in defence of sad songs (1)
Posted by Paul | Filed under uncategorised
A number of things I have read or listened to recently have (tangetially) touched on art that considers the brokenness of life. It often seems that many Christians are worried about such negativity, implying that we should only focus on happier things. So, here are a few posts with reasons why we need both.
(Before I start, I’m not saying it is healthy to stay on the negative side, only that there is a place for art that looks in that direction — OK?)
First point is from an mp3 interview with Dick Keyes, his concern is commercialism (and cynicism). He points out that commercialism focusses on an unreal rosy picture of life — drink this can and your life will be OK. Consequently, we are suprised when bad things happen to us; we can’t cope and become cynical. Obviously this isn’t necessarily limited to commercialism — it can apply to Christians if we try to do the same thing. (Which raises the question, why we, as Christians, have the tendency to look away from the brokenness — are we following the wider culture? Just a thought…)
What is the answer? Perhaps, we can get a clue from Pete Lowman’s article If There Really Is a God, Why Don’t People Notice? – A Media Studies Approach (Which is great, by the way, and deserves a post of its own, if I get the time.) Let’s try this quote:
the media reshape our perception of what is normal or acceptable… Actually, this is how Bible reading should work: we read, say, an old testament narrative, we then encounter something similar in real life, and we apply the categories from the clarified narrative we have absorbed in our Bible study across to understand the real-life situation: `Ah, this is a little bit like the story of Abraham… and in the biblical story this was right, that was important… and therefore this is what I should do.’ The Bible supplies our norms. But in our society, immersion in the intensely-presented alternative (unreal) universes of media shapes our understanding of what is normal and appropriate, gives us categories to apply (consciously or subconsciously) to understanding our own experience. `What’s going on here in my life reminds me of what happened in the movie; and then what happened was….’
We need art, songs, imagination-formation that encompasses all of life, both the good and bad bits, from a Christian perspective. Otherwise, when bad things happen we have no reference points to guide us. So, either we collapse or we fall back on reference points from other sources.
Perhaps, this helps us see the value of the Bible bits that we tend to avoid. You know, the depressing Psalms, Ecclessiaties, Lamentations. They might not give cheery answers, but they engage with brokenness while retaining a God-sourced perspective. They provide a model of people in tough places who are still keeping the big Mission-of-God picture in mind. So, they can form our imgainations in ways that allow us to see God in those situations.
If we produce art that only fits the neat middle-class Christian optimal vision of life, then we miss out on this. Since art forms our imagination, we need to see the importance of art that recognises the significance of the fall as well as the hope. Of course, the point we need to get to is where we can hold both together at the same time…
Tags: art, culture, imagination, lament, music, worldview
Girlfriend in an (eschatological) coma
Posted by Paul | Filed under uncategorised
For some reason Douglas Coupland’s ‘Girlfriend in a Coma’ came to mind the other day…
(Umm, warning, there may be spoilers ahead. But then it’s not a thriller 
…and it struck me that this is really an interesting example of how eschatology should influence life. In the book some friends live to see the end of the world. They then have the opportunity to go back and live in the light of what they have seen. For them it was a world that ends in a whimper — with all slowing going to sleep. So, their ‘living in the light of’ was to live against this.
It seems to me that, for Christians, there should be a similar ‘living in the light of’ the future. We should allow the prophetic imagination to shape ours. Then we live in this context and allow it to shape how we act. Of course, for us the future vision is different – we live with the hope that God will put the world to rights and re-creatre all things. Consequently, we live for rather than against our vision. But the parallels are interesting.
Tags: eschatology, imagination, story
Playstation-Claiborne mash-up
Posted by Paul | Filed under uncategorised
Bored? God forgive us for all those we have lost because we made the gospel boring. I am convinced that is why we lose kids to the culture of drugs and materialism, of violence and war, it’s because we don’t dare them, not because we don’t entertain them. It’s because we make the gospel to easy, not because we make it too difficult. Kids want to do something heroic with their lives, which is why they play video games and join the army. But what are they to do with a church that teaches them to tiptoe through life so they can arrive safely at death?
Shane Claiborne
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Bqq38WZctA]
Jesus invited ordinary people to come out and be part of an adventure, a journey that kept surprising them at every turn in the road.
… The church exists as resident aliens, an adventurous colony in a society of unbelief.
Stanley Hauerwas and William M. Willimon
Tags: church, culture, imagination, Irresistible Revolution, story
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…
Tags: art, culture, imagination
Imagination & trust
Posted by Paul | Filed under uncategorised
I’ve been dipping into Kevin Vanhoozer’s book First Theology recently, which has been great. One comment triggered an old thought whihc I never got around to writing about (I don’t think?) The quote is this:
…the imagination, formed and guided by the canon may be an organ of truth. It may be that some of our perspectives – the biblical “world views,” to be exact – allow us to imagine reality rightly.
This connected, for me, with the process of making art as a Christian. We often seem tentaive about truly letting our imaginations go. Christian art often appears to be tied to images and metaphors taken directly from the Bible, as if only these images are allowed. Or it is tied to explicit expressions of Christian belief which can be imaginatively flat and almost border on propaganda in their lack of subtlety. (Probably being over dramatic here, but you get the drift.)
It’s struck me before that, rather than try to control the artistic output by making it conform to a restrict image/idea set, we need to allow our grasp of the Christian story to sink in deep, to affect our worldview, so that when we act creatively/imaginatively the output is saturated in that view whether or not this is explicit. Bouncing off Vanhoozer, we have to trust that our imaginations can produce images in line with reality.
Perhaps we are scared of our imagination and scared that imagining reality rightly cannot happen? Interestingly, Vanhoozer points out that this was Nietzsche’s problem:
Ironically, the self-proclaimed champion of creativity turns out to have a low view of the imagination: imaginative projections are fictive constructions an do not correspond to the way things are.
If our minds are truly ‘being renewed’, then we should expect that our imaginations and artistic output will be increasingly conformed to God’s story without us constantly trying to exert control. (This reminds me of someone who told me that the longer he was a Christian the more morally he acted in his dreams.)
The observations from Tom Wright, Brian Walsh and others that Paul used Empire/Cesear images in his letters when talking about Jesus should allow us to see that we can use other metaphors and images in our communication without inherent compromise. In fact, if we aren’t able to use the images of our surrounding culture — appropriately transformed via a transformed imagination — then we may alienate with our audience – either because they don’t understand the symbols we used or because they conciously reject them. Alternatively, if we can use and transform these images then the challenge to the culture may be heard more loudly and more acutely.
[I think this fits obliquely with a post from a long time ago...]
Tags: art, culture, imagination, worldview
Colossians remixed
Posted by Paul | Filed under uncategorised
I’m currently reading Colossians Remixed by Brian Walsh and Silvia Keesmat. Very very good. Can’t say I’m completely convinced on every detail, but lots of interesting (and provoking I suspect, but I’m only just getting to the Praxis Remixed section) points.
I’m particularly taken with their comments on imagination. The idea that empires (in our case, the consumerist culture) ultimately win by capturing the imagination of those they rule over. Hence, the necessity of subverting the imagination of the ‘empire’ and developing an alterative imagination. They use the example of subversive poetry (for instance, the role of Old Testament prophets), but it leads to thinking about how the visual arts can subvert and develop imagination in the same way. Especially in our highly visual culture. Not sure I’ve got anywhere on the details, but it’s hanging around the back of my mind.
I did begin to wonder if this isn’t an area that connects strongly with graphic design. It seems to me that graphic design is in many ways the art of the consumerist ‘empire’. So, maybe graphic designers are best placed to develop alternatives and subvert the dominant imagination. (Not that I’m thinking of anyone in particular 
Tags: imagination
A random walk over culture, art, christianity, etc. with occasional photographs...