Last night, at our Family Home Evening, we began a very short discussion about drawing a picture of God. I asked, "Are we allowed to draw God?" There was some confusion and not a whole table of agreement, so I thought I would turn it out to my bloggers to see what they thought:
As far as drawing God, the religious conservatives would quote Deuteronomy 5:8/ Exodus 20:
Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters under the earth
graven defined:
graven: –verb 1. a pp. of grave3. –adjective 2. deeply impressed; firmly fixed. 3. carved; sculptured: a graven idol.
likeness defined:
likeness –noun 1. a representation, picture, or image, esp. a portrait: to draw a good likeness of Churchill. 2. the state or fact of being like: I can't get over your likeness to my friend. 3. the semblance or appearance of something; guise: to assume the likeness of a swan.
The religious liberals would not think it's inappropriate, to DRAW GOD, but the obvious issue is that no one has seen God, therefore any drawing would be an abstract or subjective interpretation of how you see God. You could draw a flower, and say that it represents God, or a person you love, or the stars above, or simply splash some different colored paints on a canvas and say it represents God. We all have different images in our head as to God's features or being. He is greater than our ability to comprehend--and even though I do believe he has a body the same as you and me if you or anyone believes he has no body--how COULD you draw him? His essence is what we cannot fully grasp, therefore you could not draw Him. in the most middle-of-the-road explanation, it would be impossible as we do not know what "HE" is in our limited human capacity and cannot understand as our human intelligence is so limited and God is so unworldly.
Maybe that is the true issue. Our images are worldly, and God is not?
The problem that some people could have with you drawing the image would be if anyone worshipped it....if any people or groups accepted one image of GOD to represent his TRUTH and used it in their publications, or to hang in their churches. That would then be a graven image and against God's Law by the writings of Exodus. We are commanded in the 10 not to worship any graven images or idols. So, I guess we just don't do it to avoid the mistake that could be made from it.
Still, people have drawn God. Famous people. Jan Van Eyck painted a piece entitled God Almighty, in 1426. Andrew del Castagno painted another God the Father in 1442. Artus Quellin painted a status of God the Father in 1682. And more famously Michelangelo painted at the Sistine Chapek a painting of God and Man (picture at the heading of this post). To me, these pictures look like Popes or Kings or what a GOD is represented to be based on the Greek multi-theism. They don't look like what GOD might look like to me, but who am I to say? Were the artists truly trying to paint THE GOD, or just A GOD? There is a difference, I think.
What is not discussed as much is drawing Jesus. That is accepted, because he was a man on earth--but his godliness is just as clear. Jesus is a God in heaven. He was a God before he was made man, so some suggest--and some others suggest he became one when he was resurrected. Either way, he is a God, and maybe should not also be drawn, but still is. He is drawn a LOT, and just a unlikely is our accurate representation of what HE looked like, too! Did nobody think to sketch the man when he was delivering his sermons? How strange that thought never came to anyone. Maybe God was making it so. Maybe God intended us to not draw HIM either. Makes me wonder!
I don't know. It is perplexing at best! What do you think?
Days 6-8: Moving
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If you were to choose the elements of a perfect place to live, you might be
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3 comments:
i hope its okay if i put what i think about this on my blog for room sack hope thats okay?
Sure Clay! Answer away! :)
hugs to Jess and her heart!
Most Christian religions subscribe to the trinitarian doctrine of the godhead - meaning of course that a drawing of Christ is a drawing of the Father. We don't believe them to be the same personage, but do believe them to be perfectly united in character and attributes. And I agree that the command to avoid creating a likeness of God is a command to avoid worshiping a physical idol. If we come to pray to a statue or a painting, that object then separates us from God rather than uniting us to Him. That said, visualization is a huge help in prayer - often when I kneel to pray, I picture that I am approaching my Heavenly Father. It's a meditative way of preparing for prayer, but if I focus too much on perfectly visualizing God, that too can detract from actually communing with Him. Trying to capture God in art is, to me, similar to trying to capture him in written prose or in music, or in any other medium. It can be a beautiful experience and process, but at the end of the day, it is incredibly difficult to capture all God is in any human expression. For God is better than what we can even comprehend, and our ability to create is even less than our comprehension, and therefore comes up short. I am often inspired, however, by artwork of those who endeavor to capture not just the image, but the spirit of God in their work. I am more inspired, by those who seek to capture and reflect it in their lives.
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