MLeary
Apr 19 2004, 09:22 AM
Here is a transcribed lecture by a professor of philosophy at Wheaton that uses Asher Lev as a really interesting discussion about Christian artists. Thought you may all be interested. If anything, it would be nice to chat about Asher Lev.
I am still split on his conundrum.
Thom(asher)
Apr 19 2004, 01:23 PM
I read this transcript over the weekend, so I am still thinking on it. I am not certain about how much I agree with the assessment of the idea taken from the book as a major theme, however, I do agree with most of the concluding statments.
MLeary
Apr 19 2004, 01:59 PM
"Using art to make the world holy is just as plausible a purpose for art as that of purposelessness.
But making the world “holy” is much more difficult than it seems. It’s easy to think that one has made the world more holy by creating another Christian trinket. The difficulty comes in making make the world holy and yet avoiding becoming a whore—either to shallow conceptions of what counts as “holy” or to the art world itself."
You don't think that he identified the right theme? Or you think he ended up overemphasizing that part of the book? If anything, the quote above was worth listening to the lecture. This guy also has a piece coming out soon in Mars Hill Review on Christian artists and the Christian community that is probably a bit more nuanced.
Thom(asher)
Apr 19 2004, 04:53 PM
| QUOTE ((M)Leary @ Apr 19 2004, 03:58 PM) |
| You don't think that he identified the right theme? Or you think he ended up overemphasizing that part of the book? If anything, the quote above was worth listening to the lecture. This guy also has a piece coming out soon in Mars Hill Review on Christian artists and the Christian community that is probably a bit more nuanced. |
I am still chewing on this and trying not to let the emotional response I had to the book taint my desire to hear what was said and taint my response.
That wasn't the part of the conclusion I was referring to. I did not find Asher purposefully trying to "make the world holy" through his art. He may have been trying to offer the Hassidic community and the secular community an inside look at each other but not for the purpose of holiness. I really see this as a searching novel about places in community and society as expressed through the struggle of an man committed to his art and to his faith.
The part of the conclusion that I appreciated was "..., I should add that I am uncomfortable with the notion of being true to “one’s art.” Perhaps that makes sense, but it seems to me that one can only meaningfully be true to oneself, to another, or to God."
We can only be faithful to one. Jacob Kahn gets that across in his quote and sets up art to be a faith, or truth, unto itself. If we surrender fully to that notion then we place God second to art. This should be questioned, especially among artists who are commited to the Lordship of Christ. If an artist were to surrender to art as their truth then art would be their religion, their form of truth, implying a relative truth in opposition to an absolute truth.
Right now I feel that this part of the book is a bit overemphasized, which isn't an issue since Bruce Benson is making a point but I do not see this as the main theme or struggle, especially if you look at Chaim Potok's work as a whole. There are some wonderful themes of the sacred and the secular and father/son relationships and new ways to approach a belief, or faith, based on being confronted with a new and changing culture. The generation of Jews before characters such as Asher had yet to confront the Western culture and how their faith would live within it.
I enjoyed reading the lecture and wish I could have been there. It was one I did not want to miss. But as I said I am still formulating thoughts.
There are many great issues presented in his works that Chrisitans could definitely identify with and gain a better understanding from.
MLeary
Apr 20 2004, 09:07 AM
Okay, you and I are on the same page. The discussion afterwards went a strange direction, because the question he proposed we discussed was so odd.
But my question is, and always has been, regarding the role of the Christian artist in a public space.
I will just lay out the thoughts behind my question from the get go. "Art" is always a local phenomenon that has cultural implications. An artist will produce a work that gets placed in a gallery that produces meaning for the local community it resides in. This meaning can leak out through magazines and exhibitions, but it starts right there in the public sphere of the artist. And while an artist can create a work that is meaningful and never let anyone else see it, it won't "mean" the same way as it would "mean" if it were in a gallery. "Meaning" is a function of space, and in the case of art, its space is public.
So. We talk a lot about the church as an alternative society, even as a "hidden" society, and the church is for us the focus of theology and activity. That is our church in a nutshell (Life on the Vine, which is informed by Lindbeck, Hauerwas, Yoder, Radical Orthodoxy, Emergent to some extent, blah blah blah.) So the artist in this context exists for the community. The artist functions to produce meaning for the local Christian community both in worship and experience. At Life on the Vine this means that all the artists get together and follow the church calendar (as the sermons do) and produce art that accords to the season. And we produce meaning for the community that accords to the life of the church.
But, here is the rub. Can the artist produce work for the "public" at the same time he is producing work for the "alternative society." And if so, what does this look like. Not theoretically, but practically. If the church is going to have artists, we are either going to find a way to pay them OR find a way that they can be "artists" in the public (read: paid) sense and still function in the Christian community as producers of meaning.
Phew...that is my question, and Asher Lev seems to be dealing with that a theoretical level at least.
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