Does Evangelicalism Deny Metaphor?

Daniel Radosh said the following in his recent piece “The Red Hot Christian Blockbuster“:

But in making evangelism—and acceptability to the most insular Christian audiences—a priority, Christianese films all but guarantee artistic failure. Art demands an honesty that the evangelical bubble would find intolerable. (Emphasis mine)

This is something that I have been thinking about as I work on my paper discussing the influence of the Oxford Movement on Gerard Manley Hopkins‘ poetry (if that last phrase made no sense to you, just keep reading, because it doesn’t quite make sense to me yet either, that’s why I am writing a paper on it).  Anyway, this thought has kept popping up in my mind:

Does evangelicalism deny metaphor?

At the center of Art is the Metaphor: Symbol, Signifier, Signified.  In Christianity this is called sacrament.  In denying the sacramental nature of life, living, and worship, does evangelicalism deny itself art.  I think this is the root cause of contemporary evangelical music, movies, and fiction being B-grade at best: metaphor is denied, therefore art is denied.  Those who invoke the metaphor, and therefor enter the mode of art, are being truly honest in using symbols.  Most evangelicals think truth is declared in the denial of signifier and symbol, that if metaphor does not exist only the literal is left.  This is untrue.  Only the opposite is truly honest, truly art: if there is only literal there is no art and no honesty.

Essential Weekend Reading

This should be must reading for the weekend.  I certainly will be reading all of it:

Q&A with Dave Ramsey on the Economic Bailout.  This Christianity Today article has cemented my respect for Dave Ramsey.

Top 11 Excuses John McCain Could’ve Used to Get Out of Debate.  These are all super funny.  Culture11 is the best site for snarky, young, and rational conservatives.  This is like Crunchy Con mixed with The Daily Dish.  No Religious Right or ignorant rhetoric to be found there!

McLaren Emerging and The Ironic Faith of Emergents by Scot McKnight.  McKnight has a two’fer in Christianity Today.

Like a Monster in a Horror Flick, It Won’t Die

Don’t let the fancy cover design and neat graphic art fool you. This book will suck the life out of your Christianity.

The Dispensationalism Song
to the tune of “My Hope is Built”

“My hope is built on nothing less

Than Scofield’s notes and Ryrie’s text.”

I read this whole book in three long sittings in the library when I was a freshman in college.  I hadn’t yet learned that in order to save your soul you had to refuse to let books like this guilt you into something so preposterous.  That’s when I started to follow a standard ratio: for every dispensational book I was assigned in Bible classes I read an N.T. Wright book.  It helped me keep my theological sanity.