Art and Faith

“I learned from theologian N. T. Wright to regard the very form of hymns and poetry as central to the gospel message. He mentioned Philippians 2:6–11 as a New Testament passage that is clearly poetic. “It isn't the case that first people sorted things out theologically and then turned them into poems,” Wright observed, “but that from very early on some people—perhaps especially Paul—found themselves saying what needed to be said in the form of short poems.”3 What if the entire Bible is a work of art, rather than the dictates of predetermined “check boxes” for us to get on God's good side? What if we are to sing back in response to the voice of eternity echoing through our broken lives? To be human is to be creative: “The characteristic common to God and man is apparently . . . the desire and the ability to make things,” observed the writer Dorothy Sayers.”

“My friend Lisa Sharon Harper observes in her exegesis of Genesis: “It's important to note that God does not obliterate the darkness; rather, God names it and limits it—puts boundaries on it. The boundary is the light.”

“The word “dominion” (Hebrew radah) has been misused to mean “practicing domination over” or ravaging creation for industrial purposes. But, as Lisa notes and theologian Ellen Davis affirms, a more accurate understanding of radah is “loving stewardship.” Proper stewardship is based on love of the land and its peoples. Proper stewardship is part of our poetic responsibility to Creation. I connect this Hebrew word radah to the Greek word poietes (maker), as I detail in the following chapters. One aspect of our stewardship is to become poets of Creation, to sing alongside the Creator over Creation.”

“in the beautiful writing of Norman Maclean in A River Runs Through It: “My father was very sure about certain matters pertaining to the universe. To him all good things—trout as well as eternal salvation—come by grace and grace comes by art and art does not come easy.”15 “Art does not come easy”: this sacred, God-given impulse, poieo/poiema/poietes, both “doing” and “becoming a poem.”16

It is hard work to live into this generative love, and it is what we are made for: to paint light into darkness, to sing in co-creation, to take flight in abundance. A beautiful native brown trout, or the eternal presence of the Maker in the rushing waters brimming with life, comes by grace, and such is the artistry of the Artist who creates for, in, and through us.”

“Art is another way of knowing the world, and artists are being pushed to the margins because of their intuitive knowledge. Artists know instinctively that no discussion is purely an exchange of information. The moment we start discussing an idea, we use words, and words involve interpretation, metaphors, and expression that stir the imagination. Even the distinction of “right brain” and “left brain” starts to break down as an antiquated notion of how the complex brain functions. We paint using words, employing artistry and metaphors to communicate. We must use integrated language toward knowing if we are to capture the flow of the rational to the intuitive.”