Creative expressions are used to deepen our understanding of religion and the different religious teachings bin them. They convey through music, film and literature. Furthermore music essential part of creative expressions as it holy mentioned that we should praise God through music - ''sing to him, sing praises to him: tell of all his wondrous work!'' The classical theism show that God is omniscient (all knowing) and omnipotent (all powerful) and omnibenevolent (all loving) it does raise the question that does creative expression in music convey God's attributes? And how much of a significant does it really give?
Handel's "Messiah" is a great example of how knowledge and the nature of God/the holy can be conveyed through the use of music. The song “Messiah" was written by a German composer, George Friederic Handel and is one of the most well-known pieces of music. "Messiah" is an oratorio (a sacred text set to music without drama) and was first performed on 13th April 1742 in Dublin and received its London premiere nearly a year later.
Handel's Messiah is divided into three different parts: part one focuses on the Isaiah prophecies about Jesus and the Messiah. Part two is based around Jesus death and therefore part three focuses on his resurrection. The 'Hallelujah' chorus is the most popular part of the composition and has been adapted into modern versions sung by various artists around the world.
Furthermore the actual oratorio libretto was written by Charles Jenners, the song has several biblical scriptures which are from Old Testament and the New Testament. The song is split into 3 parts, the first part of the song is the prophecy of the coming Messiah, the second part of the song shows the life of Jesus, his suffering and how died. The last part is about Jesus' resurrection and judgement.
The piece of music conveys insight of God and Handel himself could be described as having a religious inspiration whilst composing it. After composing Messiah, Handel supposedly wrote to a friend “I did think I did see all of heaven before me and the great God himself”. Although the words were originally written by Charles Jennens, the piece as a whole is very effective in conveying and enriching our understanding into the nature of the holy.
Handel also uses many musical features to convey emotion in this piece, such as the tritone. The tritone is also known as the diablos in musica (devil in music) and is used to present sorrow within the composition especially in the 2nd part. Daniel. L Block comments that through “Messiah”, the listener is invited to journey with the music, down into the depths of depravity and later raised up in the glorious “Hallelujah chorus”. He says “One must really be dead not to be moved by this piece” Hans Christian Andersen stated that “Where words fail, music speaks”, therefore music can enhance our understanding and insight into the nature of the holy and the meaning of the words in the song. At the end of song he wrote ''SDG'' which is Soli Deo Gloria which translates to God is the glory.
Creative expressions in music do convey and enrich our understanding of the holy however, St. Paul argued that God sent his only son down so we can listen to him and not focus so much on the music. Also the song only lasts 2 hours and 15 minutes, holy? Music can't convey the nature of the holy as it is limits our understanding into the nature of the holy. However some people claim creative expressions don't enrich our understanding into the nature of the holy. For instance John Newton, author of “Amazing Grace”, claimed the song lacked the message of God. He asked his congregations not to show up to the performances of the song and said that ‘true Christians’ would achieve more by reading the bible than listening to the song.
In the song ''Glory'' by John Legend & Common the song is about everyone being considered as equal, with the first lines being ''One day when the glory comes , it will be ours'' this line suggests glory will come to equality with there being no discrimination. We will relish in the ''glory'' that our long-time-coming achievement sheds and we will celebrate it with emphasis and joy. “Hands to the Heavens” suggests someone praying to God for them to overcome personal stumbling block. Similarly this links to the bible quote in Isaiah 54:17 which states no weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and this is their vindication from me.
Vaughan raised the question that ‘are we genuinely encountering God through music, or is it just the talent of the musician?’ He argues that yes, we may feel emotional during a piece of music, but does that mean we understand the nature of the holy? Vaughan argues it didn’t. Songs doesn’t really enrich the true knowledge of nature of the holy; however all it does is bring up emotions. Some orthodox Christians argue that imagery in music detracts us from the actual meaning of the words, and we focus more on the emotional state of the music, not the message of the song.
Films do enrich our understanding into the nature of the holy, this can be shown in the film 'The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe' has several links to the nature of the holy. The character of 'Aslan' can be linked to Jesus; this can be shown in the death of Aslan, when Jesus was nailed to the cross. Aslan also sacrifices himself to save everyone, the same way Jesus did; Jesus died for our sins. Other reference such as the Stone Table Aslan was sacrificed onto the stone tablets that Moses brought down from Mount Sinai, which is said in the Bible. These tablets contain the Ten Commandments and they show stricter form of religion, which conveys a significant amount of insight into the nature of the holy. On the way to his death, Aslan was disgraced, whipped and humiliated likewise Jesus was on the way to Cavalry before being crucified in a public place where he was mocked, Aslan is resurrected. In this, Lewis's shows us that divergence to a biblical story. The film show us with a variety of different ways on faith and brings the story of Jesus to come to life, I believe this is a very effective way of conveying the nature of the holy.
Creative expressions can also be conveyed through art; this is shown through William Blake ''Ancient of Days'' in the picture God is looking down on his creation, the colours are yellow and orange creating the sense of God emanating light to his creation. In the picture God is picture standing on the sun, which is clearly in possible however due to the classical theism describing that God is omnipotent we see that nothing is possible, it also shows William Blake using the bible reference ''For nothing is impossible with God'' in Luke 1:37 as in the picture God is going against law of physics. Likewise creative expressions conveyed through art, Michael Angelo's painting on the ceiling of the ''Sistine chapel'' we have the image that God is allowing Adam with life, this is shown in Genesis 5:7 ''and created men and women he then did and he blessed them and called their name Adam.