Chapter 2: Imitation, the Heart of the Christian's Approach to Creativity
I think the purpose of chapter one is to get artists to understand that everything comes from God: their passion for the arts, their love for the creation, their desire to create, everything comes from God. Since everything comes from God, everything that we do should be for God. Because we believe that without God, we would be nothing, we need to show our love and gratitude towards God in everything that we do. But in doing so, we need to be careful not to completely eradicate all other types of artists. If we are Christian artists, we can still learn extremely valuable things from other kinds of artists. There is nothing in the bible that says that we need to steer clear of those who are not like us. In fact, I think the message is quite the opposite.
I think the author is trying to get us to understand that we have to learn to look to people that are different than us for advice. There is nothing wrong with looking to someone of different beliefs for guidance. I also think Barrs wants us to realize that all of our talents, values, interests, everything are from God. And we need to praise him for that. We need to thank him for who he is and what he does every day in our lives. And if we have a passion for the arts, then we need to thank him for placing that love inside of our hearts. He is the creator of art, of design, of love. So we need to show appreciation and give everything back to him.
Something that really stuck out to me in this chapter was the quote "It is obvious that God has given his creative gifts to believers and unbelievers alike." I think this is something that we have to keep in our minds, every single minute of every single day. I think sometimes Christians get in their heads. I think Christians (not all) sometimes think that they are better than others because of who they are, how they act, or whatever the case may be. But God created everyone in his image, and that makes us all equal no matter what. Just because we have a different religious view than someone else, it does not mean that we can put others down.
I really liked this quote because I think it relates to a lot of us in different ways. But I take more than one thing away from this quote. I do not think the writer wanted us to just get "Christian and non-Christian divisions" from this. I think he meant rich/poor, tall/short, religious/non-religious, young/old, teacher/student..... everything. I think it is super important to recognize the differences between all kinds of people. But I do not only think it is important to realize it, but also to important to embrace it. And I honestly think that is what Barrs meant when he wrote it this way. I think he wants us to see the differences and divisions between each other and realize that they make us who we are. We have to learn to recognize them, accept them, and embrace them.
I think the purpose of chapter one is to get artists to understand that everything comes from God: their passion for the arts, their love for the creation, their desire to create, everything comes from God. Since everything comes from God, everything that we do should be for God. Because we believe that without God, we would be nothing, we need to show our love and gratitude towards God in everything that we do. But in doing so, we need to be careful not to completely eradicate all other types of artists. If we are Christian artists, we can still learn extremely valuable things from other kinds of artists. There is nothing in the bible that says that we need to steer clear of those who are not like us. In fact, I think the message is quite the opposite.
I think the author is trying to get us to understand that we have to learn to look to people that are different than us for advice. There is nothing wrong with looking to someone of different beliefs for guidance. I also think Barrs wants us to realize that all of our talents, values, interests, everything are from God. And we need to praise him for that. We need to thank him for who he is and what he does every day in our lives. And if we have a passion for the arts, then we need to thank him for placing that love inside of our hearts. He is the creator of art, of design, of love. So we need to show appreciation and give everything back to him.
Something that really stuck out to me in this chapter was the quote "It is obvious that God has given his creative gifts to believers and unbelievers alike." I think this is something that we have to keep in our minds, every single minute of every single day. I think sometimes Christians get in their heads. I think Christians (not all) sometimes think that they are better than others because of who they are, how they act, or whatever the case may be. But God created everyone in his image, and that makes us all equal no matter what. Just because we have a different religious view than someone else, it does not mean that we can put others down.
I really liked this quote because I think it relates to a lot of us in different ways. But I take more than one thing away from this quote. I do not think the writer wanted us to just get "Christian and non-Christian divisions" from this. I think he meant rich/poor, tall/short, religious/non-religious, young/old, teacher/student..... everything. I think it is super important to recognize the differences between all kinds of people. But I do not only think it is important to realize it, but also to important to embrace it. And I honestly think that is what Barrs meant when he wrote it this way. I think he wants us to see the differences and divisions between each other and realize that they make us who we are. We have to learn to recognize them, accept them, and embrace them.