In defence of sad songs (late finish)
Posted by Paul | Filed under uncategorised
Over at Diary of an Arts Pastor, David Taylor has an interesting post on The Art of Lament. This reminded that I started on this subject, but — lamentably — never really got to the end of my thoughts. So here are a couple of brief ideas that should have been included…
The first is a quote from U2 sermons blog (quoting, in turn, Douglas Blount):
…for U2, “all roads to the Gospel lead first through the blues… gospel without blues leads to self-deception.”
… which, I guess, is the up-swing of what we’ve said previously.
The second is William Edgar’s suggestion (during the talk Heaven in a Nightclub) that jazz is able to express true joy because it has faced up to the darkness and despair in life. In contrast, a lot of current praise music only gets as far as happiness.
Maybe we can link these two fragments together: In a recent interview, Simon Mayo suggested that one of U2′s attractions is their joy. And certainly, for me, little praise music reaches the joy of, for example, Magnificent. Perhaps this is the result of a willingness to take the road that passes ‘first through the blues’.
Or, to be seasonal, we find the full joy of Easter Sunday only when we’ve truly engaged with the darkness & despair of Good Friday. (For more on this, see Robin Parry’s post on Tenebrae.)
Art for Good Friday
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For Good Friday, take a moment to look at Arulf Rainer’s Wine Crucifix on the Tate site. I visited Tate Modern earlier this week and was struck by this piece. (To be honest it loses a lot in the repro for the web and really pays a visit. Which makes writing this post rather frustrating.) In the back of my mind, I had hoped that my trip to the London galleries would provide an appropriate Easter image. This proved to be the slightly-unexpected fulfillment.
The violence communicated by Rainer’s painting and the way it is hung (between two similarly styled paintings to give a triptych or Golgotha-like feel) really drive home aggression of Good Friday. Something missing from many of the more traditional, realistic (and frequently serene) portrayals.
Tags: art
Interview with the Arts Pastor
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David Taylor-In His Own Words from The Austin Stone on Vimeo.
See also his related post at Diary of an Arts Pastor.
Doing what you are created for…
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There’s a great interview with Photographer Phillip Spears over at the ‘Christians in the Arts’ blog. A couple of quotes meshed very well with some of the things I’ve been posting recently:
The voice of God has been very clear, though, throughout my career that I am doing what He created me to do.
…
Being creative is the way I practice being a believer. It’s an act of obedience. I want to do it well to a particular end. Life is now a stewardship project, which is life-affirming. I’m unbelievably grateful that God has given me this gift. I love that I get to be creative. Being creative is a fundamental part of being human.
Things I found this week…
Posted by Paul | Filed under web sights
A collection of thought-provoking items found or re-discovered this week.
The essence of idolatry is that high expectations, together with fear, combine to narrow your consciousness merely to interaction with your “god”, while at the same time you delegate power and influence to your god, so that you allow it to take the lead. It then forges or inscribes within you patterns of obedience.Compare this with what has happened in recent years. Financial markets were given control over the real economy. At last, declared the President of the German Federal Bank, politicians have been brought under the control of the financial markets.
Finally, an interesting quote from Craig Detweiler, in an interview with John Morehead
During the Enlightenment era it was important to emphasize truth claims and to be able to argue and defend the faith in a scientific era. But we became wedded to a logical expression of the faith, almost like a “logical seminary” rather than a “theological seminary.” But now that we’re in an artistic age full of metaphors and imagination, we find ourselves behind the times and having to play catch up. So we need a more imaginative, beautiful and creative way to talk about God and interact with film, art, music, literature, etc.
Tags: art, web sights
Wim Wenders at Image
Posted by Paul | Filed under web sights
So once more, sitting in a field and letting the sun shine on me, I ask myself: “Why do I believe in God, Wim?”
“He called me by my name.”
He did. That’s all I can say in the end.
I am thankful for that every day.
Grace.
Most amazing experience of my life.
Wim Wenders
I was pleasantly surprised to see film-maker Wim Wenders as Image Journal’s artist of the month. They also have an article by Wenders entitled Interrogation.
Tags: art, cinema, culture, web sights
A random walk over culture, art, christianity, etc. with occasional photographs...