The Modern Mind in Art

Modern man is asked by the zeitgeist of the times to live life open-minded and accepting of multiple possible world views and perspectives. In today's pluralistic culture of the West, to believe that there is one correct view on life and morals is considered closed-minded. Relativism in the West opens our minds to multiple simultaneous and contradicting truths. Multiple perspectives on life and truth are valued even if contradicting. This type of mindset can be confusing, but confusion is the home of the modern mind. Instead of confusion one can call it possibility, potential, freedom. In this state though, our perspective on life is much like this painting by Picasso, The Poet. Its hard to know what we are looking at, but one is supposed to be ok with that and find the beauty in ambiguity. This is the mind of modern man, he doesn't know what we are or where we are going but isn't that kind of pretty in itself, just the weird wonder of it? Concrete meaning and definite truths are blurred and blended. What is truth? What is man? What is God? What is reality?

Cubism paints reality from multiple perspectives at once, after all one perspective can't be right. All perspectives at once are true even if this leads to no perspective. This type of painting can be a metaphor for the mental state of how reality appears to the modern man who is open to all-truths since no truth is absolutely true to everyone. Being open to all-truths, even contradictory truths is like having no truth.

Representational art traditionally has one viewpoint. Traditionally societies have had a majority viewpoint. Art tended to have meaning and represented real things and ideas. As in cubism, the modern liberal mind tends to shun a single narrative of truth unless that narrative is that there is no one truth. Ambiguity, open-mindedness, pluralism, "tolerance", is the ideal. I think that is why modern art is so ambiguous and hard to understand. Modern Western society thinks life should be hard to understand, at least a life with meaning. It tends to say that each person makes his or her own personal meaning and no one narrative encompasses all as true.

Then we have abstract expressionism. This type of art seems to promote the idea that meaning is not important in life, only self-expression and freedom to do whatever you feel. The need to communicate ideas and connect to others in a rational way is not important. What seems to be encouraged is the expression of the self at the expense of a shared experience with others with actual understood meaning. Can you think of any people in your life that live this way?











Am I reading to much into art and what its style promotes or can you see that values of a society materialized in the artworks it creates?

My Journey on the Coming Home Network Newsletter

The Coming Home Network featured my story on their June 2015 issue.  The Coming Home Network has been a tremendous resource of encouragement on this journey.

Finding the Vanishing Point: My Journey to the Catholic Church – Conversion Story of Enrique Crosby

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?

Beautiful Churches

Here's a sketch I made after mass today.

It's a drawing of St. Mary's in Mexia, TX. 

Something cool about being Catholic is being able to travel the country and attend any Mass and know the reading for the day and the liturgy ahead of time. Each church has its charm and beauty, but the overall liturgy is the same. 

Here are some photos of parishes I visited for Mass.

St. Edward's in Little Rock, Arkansas. 

This sculpture of Purgatory was at St. Edward's in Little Rock. 

St. Andrew's in Roanoke, Virginia.

St. Catherine of Sienna in Wake Forest, North Carolina.

I still love my little Parish of Saint Mary's though. 

Oh, look at some of the saint statues at St. Catherine of Sienna's. 

St. Peter of Verona. 

Not a statue but a beautiful mosaic of Our Lady of Guadalupe.  

St. Louis de Montfort. 

St. Dominic who received the rosary. 

Comparing Protestant and Catholic Ideas

I wanted to share an informative blog of a woman who is trying to honesty investigate historic Christianity and the claims of the Catholic Church. She is trying to remain neutral since she has come to the point of realizing she doesn't feel Protestant anymore. I recommend reading her series.

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.

The Prophetic Journey of those Who Obey God’s Voice

The Prophetic Journey of those Who Obey God’s Voice:  Facing the Crosses on Our Journey

A revelation about the cross hit me today as I spoke to my friend Paul H. on the phone.  The revelation outlines the prophetic process by which true followers of the voice of God develop.   Paul told me about the great disappointment he felt when his church plant effort failed, and how he questioned God.  He was in this slump for a few weeks until he got his guitar out and worshiped and prayed for a breakthrough.  He got the breakthrough words of encouragement and a few days later circumstances began to turn around when he was offered a ministry opportunity in the same city and given a home to run it in.

The revelation came as I spoke to him about his intense prayer time being a type of Gethsemane experience.  

Every follower of Christ who truly hears his voice and obeys will come to certain crisis moments when everything goes wrong.  This is normal.  This is actually part of the cross.  I hope this message will give you hope to see the resurrection on the other side of each crisis.

The follower of Christ’s voice will walk in these steps.

1.  Pressing in to know God and hear his voice by the Holy Spirit.

2.  God advances his kingdom by asking you to do something impossible and uncomfortable.

3.  With faith the believer advances and jumps in to the journey...what faithfulness and giving.

4.  Things appear to go wrong.  Friends leave, people get upset with you, you are ridiculed and mocked and questioned, perhaps lied about.  

At this point is where people get lost.  Most will retreat in shame and confusion.  Did I really hear God?  Did I do something wrong?  Is God mad at me?  Do I really believe any of what I’ve been saying?  These questions and others like them grip us and if we don’t follow the pattern of Jesus, we can retreat and hide and stop the journey of Glory.

The right response to a crisis moment is the example given by Jesus.  Go to Gethsemane.  What I mean is grab your closest friends and press into prayer like nobody's business.  If your friends fail you then do it alone.  Pray the mess out of it.  Jesus prayed until he sweat blood.  You must pray intensely into the crisis moment.  You will more than likely want to get out of the crisis but you are to say “not my will but yours be done.”  God will strengthen you to walk forward.  The crisis hurts, sometimes extremely bad.  But keep believing because the resurrection will come if you go through with it even in the pain and loneliness.

So the fifth step is:

5.  Pray intensely with friends or alone.

6.  Follow through with God’s directives and wait even when it hurts and appears to fail.

7.  Wait for your resurrection with greater glory.

These seven steps are to happen to believers several times in their journey in life.  We must expect this pattern, recognize it and have hope that we will see the resurrection on the other side of the pain.

Joseph is a picture of this journey and also of Jesus.  He was faithful and each time he was thrown down was a cross/crisis moment.  He stayed faithful and received the resurrected glory afterwards each time.  Finally, he left the dungeon and ruled Egypt.  This is a picture of Christ leaving the grave and ruling the world systems (Egypt).  This is the pattern.  

Learn to love it and expect it.  Face each crisis with anticipation of glory after the death and pain.

Take comfort in these facts:

1.  God will reward your faithfulness.
2.  There is a reason for the pain.
3.  The glory will eclipse the agony.
4.  This season of pain will end and you will come out in glory afterwards probably with scars.

When things go wrong, its normal.  It has meaning.  You are conflicting with the world system.  If you go forward and allow yourself to “die”, you will accomplish the work, the father will “resurrect” you and the kingdom of God will grow.  If we fear, stop, doubt and hide, it doesn’t.  God will reward those who are faithful and go forward in their crisis moments.   These are the crosses that you carry.  Carry them with pride and you will see the glory after each one.