J.R. Briggs
Attempting to behold the miracle long enough without falling asleep
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Archive of "Culture" Category
Reflections on Faith and Art 10: Listening Prayer
"To work on a book is for me very much the same thing as to pray. Both involve discipline….Inspiration far more often comes during the work than before it, because the largest part of the job of an artist is to listen to the work and to go where it tells him to go" (176).
"…I try to take time to let go, to listen, in much the same way that I listen when I am writing" (203).
What am I listening to?
And is there a direct correlation between an uncreative spirit and an inability to be still and listen?Reflections on Faith and Art 9: The Importance of Community
On page 165 Madeleine L’Engle writes about the importance of community in the creative process:
"But our story is never written in isolation. We do not act in a one-man play. We can do nothing that does not affect other people, no matter how loudly we say, ‘It’s my own business.’ I think that our children are sensing this interdependence and that they would agree with James Baldwin that ‘role of the artist is exactly the same as the role of the lover. If I love you, I have to make you conscious of the things you don’t see.’"
Our story is never written in isolation.
It is the Triune God – three persons, one God – intimately working together in community that created the world. It was God who modeled community in the creative process.
And we follow what he has modeled.Reflections on Faith and Art 8: The Humility of Creativity
Creativity only works if we are willing to be humble…
"Remember – the root word of humble and human is the same: hummus: earth. We are dust. We are created; it is God who made us and not we ourselves. But we were made to be co-creators with our maker."
-Madeleine L’Engle, Walking on Water, p. 157And the incredible trust and humility God has with us. That His creation join him in creating more!
Reflections on Faith and Art 7: Freedom and Participation
Freedom, Calling, Participation
"God is constantly creating, in us, through us, with us, and to co-create with God is our human calling."
We are all called to what Adam did in the Garden: Name the chaos.
"…It might be a good idea if, like the White Queen, we practiced believing six impossible things every morning before breakfast, for we are all called on to believe what to many people is impossible."
It means that since faith is the bedrock of Christianity artists who are followers of Christ should be the best artists of all…but we aren’t – and we have a long way to go.
To trust.
To have faith.
To step out into the unknown.What impossible things can I believe today and how might that foster a spirit of creativity in me?
Reflections on Faith and Art 6: The Creative Spirit
It’s a bit ironic, the timing strangely eerie…
As I’ve been blogging through the reflections of Madeleine L’Engle it was announced that she, at the age of 88, died yesterday of natural causes. Though she wrote over 60 books, she’s remembered most for, of course, her children’s book ‘A Wrinkle in Time.’
Though she has passed, here we continue on, reflecting upon her insights and the connection between faith and art.
The creative spirit:
"In our society, at the age of five, 90 percent of the population measures ‘high creativity.’ By the age of seven, the figure has dropped to 10 percent. And the percentage of adults with high creativity is only two percent. Our creativity is destroyed not through the use of outside force, but through criticism, innuendo…"
-The Politics of Creativity, Finley EversoleL’Engle points out that we must remain child-like which is different than being childish. "Only the most mature of us," she says with an ironic twist, "are able to be childlike."
To be child-like is to be "foolish" enough to actually think that what we are creating isn’t a waste of our time and is a gift to the world in order to make a little more sense of it.
Kids are so creative…but then we are corrupted by comments, looks, smirks, snickers and sarcasm of others. It corrupts more than we realize.
How do we remain child-like but not childish, as we live out the imago dei?
Reflections on Faith and Art 5: Faith, Courage and Creativity
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Creating art takes courage.
Lots of it.
Of the books I’ve written and seen released (this week included) sends me into a roller coast ride of emotions.
In my mind, the Insecurity Gremlin, once locked up and kept tame, breaks free from his cage and wreaks havoc.
It takes courage because it leaves the artist so vulnerable, like you’re taking your clothes off in front of strangers.Madeleine L’Engle:
"I am grateful that I started writing at a very early age, before I realized what a daring thing it is to do, to set down words on paper, to attempt to tell a story, create characters. We have to be braver than we think we can be, because God is constantly calling us to be more than we are, to see through plastic sham to living, breathing reality, and to break down our defenses of self-protection in order to be free to receive and give love."
Simply put, creating art takes faith because you are entering the great unknown.
What better thing to possess as a Christian artist than faith?Reflections on Faith and Art 4: Stories
"Stories, no matter how simple, can be vehicles of truth; can be, in fact, icons. It’s no coincidence that Jesus taught almost entirely by telling stories, simple stories dealing with the stuff of life familiar to the Jews of his day. Stories are able to help us to become more whole, to become Named. And Naming is one of the impulses behind art; to give a name to the cosmos we see despite all the chaos.
God asked Adam to name all the animals, which was asking Adam to help in the creation of their wholeness."
-Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art, Madeleine L’Engle, 45.Later she writes: "Jesus was not a theologian. He was God whol told stories."
Beautiful. How often have I thanked God that he tells stories? Not just any old stories…but stories that rock us, wake us up and pierce us.
And how do we be storytellers of the Story and be creative (and courageous!) enough to see them become vehicles of truth to point to Jesus?
I love Madeleine’s insight on naming. As she writes later: "To name is to love; to be Named is to be loved." Art is pointing at something that is messy and chaotic and giving it a handle. with love. I like that.
Not only did God entrust Adam to name, he entrusted him to create art through the avenue of naming. And in an act of trust, God invited Adam to participate with him in the creative process – to co-create in naming part o the cosmos despite the chaos.How can I participate with God in the creative process as an act of worship? Where am I being invited to co-create in the naming process in the world?
Reflections on Faith and Art 3: The Calling of an Artist
Creating art – and specifically writing – can be a calling.
L’Engle quotes from Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet:
"You’re looking outward, and that above all you should not do now. Nobody can counsel and help you, nobody. There is only one single way. Go into yourself. Search for the reason that bids you to write; find out whether it is spreading out its roots in the deepest places of your heart, acknowledging to yourself whether you would have to die if it were denied you to write. This above all – ask yourself in the stillest hour of your night: Must I write? Delve into yourself for a deep answer. And if this should be affirmative, if you may meet this earnest question with a strong and simple ‘I must’ then build your life according to this necessity; your life even into its most indifferent and slightest hour must be a sign fo this urge and testimony to it."
What does calling (my calling) look like with art and its creative process?
How does this relate to faith?Reflections on Faith and Art 2: The Patience of an Artist
In the first chapter of her book, Madeleine L’Engle writes:
"Someone wrote, ‘The principal part of faith is patience,’ and this applies, too, to art of all disciplines."
Maybe we don’t create and engage in the hard work of art because we aren’t patient enough.
Maybe we’re afraid.
Maybe its because we don’t believe that we can offer something that is of any worth or value or meaning.
Maybe we crave acceptance too much when it comes to art.Reflections on Faith and Art
I’m just finishing Madeleine L’Engle’s book Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art. Maybe you remember L’Engle’s children’s book A Wrinkle in Time, which many of us were required to read in fourth grade.
I am not quite sure why I picked this book up, as I wouldn’t describe myself as a very creative-artsy type, but when I saw it at the library it piqued my interested. Maybe because I am about to have another writing project released to the public at the end of the week. Or maybe its because I am submitting several art pieces (black and white photographs and drawings) to a resonate-sponsored art show in early September (I’ve never submitted anything to an art show before and it took all the courage in the world to do so).
I’ll be blogging for the next several posts about L’Engle’s reflections and insights from the book on faith and art – and (though I am far from being an expert or confidently calling myself "an artist") I will be sharing some of my own reflections and thoughts, too. I have found her words to be refreshing and poignant and has made me aware a bit more of the theology of art and how the imago dei (the image of God) is played out when I create – in big ways or small.
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