In the summer of '07 I posted about a presentation I attended at the annual APA convention regarding the psychological functions of art. I'd like to repost some of that material here and then follow up with a Part 2 telling how I engaged this topic in a Christian population. Specifically, I've just finished a study on the impact of death anxiety upon Christian aesthetics. I'm preparing that study for publication with three talented students of mine who ran tons of subjects and entered tons of data: Thanks Andrea, Kyna and Brooke! While waiting on that product I'd like to share with the readers of this blog how that research turned out.
The talk I attended at APA was Mark Landau and Jeff Greenburg's presentation on A Terror Management Perspective on Art's Psychological Function.
I've written about Terror Management Theory (TMT) before. TMT is rooted in the work of Ernest Becker and his Pulitzer-Prize winning book the Denial of Death. Following Becker, TMT suggests that we overcome our fears of death by creating cultural worldviews that imbue life with significance and create a path for literal (e.g., the religious belief in life after death) or symbolic (e.g., children, a book you publish, a building named after you) immortality. Thus, cultural worldviews become vital, from an existential standpoint, to us. Consequently, the worldview is vehemently defended in the face of threat. This is often done by denigrating persons who hold values different from our own. In short, one of the deep psychological sources of interpersonal and group friction is existential dread.
What does this have to do with art? Well, Landau noted that art often encodes, represents and portrays the symbols of our cultural worldview. If so, death-denying dynamics are involved in art. Some examples from studies Landau noted:
1. When made to contemplate their death, subjects looked longer at iconic art (e.g., Washington crossing the Delaware) compared to symbolically neutral art (e.g., a landscape). The TMT view of this outcome: As death existentially unsettles the subjects they seek solace in the symbols of their worldview. Thus, they stare at iconic American art longer.
2. Subjects with high needs for structure, when made to contemplate their death, were more dismissive of abstract art. Again, the TMT view is that these subjects seek meaning and structure in life for existential solace. It makes them feel more in control. Thus, when made to feel existentially unsettled these subjects were dismissive of art that was formless, chaotic, and abstract. Abstract art was existentially unsettling them.
3. When made to contemplate death, subjects were much more uncomfortable misusing a culturally meaningful object (e.g., using a crucifix to hammer in a nail). Again, thoughts of death imbued these objects with even more sacred meaning, leading to increased discomfort at misuse (and greater anger at others misusing the object). Landau speculated if this existential reactivity lies behind public responses to works of art like Piss Christ. That is, while some might trace their outrage at Piss Christ to anger over blasphemy the deeper psychological cause might be the fear of death.
Walking away from Landau's presentation I wondered: Might this be an explanation for why Christian art is, generally, so poor? Here was my reasoning. Suppose religious faith is implicated in death repression, at least in some quarters of our souls (I know I don't like the prospect of dying). If so, Christian art would seek to minimize existential threat. Christian art would tend toward the sweet, soothing, and consoling. Christian art would be "easy," existentially speaking, upon us. This facet of Christian art might explain why little of the art we find in Christian bookstores is challenging, aesthetically and theologically. Further, this might explain why serious Christian artists, who seek to push and challenge their audiences, find churches so inhospitable to their work, seeing the "sweeter" art dominate in Christian churches and homes.
These were the questions behind the study we just completed. More in Part 2.
Death, Art & Christian Aesthetics: Part 1, Why is Christian Art So Bad?
Next Post: What is "Christian" about Christian art?
