Episode 164
164 - Art as Worship: A Biblical Case for Creativity
Strip every work Christian faith ever inspired out of Europe, and the skyline changes completely — no cathedrals, no Bach, no Michelangelo, no illuminated manuscripts, no universities that grew out of monastery schools. In this episode, I ask a question most Christians don’t spend much time on: not what we should avoid in culture, but what we should be creating.
Pope Leo’s Challenge to Writers
A recent address to a gathering of writers got me thinking, even though I’m not Catholic — the reminder that stories preserve memory, search for truth, and cultivate compassion applies across every Christian tradition, not just one.
Bezalel: The First Person Filled with the Spirit
Most people picture a prophet or a king when they think of someone “filled with the Spirit of God.” The first person given that description in Scripture was an artist — commissioned to build the tabernacle with gold, wood, precious stones, and woven fabric. That detail says something about God’s own character.
David, Solomon, and the Prophets as Artists
David was a poet and musician whose songs are still sung three thousand years later. Solomon explored wisdom through poetry. The prophets communicated some of their most vivid truths through imagery — Ezekiel’s wheels, Isaiah’s seraphim, Daniel’s visions. Even Jesus taught primarily through stories, not abstract theology.
The Monks Who Preserved Civilization
Year after year, monks copied not just Scripture but classical works from Greece and Rome, preserving them for centuries with painstaking care. Without realizing it, they became the bridge that carried much of Western knowledge forward — and that copying was itself an act of faith.
A Call to Make Art Again
Christians once understood, almost instinctively, that creating something beautiful was itself a form of worship. I make the case for why it’s time to make that stand again — not instead of speaking truth, but alongside it.
If you create — music, carving, writing, anything — I’d genuinely love to know how your faith shows up in it.
Find every show I do at jillfromthenorthwoods.com.
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