{"id":9395,"date":"2016-09-15T20:59:04","date_gmt":"2016-09-16T03:59:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dminlgp.com\/?p=9395"},"modified":"2016-09-15T20:59:04","modified_gmt":"2016-09-16T03:59:04","slug":"from-nudes-to-dung","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/from-nudes-to-dung\/","title":{"rendered":"From Nudes to Dung"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"last-supper-Da_Vinci-H\"<\/a>Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n

William Dyrness grapples with what the church has allowed to enter the \u201ceye gate\u201d both historically and in today\u2019s contemporary world.\u00a0 The arts have ranged in their gamut from being \u201cidolic\u201d (my own word referencing idols) to iconic.\u00a0 Dryness took us back in time when he stated that, \u201cThe visual culture of the early church had to be modest; indeed, the church itself was in many ways virtually invisible to outsiders\u201d.[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

Something awakened when I read that, \u201c\u2026the early church were hesitant to use three-dimensional figures, perhaps for fear of making graven images.\u201d[2]<\/a>\u00a0 The Protestant Reformation, and proceed Protestant \u201crecover\u201d of the arts brought balance to an effective avenue for revealing the Christian message.\u00a0 Times, culture, and even convictions seem to vacillate more from personal preference than Scriptural basis.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Raphael_Madonna_and_Child_with_Book\"<\/a>Dyrness weaves the story of visual art and the challenges that it has faced in the Christian church.\u00a0 His analogy of the great disparity within the Renaissance reached from the consistent paintings of Jesus nude to Raphael\u2019s Madonna and Child with a Book<\/em>.\u00a0 The famous Madonna<\/em> painting is set\u201c\u2026within a contemporary setting in Raphael\u2019s native Italy, rather than in the timelessness of eternity.\u201d[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

Dyrness jumps to the myriad of contemporary expressions in the visual arts.\u00a0 Of interest was his spin on Chris Ofili\u2019s Virgin Mary<\/em>.\u00a0 The artwork revealed Mary covered with elephant dung.\u00a0 \u201cOfili\u2019s oeuvre portrays Mary wearing a blue cape parted to reveal a breast made of dried and varnished elephant dung. Similar to Old Master paintings, Mary is surrounded by angels\u2014only here they are drawn in the shape of genitalia. And the 8-foot-high canvas is propped on two lumps of dried dung.\u201d[4]<\/a><\/p>\n

\"The-Holy-Virgin-Mary-19961-e1457569740148\"<\/a>Remembering this episode with Ofili at the Brooklyn Museum of Art in 1999-2000 (lived in Long Island during that time), I wondered how would Dyrness interpret this one.\u00a0 Dyrness stated that \u201cit turns out that Ofili is a practicing Roman Catholic, and in some African cultures, elephants have totemic power (sometimes linked to the chief) and their dung is sometimes used to make spiritually potent ritual objects.\u201d[5]<\/a><\/p>\n

Dyrness handles some sensitive issues that confront Christian thought from both historical and contemporary challenges.\u00a0 I do agree with his analogy that \u201ccareful historical and theological reflection must be a part of our reappropriation of the Christian tradition.\u00a0 We must consider critically what certain traditions represent, noting their weaknesses, even as we appreciate their contributions.\u201d[6]<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Analysis<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dyrness seemed to capitulate in beginning of the book it seemed.\u00a0 He said, \u201cArt, then, may be a means, indeed one of the only means, that will catch the attention of this generation.\u00a0 The problem is that art itself does not provide the reconciliation and spiritual connection that the human heart long for.\u00a0 It provides at best a kind of substitute religion.\u201d[7]<\/a><\/p>\n

My mind quickly went to a debate while doing my Masters on \u201cnatural theology\u201d being substantive enough for redemption or exposure to the possibility of redemption.\u00a0 Dyrness reiterated the same thought, \u201cThe signs that God places in creation and Scripture are meant to lead us to a vision of God, where we be like him, for we will see him as he is (I John 3:2).\u00a0 But they do not do this directly; they are simply pointers.\u201d[8]<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

Art cannot save but can be used for the purpose of relating the heart and the head; the emotions and the intellect.\u00a0 The stained glass of bygone eras can be replaced with the 4K video projectors that tell the story of redemption, but using a different format.\u00a0 The purpose of the \u201cvisual arts\u201d is to ignite the soul.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> William A. Dyrness, Visual Faith:\u00a0 Art, Theology, and Worship in Dialogue,<\/em> (Grand Rapids, MI:\u00a0 Baker Academic, 2001), 26.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Ibid., 27.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Ibid., 49.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> http:\/\/qz.com\/441976\/chris-ofilis-controversial-dung-decorated-virgin-mary-painting-sold-for-4-6-million\/\u00a0\u00a0 (Viewed on 9\/15\/16)<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Ibid., 126.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Ibid., 160.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Ibid., 22.<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> Ibid., 33.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Introduction William Dyrness grapples with what the church has allowed to enter the \u201ceye gate\u201d both historically and in today\u2019s contemporary world.\u00a0 The arts have ranged in their gamut from being \u201cidolic\u201d (my own word referencing idols) to iconic.\u00a0 Dryness took us back in time when he stated that, \u201cThe visual culture of the early […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"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":[899,289],"class_list":["post-9395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dung","tag-dyrness","cohort-lgp6"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9395","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\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9395\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}