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0 CommentsIn the last few years, a number of scholars have returned to the ancient question: What does it mean to be made in the image of a Creator-God? What is the significance of bearing the image of a God who did not simply put humankind on dry, desolate ground, but established them in a garden that anticipated an eschatological city, commissioning them to cultivate the earth? As James Davison Hunter points out in To Change the World (Oxford, 2010), it was and is God's "intention that human beings both develop and cherish the world in ways that meet human needs and bring glory and honor to him. In this creative labor, we mirror God's own generative act and thus reflect our very nature as ones made in his likeness." Humans are "by divine intent . . . world-makers."
Andy Crouch also highlights this quality of humankind as world-makers when, in Culture Making (InterVarsity, 2008), he defines culture as what we make of the world. Culture, as Crouch extrapolates, is both how we interpret and think about the world and it is also our own engagement with the tangible stuff of our lives, the raw material out of which we are compelled literally to make something.At MacLaurin we recognize that the arts are an important means of "world-making," and thus there are ways we can engage the arts (whether as practitioners, patrons, or everyday appreciators) that reflect the imago Dei in us and bring to God glory and honor. While the term creator speaks to the Almighty alone, the one who brings something out of nothing, as John Paul II put it in his 1999 Letter to Artists, the one who "bestows being itself," humanity is called to shape what has been created and in this way to exercise wise, prudent dominion. As image bearers, we all reflect God's character as creator when we make things with the stuff of this world. But those who are called to the vocation of artist specifically are called to cultivate these gifts as a means to glorifying and honoring God the Maker of all things as well as serving others by helping them to imagine new possibilities for human flourishing.
Thus, it brings me great pleasure to announce that the MacLaurin Institute will host its first-ever Arts Exhibit and Symposium:
Interstice: Intervening Space
A Conversation on Christianity and Art
December 2-7, 2011
Hennes Art Company, Minneapolis
An interstice is a space between, a gap or break in something generally continuous, and synonymous with words like intermediary, aperture, crevice, and opening. The concept of interstice resonates well with MacLaurin's mission and identity as the Institute serves as a "space between" church and university. Moreover, the Christian faith itself is rife with intervening spaces including those pertaining to prayer, eschatology, (e.g., the "already-but-not-yet" of the Christian experience), Jesus' reconciliation of God and humankind through the cross, and even the tensions between faith and doubt. It's not surprising that the Christian faith addresses such themes, for they are also profoundly human concerns. Thus, on a sociological level, we see intervening spaces between peoples, cultures, religions, and nationalities. Finally, artists often find themselves serving as intermediaries in society, giving expression to the cultural ferment that exists in such spaces.
We at MacLaurin are excited to partner with Christian artists in the Twin Cities to begin this important conversation between church, university, and the arts.
The Exhibit and Symposium has four related goals:
- to promote a public dialogue on the theological significance of the arts and the importance of the arts to the church.
- to gather together (and feature the work of) the local Christian arts community, including mature and emerging artists.
- to open a conversation within the university community on the historic and contemporary significance of Christianity for artistic endeavor
- financially to support the work of local Christian artists and the work of the Institute in bridging church and university in the Twin Cities.
Stay tuned for more information.
Suggested Bibliography
Makoto Fujimura, Refractions: A Journey of Faith, Art, and Culture (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2009).
Philip Graham Ryken, Art for God's Sake: A Call to Recover the Arts (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2006).
Elaine Scarry and Moshe Safdie, "The Return of Beauty." NPR Interview. The Connection (March 27, 2002).
W. David O. Taylor, ed., For the Beauty of the Church: Casting a Vision for the Arts (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2010).
Nicholas Wolterstorff, Art in Action: Toward a Christian Aesthetic (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1980).
Ruth Pszwaro, MacLaurin Institute
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