Editor's Note: Forefront Festival Founder and Director Nate Mancini delivered the following remarks to open our recent Meetup event in Rochester. His articulation of the changing role of the arts in the coming years and Forefront's part to play within that shift offer a compelling vision of our work. The following is an edited transcript of his talk.  

An empire implies sovereignty, rule, or dominion — it’s what has power and influence over people. But I believe the fundamental nature of empires is changing, and we’re in the midst of a shift that will affect the role of artists in the 21st century.

Historically, the empires that mattered most were physical empires of the world — I’d like to call them “empires of the body.” Think of the Egyptian empire, the Roman empire, the Mongol empire, or the British empire.^[1] I don’t mean that they were only physical — obviously there were political and cultural aspects of every empire.^[2] But the most common way that empires formed for most of human history was through military conquest.^[3] 

So you might say that the tool or the instrument of the empire of the body is the sword — physical and territorial dominion that was intended to lead to other forms of rule and assimilation. 

Some have argued that the last empire of this kind was the British empire. Its decline was partly due to spending on World War II and partly due to a modern belief in equality that desired to give independence to states that it formerly controlled.

As World War II was nearing its end, Winston Churchill made a remarkable statement at Harvard that turned the idea of an empire on its head. He said,

“The Harvard Commission on English Language Studies is distinguished both for its research and its practical work… I do not wish to exaggerate, but you are the head-stream of what might well be a mighty fertilising and health-giving river… let us go forward in malice to none and good will to all. Such plans offer far better prizes than taking away other people’s provinces or lands or grinding them down in exploitation. The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.”^[4]

Churchill is saying that it used to be that winners and losers were determined based on military strength — might made right, as it were. But now all the lands of the world have been claimed, and the battles that matter most take place in people’s minds. No longer would England be colonizing lands, it would be colonizing minds. Exporting ideas.

And what is the tool or the instrument of the mind? Words. The written word, the spoken word. Communication. So if Churchill was right, the communication of ideas, often through education, was the most powerful act and the most vital task of the foreseeable future.

Now, in many ways Churchill was and is correct — ideas have enormous power, and education is both significant and important.

But we are now in 2019, and in recent years there have been some trends that undercut even the power of communicated ideas and established knowledge.

What I believe has happened in the west is that a belief in the preeminence of the individual has been warped into an excessive sense of self-importance. Essentially, instead of simply believing that they have individual value, people now believe that their own ideas (or their own “truth”) is equally valid to anyone else’s, and equally valid even to ideas that are time-tested and evidence-based. I can now find someone who validates my point of view, regardless of whether it’s based on anything in particular.

In his recent bestselling book “The Death of Expertise,” Tom Nichols writes:

“Never have so many people had so much access to so much knowledge and yet have been so resistant to learning anything. In the United States and other developed nations, otherwise intelligent people denigrate intellectual achievement and reject the advice of experts. Not only do increasing numbers of laypeople lack basic knowledge, they reject fundamental rules of evidence and refuse to learn how to make a logical argument… This is more than a natural skepticism toward experts. I fear we are witnessing the death of the ideal of expertise itself, a Google-fueled, Wikipedia-based, blog-sodden collapse of any division between professionals and laypeople, students and teachers, knowers and wonderers…”^[5]

Now, I think most of us would agree this is a disturbing trend, but that’s not my primary point. My point is that, in a societal shift that few would’ve predicted at the time, Churchill’s empires of the mind, at least in the west, are losing power. Making a convincing argument is less effective when your listener is determined not to be convinced.

So what has filled the gap left by the empires of the mind?

Singer/songwriter and creative arts director Jasmine Tate says this:

“This generation is largely being discipled by artists and creatives in popular culture. They’re being taught how to process pain, relationships, love, and success through music, YouTube, movies, television, etc…”^[6]

The power of established knowledge may be declining, but the power of movies and music has grown. 

The same narcissism that leads people to ignore the experts has led them to do something else: to follow their hearts. And this is often a bad thing, because the human heart is full of sinful inclinations and dumb ideas. But the human heart is also designed by God to long for sincere joy, for unconditional love, and for eternal life. C.S Lewis said in one of his addresses, “We do not want merely to see beauty . . . We want something else which can hardly be put into words - to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it.”^[7] This desire is placed deep in the human heart, and when preaching and arguments fail to awaken it, the arts may yet succeed.

It is very possible that the empires of the future are the empires of the heart. 

And the arts are the instrument of the heart. That’s why when our affections are stirred most deeply, we respond not with lecture but with poetry, or song. It’s why your favorite drama doesn’t just entertain you, it moves you. It’s why the work of creation feels almost elemental, like we’re doing what we were made to do.

So as Christians we don’t have to figure out how we can hijack art to win a battle of might or a battle of mind. Art is working at an entirely different level. It’s working at the heart. Stirring the affections. Calling its viewer beyond the here and now.

Jasmine Tate continues:

“I believe God is raising up a new class of artists and creatives who will intentionally raise the standard and reclaim this mandate. He’s giving creative expressions that will undo mindsets that have been established for generations. They will use creativity, arts and the media to teach a generation how to process pain, family, relationships, love and success through the lens of the Kingdom. What if fulfilling the Great Commission simply started with using your creative gift with intentionality?”^[8]

So at Forefront our call to the church is to see art not as a tool, as propaganda or even a sermon, but something quite different. Art is a medium of the heart. It awakens affections for beauty. And therefore it ought to be done with care and excellence. We can’t just make pop art plus Jesus.

And our call to the artist is not to run from the truths of Scripture but to embrace them. To let truth and beauty remain side by side. To remember that authentic faith and excellent art are not mutually exclusive. 

We believe Christians should be out in the world creating movies and music and theatre productions and design and literature and poetry that deals with all kinds of topics in all kinds of ways — but arises from a steadfast faith in Jesus Christ and his Word. A house built on a rock, and not on the sand.

So my point is this: if the empires of the future are empires of the heart, this is not a cause for despair but for excitement. Because we know these truths at the heart of the world, and we work in these mediums that cut to the hearts of men. So let us create with excellence — for the good of the city, and for the glory of God. That’s what Forefront is all about.