Eliza Weigelt’s Reviews > The Substance of Things Seen: Art, Faith, and the Christian Community (The Calvin Institute of Christian Worship Liturgical Studies > Status Update

“As Christians, we acknowledge the absolute necessity of letting the ancient Gospels speak to our current situation. This is fraught with risk, but it is also the work of the artist to be interpretive, relevant, & inspirational…this is the work of the interpreter: to engage the Word through the arts, whether preacher, teacher, artist, or poet..this work is essential to shape & sustain a living community of faith.

“This truth is perceived but not expressed in verbal discourse, and it can’t be subjected to the same tests of evidence or coherence applied to such statements. And even though the truth found in art lies outside linguistics precision, if we say that art can be true, then we must admit that it has the potential to be false.”

“Art simply cannot be evaluated as if it made a dogmatic argument or promulgated a rationally conceived statement of faith…good art is about truth–a truth that transcends visually coded symbols in a catechism or the literalistic reproduction of a biblical story.”

“Artists will and must make art in the midst of tragedy and despite dehumanizing conditions and situations. To make art is to transcend a situation or perhaps even to infuse it with grace and truth and humanity, to tell the story that will dignify its participants. This neither takes advantage of nor offers escape from reality, but rather gives meaning and value to life as it is lived…”

“Like Grünewald’s gruesome Christ that is transformed into a radiant, transcendent one, Serrano’s crucifix [Piss Christ] is submerged in what it means to be human, and in that submergance finds a glowing, golden beauty. This art, like life, juxtaposes beauty and horror, vitality and death…such juxtaposition is telling. Without the ugly, we cannot know that beautiful. With desolation, we cannot know hope.”

“One might argue that the most noble of all works would be those that combined aesthetic beauty with the whole range of human experience, that could both confront and transport.”

“The church is a place for solace and support…however, it is also a place for truth to be told and reality to be faced, for hypocrisy to be exposed and warnings to be issued. We must confess our sin before we can be absolved. And to confess sin, we must be made aware of it. We should not be allowed to settle back…someone needs to shake us up and wake us up, and it’s very often the artists who do that.”

“The traditional can work very successfully, especially if it weaves together elements of the familiar and the ancient, with some flexibility to accommodate the contemporary…good art, like good liturgy, should offer both continuity and challenge.”

“The problem of taste is complex, bound up with distinctions of social class, cross-generational misunderstandings, and changing ethnic and racial demographics. Judgements of taste can become an unconscious means by which elite groups maintain hidden power by making subtle and snobbish distinctions between different aesthetic choices.”

“Church leaders, theologians, and lay persons alike can and must engage culture critically, having the courage of their own convictions, which at the same time being open to challenges and new ideas, even new theologies.”