Is God an accountant or artist?

English philosopher and aesthetician Roger Scruton noted (1944-2020), “Beauty, I argue, is a real and universal value, one anchored in our rational nature, and the sense of beauty has an indispensable part to play in shaping the human world” (Scruton, Beauty: a Very Short Inroduction, 2011, p. xii).  

Is the Bible beautiful?  Is the life of Jesus lovely?  Our answers to these questions probably reveal how we perceive God.  Do we see him more like an accountant or an artist?  According to musician Bob Kilpatrick (1934- ), the answer to this question is life-changing:

“Our perception of God—what we believe about God, what we think he is doing in our lives, and especially why we think he’s doing it—will set the course of our lives.  Too often, instead of enjoying the beauty our Maker is creating in and through us, we view God through the lens of our personal weakness.  Our theology is shaped by what we lack rather than by who God is.”   (Kilpatrick, The Art of Being You: How to Live as God's Masterpiece, 2010, p. 11)

We need a new paradigm about God, Kilpatrick says, although it’s not really new as we read in Ephesians 2:10: “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”  

The word translated “handiwork” is the Greek word ποίημα (poiema), “workmanship.”  Aristotle categorized human knowledge by its purpose: theoretical, practical, and productive.  The poietike were produced things, were characterized by workmanship.  Notice that we get our word “poem” from poiema.   Instead of seeing God as an accountant or mathematician, keeping track of our deficiencies, we can more realistically see him as an artist, actively and delightedly making us into something beautiful. As Kirkpatrick says:

“God is calling you to the greatest adventure known to mankind—being a living work of art in the hands of the Master Artist.  He calls you to place your life unreservedly in his skilled care, to trust him, to step outside the mathematical borders of your life and live beyond the equation.  He can’t wait to get started on you.  He knows precisely what he wants to make out of you.  You are a fresh canvas on which God intends to paint yet another masterpiece.” (p. 19)

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This blog post is an excerpt from my soon-to-be-published book, Is Jesus Real? 5 Types of Evidence for Curious Skeptics & Believers