A Pentecostal Art Aesthetic Fulfilled

I wrote in the past about my desire to develop and explore a Pentecostal art aesthetic, a form of principles that express the purpose and state of being of art created in a "Spirit-filled" way. What I meant by Pentecostal was that this art would have a supernatural quality capable of the miraculous and the revelatory, that the artist him/herself would intentionally in a mystical and prayerful way submit to the leadings of the Holy Spirit with the intent that he/she would become a conduit for God's work and that the resulting artwork would be imbued with a supernatural grace to touch the viewer.  Now that I'm Catholic, I believe the word I was looking for was that this art would be "Sacramental", a physical reality that conveys grace to us here on earth.

Looking at the world now through Catholic "goggles", I see that the artwork I was seeking to define is very Catholic. For example, the Catholic mind has accepted the history of religious art/icons that were created in grace by artist and that these icons in many places and times have played a part in supernatural occurrences and protection.

As a Pentecostal, I had been impressed when I heard a story of a woman in California associated with the Jesus Culture movement and Bill Johnson's Church in Redding, CA, who had been healed of blindness when she had walked past a painting created by a prayerful Charismatic. I wanted to see more of this physical creative art releasing the supernatural. I wanted to explore and define this phenomenon of art and the supernatural. This issue has long been a part of Catholic Church history. This is very much the historic Catholic understanding of the arts. Why was I trying to recreate the wheel as though it was a new phenomenon?

For one example of a supernatural work of grace being associated with an artwork, read about the Black Madonna of Czestochowa. There are many more examples of such occurrences, they may just not fit in with typical Protestant theology. A picture of Mary or a Saint releasing a miracle, well I would just have assumed it was demonic to lead the world into idolatry of the art object and away from true Protestant theology. One has to deal with the anti-Catholic mindset to see with clarity the beauty of grace working through art, or else one will overlook these historic occurrences as demonic and only look to the modern occurrences of miracles associated with art created by Protestants that fit Protestant theology, and like I was, will be left thinking this is a new phenomenon yet to be explored. 

A warning to the Charismatic artists, or Prophetic Artists as we used to call each other. Be careful in your journey to see grace work through physical artworks because you are moving into a theology of Sacraments and Sacramentals that is very close to a Catholic understanding of matter and grace. Protestants have tended historically to view an either/or, Grace vs. Matter conflict, and Catholics a Grace and Matter relationship of Grace perfecting matter. Pentecostals may believe that the Holy Spirit may work through anointing oil or a handkerchief that has been prayed over, but has to stretch their minds to believe in God working through a man made art object.

I look forward to exploring this topic more in depth and studying miracles associated with and around art objects.

What are stories of God supernaturally working through art that you have heard of?

A Charismatic Theological Aesthetic

I'm working on developing a Charismatic Theological Aesthetic. What is that? Sometimes Pentecostal/Charismatics are stereotyped as those who are blindly emotional in their beliefs, or those who base all on experience and not on clear study of Biblical principles. Theological Aesthetics are the study of beauty and art from a Christian and Biblical viewpoint. If one wants to understand the discussion about this topic, one must go back throughout history to the early church, no, even further back to Hebrew culture and follow the discussion about how God's people relate to the arts and consider what beauty is.

Many great discussions and writing have occured over history on this topic, some for, some against art in church and worship, but because Pentecostal and Charismatic theology is so new, 1900's, there has not been much time to develop this theme, and I think it is time.

What makes a charismatic theological aesthetics different from previous discussions about the issue of Christianity and the Arts? There is a particular interest and emphasis on the fact that the Holy Spirit lives inside believers powerfully and seeks to express glory to God and will use supernatural manifestations to get the witness out. The discussion has to do with creatives, musicians, dancers, singers, visual artists, poets, actors, ect., desiring to be filled with the creativity of God and supernatural expression of God. These creatives then, with the enabling of the Spirit's power, seek to give worship to God through the arts as well as release prophetic declaration and expression to the community. This will take skill in whatever artform, as well as submission, humility, hunger and faith.

The Charismatic theological aesthetic will encorporate much of what has been said before on these issues but will also include a strong emphasis on the power of God miraculously working through the artists as prophetic messengers. I am not alone in feeling that the Holy Spirit is emphasising the arts in this season. Below is Kelly Korsman painting and worshiping. This is a new era with much wilderness to explore. There is no limit to our infinite God's creativity and mystery.

Mexia ISD Art Wars Show

We had the annual Mexia ISD Art Show on March 29th. The title for the show was Art Wars.