Identity and art

Posted by Paul | Filed under uncategorised

Richard Mouw has an interesting article on his blog about Catholics and evangelicals ‘talking past each other’. He gives examples of a failure to communicate because the two sides talk with a different focus:

…where evangelicals think soteriology, Catholics tend to think ecclesiology—and so we proceed to talk past each other.

This reminded me of something I was pondering a while ago. I was trying to figure out why it was that Catholicism tended to produce more great artists than Protestantism (I may mean ‘writers’ rather than ‘artists, but lets see how we go…). While reading Flannery O’Conner’s letters I came up with one possibility: For Catholics, the main focus of identity is the church and being a member of the church; on the other hand, for protestants (or evangelicals, specifically?) the main focus of identity is, perhaps, doctrine.

For great art (at least novels?) there has to be some exploration of ideas; some experimentation. If not, then we slip into propaganda. But if your primary identity is doctrine — the intellectual ideas you hold about your faith — then any exploration runs the risk of undermining your identity. Consequently, there is a strong incentive not to take such paths. On the other hand, if your identity is based on membership of a community first, then the same risk is not present. Even while experimenting, you have a safe haven to return to.

Provocations: If you’ve read Shusaku Endo’s Silence, then you might like to ponder whether a evangelical could write such a book. Similarly Flannery O’Conner’s stories. (I’m pretty sure she would say, No.)

Those who actually know what they are talking about are invited to comment…

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Permalink | May 23rd, 2007

2 Responses to “Identity and art”

  1. Timothy Says:
    Timothy May 24th, 2007 at 1:59 am

    Greetings! Found your post in Google blogsearch…

    I disagree that the focus is the key. I would argue that it is spirituality that is the key difference. Catholics have it and most non-Catholics lack it.

    One story I read stated that at a non-Catholic seminary the students were given a stack of books by Catholic authors as the course texts. When questioned why they were using Catholic authors, the student was nformed that there were no similar texts by non-Catholics.

    There is great freedom in the safety of the Catholic Church’s doctrines and even more artistic freedom safety in her spirituality.

    God bless…

  2. Paul Says:
    Paul May 25th, 2007 at 8:27 pm

    Hi Timothy! Thanks for the comment. My initial reaction, however, is: What do you mean by spirituality? It’s a bit of an over-used term these days, so perhaps we need to be more specific?

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