What Ancient Statues Teach Us about Church

Recent evidence demonstrates that stone statues and buildings from ancient Greece and Rome were not stark white but were painted. This is notable because most people think about these sculptures and buildings as plain white, not colorful. And most of us like the plain white kind even if it's less accurate. 

There is a lesson here that applies to the idea of church.

How We Imagine Ancient Statues

We're not talking about Renaissance statues like Michelangelo's David, which you are likely more familiar with. However, Renaissance artists like Michelangelo were inspired by recovering ancient Greco-Roman statues from over a thousand years earlier—the ones we're talking about. They thought this art was plain white and that the plain white kind was the height of beauty. Many still do.

The problem is that when they recovered this ancient art and architecture, the original paint had mainly worn away over the centuries, displaying only the stone form beneath. So they modeled their own art on the white stone they saw. The plain white kind became the norm and was considered beautiful. This is why most of us think of this category of art and architecture as beautiful in plain white. Many of our town halls, other government buildings, and monuments like those in Washington, DC, are based on this understanding of plain white stone (or cement) columns and figures as beautiful and impressive.

But recent evidence from UV light analysis and the discovery of Pompeii shows that ancient Greco-Roman statues and buildings made of stone were typically painted, not stark white. Some people have even taken it upon themselves to recreate what these sculptures and structures probably looked like. Some recreations are digital images, while others are full-size recreations put on display.

Here's the interesting thing: Many people don't like the way the painted version looks. That's because they're not used to it and have a bias for the less accurate white version. The painted, more accurate kind seems garish, even clownish, to them. We want what we think is normal, the plain white kind we're used to, even if it is less accurate historically.

Parallel to Church As We Understand It

There is a massive parallel here with the church. The normal type of church we're all used to meets in a large building we call "church." It has denominations. It has paid staff who run the event we go to once a week, which we also call "church." It has a name like First Baptist, or The Way, or St. Mary's. It has many special events for children. It has a brief coffee time we call "fellowship." This is the normal kind of church many of us have seen for generations. It's even older than we are.

This version of church is like those beautiful, plain white marble buildings and statues. It's what we're used to, think is normal and even beautiful, but it's not historically accurate to the original.

The church of the New Testament was more like the painted kind we're not used to. It is the more accurate version, though. To see this painted kind, you only have to read the New Testament without reading through the lens of your experience. You have to read it on its own. 

This "painted" version of church is most on display in the book of Acts. It may appear garish and clownish to some of us. We might even be embarrassed by it and say that the kind we're used to, the kind like the plain white marble statues, is more dignified and respectable—the more mature version.

It All Begs the Question ...

This topic makes for an interesting debate. Should art and architectural historians restore statues and buildings to be more like the painted original? Or should they be left alone to what they've become over time? Should we sandblast the painted ones discovered in Pompeii to make them look more like what we want?

What about church? Should we restore it to make it look more like the "painted" original? Or do we leave it alone to what it has become—the less colorful version? Do we insist that those gathering in ways that more so reflect Acts start looking more like what we're used to?