I’m up on Orcas Island at an art and faith conference called Kindlings Fest. I wanted to take time to put this post up and share the talk I gave last Sunday at my Dad’s church in Edmonds. Most of this is based on portions of my thesis, but I didn’t go into any of the art stuff. Take a look and let me know what you think. This is the first time I’ve talked about anything like this so I’d love to hear your feedback! (EDIT: I should clarify, this is not just the first time I’ve given this talk, it’s the first time I’ve done any kind of public speaking outside of school. So I really would love your feedback! )

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re_defining justice

Filed under: life by Jonathan on Thursday, 28 July 2011
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Paulo Freire, in his book ‘Pedagogy of the Oppressed’, writes:

“Yet it is–paradoxical though it may seem–precisely in the response of the oppressed to the violence of their oppressors that a gesture of love may be found. Consciously or unconsciously, the act of rebellion by the oppressed can initiate love. Whereas the violence of the oppressors prevents the oppressed from being fully human, the response of the latter to this violence is grounded in the desire to pursue the right to be human. As the oppressors dehumanize others and violate their rights, they themselves also become dehumanized. As the oppressed, fighting to be human, take away the oppressors’ power to dominate and suppress, they restore to the oppressors the humanity they had lost in the exercise of oppression.

It is only the oppressed who, by freeing themselves, can free their oppressors.”

As we reflect on the birth of our own country, and watch the wave of change sweeping through the Arab world, it is worth remembering a revolution which achieves true justice not only brings an end to the current oppression, but also provides opportunities for the oppressors to be reconciled to the oppressed.

Filed under: justice by Jonathan on Tuesday, 5 July 2011
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“When I look back on my own conversion, I cannot credit a gospel tract or an altar call or an exposition of John 3:16. I had encountered these things many times over in childhood and had learned to mistrust them because of the lies my church in the fundamentalist South had told me. Rather, nature, classical music, and romantic love formed the channel of grace that awakened my senses to perception of God. Through that channel I came to believe, first in a good world and then in a good God. It is a terrible thing to feel gratitude and have no one to thank, to feel awe and have no one to worship. Gradually, prompted by beauty and by art, I returned to the castoff faith of my childhood.”

-Philip Yancy

Filed under: life by Jonathan on Thursday, 16 June 2011
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“Like most writers who have been subjected to the editing process, [Thomas] Jefferson thought the final text [of the Declaration of Independence] depressingly inferior to his original, and, like most writers, he was wrong.”
-Bill Bryson, Made in America: An Informal History of the English Language in the United States

Filed under: life by Jonathan on Wednesday, 15 June 2011
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I need to be working on revising my thesis but I’ve been putting it off since finishing school. This is bad. I’m posting the final section of my thesis here along with the full text which you can download in the hope that you’ll help keep me accountable to work on this.

Anyway, below is the final section on the artist as prophet. You can download the full text of my thesis here.

If you take the time to read it please let me know what you think!

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Art, Faith and Justice: The Artist as Prophet

Pastor Mark Labberton describes the failure of the church to be caught up in the pursuit of justice as a “…failure of imagination, an inability to see and be gripped by a vision of a world of justice. Why is this so lacking? It results from a world that forgets God and his vision” (Labberton, 2007). He goes on to write about reading the Bible with a “majority culture” mindset. “We read the Bible simply looking for some encouragement to go on about our lives, with all the security and prerogatives we already have, and add a little Jesus on top” (Labberton, 2007). The “majority” western culture we live in has become the lens through which we read the Gospel. The church, especially in the West has become about us; about God loving us, about God saving us, about Jesus dying for us.

Those things are all true, but we have forgotten that our faith is about more than the personal, individual relationship we have with God. Christ calls us to care for the widows, orphans and aliens. We are called to be in solidarity with the oppressed. Some even go so far as to say God has a “preferential option” for the poor. We have lost our imagination for a world where God calls us to seek justice for these groups.

Artists can have the most impact on the church and in culture by working to restore this imagination for justice we have lost. Greg Wolfe, editor of Image Journal, wrote, “Like the biblical prophet, the artist is often an outsider, one who stands apart and delivers a challenge to the community” (Wolfe, 1997). When Christian artists are functioning as prophets, we are calling the church back to the role God intended—back to Jesus in Luke 4 when he reads the scrolls and announces the beginning of his ministry. Professor James Empereur (1987) wrote:

What happens is that we the viewers assume the role of the witnesses. … We are drawn into a confrontation and now have the possibility for transformation. There is a death to our old understandings and the emergence of a new awareness. Like the parables of Jesus Christ we are shocked into new understanding. Visual art as parable refers to the way it promotes imaginative living, the kind of living which is presupposed by a justice-oriented spirituality. Such a spirituality creates the proper context for the transformation of the world. This is the way that art does justice.

If the church expects to be a transformative influence in the world, artists play an essential role.

Some artists may be concerned with what incorporating justice themes into their work might look like, and rightfully so. It is easy for art to be overcome by its intended message and descend into realm of propaganda. Robin Jensen, a professor at Vanderbelt University, makes a distinction between propaganda and what she calls “prophetic art.” Jensen wrote:

We have to be careful, however, to discern the difference between prophetic art and propaganda, which, depending on the viewer’s ideology, might amount to the same thing. Any “message art” can be superficial and sloganeering… the difference between propaganda and prophecy is that the latter opens up a conversation and refrains from prescribing a single response. The goal of the prophet is to call forth personal transformation, not to sell a particular product or idea.

The way for artists to incorporate justice into their art is by taking on the mantel of prophet. This is not a call that should be taken lightly, but it offers the most profound opportunity for change.

Art that does justice is about the relationship between the artist, the work and the audience. The artist does not demand a specific response from the audience. They simply call the audience to react. Art that pushes the audience to a predetermined course of action is propaganda. Justice, remember, is a relationship. R.G. Collingwood wrote, “The artist must prophesy not in the sense that he foretells things to come, but in the sense that he tells his audience, at the risk of their displeasure, the secrets of their own hearts” (Turner, 2001, p. 77). As artists create works that are justice themed, they will sometimes challenge the worldview and accepted norms of some people. Artists may receive push back from the audience. It would be easy to write off these criticisms as irrelevant because clearly the artist has been inspired by God to create these works! This is the absolute wrong attitude for the artist!

While artists should not back down from claiming divine inspiration, they should also humbly submit their works to the audience and be willing to shepherd people through the work. As Collingwood wrote, we should be calling out truths people already have deep in their own hearts. We cannot, in the words of David Taylor, drop an “art bomb” that offends or confuses them, feel proud of what we have done in the “name of Christ” and then run away (Taylor, 2009). Far too much of the damage in the relationship between the church and artists has come from artists who, when facing rejection or criticism, have created increasingly provocative art. They measured their impact by outrage rather than by transformed hearts. The tragic result is that it only becomes more difficult for artists operating inside the church to encourage those around them to engage with meaningful and profound art that challenges their paradigms. While the prophets did at times take extreme action in reminding Israel of its divine appointment, it was always for a purpose. Prophets did not seek spectacle for spectacle’s sake.

Finally, incorporating justice themes into their work does not necessitate artists completely scrapping their current work or style. Just as prophets all have their own issues, voice and style, so artists can retain their style and voice when creating prophetic art. Looking through the Old Testament, even though all prophets spoke only the words God told them to, they all had their own distinct styles and messages. Some were more heavily focused on justice and calling Israel back to God. Some were more focused on giving encouragement to Israel while they were in exile. Some wrote using apocalyptic imagery while others used poetry and song. There was no one “right style” for a prophet to use. Greg Wolfe wrote, “The prophets of old employed many of the same tricks used by writers and artists: lofty rhetoric, apocalyptic imagery, biting satire, lyrical evocations of better times, and subversive irony. To be sure, the true prophet came not to proclaim his own message, but that of the Lord” (Wolfe, 1997). This is our calling as artists: To create works, inspired by faith, calling people to right relationship with each other and God.

Filed under: Art, Church by Jonathan on Friday, 10 June 2011
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