Christian Directions in Pagan Music?

I’ve been reading C.S. Lewis’ The Pilgrim’s Regress this summer, and it sheds much light on an issue I’ve thought a lot about. Like many who did not grow up Christian, I struggled with which parts of my previous way of life were incompatible with the Christian way. In high school, I was a huge Pearl Jam fan, but the realization, after becoming a Christian, of the band’s stand on abortion and other moral issues quickly dimmed their luster. My convictions against many of their ideas, and those of many other bands I used to love, was much greater than my appreciation of the music.

But this doesn’t change one fact. The music—all lyrics aside—is beautiful. There are many songs written and played by people against whom I have the most fundamental and passionate disagreements in the moral and intellectual realm (which are the most important ones), yet hearing their songs can evoke ecstatic feelings that are very much like feelings of worship and longing for God. For me this evokes a puzzling question: how can art created by people who are so adamantly against the truth of Christianity create music, and perhaps other forms of art, that evokes such an acute longing for Christ?

Lewis said the central story of his life was to find the source of an acute experience which he referred to as “joy.” (Thus the name of his autobiography, Surprised by Joy) What he describes is not just the common meaning of the word, but a type of ravenously poignant longing, a sweet piercing pang “the desire for which is greater than any satisfaction” (to paraphrase), usually evoked by aesthetic experience. Lewis proposed that this longing is a foretaste of Heaven, as if aesthetics are the frequency through which glimpses of the reality of God are transmitted. In other words, beauty is the scent of heaven.

But Lewis also makes clear this is a general hint not a specific fact. Aesthetics arouse in us that longing for our true country, but does not tell us where that country is to be found. And here is where he answers my question. The Pilgrim’s Regress is an allegory of Lewis' journey to faith in Christ. At one point, the protagonist, John, has a conversation with History in which History informs him that the Landlord (God) has sent “pictures” of himself to many of the pagans in the land who live apart from Mother Kirk (The Church). In speaking of the pictures, History tells John that this acute, aesthetically-driven desire “is a starting point from which one road leads home and a thousand roads lead into the wilderness.”

Can the music (not the lyrics, of course) of a Pearl Jam song evoke a longing for Heaven in the listener? Yes, but it can’t take him there. If not properly guided, that longing could take someone in a thousand other directions. There are countless pagan artists who give to us aesthetic experiences causing us to long for Christ, but they cannot lead us to Him. And if we don’t know Him by other means, we won’t know that it’s Him we want, and only Him that could satisfy the longing. We could, as was the story of much of Lewis’ pre-Christian life, look for the satisfaction of that deep desire in all the places except that which satisfies it. With this in mind, maybe genuine art appreciation begins with the realization that art is the map of the human continent, and the Bible the map of the true human home.

MM