n e w c h u r c h l i f e : j u ly / au g u s t 2 0 1 5
in human art. The life of heaven, which is
love, is infinitely various and beautiful and
good. That well of inspiration will never run
dry. The loves that come from hell, the loves
of self and the world, lead nowhere good, and
artists need to be careful not to be seduced by
those loves. They must avoid being beguiled
by pride in their own genius or attempts by
others to idolize them.
Not all art needs to be “pretty” or
identifiably “religious,” but there is no merit
in art that is ugly or shocking merely for the
sake of offending or profaning what is holy, as
some contemporary art is. Technical ability
and cleverness are not enough to make great
art; the artist needs humility and an attitude of reverence as well.
As received, the goodness and truth that breathe forth from the Divine
are limited by our own finite human imperfection. In our lives, though – as
in a work of art – that very imperfection, when humbly acknowledged, can
actually add to the beauty and interest of our regenerative work. Clouds have
no light of their own, and often shroud the sun, yet the sun’s light is displayed
with even greater glory than usual when it shines through them. It’s the same
regarding art: it can either obscure the spiritual source of beauty or enhance
our sight of it.
It was prophesied of the Lord’s advent that “the Sun of Righteousness shall
arise with healing in His wings.” (Malachi 4:2) And of His second advent:
“Behold, He cometh with clouds.” (Revelation 1:7) It is a beautiful picture of
how we see the Lord. We can no more see the Divine as it is in itself than we
can look at the sun, but we can see it in the Lord’s Divine Human.
In Him, the “clouds” of imperfection in our finite human nature, which He
took upon Himself when He came into the world, are gloriously illuminated
from within by the Divinity with which He united the Human in Himself.
The rays of Divinity shining through the Lord’s glorified Humanity are like
the rays of the sun beaming through the clouds, which sometimes appear like
“wings” that reach from the sky to the earth. It is those wings that give flight to
an artist’s imagination.
Technical ability
and cleverness
are not enough to
make great art;
the artist needs
humility and
an attitude of
reverence as well.
Beyond Self-Expression
Part of the use of art is self-expression by the artist, and there is a use in that;
but there is more to art than self-expression, and the tendency in modern
times to make that the chief end of art is deadly. Strictly speaking, we have no
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