While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
Much of the art experience is seen through the eyes of another, into a realm that only the imagination can fathom, an eternal place where the concepts that transcend this existence can be seen, touched, heard and even felt. We can enter this place, by walking through the doors of a museum or past the ticket counters of a theater, but what happens here is sacred, something only the soul can explain.
Art is the door to this realm and musing it keys, our bodies join their parts in a reverent act of submission to this realms splendor. The world in which we dwell informs our minds to manifest what we see, but the place that extends beyond this temporal life informs our souls to manifest what is not seem. When we quiet our mind and join with our soul, we can humbly enter this realm of imagination and creation. This place is a home; one where we can learn to understand the mystery of what is, by experiencing the essence of what could be. It is in this consecrate sanctuary that we can meet our Lord. It may not be beneath the portraits of Mary or the shadow of the somberly hung cross or in the wooden pews that pay tribute to the many before us. Instead, it may be in a dimly lit coffee shop or beer soaked pub, a corner window or mountain cabin, wherever we find ourselves, the minds ability to muse and create ever abides, a sanctuary in which to meet our Lord .
The imagination is the forum that endows our gift to create; a gift that we can use to conceptualize and commune with our Lord. Much of the arts are centered on ethereal concepts and emotions such as love, death, and the human condition. Thus, the artisan spend hours in the process of musing, a practice which has primarily been reserved for the community of the creative and artistic in background. However, as Christians we all represent a community of artisans with unique insights, we must learn to exist as more than just consumers of media by furthering our passion for the creative and imaginative manifesting of the abstract. We exist on a plain so clearly removed from the residence of our father, yet his hand can be clearly seen in all we experience throughout our lives, if only we would endeavor to discern the potters fingerprint in all of creation.
A painter will sit in a picturesque vista musing over every minute detail of the scene, seeking to evoke a certain spark of desire that forces him to translate what he sees onto his canvas. The painter’s goal is not mere facsimile, even a photographers is not limited to such sterile and restrictive objectives. The goal of the artisan is to convey, evoke, and instill all of the emotion, sensation and substance he seeks to impart. An artisan is not a replicator of what is or was, existing as more than a window, the artisan is as a spiritual guide. An artisan pleads for your attention, seeking to influence and compel you to see what never was, to imagine and explore elements beyond what has or ever will be. He transcends the walls of time, the boundaries of our physical realm, entering us into what lies beneath, beyond and behind. The creation of the artist’s hand is a treasure from beyond the temporal. As Christians this should enthrall and enchant us, for when we look through the windows of art we are privileged to discern what is not readily understood, having been imparted with the rubric of truth. Endowed with the gift of the Holy Spirit the greatest critic and explicator of what lies in abstraction he extends his hand as we cross over the threshold into our souls. A luxury not extended to the slaves of conjecture, who when looking through the lens of the artists work, are constrained by the vessel of their own depravity. Thus, feeling, sensing and consuming, yet never understanding. Certainly even as believers much of what we see has not been revealed and deciphered by the Spirit, but when He does bless us with His gift of revelation, it is a rare opportunity of understanding that only He provides.
If we are to unite the world in which live with the spiritual realm of which we are aware, we must be practiced and versed in the arts. How can our human minds provide the forum for such abstract concepts as eternity, deity and all things spiritual, without a thriving and strong sense of imagination? Our minds are the canvas upon which our soul manifests the Spirits revelation. The scriptures as our guide for what is not seen, our soul as a guide for what is not felt, our mind as a guide for what is not known, if they do not all join together under the guidance of our creator, we can not conjure an image of Him upon which to reflect and worship.
Burdened with the task of artistic exploration, whether creation or observation, we must feel the scriptural and spiritual imposition on our souls to engage this realm. The spirit implores us to employ or scripturally informed discernment and spiritually imparted wisdom to encounter God in new and visceral forms. His nature and creation await our discovery, if we are to meet God in this realm, we must enhance our interaction in the sphere of imagination, by developing our ability to muse and to interpret the arts.
“I am calling it the Holy Theatre for short, but it could be called The Theatre of the Invisible-Made-Visible: the notion that the stage is a place where the invisible can appear has a deep hold on our thoughts. We are all aware that most of life escapes our senses: a most powerful explanation of the various arts is that they talk of patterns that we can only begin to recognize when they manifest themselves as rhythms or shapes.”1
I think that our hesitance and lack of substantial Holy theater within the church comes from a fear that we dare not manifest the unseen. We presume that we might not do it justice that we may pervert it in some way, adulterating the Holy and blemishing the very thing we seek to exalt. It seems as though we believe that our preeminent, Holy, transcendent and immutable Lord is some how impressionable. This misplaced concern for the integrity of an invisible being, comes not from a legitimate concern to defend that, which needs preserving, but from a trembling fear that our perceptions of this invisible world are not only fragile, but sadly misconceived. Thus, I would relish the opportunity to see a reinstatement of Holy theater within our churches, not as mere entertainment or catalysts for worship, but to question the very nature of what we manifest within our minds regarding the unseen. Bringing into question all of our ill-conceived caricatures of the transcendent that have been callously passed down to us without critique.
1 Peter Brook, The Empty Space: A Book About the Theatre: Deadly, Holy, Rough, Immediate (New York, NY: Touchstone, 1968).
Much of the art experience is seen through the eyes of another, into a realm that only the imagination can fathom, an eternal place where the concepts that transcend this existence can be seen, touched, heard and even felt. We can enter this place, by walking through the doors of a museum or past the ticket counters of a theater, but what happens here is sacred, something only the soul can explain.
Art is the door to this realm and musing it keys, our bodies join their parts in a reverent act of submission to this realms splendor. The world in which we dwell informs our minds to manifest what we see, but the place that extends beyond this temporal life informs our souls to manifest what is not seem. When we quiet our mind and join with our soul, we can humbly enter this realm of imagination and creation. This place is a home; one where we can learn to understand the mystery of what is, by experiencing the essence of what could be. It is in this consecrate sanctuary that we can meet our Lord. It may not be beneath the portraits of Mary or the shadow of the somberly hung cross or in the wooden pews that pay tribute to the many before us. Instead, it may be in a dimly lit coffee shop or beer soaked pub, a corner window or mountain cabin, wherever we find ourselves, the minds ability to muse and create ever abides, a sanctuary in which to meet our Lord .
The imagination is the forum that endows our gift to create; a gift that we can use to conceptualize and commune with our Lord. Much of the arts are centered on ethereal concepts and emotions such as love, death, and the human condition. Thus, the artisan spend hours in the process of musing, a practice which has primarily been reserved for the community of the creative and artistic in background. However, as Christians we all represent a community of artisans with unique insights, we must learn to exist as more than just consumers of media by furthering our passion for the creative and imaginative manifesting of the abstract. We exist on a plain so clearly removed from the residence of our father, yet his hand can be clearly seen in all we experience throughout our lives, if only we would endeavor to discern the potters fingerprint in all of creation.
A painter will sit in a picturesque vista musing over every minute detail of the scene, seeking to evoke a certain spark of desire that forces him to translate what he sees onto his canvas. The painter’s goal is not mere facsimile, even a photographers is not limited to such sterile and restrictive objectives. The goal of the artisan is to convey, evoke, and instill all of the emotion, sensation and substance he seeks to impart. An artisan is not a replicator of what is or was, existing as more than a window, the artisan is as a spiritual guide. An artisan pleads for your attention, seeking to influence and compel you to see what never was, to imagine and explore elements beyond what has or ever will be. He transcends the walls of time, the boundaries of our physical realm, entering us into what lies beneath, beyond and behind. The creation of the artist’s hand is a treasure from beyond the temporal. As Christians this should enthrall and enchant us, for when we look through the windows of art we are privileged to discern what is not readily understood, having been imparted with the rubric of truth. Endowed with the gift of the Holy Spirit the greatest critic and explicator of what lies in abstraction he extends his hand as we cross over the threshold into our souls. A luxury not extended to the slaves of conjecture, who when looking through the lens of the artists work, are constrained by the vessel of their own depravity. Thus, feeling, sensing and consuming, yet never understanding. Certainly even as believers much of what we see has not been revealed and deciphered by the Spirit, but when He does bless us with His gift of revelation, it is a rare opportunity of understanding that only He provides.
If we are to unite the world in which live with the spiritual realm of which we are aware, we must be practiced and versed in the arts. How can our human minds provide the forum for such abstract concepts as eternity, deity and all things spiritual, without a thriving and strong sense of imagination? Our minds are the canvas upon which our soul manifests the Spirits revelation. The scriptures as our guide for what is not seen, our soul as a guide for what is not felt, our mind as a guide for what is not known, if they do not all join together under the guidance of our creator, we can not conjure an image of Him upon which to reflect and worship.
Burdened with the task of artistic exploration, whether creation or observation, we must feel the scriptural and spiritual imposition on our souls to engage this realm. The spirit implores us to employ or scripturally informed discernment and spiritually imparted wisdom to encounter God in new and visceral forms. His nature and creation await our discovery, if we are to meet God in this realm, we must enhance our interaction in the sphere of imagination, by developing our ability to muse and to interpret the arts.
“I am calling it the Holy Theatre for short, but it could be called The Theatre of the Invisible-Made-Visible: the notion that the stage is a place where the invisible can appear has a deep hold on our thoughts. We are all aware that most of life escapes our senses: a most powerful explanation of the various arts is that they talk of patterns that we can only begin to recognize when they manifest themselves as rhythms or shapes.”1
I think that our hesitance and lack of substantial Holy theater within the church comes from a fear that we dare not manifest the unseen. We presume that we might not do it justice that we may pervert it in some way, adulterating the Holy and blemishing the very thing we seek to exalt. It seems as though we believe that our preeminent, Holy, transcendent and immutable Lord is some how impressionable. This misplaced concern for the integrity of an invisible being, comes not from a legitimate concern to defend that, which needs preserving, but from a trembling fear that our perceptions of this invisible world are not only fragile, but sadly misconceived. Thus, I would relish the opportunity to see a reinstatement of Holy theater within our churches, not as mere entertainment or catalysts for worship, but to question the very nature of what we manifest within our minds regarding the unseen. Bringing into question all of our ill-conceived caricatures of the transcendent that have been callously passed down to us without critique.
1 Peter Brook, The Empty Space: A Book About the Theatre: Deadly, Holy, Rough, Immediate (New York, NY: Touchstone, 1968).