In With All its Teeth, Josh Porter explores how legalism kills art

Andres Serrano captured Piss Christ in 1987, a technically excellent and formally beautiful photograph of a crucifix submerged in Serrano’s own urine. Christian outrage quickly spread across the world. Many Christians called the piece blasphemous and, years later, even called on President Obama to publicly denounce it.

Here’s the twist: The artist is a Christian. 

Defending his photo, Serrano said we treat the crucifix like a “fashion accessory,” when, in reality, the cross represents a gruesome torture device used to kill the son of God. “So, if Piss Christ upsets you, maybe it’s a good thing to think about what happened on the cross.”

When considered this way, your first impression of Piss Christ might change. 

The message of With All its Teeth 

Josh Porter (stage name, Josh Dies) meditates on fringe art like this in With All its Teeth: Sex, Violence, Profanity, and the Death of Christian Art. As a teaching pastor, novelist, and experimental punk-rock musician, Porter is well-positioned to reflect on controversial art and the pitiable state of mainstream Christian art.

Porter’s overarching thrust was that Christians should rely on the Holy Spirit’s conviction, wisdom, and community to judge art rather than blanket black-and-white condemnations. For example: “Christians shouldn’t watch movies with sex in them” or “Christians shouldn’t watch ‘Satanic’ movies (meaning horror movies with supernatural themes).”

To this end, Porter addresses the inconsistent logic applied, at times, in Christian circles about art. “Don’t see movie x, it shows nudity,” whereas we would readily go to the Sistine Chapel to see its art (which includes countless instances of nudity). We support the (admittedly brilliant) film, Passion of the Christ, but condemn horror movies because they’re “not Christian,” despite often portraying demonic activity as evil. In short, Porter wants us to keep an open mind toward art, Christian or otherwise. 

More than that, he wants us to keep an open mind toward what does and does not count as art. His biblical exposition guides us in this question, even though he never fully answers it. This might leave some readers unsatisfied, but a book like With All its Teeth couldn’t hope to achieve such a monumental—and likely impossible—task as concretely defining art. 

With All its Teeth explores biblical art

Porter not only unsettles the black-and-white statements made by Christians condemning art, but relies on Scripture to show the value of fringe art. He unpacks biblical examples of highly offensive, performative art, like Ezekiel, who laid on his side for a year or cooked over feces to make a point. Porter even points out that an occasional word in the New Testament was likely considered “profanity” at the time of writing. For example, false teachers who said non-Jewish Christians need to be circumcised should, according to Paul, “emasculate themselves” (Galatians 5:12). On the more positive side, Porter points to the construction of the temple, including countless beautiful, gratuitous examples of art (a point also well-made by Makoto Fujimura in Art and Faith). 

Of course, these observations don’t entail our wholesale recommendation of every “artsy” flick that includes offensive material. We should make strong cautions about movies with sex because—as fallen creatures—we are prone to lust and should never take that temptation lightly. Not everyone can, or should, try to stomach violent films, or brave the world of metal music. To this end, he explores how and why Christians should hold each other accountable to their convictions, relying on the Holy Spirit, the Bible, and community to discern whether a film, painting, or book is sinful for you to engage with. 

Porter further argues that legalism has bankrupted many circles of modern Christian art. It’s not difficult to find soul-crushingly bland and poorly executed “Christian” movies and music, especially in the past few decades. Legalism crushes art is a good summary of With All its Teeth.

Read With All its Teeth as a primer 

I would hate the book if it were to make platitudinous statements about what makes “good” or “Christian” art, but that’s not what it does. Nevertheless, I felt a little unsatisfied with the message. “People disagree” or “art is subjective” as a concluding remark was perhaps relied upon too many times. Porter left value questions in the hands of opinion often enough to leave me wanting more of Porter’s thoughts. 

So, I recommend reading this book as a primer, or brief introduction, to the theology and world of art beyond a fundamentalist view of the subject. If you think art is superfluous, that “Christian” art is the only valuable kind of art, or tend to put art into strictly black-and-white categories, read this book. Even if you end up disagreeing with Porter, With All its Teeth will exhort and challenge your views in a biblical, Christ-centered manner.  

Like his previous book, Death to Deconstruction, With All its Teeth inevitably offends—but not for some kind of self-gratifying salaciousness. Instead, Porter, a grunge, experimental artist himself, provides insight into how fringe art can glorify God. 

Hopefully, this work will bring the Christian art scene back in the right biblical direction, resurrecting the “dead” Christian art toward something more alive and God-honoring. 

Notable quotes

“If you scoff at the value and purpose of an abstract painting or an experimental novel, you are in big trouble when it comes to the Bible.”

“Art is like sex: inherently good, created by God for good, but complicated, dynamic, and abused by people.”

“Some Christians need to flee the theater. Others need to stay.”

“[D]rawing parameters around what qualifies as ‘Christian art’ inevitably bankrupts creativity.”

“God is not a utilitarian; he is an artist.” 

“To take issue with art is to take issue with God. To devalue art is to devalue God.” 

“Because human-made art is complicated, multifaceted, and subjective, it can be dangerous and destructive. It can fan the flames of selfish desire, incite the objectification of people made in God’s image, inspire greed and idolatry, and nurture despair… The solution to modern protestant Christianity’s art phobia is not anything goes nor censorship. The solution is thoughtful, nuanced discernment, submitted to the teachings of Jesus and the Scriptures, fueled by maturity in the Holy Spirit, worked out in the accountability of community with other disciplines of Jesus.”