Beauty of God IV

Continued from Beauty of God III...

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Unfortunately, Fujimura may rightly suggest that Christians have largely abandoned these dialogues during the 20th century. The Church, by not having a vision for engaging what is unique about this atomic age, has left the culture (and original artwork) to those who do not know Christ. Fujimura encourages the Church to become a creative force in these cultural dialogues by blessing their children to go into the world to become the next Spielberg or Picasso. He dreams that the secular world can see the Church as a place where creativity flows—a place where they could find a safe haven in which to hone their own skills and ask deep questions. However, it is a difficult task for the Church—which wants to create a safety zone for themselves apart from the world—to be open to the possibilities that these outside forces may disturb the peace. Creative types often have all sorts of uncomfortable things to say about many topics, including the Church. Fujimura reminds Christians, however, that Paul urges the Corinthians not to separate themselves from the world, but to engage with the world. Fujimura, himself, sees visiting artists as an opportunity to listen and understand that they are bringing a wealth of information that the Church can tap into, learn from and communicate the gospel back. It is sadly ironic that Christian parents want their children to grow in fullness and in likeness with Christ—essentially asking that they be made into enormously creative creatures, that they move outside of their boxes and into the world—yet tell them, ‘no…that’s dangerous’ when they are ready to do that. Consequently, the Church often exiles their own children to other communities, like the gay community, that embrace their creativity. Fujimura declares that as the atomic-age world becomes increasingly dangerous, full of pockets of evil—the very place the Church’s children need to go—that God is already present waiting to reveal what it means to be a Christian in this time. Though the Church may have left the arts, God never did.

In conclusion, Fujimura suggests that the mission of the Church is not just to enter into the world and change it, but to embrace a deeper connection with God. The Church’s goal is not to make the world become more like Christians but for Christians to become more like Christ. For Fujimura truth and beauty go hand in hand because beauty is not merely cosmetic. True beauty is not a beauty of the surface, but rather, it is what goes beneath everything and actually is Christ holding the world together. God has ordained artists to speak to these things—the things that matter most: artists speak to the question of “why live today?” Fujimura’s answer to this question is to paint—to allow what is inside of him to come out.

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This concludes my summary of the interview with Makoto Fujimura. Tomorrow I will conclude this particular segment on the beauty of God by musing about Andy Goldsworthy's documentary, Rivers and Tides.

Beauty of God III

continued from Beauty of God II...

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How is it possible to discover God in art from secular arenas or in abstract or impressionistic art? Fujimura does not address this question directly, but he does subtly suggest that we may not be able to discover beauty or a relationship with God through much of art if our concept of art is a didactic or an answer giving mechanism. Fujimura states that good art is a question mark. Fujimura may rightly suggest that many Christians tend to attempt to look beyond or cover over the suffering of the world. Artists, on the other hand are comfortable with suffering and are not afraid to look into a troubled world—a quest that raises more questions than answers both for the believer and the non-believer. Fujimura sees that God defined beauty for us in the life of Christ—a life rich in suffering. In the atomic age—an age where human ability to inflict suffering on a massive and instantaneous scale has been realized—artists grapple freshly with questions of identity, meaning and purpose. It is these questions that, once one learns to read art, can prompt a redeeming dialogue—a dialogue that the Church can also learn from and be stretched by as well as offer redemptive answers. Consequently, Fujimura says that the Church needs non-believing artists to learn and grow from. Fujimura prompts Christians to see stories of life as parables and to learn to see those parables in art. What are these parables revealing?

Many parables that can be found in 20th century, atomic age, art reveal an honest dialogue with the question of “Why live?” However, there are many parables with many themes. Fujimura credits Vincent Van Gogh with starting a parable that began to appear in the life of many artists. This parable is that of the church as old and dilapidated, painted with a sense of isolation. It is a parable of God’s spirit leaving the church and going into creativity and nature. One can imagine how the church could grow from entering into a dialogue with Van Gogh’s observations. Likewise, Fujimura suggests that a parable can be discovered in Picasso’s art. He notices that as Picasso painted many self portraits that they increasingly became profoundly empty, sad and a shell of himself. Christians can interact with this parable by seeing that when one focuses so intently upon themselves that they actually lose themselves. It is becoming increasingly important to learn how to dialogue with artists because it is the artists who have the language of our culture as advertisers, filmmakers, writers, musicians, etc. However, Fujimura states that Christians have not been able to understand how to negotiate a dialogue with the larger culture and are, therefore, a step behind in teaching their children how to live with conviction, faith and hope. It is only through an appreciation and understanding of cultural dialogues that Christians can enter into them to redeem them, twist them back, and make these parables complete.

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This Interview summary will be continued tomorrow with the question, "What is the role of the Christian Church in the world with regard to artists?"

Beauty of God II

Please see the previous post, Beauty of God I, for an introduction to what follows.

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This begins a personal summary of an interview with Makoto Fujimura which was written with great input from an unpublished project memo (dated January 11th, 2005) titled: "Makoto Fujimura: Though the Church may have left the arts, God did not."

We began our time together by watching an unedited interview with Makoto Fujimura, an ‘abstract’ artist living in New York City. The first question addressed to Fujimura was loaded with assumptions that perhaps reveal some current trends in the Christian thought of much of America’s general Evangelical population. The question posed was, “What happened to Modern Art; what are you doing to bring it back to a focus on beauty and a relationship with God?” What is revealing about current Evangelical thought here is that beauty and a relationship with God seem to be contained within certain categories (perhaps existential, ontological or epistemological) that art must approach and operate within in order to be properly focused. If art appears to be operating outside of those categories, or perhaps even if the categories in which the art is functioning are ambiguous, then the art is viewed as distant from beauty and a relationship with God. Fujimura’s response contrasts with the assumptions apparent in the question. Rather than placing the emphasis on the artist to represent beauty and a relationship with God in some understandable way, he emphasizes that the readers of art are instead to understand where beauty and a relationship with God are in the art. This perspective burdens the Christian to learn the language of the artist rather than making the artist speak like an Evangelical, like a Baptist, for example.

Foundational to Fujimura’s understanding of art is the idea that all expression ultimately belongs to God; whether we are redeemed or not, art is ultimately God’s gift to all of humanity. Consequently, it is up to Christians to learn how to read art in order to experience God regardless if the art is from a believer in Jesus or not. Fujimura says that this gift of God is operating in all the galleries, museums and studios in the world even if the artist does not know it. He admits that the artist’s imagination can become twisted and the product of expression can be tainted, but that the task of the believer is to see through the art and discern what is good. A Christian can twist the imagination back to God, not by creating a certain type of Christian art, but by discovering God in all of art.

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This summary will be continued tomorrow starting with the question, "How is it possible to discover God in art from secular arenas or in abstract or impressionistic art? "

Beauty of God I

This is an alert to what is upcoming. I had the privilege of taking part in a small gathering of 10 other people in Colorado. The purpose of this gathering was to discuss the Beauty of God. Included in the group of 10 were leaders of movements, leaders of international non profit organizations, writers, a poet, a professor, musicians and others. We met for three days to enjoy each other's company, enjoy music, enjoy art, enjoy food and corporately anticipate a greater understanding of the topic that drew all of us together.

Since this gathering I have been attempting to synthesize and process much of what had taken place during those days. I thought that I would share some of it with you this week. The next three or four days will be reserved for an interview with well renown artist, Makoto Fujimura. What you will read here, and hopefully comment on, is based upon my reflections upon viewing the unedited interview, reading interview transcripts, and our discussions pertaining to the interview. I think that there is much for us to muse about in what is presented--maybe you can help provide greater clarity to some of my thoughts.

Following these next three or four days I would like to share some of my reflections on a movie documentary that we watched together, Rivers and Tides. This film enables viewers to watch Andy Goldsworthy create his art. Watching this film in the context of the Beauty of God has had profound meaning for my own life and identity.

Until then, please browse their websites and see what they have to offer.

Grace as the Gift of Social Interaction

It sounds wordy, I know...but it has to be mused about. Does it seem apparent to anyone else that there is a rather hefty bias towards legal metaphors when talking about grace? In referring to grace in a legal manner, grace follows a wrong action. In a sense, one must reflect on their 'wrongness' in order to more fully appreciate their 'rightness' in the light of grace. If this mentality characterizes our spirituality then we are in for an emotionally bumpy ride. We must feel bad about our transgression in order to feel good about our reception of grace. Consequently, Christian life has often turned into a drama of discovering guilt, confessing guilt, receiving grace, and convincing oneself of innocence. In fact, it is this model that popular tracts handed out by some Christians follow. It is by following this process that one gets 'saved.'

While there is some merit (I presume--I haven't actually thought of any) to this understanding of grace, I would like to 'tip the scales' towards a different metaphor. I would like to explore, muse about, grace as the Gift of Social Interaction--given prior to any wrong doing. In fact, wrong doing is not a legal concept, but a relational concept. Laws are merely societal tools for collectively agreeing upon what is relationally right and wrong. They are not the origin of morals but are guideposts in the morality of social interaction. Bear with me. The whole point of the Torah, the 10 Commandments, the laws of Israel was not to establish moral absolutes, but to govern the necessity of social interaction with each other and with God.

We humans discover ourselves in the face of the other. We come to know that we are good artists, basketball players, computer designers through the affirmation of others. This is how we are also comfortable or uncomfortable with our appearance and stature. We also attempt to control this developing self-identity by making some relationships close in certain ways and distancing ourselves from others in certain ways. Consequently, we live life with a constant anxiety--which we usually try to ignore--that propels many of our decisions and relational habits. We worry about what we know, how we should act, and what we should be. It is a Grace of Social Interaction that puts these anxieties to rest so that we are free to love and free to live. After all, it is our instinctual efforts to protect ourselves from these anxieties that limits our abilities to truly and vulnerablely be content with ourselves so that we can be wholly other-minded.

God's grace is to provide mankind with a divine social interaction that provides security and safety in which humans can be free from these anxieties and freely interact with God and others. I regrettably do not have time to go into an extensive biblical exegesis, but I believe that this is the underlying story behind the Garden of Eden, the 10 Commandments, God's relationship with King David, the prophets, Jesus' message, the gospel, and Paul's letters. Despite our best efforts to turn away from God, whether because we are deceived into believing that we can be something that we are not or because our existential anxiety is greatest when looking into the divine face or because of some other reason, God is continuously at work to open up space for us to partake in a divine sharing of forgiveness in the face of God. It is the possibility of anxiety-free relationship, of a special kind of Social Interaction, that is the gift of God's grace from the very point of creation. Indeed, it is an eternal gift existing in the midst of the Trinitarian relationship.

What is at stake is not simply a legal debt; what is at stake is a relational opportunity. I think that it is too bad if our churches preach a list of do's and dont's rather than preach about relational possibilities. After all, in Christ there is no law. There is freedom to be one's self rather than to have to control our relationships in an effort to protect one's self from our feared anxieties. Jesus' first recorded message in three out of the four gospels is that the Kingdom of God is here, repent and believe the good news. This is not a legal message of repentance--it is a relational one. The establishment of a Divine Kingdom ensures for believers that this divine sharing of forgiveness in the face of God is secure for eternity. Because we believe that the Kingdom of God has been established and will continue to be established in the future, we are free to relate to one another and to God accordingly in the present. It is this grace, this Gift of Social Interaction, that the thief on the cross recognized when he said to Jesus, "remember me when you come into your kingdom."

I know that I have created many generalizations with this post and have given few details, but hopefully I have whetted appetites to explore other understandings of grace than the predominate metaphor's of legality. Maybe there will be more to come in the future along these lines. I would like to flush out these ideas with greater concreteness and clarity, but would also like to muse about the implications of these thoughts sometime in the future.

Punch Drunk Love

Laura and I rented Punch Drunk Love last night. I have been meaning to see it for a long time, but have never gotten around to it. It is one of those movies that I might recommend to some but not to others. It depends upon why you chose to see or choose not to see some movies. For instance, if you choose not to watch movies because of explicit language then you may not want to see this movie. I tend to choose movies based on how they make me think. If I leave a movie thinking about something useful that I haven't thought of before than I tend to like the movie.

Punch Drunk Love uses light, color, sound, and experience (among other things like camera angles, motion and scene transitions) to envelope the viewer in a profound story of redemption. During the first part of the movie you may feel like hitting a wall or screaming out loud--I think this is good. If you didn't feel like this then you may not be able to be redeemed along with the lead character, Adam Sandler. Sandler's character is not the only thing in the movie demonstrating redemption. The lights, colors, sounds and all the things I mentioned before journey with him and force the viewer into the same process.

Punch Drunk Love is about the potential for redemption when one encounters a certain type of love that grants another the safety in which they can truly and freely be themselves. It is about a love that gives us an answer to the question of "why live" and even to a more compelling question of "what is worth fighting for." Sandler's 'fight' against physical people can be paralleled to our struggled against our conscience and the lies that we believe about our own selves. This makes the work of love even more impressive.

It is important to recognize the love at work in this movie as contrary to the love often admonished in the public arena of tolerance. This love, although in a small part, is not afraid to establish healthy boundaries of right and wrong. It teaches good behavior as well as draws it out of one without overtly teaching. This love changes actions by informing but even more so by freeing. All in all, Punch Drunk Love is not a pleasant movie to watch. The viewer will likely feel as annoyed and frustrated and confused as the main character, however, don't despair; it is a redeeming movie to watch.

Christians will probably immediately draw connections between God and the romance in Sandler's life. While there are many appropriate reasons to do this, one should not be too quick to overlook the qualities of love itself that give strength and power regardless of its source. From this end, I give Punch Drunk Love 4 beers our of a 4 beer system.

Moss and Sosa

I moved with my family to Minnesota from Illinois almost 18 years ago. My formative years in sports were already over--I had chosen my allegiance. Who can blame a kid that lived just outside of Chicago during Super Bowl XX? Da Bears! Who can blame a kid that grew up attending baseball games at Wrigley Field?

That being said, 18 years of Minnesota have somehow worked their way into my soul. I am a Minnesotan. Even though I still make a semi yearly pilgrimage to Wrigley field, I have grown to cheer for the Twins. I can't quite say the same for the Vikings, not because it isn't true, but because a Bears fan understandably has difficulty voicing those words. What unites me in heart with Vikings fans is a detest for the Packers. This is easier to say. This leads me to Sosa and Moss.

It was a tough off season for me. I understand that Sosa and Moss have their problems. While one corks bats and the other runs over traffic cops, they both seem to leave games early. This doesn't take away from the fact that they are two of the most exciting players to watch in sports. I know that the teams that are trying to win do not like a whole lot of additional drama to distract them off of the playing field. But this drama is part of what makes players exciting to watch--you never know what they will do. There is a part of me, deep down, that could identify with Moss mooning the Packer crowd. Part of me sighed with relief and said, "that is satisfying."

That being said, though I do not get to watch these players compete for my teams anymore, I must confess that my teams are probably better off. The Cubs will always be the Cubs--being their fan is never about the win-loss column, it can't be. The Vikings look to be in prime shape to win the conference and, despite loosing Moss, have had one of the best off-seasons in football. The Bears have yet to play with much consistency but look to be making some baby steps. The Bears woes are much easier to look beyond when one thing seems to be certain: The Pack will struggle to make it to .500.

Dunn Bros. Coffee Thug

I was going to write about Randy Moss and Sammy Sosa today, but that will have to wait until tomorrow. Instead I will write about the Dunn Bros. Coffee Thug. He is about 6 feet tall, has short brown hair with a goatee. He was wearing a white t-shirt, although he has probably changed by now. When I first noticed him I remember thinking that he looked somewhat sinister, not so much in how he was dressed, but in his facial expression and in the determined way that he marched into my favorite Dunn Bros..

Some of the reasons that this Dunn Bros. is my favorite coffee shop are because it is open reasonably late, they roast their own beans in the store and they have live music every night. The music was really pretty bad last night. I have a corner that I always sit in...it is in the back by the stairs and under a big plant. I can observe the whole scene from there. I like to people watch. That is what I was doing when the Dunn Bros. Coffee Thug entered.

He entered by the front of the store and disappeared behind a wall that divides the shop counter from the main seating area. He reappeared in the back of the coffee shop in the corner directly across from my seat. The Dunn Bros. Coffee Thug had trapped an employee against the bean roaster and was swinging wildly with both fists. At first I thought that they were just being guys who were playing around--for fun. Then I thought, "that looks like it hurts." Presumably a large guy buying beans at the back counter thought so too. I noticed that he was staring at the skirmish for a second or two before it occurred to him to intervene. While the Large Bean Buying Man held back the Dunn Bros. Coffee Thug the Roasted Employee called 911. This was the cue for the Thug to flee. He ran past me and out the back door.

Meanwhile, the bad music continued to play and no body in the main seating area noticed a thing. They continued sipping coffee and reading their books. The Large Bean Buying Man merely turned around and finished paying for his beans before walking out of the store. I, on the other hand, began thinking about what role I would play in the next drama should the thug return better equipped--maybe with a 9mil. Semi automatic. I of course would catch him by surprise--no body expects the guys sitting in the corner to ever do anything...the corner guys don't want to be the center of attention.

It wasn't until six paramedics, three fire fighters and three police officers showed up in the small coffee shop that the patrons began looking up from their newspapers. The Roasted Employee had a puffy eye and irregular heartbeat but was in good hands. I sat there wondering what his bill would be for the five emergency response vehicles sitting outside.

The whole thing reminded me of the time I had a gun pulled on me at a suburban grocery store. My friends and I had just finished stocking up on toilet paper when a gunman pulled alongside our car and pointed a hand gun at us. Then they sped off. It feels surreal in that life goes on like normal but you can't shake the idea that something absurd just happened.

Dunn Bros. Chess Player

I often study at a Dunn Bros. coffee shop at the corner of Snelling and Grand avenues. Every night there is live music that provides a needed creative distraction as I sort out ideas for papers. It is a friendly coffee shop with a lot of regulars. You never know who might start talking to you--one night we all played percussion for a visiting band. That being said, I usually like to keep to myself.

A couple of nights ago I was having a creative surge and was trying to finish up a paper that I was working on. I had one hour before I had to be somewhere else. I had noticed a chess player sitting at a table in front of me. He was very friendly--I thought he must have been a regular. He finally asked me if I wanted to play. I told him that I had to finish my paper. This began a sort of dialogue in which he would ask me a question and I would give him a one word answer and promptly look back at my computer screen. Normal people know what that means. I didn't want to talk.

He was fairly loud. I am fairly shy and there were a lot of people sitting around us. He finally found out that I was attending Bethel Seminary and working on a sort of theology/philosophy degree. He appeared disappointed when he found out that I didn't want to be a pastor. That surprised me a little. After an awkward silence he asked me what church I went to. I said that I didn't and looked back at my computer. I had no idea what I was writing about anymore--I was now fully distracted by the Dunn Bros. Chess Player.

Much to my growing discomfort I discovered that he wanted to talk about God...loudly. This is fine I guess. What bothered me was that he was identifying with me--and because he was so loud it was a public identification. He didn't even know me. All he knew was that I went to a seminary. He never asked me a single question that wasn't related to a point that he wanted to make. He was telling me how important it was that we build our lives on the rock of Christ. This meant that we had to surround ourselves with Christian friends and influences. He started telling me about this Christian coffee shop that I should go to--evidently because I was a Christian. He even told me about how Jesus surrounded himself with the 12 disciples who went and preached to the 12 tribes. In the middle of this he asked the girl sitting next to me if we were bothering her. "We!?" I thought. I am not doing anything. I just wanted to write my paper.

Admittedly I was groaning at my inability to love this guy. I was also groaning at being identified as part of what I call 'the Christian cult'. We have Christian music, Christian parties, Christian coffee shops, Christian book shops, WWJD bracelets, 'Got Jesus' t-shirts and who knows what else. The Dunn Bros. Chess Player didn't realize it, but the religiosity of Christianity was about to suck him in and never let go. Why can't I just be normal like the girl next to me who had long ago put her head phones on? Controversial, I know; but I really think that the religiosity of Christianity brainwashes people and then tells them that they must go back into the world to share their faith. Maybe the world is a place they should have never left.

Beauty of God

I am not sure what I think about the beauty of God. I have many questions. I am growing, however, in my experience of the beauty of God—at least I think that I am. The Evangelical influence upon my Christian growth didn’t seem to leave room for much beauty. I was taught (or at least perceived that I was being taught) to focus upon missional products and results—experiencing the beauty of God was something that happened on an occasional camping trip or within some mystical spirituality. My whole life was oriented around these products and results. I grew in my character so that others would see and believe in Jesus. I read the bible so that I could be impacted in such a way that would, in turn, impact the world—at least my part of it. My life was full of these 'so thats'. Every thing that I did was so that something better (or more fulfilling, more desirable) would result. I recently was driving in my car and came across a Christian radio station that was introducing their next segment. I heard, “If you are interested in changing your world for Christ then you need to hear this message….” I turned it off.

I am a part of a group of believers who are all young couples. Four years ago the group started as a sort of self-help group for the newly married. While individuals vary drastically within the group, we have collectively (and intentionally) turned our focus momentarily away from the missional goals of life and refocused on the process of life. In fact, having babies, being depressed, switching jobs, moving from one place to another, being happy, reading the paper, paying the bills, hurting one another and being reconciled to one another has become our place in which to experience the beauty of God—the processes of these ordinary things have become the goal of our lives. I am not sure in what ways we experience the beauty of God and I am not sure that we know what we are doing, but we are learning. We sense that somehow God’s beauty and our spirituality are one in the same with the often mundane and ordinary processes of life.

I have come full circle in some ways. I even see God’s beauty (sometimes) in our fuddled attempts at theological frameworks and missional objectives. And yet, I am still learning how to know my self (and my self in relation to God and others) apart from finding such a disproportionate amount of fulfillment in the ends of ‘5-step’ solutions and missional ideologies.

about my first blog

There is nothing more frustrating than working hours on a computer without anything to show for the effort. Well, maybe...but this has to at least rank above average on the frustration scale. I have negative knowledge about computer languages so I we will see how this blogging stuff goes. I may have many frustrating nights ahead...