An examination of contemporary literature related to Protestant attitudes towards the use of art in the church resulted in the development of two constructs pertinent to Southern Baptist churches. The first construct reflects a grounded theory that historically, Southern Baptists' negative attitudes towards art in the church was based on fears of idolatry which is why the permanent use of art in the church has been controversial. In contrast, the researcher developed a new construct which he termed "active use of art" and defined as creative visual expression of one's faith on a continuing basis as opposed to images placed permanently in the church. The purpose of this dissertation therefore, was to investigate Southern Baptists' attitudes toward art in general and to determine whether or not the active use of art would be accepted, thereby providing a method of circumventing traditional negative stereotypes about art. This qualitative study included three components: (a) an examination of contemporary literature related to historical, doctrinal and aesthetic influences on Baptists about art in the church; (b) a survey of Southern Baptist value positions based on positions articulated in the review of literature; and (c) an ethnographically based action research component consisting of an art workshop and art devotional in three Southern Baptist churches. The point was to define active art to the congregations and to initially assess its acceptance. / The key findings of this study were that the active use of art overcame the traditional objections to the permanent use of art, and that Baptists were overwhelmingly in favor of the use of art, whether permanent or active, as long as it served instrumental goals of the denomination. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 53-11, Section: A, page: 3779. / Major Professor: Tom Anderson. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1992.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_76788 |
| Contributors | Glaze, Michael Stephen., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 288 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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