Learning to meditate
Growing up in a church context where religious visuals are not part of the tradition, both our last week’s reading on visual faith by William Dyrness and this week’s reading by David Morgan, The Sacred Gaze: Religious Visual Culture in Theory and Practice have stretched my perception about visuals in the Christians worship. After reading these books, I am realizing the necessity of incorporating images in the worship service. Speaking of the connection between visuals and beliefs, Morgan states, “Belief happens in and through things and what people do with them ”(p.8). So, Morgan argues, “Ignoring this wealth of evidence means ignoring most of what people do and how what they do shapes what religion does and means for them.” (9.) Thus, religious visuals are not only images we hang on the wall or icons but whatever visual images we use that fits to our religious context. As Morgan states clearly, “Religious belief has a powerful way of becoming the preeminent banner or symbol in whose name people organize themselves inwardly and understand their relations with other groups outwardly” (p.115) However, this is changing in some mission contexts. For instance, in some countries that are closed to Christianity, believers are choosing to remain in their community and simply follow Jesus without adopting Christianity’s religious cultures.
I also appreciate the aspects of vision and imagery Morgan indicates in various religious traditions. He defines, “A sacred gaze is the manner in which a way of seeing invests an image, a viewer, or an act of viewing with spiritual significance ”(p.3). Morgan goes on to describe gaze as a “ practice, something that people do, conscious or not, and a way of seeing that viewers share ”(p.5). The author also highlights how we view religious imagery impacts our perceptions about images in others religions.
Another important point, which resonates with me, is the idea of learning to meditate. Morgan says “for it is only through meditation that you can undertake the journey to discover your true nature, and so find the stability and confidence you will need to live, and die, well” (p.2). There is some truth in this statement. It reminds me of God’s command to his people, “This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success” (Joshua 1:8 NASB). So for the people of God, the book of the law is the visual object that they can meditate on to do things according to God’s law. The command to meditate is true for today’s followers of Jesus who believe that their true self is hidden in Christ. The word of God is our primary visual source to discover our true identity in Christ and our relationship with creation. As I write, I kept thinking why is it so difficult in our day to meditate on Scripture communally and personally? People can work around their busy schedule to attend social events but not to study scripture or attend communal prayer meetings together.
Finally, I appreciate Morgan’s points that images are not the only objects of contemplation, but also “music, running, gardening, reading, chanting, chopping wood or slow walks in the woods ”(p,2). So there is not a need to trying to adapt only certain objects, but people need to discern and discover what works best for them.
Morgan, David. The Sacred Gaze Religious Visual Culture in Theory and Practice. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005. http://site.ebrary.com/id/10076812.
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Telile Fikru Badecha
10 responses to “Learning to meditate”
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I am finding, Telile, that our recent readings have been for all us challenging to our ways of thinking. Your wonderful post highlights some of the new thinking that you are experiencing, and many of the points resonate with me. Like you, I come from a place where there is little visual art used in worship, where the Bible is truly the only source. But, as you suggest, there is a power in images to inform and challenge. And mediating on Word continues to be central to our faith and essential to our spiritual walk (as you highlight), but I am curious to know how we can bring these two things together: Word and image? Can images and art help us to better mediate or think more deeply on Scripture? And might Scripture help us to be able to think deeply about what we see and experience (from art to gardening)? Maybe it is as simple as letting God speak to us in multiple ways rather than just limiting God to speak through His Word. Thanks for your sights, Telile.
John, thank you for your thoughtful comments. You ask a great question: how we can bring these two things together: Word and image? Personally, I hardly used images or art (especially painting, sculpture or an icon) to help me meditate on Scripture. I use music to meditate or pray Scripture. But we when read Scripture, there are examples of stories, music, prayers and so on. The prophets, our Lord Jesus and His disciples used visual objects, parables, and metaphors to communicate their messages. This makes me believe that visuals and Word are always integrated and it is necessary for us to discern what visual fits to our context and incorporate in our devotion. Like you say, it is about allowing God speak to us in multiple ways rather than limiting God to speak us only through Scripture. Thank you.
Telile, so true of you to say that “believers are choosing to remain in their community and simply follow Jesus without adopting Christianity’s religious culture.” I believe this has come to pass because to often we cannot separate Christianity’s religious culture from what the western world has done historically with Christianity. Unfortunately we, in the west, have a hard time exporting the Christ without the Chrisitan culture that we are comfortable and familiar with.
Without removing Jesus from being historically Jewish, I wonder how christianity would be coming to say, an african village today? How would Christ be incarnated without any of the religious history of the European or American influences and then what would be exported from the African village to the west. It would be a beautiful thing to see Africans, Filipinos, Chinese and others worshiping God without the European influence. How glorious it would all be.
Regarding Africa: truly this is the way it began. Africa was the seed bed for Christianity before it came into Europe. Egypt and Tunisia were the hubs of the world Christian movement. European Christians asked the Africans to bring the teachings so they could become Christians also. Great book on this is http://www.amazon.com/Africa-Shaped-Christian-Mind-Rediscovering/dp/0830837051/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1410532778&sr=1-1-fkmr0&keywords=Africa+the+seedbed+of+Christianity%2C+Ogden
See you soon in Africa!!!
Mitch, you ask great questions that would make some church leaders in my community uncomfortable. Christians in my community tend to misunderstand or politicize the issue of incarnating Jesus without imposing the culture baggage it came with. For instance, in Ethiopia Amharic, the language of the ruling class was the only langue used in the church. New believers need to learn the language and adopt the culture to understanding Christianity. This made Christianity foreign to my people for my years. Evangelical churches failed to recognize the need to preach the gospel in the language and culture my people. It was only a decade or so that we began to worship in our language.
Wow Telile! I have heard of the Muslims making the demand that converts learn Arabic saying that you can only know God if you read the scriptures in Arabic, but never have I heard the Christian church doing what you have here described. Have the Ethiopia Amhari people ever thought that Jesus did not speak their language? How come their language became “God’s language” when in fact it was Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic? Very interesting Telile.
Good thoughts Telile! Like Mitch I was struck by this sentence… “believers are choosing to remain in their community and simply follow Jesus without adopting Christianity’s religious cultures.”- isn’t this a good thing? Most of “christian culture” is not Christian at all. I’m wondering if you could say more about this.
Telile! I love your questions about meditation and prayer. Gazing is not a mere glance, but an in depth look into the heart…whether it be art, Scripture, or another medium. Why is it difficult to take a deep breath and breathe in the Word of God? Why is it so easy to jump at the “ding” or a “buzz” on our phones but not focus on God? How would our lives be different if we turned off the distractions and instead meditated and communed with God? Good questions, Telile!
Stefania, thanks for your comments. I agree. It is a good thing for new believers to remain in their community and worship God in their language and culture. The other challenge among the Protestant churches in my community is that when someone, especially from Muslim background comes to know Jesus, they quickly announce at their church without realizing how their action might affect the new believers relationship his/her family. But some churches are beginning to realize the need to be sensitive and careful not to cause unnecessary problem.
Telile,
It’s been great reading your post and the conversation people have had around it.
I’m just going to mention that I found it meaningful your weaving in of the Joshua passage and naming the “book of the law” (and of course all its constitutive components) as the visual meditative piece. Relatedly,
“Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”
Like with your passage, I love that pursing a meditative aspect does not divorce the visual from the rest of our sensory activities, but holistically intermeshes it all.
As you note at the end of your piece, Morgan agrees with this holistic understanding of the visual. I think some might find Morgan’s definition so expansive that it begins to be unhelpful. But…not me. I like it.
Telile, I love to read your posts since I always learn about our readings from a fresh perspective. This week was no exception.
I personally have trouble with the interpretation of images. I am not against them, I just do not understand why we need them at times. As I said in another post, I wonder how a blind person can appreciate images. I do not know what they “see.” But I do know that a blind person just might see more than a “seeing” person does. Perhaps it would be an advantage to be blind since there are so many distracting images out there, especially in today’s world. And those images have permeated every culture in digital forms.
I love your comments on meditation. And we Christians (at least Western Christians) do not see this as a regular spiritual practice. But when I take the time to sit down and stop from my crazy schedule and think deeply on God, whether it be in my favorite chair or in nature, I then sense the presence and the goodness of God. I need to do this more often. We all do. Thanks for the reminder.