Publication Date

Fall 11-22-2024

School

School of Communication; School of Visual and Performing Arts

Major

Theatre: Acting

Keywords

storytelling, theatre, acting, Christianity, creativity, arts

Disciplines

Acting | Dance

Abstract

This thesis assesses the specific value of the storytelling medium and evaluates how one’s artistic duty coexists with their spiritual responsibility as a Bible-believing Christian. Storytelling has a proven power to evoke change within society and within the hearts of its members, and creativity is an innate characteristic we share with the original Divine Creator. Creativity is our birthright and our inheritance from God the Father, as beings made in His Image. The secular entertainment industry often appears as foreign enemy territory to the Christian creative – in most recent years, faith-based content has garnered a poor reputation for itself and struggles to offer much more than a lackluster plot and two-dimensional characters. Some consider the performing arts to be at odds with the Church, rather than an outlet through which the Creative Mandate and the inimitable characteristics of Jesus Christ can be wholeheartedly pursued for the ultimate advancement of the Kingdom. The Early Christian Church has a long tumultuous history with the theatre throughout the days of the Roman Empire and into the Early Middle Ages – however, the ultimate redemption of the theatre by the means of Passion Plays and Morality Plays is proof that the church has much to offer the arts, as both are ultimately derived from God.

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