Hi, this is Jeff Kursonis from Communion of the arts. I thought I would bring some clarity and definition to certain things I meant in my post, which Laryn so thoughtfully quoted.
I am an artist who is now becoming a pastor to artists. As people of faith, everything we do comes out of our theological beliefs, whether we have fully formed and expressed them, or whether they are just kind of there within us.
I grew up in my faith in an American Christian culture where art was ignored, or divided into sacred and secular, with the secular being almost entirely banned. When I found myself drawn to become an artist and eventually moved to New York City to pursue it full time, I realized that I had a lot of thoughts and beliefs about art that came from my past, but that my present was challenging those and I also saw a lot of others around me with the same struggle. The essence of the struggle is that we felt forced in the past to make sure clear Christian themes were seen in our art, or we were deeply discouraged from going in certain directions. We felt our hearts within us leading us in some of those directions, and so felt an inherent internal struggle and tension, and a desire to not have to mention any Christian theme in our art if we didn?t want to. (so you can be sure I?m not a theologian trying to box artists in)
This whole life experience caused me to begin to think about art, to ask many questions; what is art ?, why is it something that humans seem to do through all time and cultures?, what does God think about it? Did God make it? Does God want us to do it? Does God have any guidelines concerning it? Etc. etc. etc.
When we felt pressure to not do a certain thing artistically, or to definitely make sure we did do a certain thing artistically from our Christian culture, that was clearly a ?theology of art?. I felt I needed to ask all these questions over time, begin to develop a way to live my life as an artist and as a Christian with full vigor and with no contradictions, and this over many years eventually led me to try and develop a new theology of art.
Now, that I have come quite a distance in my journey and feel a tremendous freedom in my art and in my spiritual life in general, I want to help others who are still struggling with some of that past baggage. Now, in my life as a new pastor, I am very much about trying to find ways for Christians to experience the presence of God in their artistic journey ? specifically for career artists here in NYC. I like to apply this in two areas ? first, the actual creative process itself. Alone in the studio creating your art, and finding ways to experience God?s presence as you do that (how wonderful to do the thing you love most, alongside the person you love most). Secondly, in the difficult and even traumatizing side of carving out a professional art career in NYC. Trusting God to open doors for you, make contacts, provide financial resources for training, and medium supplies, etc. We now have a large and expanding community of artists here in NYC really doing it, and I want to encourage them in it.
I really appreciate all the comments here as they will help me further think through and refine. This posting was only my second ?unveiling? of it, and so it has a lot of work ahead in its development. I would encourage you to go and read the entire original post as it clarifies some areas discussed here also. Thanks.
Here are some replies to some comments:
As to my using the Greek concepts of truth, beauty and goodness. I think this is just one of those moments when culture and God align well, and so I borrowed it to be poetic in my formulation. Just as we might borrow a saying of Gandhi, or as Paul quotes Greek poetry in his sermon in Acts. I think we have much to learn from the world around us. Godly wisdom knows how to discern ? I believe syncretism happens when there is no discernment, and the truth from the world overwhelms the truth from God. But at the same time Godly wisdom need not fear being overwhelmed by truths from others beside God. In addition, we are all humans, whether Christian or not, and just as you may find guidance in your life from advice given you by your unsaved parent or grandparent, so we may find guidance from Gandhi or the Greeks.
As to the word ineffable?simply that music portrays something in a way that words may not. Paintings, etc. And of course you have to add to this my definitions of what forms I think art takes (and on this I hold nothing hard and fast, but simply trying to create defined meanings for discourse) So they are: fine art, craft, design. (further descriptions in post) so, ie. Fine art, craft and design are often able to express something that words cannot. (understanding of course that ?words? are an oft used medium in art).
As for the usage of the phrase, ?Theology of Art?; It is my experience that most actual artists are very pragmatic and like working in their medium, and don?t even really need to spend a lot of time thinking about why they do it, or what God thinks of it ? they just want to paint! However, just like school teachers that just want to teach! Oftentimes, they don?t know how much they have been influenced in the minutiae of their daily teaching efforts by all the academic discussion that has filtered down through culture to them. So, I take my place in this discussion as a practical working artist, who also has a side that likes to think about it. And especially given the poverty of the arts both in the general culture because of the loss of it in the public school systems, and in the church from flawed theologies, I think we need to have a vigorous new theology of art! (and eventually it will filter down and help artists in ways that they may not even understand ? along with helping society in general).
I actually think given the above noted poverty in general, that we may have an opportunity through our thinking to literally become leaders in the arts and possibly even help usher in a new renaissance which blesses all.
?True soul of humanity? ? I may work on this more. But read it simply. The true soul of humanity is something that we need to and want to see. We all want to communicate something of ourselves to others ? our true human soul. Some people do this one on one, others do it through their art. One of the most enjoyable aspects of experiencing art, is that suddenly discovered sense that the artist shares something with you. The artist expresses something that you had been feeling within but couldn?t quite get it out, and now it is out! This gets to the core of who God made us to be. We need relationship, we don?t want to be alone. Art is one way we feel connected not only to the artist, but to all the others experiencing the art. ?Oh, I can?t wait to tell Judy about the movie!!? the feeling of being moved by music in a large audience, all together.
This also gets into the whole area of the ugly side of the human soul, and why contemporary Christian art is often not that great, because it is consistently unwilling to describe the human soul, and therefore seems dishonest. (Read the original post)
As to: ?then again, to play the devil’s advocate, if all of life is worship, why don’t we have plumbers up front on sunday, joining pipes?? Which of course seems absurd! Though we can worship in all of our daily lives, the public worship service is something different. The public worship service from the Old Testament to the New Testament has always been done through the use of words (some from God, some from man), Music (all written by man), and physical space (all built by man, sometimes inspired in design by God). Words, music, designed space. All of these are art. When God speaks beautiful words in scripture ? they are not only his Holy Word, but they are art. When we write music for public worship, it is art. When we create designs for physical space, they are art. So, the public worship service has always had at its core art. God has undeniably chosen that humans would worship him by imbueing art forms with the love that flows from their souls to him. We sing to him, we speak words to him, we do it all in a distinct physical space that we seem to want to beautify because we want to honor his presence with that space.
Here?s what I think will change the church radically in the next twenty years: Because all of the worship service is art, which is then imbued with human worship towards God. And because the church hasn?t been interested in art for many years ? it would seem obvious that our public worship services have suffered as a result. As the church re-engages the arts, and we get enough years down the road to have produced a generation or two with vastly more artists in our midst ? the public worship service will be amazingly changed for the better. The result will be more people drawn to worship God!! That?s the churches mission ? go out and get more people to worship God.
Kursonis
Apr 13 2005
09:59 pm
Hi, this is Jeff Kursonis from Communion of the arts. I thought I would bring some clarity and definition to certain things I meant in my post, which Laryn so thoughtfully quoted.
I am an artist who is now becoming a pastor to artists. As people of faith, everything we do comes out of our theological beliefs, whether we have fully formed and expressed them, or whether they are just kind of there within us.
I grew up in my faith in an American Christian culture where art was ignored, or divided into sacred and secular, with the secular being almost entirely banned. When I found myself drawn to become an artist and eventually moved to New York City to pursue it full time, I realized that I had a lot of thoughts and beliefs about art that came from my past, but that my present was challenging those and I also saw a lot of others around me with the same struggle. The essence of the struggle is that we felt forced in the past to make sure clear Christian themes were seen in our art, or we were deeply discouraged from going in certain directions. We felt our hearts within us leading us in some of those directions, and so felt an inherent internal struggle and tension, and a desire to not have to mention any Christian theme in our art if we didn?t want to. (so you can be sure I?m not a theologian trying to box artists in)
This whole life experience caused me to begin to think about art, to ask many questions; what is art ?, why is it something that humans seem to do through all time and cultures?, what does God think about it? Did God make it? Does God want us to do it? Does God have any guidelines concerning it? Etc. etc. etc.
When we felt pressure to not do a certain thing artistically, or to definitely make sure we did do a certain thing artistically from our Christian culture, that was clearly a ?theology of art?. I felt I needed to ask all these questions over time, begin to develop a way to live my life as an artist and as a Christian with full vigor and with no contradictions, and this over many years eventually led me to try and develop a new theology of art.
Now, that I have come quite a distance in my journey and feel a tremendous freedom in my art and in my spiritual life in general, I want to help others who are still struggling with some of that past baggage. Now, in my life as a new pastor, I am very much about trying to find ways for Christians to experience the presence of God in their artistic journey ? specifically for career artists here in NYC. I like to apply this in two areas ? first, the actual creative process itself. Alone in the studio creating your art, and finding ways to experience God?s presence as you do that (how wonderful to do the thing you love most, alongside the person you love most). Secondly, in the difficult and even traumatizing side of carving out a professional art career in NYC. Trusting God to open doors for you, make contacts, provide financial resources for training, and medium supplies, etc. We now have a large and expanding community of artists here in NYC really doing it, and I want to encourage them in it.
I really appreciate all the comments here as they will help me further think through and refine. This posting was only my second ?unveiling? of it, and so it has a lot of work ahead in its development. I would encourage you to go and read the entire original post as it clarifies some areas discussed here also. Thanks.
Here are some replies to some comments:
As to my using the Greek concepts of truth, beauty and goodness. I think this is just one of those moments when culture and God align well, and so I borrowed it to be poetic in my formulation. Just as we might borrow a saying of Gandhi, or as Paul quotes Greek poetry in his sermon in Acts. I think we have much to learn from the world around us. Godly wisdom knows how to discern ? I believe syncretism happens when there is no discernment, and the truth from the world overwhelms the truth from God. But at the same time Godly wisdom need not fear being overwhelmed by truths from others beside God. In addition, we are all humans, whether Christian or not, and just as you may find guidance in your life from advice given you by your unsaved parent or grandparent, so we may find guidance from Gandhi or the Greeks.
As to the word ineffable?simply that music portrays something in a way that words may not. Paintings, etc. And of course you have to add to this my definitions of what forms I think art takes (and on this I hold nothing hard and fast, but simply trying to create defined meanings for discourse) So they are: fine art, craft, design. (further descriptions in post) so, ie. Fine art, craft and design are often able to express something that words cannot. (understanding of course that ?words? are an oft used medium in art).
As for the usage of the phrase, ?Theology of Art?; It is my experience that most actual artists are very pragmatic and like working in their medium, and don?t even really need to spend a lot of time thinking about why they do it, or what God thinks of it ? they just want to paint! However, just like school teachers that just want to teach! Oftentimes, they don?t know how much they have been influenced in the minutiae of their daily teaching efforts by all the academic discussion that has filtered down through culture to them. So, I take my place in this discussion as a practical working artist, who also has a side that likes to think about it. And especially given the poverty of the arts both in the general culture because of the loss of it in the public school systems, and in the church from flawed theologies, I think we need to have a vigorous new theology of art! (and eventually it will filter down and help artists in ways that they may not even understand ? along with helping society in general).
I actually think given the above noted poverty in general, that we may have an opportunity through our thinking to literally become leaders in the arts and possibly even help usher in a new renaissance which blesses all.
?True soul of humanity? ? I may work on this more. But read it simply. The true soul of humanity is something that we need to and want to see. We all want to communicate something of ourselves to others ? our true human soul. Some people do this one on one, others do it through their art. One of the most enjoyable aspects of experiencing art, is that suddenly discovered sense that the artist shares something with you. The artist expresses something that you had been feeling within but couldn?t quite get it out, and now it is out! This gets to the core of who God made us to be. We need relationship, we don?t want to be alone. Art is one way we feel connected not only to the artist, but to all the others experiencing the art. ?Oh, I can?t wait to tell Judy about the movie!!? the feeling of being moved by music in a large audience, all together.
This also gets into the whole area of the ugly side of the human soul, and why contemporary Christian art is often not that great, because it is consistently unwilling to describe the human soul, and therefore seems dishonest. (Read the original post)
As to: ?then again, to play the devil’s advocate, if all of life is worship, why don’t we have plumbers up front on sunday, joining pipes?? Which of course seems absurd! Though we can worship in all of our daily lives, the public worship service is something different. The public worship service from the Old Testament to the New Testament has always been done through the use of words (some from God, some from man), Music (all written by man), and physical space (all built by man, sometimes inspired in design by God). Words, music, designed space. All of these are art. When God speaks beautiful words in scripture ? they are not only his Holy Word, but they are art. When we write music for public worship, it is art. When we create designs for physical space, they are art. So, the public worship service has always had at its core art. God has undeniably chosen that humans would worship him by imbueing art forms with the love that flows from their souls to him. We sing to him, we speak words to him, we do it all in a distinct physical space that we seem to want to beautify because we want to honor his presence with that space.
Here?s what I think will change the church radically in the next twenty years: Because all of the worship service is art, which is then imbued with human worship towards God. And because the church hasn?t been interested in art for many years ? it would seem obvious that our public worship services have suffered as a result. As the church re-engages the arts, and we get enough years down the road to have produced a generation or two with vastly more artists in our midst ? the public worship service will be amazingly changed for the better. The result will be more people drawn to worship God!! That?s the churches mission ? go out and get more people to worship God.