’m a Photographer.”)

(Urban Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic)

Christian cultural expression should not focus solely on the beautiful, but should include the flawed.

In his book Art and the Bible, Francis Schaeffer writes,

The Christian worldview can be divided into what I call a major and a minor theme.

First, the minor theme is the abnormality of the revolting world…

Men who have revolted from God and not come back to Christ are eternally lost; they see their meaninglessness…

There is a defeated and sinful side to the Christian’s life. If we are at all honest, we must admit that in this life there is no such thing as totally victorious living.

The major theme…is the meaningfulness and purposefulness of life…

God is there, God exists. Therefore, all is not absurd.

Man is made in God’s image and so man has significance.

[This] rests on the existence of the infinite-personal God who exists and who has a character and who has created all things, especially man in his own image.

Man is fallen and flawed, but he is redeemable on the basis of Christ’s work. This is beautiful. This is optimism.

If our Christian art only emphasizes the major theme, then it is not fully Christian but simply romantic art.

On the other hand, it is possible for a Christian to so major on the minor theme, emphasizing the lostness of man and the abnormality of the universe, that he is equally unbiblical...

[F]or the Christian, the major theme is to be dominant. (56-58)