Conference lgp30::christian-perspective

    > What kind of relationship is there or should there be between
    > Christianity and the arts?
    
    The relationship between the arts and Christianity today is, imo,
    pallid and anemic.  The creative expression of our experience of 
    God and life that once flowed effortlessly out of the core of 
    humanity's being, has been systematically supressed for centuries, 
    particularly with the rise of the Industrial Revolution and the 
    Newtonian idea that the universe is one big machine.  
    
    Just look around and see what is cut first in our schools -- the arts:  
    music, dance, painting, drawing, sculpting...  We don't see the value 
    of our children exploring their right brain, heck, we don't encourage 
    it in ourselves.  The emphasis is on developing left brain analytical 
    thinking, of regurgitating facts and figures and theorums.  (As you 
    can tell I've got a little 'charge' around this issue.)
    
    What should the relationship be between Christianity and the arts?  It
    should be alive and vibrant!  We need to encourage our children, we
    need to encourage ourselves to express our awe and wonder of God and of
    life through the arts.  Words fail miserably at expressing our experiences 
    of the divine.  The arts, our images are what begins to fill the gaps. 
    So what if no one gets what you're trying to express?  The point is you
    expressed it!  God gets it!  
    
    If God touches you, paint, dance, or sing the experience!  Find a way 
    to celebrate it.  The arts can enliven our relationship with God.  Us 
    white folk, especially, need to "get down with God", for heaven's sake! 
    :-)  Allow the Holy Spirit to move our bodies, and more importantly, our 
    imaginations in praise and worship, to dance the scriptures, to sculpt 
    them, to paint them.  To pray and express God with our whole beings.
    
    Art is prayer.  Art is communion.  Without a healthy, vibrant 
    realtionship with the arts Christianity is simply a head-trip.  
    
    Without the arts God is as good as dead.
    
    Karen

    
    
    Tell it, Kb!!!!!!!!! ;^)
    
    Til we dance and drum together again,
    
    cf ;^)!

    Coincidentally, Carol and Karen, I am just now reading through the
    section on the Via Creativa in Matthew Fox's book "Original Blessing". 
    Fox's view on art as meditation, and the importance of creativity, is
    very interesting reading.  I especially like this comment:

        Our reason for trusting our images is that we ourselves are trusted
        images.  We are God's images, and God trusts us with that divine
        power of imagination.  We have been entrusted  by God with our
        capacity to imagine and to birth.  If we are truly "God's work of
        art," as Paul says we are, if we are truly God's extrovert
        meditation, then surely we have no excuse for not trusting the
        creative powers within us.

    -- Mike

    
    
    
    RE: .4  Mike
    
    YES!!!!!!   :^)
    
    Carole 

    P.S.  Great personal name Mike.  Makes for great creative images!
    ;^)
    

    I saw "Man of La Mancha" for the first time last weekend.  Am
    I alone or do others see parallels between Don Quixote de la Mancha,
    Knight of the Woeful Countenance, and Jesus Christ?
    
    Richard

    I think that was intentional ;-)

    Re: .7
    
    Tell me more.  I take it you know something?  Or have done some
    study?
    
    Richard

I was just DIRing around and refound this topic...

A couple of weeks ago I caught a discussion on federal funding of the arts.
That's NOT the topic I want to discuss, but in the course of the show, of 
course, the topic of Serano's photograph _Piss Christ_ came up.

What they mentioned was that the photograph is only half of the piece.  The 
other half is an essay, expressing the opinion that if Chirst were to return 
today, He would not be pleased with much of what the church has done in His 
name.  The church has soiled Christ's work. 

While many people have been offended by the apparently sacreligious title of
the photo, the work of art itself, which includes the essay, is radically
pro-Christian. 

I have seen the photograph and find it a lovely image.  Unaware of the title, 
one sees a large format photograph of a crucifix surrounded by a golden halo.

Does anyone know the full text of the essay?

Peace,

Jim

p.s.  re: previous replies.  

Amen to the support of art education.  I once had a wonderful conversation
with Elizabeth Busch, a Maine artist and member of the Govenor's board of art
education or some such organization.  (I have several quilts by her so it was 
a real thrill to speak and share art with her.)  Art is currently in the same
catagory as recess, something you do to pass time till you get out of grade
school.  She would like to see art education at the same level as English or 
math.  Plus an art therapist in every school district.  Many children cannot 
speak of the problems they have, but much can come out through their artistic 
expression.  (See Barbra Streisand's movie _Nuts_...)

Drumming.  Gosh, every where I turn I see drumming.  Here, and a friend of 
mine has been taking African Drumming classes.  Mickey Hart of the Grateful 
Dead has written a book (I don't have it...yet.-)  There are some amazing 
spiritual aspects to music of all kinds, and drumming can be especially 
powerful.

Support Live Music!

Oh, and everyone in the Boston area is invited to the Hatch Memorial Shell 
8:00 Saturday evening, 3-August.  The Harvard University Summer Pops Band will 
be playing.  It is a large (184 musicians at the first rehersal this season) 
band open to the community.  Playing is free, and so is the concert.  I'll be 
in the trombone section.   .->======================:.
                  ,,================================''
                 ((  || ||       ,'|
Peace,            ``============<  |
                                 `.|
Jim                                `

    Jim,
    
    I can attest to the spiritual experience drumming evokes.
    
    ;-) :-)  
    
    Karen

    
    Ditto what Karen said!  And Jim, I think you will enjoy Mickey's
    book!
    
    Carole

    Recently I have become interested in art as a medium of philosophical
    expression.  In particular, my interest has focused on certain
    "philosophical novels", such as Camus's "The Stranger" and Dostoyesvky's
    "The Brothers Karamazov".  What I find interesting about these novels
    is that they address certain fundamental questions about the meaning of
    life, questions that are important to me; and yet, unlike non-fictional
    philosophical treatises, they can bypass any purely intellectual filters
    and thus speak directly to the reader at a different, perhaps deeper
    level.

    Myths and stories often serve a valuable purpose in that way, as Joseph
    Campbell aficionados would no doubt remind us.  There is something
    magical about the way a great novel speaks to the soul.  So perhaps we
    can find philosophical value not just in the more overtly
    "philosophical" works of fiction, but in much of great art.  But then
    this raises all sorts of questions in my own mind.  I have not
    studied the philosophy of art, so my understanding is no doubt limited
    on this topic.

    Can we say that art speaks to us at a certain, perhaps non-verbal
    level?  If so, what does this say, if anything, about the notion of
    "art for art's sake"?  For how can we apply our "left brains" to a
    rational, linear, and verbal analysis of art that nevertheless speaks
    to our "right brains" at a non-verbal level?  Does this point the way
    the inadequacies of purely rational analysis, and suggest that holistic
    modes of understanding are also important?

    Do certain kinds of philosophy more lend themselves to artistic
    expression than others?  Is it a coincidence that existentialist
    philosophers are often drawn to expressing themselves through novels
    and plays?

    Looking at the Bible, we see many works of poetry; much of the books of
    the Hebrew prophets, for example, contained poetry.  The Song of Songs
    was a wonderful book of love poems.  Many interpreters felt the need to
    superimpose an allegory onto its meaning, suggesting that it "really"
    had a theological meaning (e.g., the love between Christ and his
    Church).  I think that such an interpretation is unnecessary.  To me,
    the book speaks directly to, and celebrates, an aspect of human
    experience, and does so through artistic expression rather than
    literally expounding on the point; no rational, "right brain" ordering
    of the story into a neat theological category is required.  Similarly,
    the fictional stories of Job, Ruth, and Jonah make their point through
    art, evoking the emotions of pathos, joy, and humor.  A similar point
    could also be made about the two creation myths in Genesis, which
    express the notion of God as creator.

    None of this means that the historic elements of the Christian religion
    are irrelevant.  Far from it.  Christianity and Judaism both server as
    historical religions, that view God as acting through history.  But the
    artistic side of religion should not be ignored either, and I think
    that is an important point--that religion can be both rational and
    artistic.

    -- Mike

    I think there has been a general de-valuing of the arts over the last
    few centuries and an over-valuing of rationality.  Both are sourced
    through the respective parts of our brains, right and left hemispheres,
    and any experience we have can be further enhanced, further understood 
    if both sides of our brain are given full opportunity to partake in it.
    
    Last year I participated in a 5 day workshop called "Praying with the
    Aramaic Jesus."  It was extremely powerful.  What made it so, was that 
    not only did we learn prayers in the Aramaic language, we also learned 
    some of the customs where you sing and dance the prayers, simultaneously.  
    This is the first time I experienced praying with my entire being.
    
    Also, simply meditating on symbols, such as the Cross, or Star of David, 
    or Circle can be a profound experience, especially when you create them
    yourself and bring them into different environments, (like nature) and
    just be with them in silence and let them move you as they will.
    
    *Thanks* for your thoughts Mike; this is a subject, (including the power
    of myth and story) that is near and dear to my heart.
    
    Karen