{"id":19635,"date":"2018-10-18T23:02:11","date_gmt":"2018-10-19T06:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=19635"},"modified":"2018-10-18T23:02:11","modified_gmt":"2018-10-19T06:02:11","slug":"art-that-draws-us-to-the-greatest-artist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/art-that-draws-us-to-the-greatest-artist\/","title":{"rendered":"Art That Draws Us to the Greatest Artist"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>After experiencing the incredible visual beauty of China, William Dyrness\u2019s book, Visual Faith (Engaging Culture): Art, Theology, and Worship in Dialogue<\/em>, put words to how that beauty relates to the Christian Faith and Church. Art and beauty have always seemed to point me to the Creator and been a form of worship for me. And although much of the art created in China was directed towards the worship of other gods, it was still very inspiring and captured my attention. Simone Weil agrees with me when she argues that \u201cthere are three ways people are drawn to God: through affliction, religious practices, and by the experience of beauty. The first two, she points out, have been virtually eliminated from modern life, leaving the third. Among white races, she argues, \u201cThe beauty of the world is almost the only way by which we can allow God to penetrate us.\u201d[1]<\/a> Understanding the history and importance of art in the church was also a fascinating and enlightening discovery. It is unfortunate how the Christian church used to lead the way in the area of visual arts, then to see it become the institution that seemed to oppose art the most. The author points out that \u201cnot only is the environment of Protestant churches not conducive to producing Christian art, but it turns out that it may actually impede the development of artistic imagination.\u201d[2]<\/a><\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

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It was also encouraging to read that this generation is attempting to bring back the visual arts to the church and to Christian Worship. I\u2019m sure many of the early Christian artists would be shocked and excited to see how this generation uses and distributes various forms of visual art, thanks to the invention of social media. Dyrness states, \u201cThe contemporary generation has been raised and nourished by images; it has an inescapably visual imagination. Regardless of whether one considers this good or bad, for this generation, aesthetics counts more than epistemology. Actually, this is a theme that has deep roots in the Christian tradition. As St. Augustine put it, what you enjoy (love!) is more important than what you know!\u201d[3]<\/a> We are bombarded by images on a daily basis and people have become obsessed with them to the point of spending countless hours viewing them on a small device called a cell phone. It also appears that this extreme interest in visual imagery is causing us to bring some of this tradition of visual arts back into the church. When we worship such a beautifully creative God and have such a rich artistic heritage, it makes sense this beauty would show up in our worship services. As the author points out, \u201cClearly, the Christian church and Christian artists face an immense challenge, both to reach this generation with the gospel and equally important (and vitally related) to rediscover the imaginative richness of their heritage.\u201d[4]<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>Ironically, I received an email today from Missio Alliance inviting me to claim my free copy of Plough Quarterly magazine\u2019s current issue entitled, The Art of Community<\/em>. The issue happens to be all about how beauty and art are at the core of the Christian faith and community. Editor, Peter Mommsen, has the following to say in the introduction section of the magazine: \u201cAnd yet: an equally ancient strain within Christianity insists that there\u00a0is <\/em>a beauty that can save the world. In the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible that the early Christians used, when God in Genesis pronounces his creation good, he says of earth, plants, animals, and humans: \u201cIt is beautiful.\u201d In that sense, the medieval theologian Nicholas of Cusa understood the creativity of the artist to reflect the creativity of the Maker of heaven and earth. The Romantics were at least partly right: the artist who creates beauty can be a channel for divine truth.\u201d[5]<\/a> This seemed to be serendipitous since the topic was visual faith this week and the articles in the magazine reaffirmed this idea that visual art can be a window to see God. I also appreciated the additional focus on how art can help foster community among believers.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>You will not be surprising that my favorite quote of the book was the following: \u201cOne of the critical functions art may perform is to bring the notion of play back into the center of our lives where it belongs. After all, the morning stars sang together at creation, and the sea monsters played in the sea. Perhaps humans are meant to see their lives as more of a playtime, a dance, or at least a drama. Indeed, it is likely that we would be more productive in our work if we brought a playful spirit into it. Art may help us understand this, and for this reason alone we should think carefully about art.\u201d[6]<\/a> Everyone knows I like to play, so if art is another way to introduce play I am all for it. In fact, I think many churches could use a healthy dose of fun and play, and why not beautiful art by talented artists be an avenue to spark joy and imagination. Although I believe art is a legitimate and needed profession, I also believe the hobby of art and other casual means to introduce art are needed in the church and we can all benefit from being drawn towards our creative God through its expressions. When I come to church and see a creative cartoon, or a beautiful video during a worship song, or the woman dancing in the back of the auditorium during worship, a smile comes to my face, joy fills my spirit, and I sense God\u2019s presence. It has also been said that laughter is one of the most intimate forms of communication, so if this is the case, maybe finding joy and laughter through some form of visual art can be a way of intimately connecting with our Creator.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [1] William A Dyrness, Visual Faith (Engaging Culture): Art, Theology, and Worship in Dialogue<\/em>, (Baker Publishing Group), Kindle Edition, 22.<\/p>\n

<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [2] Ibid., 12.<\/p>\n

<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [3] Ibid., 20.<\/p>\n

<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [4] Ibid., 136.<\/p>\n

<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [5] Peter Mommsen, The Art of Community, Plough Quarterly Magazine<\/em> Issue 18, 2018, https:\/\/www.plough.com\/en\/topics\/community\/church-community\/editors-letter-issue-18<\/p>\n

<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [6] William A Dyrness, Visual Faith (Engaging Culture): Art, Theology, and Worship in Dialogue<\/em>, (Baker Publishing Group), Kindle Edition, 140.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After experiencing the incredible visual beauty of China, William Dyrness\u2019s book, Visual Faith (Engaging Culture): Art, Theology, and Worship in Dialogue, put words to how that beauty relates to the Christian Faith and Church. Art and beauty have always seemed to point me to the Creator and been a form of worship for me. And […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2,289],"class_list":["post-19635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dminlgp","tag-dyrness","cohort-lgp8"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19635"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19635\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19641,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19635\/revisions\/19641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}