5 aspects of creativity

I have recently finished reading Echoes of Eden: Reflections on Christianity, Literature, and the Arts by Jerram Barrs. It is a wonderfully helpful book discussing issues revolving around literature but also touching upon all the arts. I think it would be very helpful to students, as well as parents who are wary of the arts. Barrs does a masterful job in providing sound reasons for enjoying literature and ways to look at literature to appreciate its value.

Early in the book Barrs considers creativity and how it is interconnected with Christianity. I appreciated the 5  aspects of creativity he puts forward for us to consider as we image God in the creative process:

1. We are to seek to glorify God in all we do.
2. We are designed to find fulfillment for ourselves in using, developing, and expressing the gifts God has so richly given to us.
3. We are to seek to be of benefit to others, so that they may be able to look at what we create and say of it, "It is good." The Christian artist always lives in a community and is called to serve others in the development and expression of the gifts God has given to each one for the blessing of all.
4. In being creative, we fulfill our human design by exercising dominion over the earth.
5. We are called, in all we do, including in our creative work, to set back the boundaries of the fall, to restrain the abnormality of our present human life in its brokenness and sorrow and of our resent world that is under the curse and therefore resists our dominion. (22)