John Vernon- Art and Theology

Concerning how music plays a role in our reality, Van der Leeuw gives us insight into the relationship between music as art and theology. He states:
True reality lies for us, not in the absence of images, but rather in the image itself, indeed in the image of God. We cannot give music any prerogatives before the other arts, because our point of departure is the category of creation as such, not the eternal values of idealism. And, above, all, the path from art to theology, form God’s creation to human creation, is to be found in the image of God as a completely other reality-not then in the beautiful sound, but in the image where art represents, does music have its origin (254).
I think what he is saying is that the purpose of music is designed to be a perfect and beautiful representation of God and the image that humans perceive of Him. For example Shane and Shane’s Psalms 46, paints a beautiful picture of what life looks like living for God. The song embodies a lot of God’s creation and its elements like wind, water, the mountains, etc. It is evident that God uses imagery and nature to show us His power. For instance, in Matthew 8: 23-27, we see the example of Jesus calming the storm:
And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. And they went and woke him, saying, ‘Save us, Lord; we are perishing.’ And he said to them, ‘Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?’ Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. And the men marveled, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?

In this passage, we are reminded again never to be afraid when troubles start to arise. It is so easy to turn to other things and try to take the weight of all our burdens. Thus, we must have faith and believe that God will carry us through the storms. 

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