Bird and Key

“Bird & Key” Is flying to a new perch!

2012-01-19T23:39:00.014-05:00

We are excited about our new website. www.birdandkey.com

Feel free to visit and explore!

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General update from Bird&Key

2011-12-04T17:13:00.019-05:00

Hey All,

I had hoped to do a more extensive piece on some things I have been thinking on lately, but having a paper due on Wednesday coupled with holiday activities curbed that notion for now.

I will tell you WHAT I have been thinking about lately, and I hope to write some things on both these subjects in the future. I have been reading a book on "evangelism" during my devotional times of late and it has caused me to think more on that subject...a subject that is quite "taboo" in our culture. So I have been formulating a "defense" of sorts, on evangelism. I don't want to give a defense strictly from the Bible because even a cursory reading of the Bible does a good job of defending itself in that. I want to focus in on the humanity of persuasion....or evangelism...or proselytizing. We hate those words, but I would argue that they are closely united to what it means to be human - perhaps that is why they are hated so much. Frankly we "evangelize" every where, all the time...we just don't admit it.

The other area I have been thinking about is related to the series of talks I have been listening to done by Malcolm Guite on the Inklings...CS Lewis, JRR Tokien (the more well known), Charles Williams, and - the one I've heard the least about but am now excited to read more of - Owen Barfield. The question Guite argues they wrestled with most was the relationship between reason and imagination. This has spurred me to think about beauty and imagination, about reason and beauty, and about art and imagination. I have posted a couple of his talks on our Facebook page (click here to access and "like" our FB page), and plan to post them all quite frankly. I've listened to three and have not been disappointed at all - in fact I just finished the talk on Owen Barfield today and I am on the verge of adopting him as a new literary hero (Click here for the site with the Malcolm Guite talks on the Inklings).

Finally, I thought I'd let you know of our travel schedule over the holidays. We plan to be in the Maryland area for Christmas, New Years, and on into January. We would love to connect with you all to say hello and catch up, so please send us a "Hey you!" I will be speaking at the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Newark, Delaware on Friday, January 13th on the subject of Beauty. More details will be posted here and on our Facebook page. If you are in the area come on by. There are a couple of other possible dates I will be speaking but won't post them until they get solidified. At the end of January (27th-29th) I will be participating in a weekend event called a "Forum on Beauty: Three days of Exploration". I will be doing some speaking, but most exciting of all we will be interviewing and interacting with artists about their works and exploring the depths of all things beautiful. It will be in Rock Hill, South Carolina more details to come (click here for some details).

Happy advent, friends...unto us is born!
Kirk & Sarah

Bird and Key

Googling "Thanksgiving Fine Art"

2011-11-25T17:44:00.005-05:00

The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth (1914) By Jennie A. Brownscombe

Considering the holiday I (Kirk) wondered what kind of fine art existed that was made in the spirit of Thanksgiving. In America the holiday is about 150 years old, but the kind of celebration it is based on, “fall harvest” has been around much longer. So I “Googled” it and found a couple of websites that I thought I’d share with you. Most of the links I surfed were related to education for kids, but even there I found some gems. I liked all the pieces listed in the “Glencoe” site. As I looked at them all I felt a sense of connecting with the history of the holiday in America. Enjoy:

http://www.glencoe.com/qe/qe98.php?qi=2490

http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/links/thanksgiving.html

Of course in America the artist that comes to mind is Norman Rockwell, and you will see a lot of his work at these sites. Sarah and I last year while in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC saw a retrospective of his work from the collections of filmmakers Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. It was a surprising little discovery in a beautiful Museum, one we frequent when we are in town. Summaries of that show are here:

http://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/archive/2010/rockwell/

Sarah and I both hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving!

Peace from Bird & Key,

Kirk & Sarah

The Place of Beauty: A historical and theological observation - Part 6

2011-11-18T00:27:00.015-05:00

This is the sixth and final post of a series on the subject of Beauty, the Art World and the Church. It is based on a paper I did for Dr Charles Mackenzie on Theology and Aesthetics at Reformed Theological Seminary, Orlando.

Gravity and Grace - Cinnabar by Makoto Fujimura

For the last few weeks I have explored the idea of Beauty as related to the Church and the art world. We looked at a definition as well as the source of Beauty, and I argued for a dialogue to be opened between the Church and the art world that would be mutually beneficial. But is there an actual visible expression of this kind of dialogue? Is there a place where theology and art meet? These “diametrically opposed” ideas, one conservative, the other liberal, can they live in harmony? Is there a practical example of an art that is both obedient and transgressive at the same time?

Makoto “Mako” Fujimura has been doing art for several decades. He grew up both in the United States and Japan.[1] He studied in both nations, doing his undergraduate work at Bucknell in Pennsylvania and his graduate work in Japan. The style he studied and does to this day is the thousand year old method called “Nihonga” which essentially means “Japanese style painting.

Makoto Fujimura

Nihonga is a method of painting where mineral pigments and precious metals, like gold, silver, or platinum are used to create beautiful art. The pigments are crushed and mixed with an animal glue and applied to a strong paper called “cloud skin” in English. This process takes a long time with the application of layer after layer of mineral or metal. It is not only time consuming but also expensive – some, including Fujimura himself, would even say extravagant – in price to make a piece of Nihonga. When done correctly and expertly though, the minerals in a piece will reflect and even refract the light causing pieces to change before the eyes. Over time the metals used will burnish and layers may even “come off” revealing different colors and thereby transforming the piece into a new piece of art.

It was while he was in Japan that Fujimura began to experience a crisis that led him on a pilgrimage. His crisis was similar to what the art world experienced in the 90’s, a crisis in beauty. He writes in River Grace:

The problem that I could not overcome with Art and religion is that the more I focused on myself, the less I could find myself. A schism grew inside between who I wanted to be and what I did. I wanted to love my wife, but I saw, more and more, the distance between us. Art as self-expression became a wedge in our relationship. Meanwhile, every day, I sought higher transcendence through the extravagant materials. I found success in expression through Nihonga materials. And yet the weight of beauty I saw in the materials began to crush my own heart. I could not justify the use of extravagance if I found my heart unable to contain their glory. The more I used them, the moodier and more restless I became. Finding beauty in nature and art, I did not have a “shelf” on which to place that beauty inside my heart.[2]

The best example of his crisis is in a story I’ve heard him tell multiple times of when he was studying in Japan. One day a mentor and friend came into his studio to see what he was working on. When seeing a piece that Fujimura had out he exclaimed, “That’s so beautiful it’s almost frightening” and he walked out, leaving Fujimura in the heavy silence of such a powerful statement. Fujimura says he destroyed the painting because he had no ability to connect such an amazing compliment to what he felt inside himself…no beauty at all. How could someone who isn’t beautiful, create such beauty? Perhaps Fujimura was sensing the loss of van Balthasar’s “three sisters”.

It was from a moment like that and his discovery of the poet William Blake that led Fujimura to conclude that the only source of such beauty is God himself – incarnated in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. Where Fujimura’s heart couldn’t carry the beauty and extravagance he created, God’s heart could.

But what is it about his art that is a crossroads of theology and art?

First, you see it in his chosen method. Both the distant past and immediate present are apparent in his work. The school of painting, Nihonga has been around for over a thousand years. Fuimura – in his medium honors the past by utilizing this tradition. But he uses it in a very contemporary way. At first glance his paintings would seem unintelligible because he uses colorful swipes and pooled water stains to attain his goal – a very contemporary style; past and present are together.

Christianity is similar in honoring the past and present. The past is respected because of reliance upon historical record of the life of Christ and even the blessings that God has bestowed in the past[3]. The present is also important to Christianity, living for God and others is encouraged over and over again much like the layers in one of Fujimura’s paintings.[4] The Bible encourages thanking God always for what He has done in the past in order to live in the present.

Second, theology and beauty cross in Fujimura’s work in the technique he uses to progress from an empty canvas to a completed work. Multiple times he has described the method he goes through as a meditative prayer.[5] Many times he has the Bible open and near a piece he is working on almost as if he wants to lift the words from the page change them to a color and swipe them on the paper. He has even “hid” Scripture in his works under layers of mineral or metal where you can try to read them immediately or wait until a layer disappears before you see them (this could take decades or centuries even).

Third, you see the crossroads in the subjects of his work. Two examples come to mind – a series of works he did many years ago and a recent series that was produced. The first series he calls his “grace” series which he completed in the mid 1990’s.[6] Many of these works (and I think others since then he titles with the word “grace”) are loosely based on Simone Weil’s book Gravity and Grace. Weil had her own encounter with God that affected much of her later writings, and those writings have impacted Fujimura’s own ideas that he put to paper.[7]

A more recent series that Fujimura has done that is indicative of a meeting between theology and beauty is his Rouault series. The Museum of Biblical Art recently showed work by the late 19^th early 20^th century painter George Rouault. Alongside Rouault’s work the MoBIA commissioned Fujimura to do paintings inspired by the Rouault works to be shown. Rouault was a Catholic Christian in France who was trained as a stained glass maker but turned to painting instead. His works are primitive, with thick lines and simple subjects, but striking in their emotional expression because of the subjects he chose.

Finally a last example of Fujimura’s work being a crossroads for theology and Beauty is his own words. There are many words I could put here of his writings over the years but these short lines seemed most appropriate as they were written in the days after 9/11 – a time of particular stress for all including the Fujimura’s.[8]

Create we must, and respond to this dark hour. The world needs artists who dedicate themselves to communicate the images of Shalom. Jesus is the Shalom. Shalom is not just the absence of war, but wholeness, healing and joy of fullness of humanity. We need to collaborate within our communities to respond individually to give to the world our Shalom vision.[9]

So Fujimura, by his work and his words, is a crossroads for theology and Beauty. He is remaining true to his conclusions about what is true about the world and yet at the same time fully engaged in the current social climate and how to influence for positive change. The art world and the church would benefit from inviting Fujimura, and other artists like him, into their communities to speak to how beauty, art, and God make for better human beings.

Beauty and its pursuit (art) are important. Knowing where beauty comes from is important – perhaps even essential for human thriving. If beauty only resided in the heart and mind of a human being and nowhere else, then it would be conceivable that beauty would be anything a human being would put their hand to – good or ill.

From a Judeo-Christian worldview the source of all things good, true and beautiful is the triune God of the Bible. If He made all things, then he must be the source of all goodness, truth, and beauty; it is from his being that these things flow. It is from His character that we can find both the objective and subjective aspects of beauty. If there was not a transcendental source for goodness, truth, and beauty then it would be difficult to find any basis for life other than what I think or the next guy thinks or the next guy…or the next. And then all we would have is noise, not beauty.

We believe that what is beautiful in this world…possesses a total dimension that also calls for moral decision. If this is so, then from the beautiful the way must also lead into the religious dimension which itself includes man’s definitive answer to the question about God and, indeed, his answer to the question God poses to him.[10]

[1] You can find his story in two publications one called The Restaurant of the Soul, and the more recent River Grace.

[2] Fujimura, Makoto. River Grace. New York, NY. 2007, p6.

[3] See Luke 1:1-4, I Chronicles 16:8 & 12 are a couple of examples.

[4] See Deuteronomy 30:19, II Kings 18:32, Matthew 22:36-38, Romans 12:1-2

[5] See his recent book Refractions published by NavPress 2009 for accounts of this. I’ve also heard him personally say this.

[6] Some are found in his gallery catalog release called Images of Grace, published by the Dillon Gallery in 1997.

[7] Some of Weil’s thoughts on her encounter with God can be found in her book Waiting for God. There is debate as to whether she was actually a Christian or just a dabbler, I have not read enough of her work to draw a conclusion, but even then it is not up to me.

[8] The Fujimura’s lived in a loft a mere 2 blocks from Ground Zero and at the time his studio was just 10 blocks away.

[9] Fujimura Refractions p51

[10] Von Balthasar, The Glory of the Lord, p 34

The Place of Beauty: A historical and theological observation - Part 5

2011-11-10T16:09:00.008-05:00

This is the fifth of six posts on the subject of Beauty, the Art World and the Church. It is based on a paper I did for Dr Charles Mackenzie on Theology and Aesthetics at Reformed Theological Seminary, Orlando.

The Trinity 1635, Jusepe de Ribera

That being said, is perceiving integrity, proportion, and radiance in an art work truly enough to see and know full Beauty? I don’t think so. I came across many descriptions of beauty from people in the art world that are similar to Nehamas’ quote in the last blog post. Some descriptions were almost other worldly, or transcendent.[1] The latter half of Elaine Scarry’s quote I used earlier ends with a description of Beauty’s immortality, “What is beautiful is in league with what is true because truth abides in the immortal sphere.”[2] If Truth is in the immortal sphere and Beauty is united with Truth then Beauty is also in the immortal sphere.

I have shown some characteristics of Beauty that have their foundations in Aquinas’ short exposition in the Summa. Maritain and his fellow “Neo-Thomists” base their perspectives on Aquinas, and even Fuglie, whom I’ve cited quite a bit, bases his thinking of Beauty on Aquinas. But, what is at the heart of Aquinas’ position on Beauty?

Christus-Ravenna icon

The context of Aquinas’ statements on Beauty is the 2^nd person of the Trinity, the Christ, Jesus of Nazareth. Aquinas saw the source of Truth, Goodness and Beauty as a transcendent source, as well as a personal source, he thought the source was God. Aquinas’ Beauty is theologically based:

Comeliness or beauty bears a resemblance to the properties of the Son. Beauty must include three qualities; integrity or completeness – since things that lack something are thereby ugly; right proportion or harmony; and brightness – we call things bright in colour beautiful. Integrity is like the Son’s property, because he is a Son who in himself has the Father’s nature truly and fully…Right proportion is consonant with what is proper to the Son inasmuch as he is the express Image of the Father; thus we notice that any image is called beautiful if it represents a thing, even an ugly thing, faithfully…Brightness coincides with what is proper to the Son as he is the Word, the light and splendour of the mind.[3]

Aquinas’ definition of Beauty hinges on a belief in God. Beauty is something that is transcendent, bigger than us, beyond but not outside our understanding—rather like God.

Aquinas and the Neo-Thomist – when talking about Beauty – usually did so in concert with Truth and Goodness, together sometimes called the “transcendentals”. Both Truth and Goodness are characteristics usually attributed to God.[4] As I quoted von Balthasar earlier, he believed that the loss of Beauty paralleled a loss of knowing and doing what is good. He elaborated on the relationship of Truth, Goodness and Beauty:

Beauty…dances as an uncontained splendour around the double constellation of the true and the good and their inseparable relation to one another. Beauty is the disinterested one, without which the ancient world refused to understand itself, a word which both imperceptibly and yet unmistakably has bid farewell to our new world, a world of interests, leaving it to its own avarice and sadness. No longer loved or fostered by religion, beauty is lifted from its face like a mask, and its absence exposes features on that face which threaten to become incomprehensible to man. We no longer dare believe in beauty and we make of it a mere appearance in order to more easily dispose of it. Our situation today shows that beauty demands for itself at least as much courage and decision as do truth and goodness, and she will not allow herself to be separated and banned from her two sisters without taking them along with herself in an act of mysterious vengeance. We can be sure that whoever sneers at her name as if she were the ornament of a bourgeois past – whether he admits it or not – can no longer pray and soon will no longer be able to love.

Von Balthasar’s warning about Beauty—though directed at religion (the church)—could also caution the art world. This is why Truth and Goodness are important—because Beauty is important. Scarry called Beauty sacred, unprecedented and lifesaving—three characteristics that seem very close to describing God.[5] This is why theology needs to participate in reforming the art world’s concept and content about Beauty, and why the church and the art world need to be in dialogue.

[1] See Arthur C Danto’s works, and Dave Hickey’s, The Invisible Dragon,

[2] Scarry, On Beauty and Being Just

[3] Aquinas, Summa Theolgica

[4] For Goodness see: Genesis 50:20, Ezra 8:18, Mark 10:18, Luke 18:19; For Truth see: I Kings 17:24, Psalm 25:5, Psalm 51:6, John 1:14 & 14:6

[5] Elaine Scarry, On Beauty and Being Just

The Place of Beauty: A historical and theological observation - part 4

2011-11-04T16:36:00.011-04:00

This is the fourth of six posts on the subject of Beauty, the Art World and the Church. It is based on a paper I did for Dr Charles Mackenzie on Theology and Aesthetics at Reformed Theological Seminary, Orlando.

Thomas Aquinas

So what is beauty?

A good source for characteristics of beauty is Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologica. Several key advocates of the arts in the Church have referenced Aquinas as a guide to thinking about beauty.[1] In the Summa Aquinas writes:

Beauty must include three qualities: integrity or completeness – since things that lack something are thereby ugly; right proportion or harmony; and brightness – we call things bright in colour beautiful.[2]

Fuglie recounts that in the 20^th century while the art world was humming along ignoring the content of beauty, there were several key “Neo-Thomists” who espoused Aquinas’ characteristics of beauty; one of those was Jacques Maritain.[3]

Jacques Maritan

Maritain – in his book Art and Scholasticism – explained Aquinas’ summary of beauty this way:

If beauty delights the intellect, it is because it is essentially a certain excellence or perfection in the proportion of things to the intellect. Hence the three conditions Saint Thomas assigned to beauty; integrity, because the intellect is pleased in fullness of Being; proportion, because the intellect is pleased in order and unity; finally, and above all, radiance or clarity, because the intellect is pleased in light and intelligibility.[4]

What Aquinas/Maritain meant by integrity was not merely an “integrity” consistent with the artists skill and materials, but also the particular time the artists did their art. For example, the art of Picasso had a level of integrity because it remained within the boundaries of his medium…he wasn’t doing multimedia pieces, and the subjects he was creating were expressions consistent with the philosophies of the time and his own personal worldview. Had Picasso done his works in earlier centuries they may not have carried as much integrity due to being out of sync with the culture.

What is meant by “proportion” is in the work itself. Are the subjects in proportion to or harmony with one another within the art work? For example, Picasso’s “Guernica”. At first glance, some might observe that there is little in the work that seems in proportion because everything,—including persons, animals, and objects—is distorted…out of proportion. But remember that EVERYTHING in the work is out of proportion, so there is a harmony or proportion of distortion. Second, there is harmony between the subject and the distorted treatment of the painting. Picasso was portraying the physical horror after the bombing of the Basque town of Guernica by emphasizing some aspects over others. Again, Picasso is showing a proportion or harmony of distortion. Third, there is harmony with the subject emotionally in Guernica. Imagine being in Guernica as this bombing is taking place, wouldn’t the world seem out of proportion as the bombs fall?

Guernica by Pablo Picasso

As for “radiance”, Fuglie states that Aquinas/Maritain gave precedence to this characteristic.# Fuglie continued by quoting Maritain:

This mode of apprehending beauty is knowing “the splendor of the form on the proportioned parts of matter”; or alternatively, “it is a flashing of intelligence on matter intelligibility [harmoniously] arranged.” Maritain implies that radiance or clarity is knowable best when the mind is simultaneously relaxed and alert. By guiding our intellect to a contemplative state we set a “tripwire of anticipation” in our intellect to apprehend the integrity, harmony, and radiance that await our discovery in a work of art – or conversely, that are found to be absent.[5]

So radiance takes into account the other two characteristics. I believe the key point concerning radiance is the “tripwire” Fuglie mentions. Does the work hit you in some way? Picasso’s “Guernica” certainly shows—by history’s response to it—both, positive and negative that it does have “radiance”. I believe truth is certainly integral here. One of the “hits” a radiant work of art must do is hit you as true. “Guernica” seems to do just that.

None of Aquinas’ characteristics of beauty are beyond the reach of the current art world. In fact, they need to be explored and adopted in order for beauty to make its full return. It appears that Aquinas’ “radiance” is not far from the art world’s psyche, as Danto – when asked for a definition of beauty – said “you know it when you see it.”[6] Danto could have been saying that a beautiful work of art is one that hits you, perhaps one that has truth in it. Scarry wrote: “What is beautiful is in league with what is true…”[7] Alexander Nehamas describes an encounter with beauty that smacks of Danto’s statement:

Imagine yourself…on a street, in a restaurant or a gallery, at a party, during a lecture, a concert, or a game. You cast your eyes around, recognizing perhaps some people you know, stopping for a moment to glance at an outfit or two, lingering when you notice people talking to one another, distinguishing, so to speak, foreground from background, those you are especially aware of from others who mean nothing to you. And then, all of a sudden, everything becomes background – everything but a pair of eyes, a face, a body, pushing the rest out of your field of vision and giving you a moment of awe and a shock of delight, perhaps even passionate longing. For a moment, at least, you are looking at beauty.[8]

Nehamas is describing an encounter with Aquinas’ radiance - Fuglie’s “tripwire” – he is describing an encounter with beauty. “Radiance”, integrity and proportion are all needed to truly see and understand beauty

[1] Taylor 103-121, Wolfe, Gregory, “The Wound of Beauty”, Image Journal #56 (Winter 2007-2008), pp3-6, Fuglie 72-74.

[2] Aquinas, Thomas. transl, O’Brien, T.C, Summa Theologiae, New York, NY, 1976, p133

[3] Fuglie p72

[4] Maritain, Jacques. transl, Scanlan, J.F, Art and Scholasticism with Other Essays, 1924, p28.

[5] Fuglie pp73-74.

[6] Fuglie p68

[7] Scarry p31

[8] Nehamas, Alexander. Only a Promise of Happiness: The Place of Beauty in a World of Art, Princeton, NJ, 2007, p53.

The Place of Beauty: A historical and theological observation - part 3

2011-10-28T13:02:00.010-04:00

Head of Christ by George Rouault (1939)

What is significant about the art world’s rediscovery of and the church’s growing interest in Beauty? First, I think it is indicative of human nature. As human beings we long to experience good – particularly beautiful—things in life. The initial paragraph of Father Thomas Dubay’s book, The Evidential Power of Beauty says this:

Every human person is drawn to beauty. A night sky can thrill, as can an exquisite orchid, a Mozart concerto, or a lovely face. John Henry Newman, an intellectual and literary giant, would on occasion weep with delight as he played his violin. The more gifted among us are sometimes so vibrantly alive that even created splendors touch them deeply. Because their receptive capacities to be enriched by and responsive to reality are deep, they grow to a maturity far beyond the usual. They live life to the hilt and themselves become works of art – to borrow a phrase from Saint Paul (Eph 2:10)[1]

Second, is the opportunity for dialogue between two parts of society that have shared little interest in each other for the last 100 years. A few years back I helped run an IAM conference on “Artists as Reconcilers” where Yale Seminary professor Dr. Miroslav Volf spoke. In the course of his research he found out that the then head of Yale’s art department, Richard Benson, had been asked what the relationship between art and the church was. In short, Benson’s reply was that there was no relationship; Volf summarized Benson’s thoughts stating, “art is fundamentally transgressive, religion is fundamentally conservative, the two are at odds with one another.”[2]

Theologian Miroslav Volf

Perhaps they are not as far apart as Benson thinks. The Church and the art world have an opportunity to dialogue about art and beauty and learn from one another – the Church, to learn how to make art, the art world to learn what is the true source of Beauty. As one who believes there is a supreme Creator who has His hands in history, I truly believe this parallel interest in Beauty is not an accident.

At this point it might be appropriate to bring some definition to beauty. This is no easy task as it has been pursued for many millennia, and I for one am not assuming that I could bring any new insight into the matter. Also, our limitation as human beings is not an insignificant factor.

We must accept the fact that we are talking about a concept that may ultimately be beyond our comprehension. However, I am not willing to concede that we cannot know anything about Beauty because we cannot FULLY grasp every aspect of it. I believe we can apprehend beauty, see and understand it, but I do not believe we can know everything there is to know about beauty. This is not unlike the other two transcendentals Beauty is usually accompanied by – Truth and Goodness.

Can anyone really say they know all Truth? Can anyone know all Goodness? We can know Truth, and Goodness, and we can know them truly, but knowing all Truth and/or Goodness comprehensively is problematic.[3] Is it wise to simply dismiss any possibility of knowing Truth, Goodness and Beauty because we can only know part and not the whole? I don’t think so.

I would assert it is the same with my knowledge of God. I can know God truly, I can apprehend Him, but to say that I know Him comprehensively would mean I would need to be God to know Him completely, and that’s just impossible.

Much of the Church may not have been exercising any creative expressions of Beauty in teh 20th and 21st centuries, but they do have the intellectual and theological content on which to base Beauty. This is a great boon for the art world, who seem to lack the ability to define Beauty beyond "You know it when you see it."

[1] Dubay, Thomas, The Evidential Power of Beauty: Science and Theology Meet, San Fransico, CA, 1999, p11.

[2] Go to http://media.internationalartsmovement.com/?p=467 for an audio of this talk by Volf.

[3] When I wrote this paper for my Professor Dr. Charles Mackenzie he told me at the time that he was working on a book about the nature of infinity in science, based on lectures he gave at Stanford some years back. As we discussed this concept he told me when scientists run into a seemingly incomprehensible idea, possibly associated with infinity, they usually give the idea a name and move on in their research and understanding. They see their limitations, but are not daunted by them. Apprehending Truth, Goodness, and Beauty is no different.

The Place of Beauty: A historical and theological observation - part 2

2011-10-21T14:21:00.016-04:00

This is the second of six posts on the subject of Beauty, the Art World and the Church. It is based on a paper I did for Dr Charles Mackenzie on Theology and Aesthetics at Reformed Theological Seminary, Orlando.

"Regarding Beauty" conference cover

As a result of this self diagnosed lack of beauty, the art world began to hold conferences and seminars that addressed the topic (SEE Fuglie). Others, including Danto, wrote of the subject of beauty. However, there seemed to be a lack of integrity to their content. It wasn’t that what they were saying wasn’t true, but—after almost a century of usurping traditional views of beauty—the art world lacked the vocabulary to articulate that which was lost. Fuglie summarizes this well:

Two hundred years of Kantian subjectivity coupled with the spurning of the beautiful by Modernist avant-gardes have left us with an impoverished language for the discussion of beauty or of aesthetics in general. Attendees at the symposium for the exhibition Regarding Beauty at the Hirschorn Museum in 1999 heard a great deal of discussion about the topic of beauty by principle speaker Arthur Danto. But when pressed for a definition of beauty’s characteristics, he was not willing to go beyond the…bromide of ‘you know it when you see it.’[1]

Hans Urs von Balthasar once wrote about what happens when a world loses beauty:

In a world without beauty—even if people cannot dispense with the word and constantly have it on the tip of their tongues in order to abuse it—in a world which is perhaps not wholly without beauty, but which can no longer see it or reckon with it; in such a world the good loses its attractiveness, the self evidence of why it must be carried out.[2]

Whereas the modern art world could claim the loss of beauty as an inadvertent action, the loss of beauty…and art…in the Protestant Church would find a harder time claiming ignorance (but that’s a topic for another day). Regardless of how the art world and the Church arrived at their prospective points, both seemed to have shared the timely rediscovery of beauty.

Art critic Hans Rookmaaker

In the Nineties—while Scarry, Hickey, Danto, and the rest of the art world were tackling this new concept of beauty—seeds of the importance of beauty and art planted back in the 60’s and 70’s by such individuals as Francis Schaeffer and Hans Rookmaaker were finding fertile ground among Christians in the arts. The same year that Elaine Scarry was making her laudable defense of Beauty at Yale, Steve Turner a British poet and journalist did several lectures to groups of artists who were Christians in Nashville.[3] Those lectures later became his book Imagine: A vision for Christians in the arts.[4] Turner, spent some time at L’Abri, the noted community started by Francis Schaeffer in Switzerland. And it was there that he, and others[5] were exposed to a worldview that looked at art on its own terms, in light of God and the Bible. They desired to see art made by Christians freed from the constraints of solely being used in church worship and evangelism as religious tools. Instead, they longed for the work to enhance the beauty of His creation and church.[6] Also, in the Nineties, noted painter Makoto Fujimura—after finishing study in Japan—moved to New York City where he founded the International Arts Movement (IAM). The purpose of IAM is to create the “world that ought to be” through encouraging people to wrestle over issues of art, faith, and humanity. Its rise as an organization has paralleled Fujimura’s—who has become a leading spokesperson for the Church and the arts (but more about him later).[7]

Academia was also a part of this growth in the interest of beauty and art in the Church. In 1997, Jeremy Begbie founded the “Theology through the arts “ project at St. Mary’s College the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. This program—along with his speaking, writing, and teaching—is becoming a strong basis for articulating a fuller theology of beauty as related to the arts and the Church.[8]

Since 2000 the growth of resources and interest inside the Church has grown steadily. Beyond that, a myriad of conferences by IAM, and Christians in the Visual Arts (CIVA) have grown in influence.[9] Books by authors like Andy Crouch, Nancy Pearcey, sociologist JD Hunter, plus lesser known works by TM Moore and David Hegeman contribute to the forming of a theology of the arts. The periodical Image Journal—with the tagline “Art, Faith, and Mystery”—was launched in 1989. This journal and their sponsored events—like “The Glen Workshop” held annually in Santa Fe, New Mexico—are setting a foundation of critical theological and philosophical thinking about art and culture, and are also influential in the production of cultural artifacts…beautiful art.[10]

to be continued...

[1] Fuglie p68.

[2] Von Balthasar, Hans Urs, The Glory of the Lord: Volume 1 Seeing the Form, San Fransico, CA, 1982, p19.

[3] Turner, Steve, Imagine: A Vision for Christians in the Arts, Downers Grove, IL, 2001, p9

[4] Turner p9.

[5] Actor and minister Nigel Goodwin, painter Chris Anderson, authors David Hegeman, Betty Spackman, and Nancy Pearcey whose recent book Saving Leonardo is about the Arts and the Church.

[6] Turner p23.

[7] See IAM website at www .internationalartsmovement .com

[8] Begbie is now at Duke Divinity School in North Carolina heading their “Duke Initiatives in Theology and the Arts”.

[9] A conference IAM did in 2002 in partnership with Image Journal called “The Return of Beauty” was based on Elaine Scarry’s book.

[10] See www .imagejournal .org

"On Beauty" event - Friday Arts Project - Space 157 - Rock Hill, SC

2011-10-14T12:07:00.010-04:00

Hey all,

Just a quick update about last nights event at Space 157 in downtown Rock Hill, SC. Friday Arts Project invited their friends and acquaintances to their studio space for a lecture and discussion on the topic of "Beauty" (with a capital "B"). I (Kirk) lectured for a time and then we had an open discussion. My three points on Beauty were: What is Beauty? Where does Beauty come from? And why is Beauty important? About 40-50 people showed up and our time of interaction was quite vigorous - there was genuine inquiry with responses from one another's thoughts on the topic of Beauty. I hope discussion continues among the attendees.

Our previous post, "The Place of Beauty", is the first of a series I am doing that is the source of a lot of my lecture last night. I would love to hear responses.

Thanks to Friday Arts Project and all the peeps at Rock Hill...thanks for the opportunity. Shout out to IAM for highlighting us on their FaceBook page and Blog.

The lecture and discussion were recorded, and when we have them ready we will post them. We are so grateful for your interest in BirdandKey.

Kirk and Sarah

The place of Beauty: A historical and theological observation - part 1

2011-10-13T12:50:00.015-04:00

This is the first of a series of posts I will be doing on the subject of Beauty, The Church, and the Art World. It is taken from a paper I wrote several years ago for a class I had with Dr Charles MacKenzie at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando.

Nude Descending a Staircase No.2, by Marcel Duchamp, 1912

For the last two decades there has been growing interest in the arts within the protestant church. The voices of artists who are Christians from a Protestant tradition have been present in the 20^th century through such persons as Hans Rookmaaker, Francis Schaeffer, Nicholas Woltersdorf, and the like.[1] But it has only been in the last 20 years that those voices have become more apparent. In fact the increased interest in the arts by the Church has gotten to the point where the questions are progressing from “What is art?” and “Is it important?” to “Who are artists?”[2]

This is significant, especially from a tradition that includes the “iconoclasts” in its history. Nevertheless, if this is a movement that is to have any sustainability, then more work has to be done in the area of theology in regards to aesthetics, beauty, and art. There is still a fear of representationalism within the Protestant tradition, and that fear is not unwarranted. But I believe it should not immobilize the Church, but challenge it to approach aesthetics, beauty, and art with a vigilant confidence.

What I want to do here is explore recent history of the art world in general and their recent “rediscovery” of beauty. I will try to define beauty (as much as it can be defined) and the related theological implications. And finally, I will show how the art of Makoto Fujimura is a tangible example of the crossroads of beauty and theology (probably one of the best examples today).

There are two things to keep in mind while reading this paper. First, as I have done my research on this topic I’ve realized how broad and deep it can and should go. This both excites and perplexes me, especially the number of resources I uncovered. I realize that the rest of my life will be filled with the exploration of such resources as I pursue beauty. This essay is NOT an exhaustive treatise—far from it—but one I hope to continue to add to and adjust for the rest of my life.

Second, I am biased—as I believe all people are. Each one of us looks at the world from a particular perspective, influenced by a myriad of ideas, experiences, and worldviews. My particular bias is Judeo-Christian. I am highly guided by the life, words, and works, of Jesus of Nazareth—the Christ. I believe his life, death, and resurrection have immediate consequences to all parts of life—most especially, as I hope to show, the place of beauty.

In the latter part of the last century the art world began to recognize a discernable amount of malnutrition in its philosophical “bones”. Gordon Fuglie recounts a moment—in the late 1980s, at an art conference of prominent dealers, artists, and critics—where an attendee asked respected art critic, Dave Hickey, what he thought would be the big issue of the next decade—the 1990’s—for the art world. Fuglie recounted, “For some reason still unknown to him (Dave Hickey), he snapped to attention and heard himself say, ‘The issue of the Nineties will be beauty.’ ”[3] This was quite an intriguing statement to make considering the assumed objective of art is to express and visualize the beautiful. Apparently, Hickey was stating the need for something that appeared to have been absent from the art world’s diet for a century.

Arthur Danto, in his book “The Abuse of Beauty” summarized it this way:

The philosophical conception of aesthetics was almost entirely dominated by the idea of beauty, and this was particularly the case in the eighteenth century – the great age of aesthetics – when apart from the sublime, the beautiful was the only aesthetic quality actively considered by artists and thinkers. And yet beauty had almost entirely disappeared from artistic reality in the twentieth century, as if attractiveness was somehow a stigma, with its crass commercial implications…“Beautiful!” itself just became an expression of generalized approbation, with as little descriptive content as a whistle someone might emit in the presence of something that especially wowed them.[4]

69th Regiment Armory Building in Manhattan

This “disappearance” of beauty was also evident in academia. In her book On Beauty and Being Just, Elaine Scarry wrote of “The banishing of beauty from the humanities…for distracting from social justice…”[5] Her book was based on lectures she gave in 1998 at Yale University. She was attempting to make the case that beauty was in fact essential for the carrying out of justice, a case she felt she needed to make in order to teach aesthetics at Harvard where she was a professor. Danto exposed this “banishment of beauty” more clearly when he wrote:

So it was no great loss to the discourse of…art (or beauty) when early Logical Positivists came to think of beauty as bereft of cognitive meaning altogether. To speak of something as beautiful, on their view, is not to describe it, but to express one’s overall admiration. And this could be done by just saying “Wow” – or rolling one’s eyes and pointing to it. Beyond what was dismissed as its “emotive meaning”, the idea of beauty appeared to be cognitively void – and that in part accounted for the vacuity of aesthetics as a discipline, which had banked so heavily on beauty as its central concept.(my note)[6]

Entrance to the Exhibition 1913, New York City

The Logical Positivists started their rise to influence in Europe right after World War I—especially during the 1920’s and 30’s. Interestingly, some art critics and historians cite the Armory show of 1913 as the onset of new perspectives on beauty in the 20^th century—a viewpoint that has been, and is still being found lacking.

to be continued...

[1] See Steve Turner’s “Imagine” cited later and especially Hans Rookmaaker’s complete works released in the last few years.

[2] Barabara Nicolosi, President of the screen writing program Act 1. said this in a speech at an arts conference in 2008. It is recorded in the book: Taylor, David O. For the Beauty of the Church: Casting a Vision for the Arts, Grand Rapids, MI, 2010, p105.

[3] Fuglie, Gordon. edit Prescott, Theodore L. A Broken Beauty. Grand Rapids, MI. 2005 p68. see also Hickey, David. The Invisible Dragon: Essays on Beauty. Chicago, IL. 2009.

[4] Danto, Arthur Coleman, The Abuse of Beauty: Aesthetics and the Concept of Art, Chicago, Il, 2003, pp7-8.

[5] Scarry, Elaine, On Beauty and Being Just, Princeton, NJ, 1999, p127.

[6] Danto, pp7-8.

I'll use Rocks

2011-09-30T15:57:00.006-04:00

The other day a friend told me that the governor of Kansas was shutting down all arts programing for the entire state. You would have thought – from the tone of the statement – that the arts were dying or dead in the Jayhawk state. This kind of thing is not the only time I’ve heard of this happening – for the last four years since our “Great Recession” started in 2007 arts funding seems to have been a victim of scarce finances. I remember having discussions with some of my art friends at the start of the recession lamenting the fact that art programs would be the first to go. It appears we were right.

In 2005 I accompanied my friend, painter Makoto Fujimura to Washington DC to an event specifically designed to connect high income business people with artists in order to stimulate a culture of patronage. Simply put we were inviting the money holders to invest in beauty by supporting artists. During the day-long event, Mako was part of a panel discussion. At one point, a question was posed, “What would an artist do with $10,000 and what would they do with $1,000,000?” I will never forget his answer – to this day it still haunts me and I quote it often where appropriate. After a nervous laugh he said, “In many ways, for an artist $10,000 is too much, and $1,000,000 is not enough.” Frankly, I don’t remember anything else he said at the point and I certainly couldn’t come close to recalling what the other panel participants stated – nothing else needed to be said.

We have to remember at times that there is a difference between art and beauty, between the created thing and creativity itself. These pairs are tied very closely together, but they are not identical. We must remember that art and the created thing are not as important as beauty and creativity.

Our current economic climate is a case in point. All the governments of the world, every corporation and school district could decide tomorrow to defund their arts programs; every penny could be removed from artistic programs everywhere but beauty would not be touched – creativity would remain unmoved.

Why?

Beauty and creativity transcend the paltry functions of cultural structures. They are not dependent on the temporal or the fleeting. If they were, then all of us who are artists or involved in the arts ought to find a favorite seat in our nearest pubs and pickle our livers until we die.

Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologica wrote that beauty must include three qualities: “…integrity or completeness – since things that lack something are thereby ugly; right proportion or harmony; and brightness – we call things bright in colour beautiful.”[1] Many have used Thomas’ three characteristics not only as a way to think about beauty but also as a defense of the importance of beauty for a human being and society in general. Afterall, one doesn’t want to be an incomplete human being. A person wouldn’t want to be out of proportion in their personal life and in the warp and woof of existing cultural institutions. As for brightness – Robert Barron – in his book The Strangest Way – writes of how we need to escape our “taupe existence” – human beings need to avoid a dull life. But some have forgotten the context of Thomas’ characteristics of beauty.

Is it surprising that Thomas’ context was the carpenter from Nazareth, the Son of God, Jesus?

This analysis of beauty is why Mako can answer the money question the way he did. Monetary amounts matter little when beauty and creativity endure transcendently – and for him they are embodied in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. Elaine Scarry once wrote, “What is beautiful is in league with what is true because truth abides in the immortal sphere.”[3] Therefore, according to Scarry’s logic, beauty is also immortal – it will last forever. In the Christian tradition, Jesus is now immortal after his resurrection from the dead – that is both true and beautiful.

You may not agree with me – that beauty and creativity are embodied and sourced in Jesus of Nazareth – you would not be alone in that belief, and I respect that. However, the issue still remains for you regarding the transcendence of beauty and creativity. Where does it reside for you? How you answer will affect how you respond to the increase or decrease of monetary resources in arts programs in national and local levels. If beauty and creativity are not transcendent, then the money would be the only thing that matters and losing $10,000 would be just as unsettling as gaining $1,000,000.

CS Lewis addressed a similar issue in his sermon on “Learning in Wartime”. At the time the issue was martial, not monetary. Should one even bother with learning and education when a war rages and people are dying? The defunding of arts programs falls far short of the death of a human being but the tension is the same. What is the point of pursuing beauty when no one seems to care – and their lack of regard is exhibited by the removal of money? Lewis opened his talk and summarized brilliantly:

A University is a society for the pursuit of learning. As students, you will be expected to make yourselves, or to start making yourselves, in to what the Middle Ages called clerks: into philosophers, scientists, scholars, critics, or historians. And at first sight this seems to be an odd thing to do during a great war. What is the use of beginning a task which we have so little chance of finishing? Or, even if we ourselves should happen not to be interrupted by death or military service, why should we -- indeed how can we -- continue to take an interest in these placid occupations when the lives of our friends and the liberties of Europe are in the balance? Is it not like fiddling while Rome burns?[4]

We are in a similar situation, and we should learn from Lewis’ reasoning. Why should we still pursue good and beautiful things in times of difficulty? Lewis answers:

If you attempted, in either case, to suspend your whole intellectual and aesthetic activity, you would only succeed in substituting a worse cultural life for a better. You are not, in fact, going to read nothing…if you don't read good books you will read bad ones. If you don't go on thinking rationally, you will think irrationally. If you reject aesthetic satisfactions you will fall into sensual satisfactions.

Difficulty does not give society permission to pursue bad art or no art at all; in fact hard times demand more beauty – whether in life or art.

With the loss of financial support from public institutions we ought to approach these times as an opportunity to strive for beauty and it’s objects – poems, screenplays, sculptures, paintings, etc – to thrive in the hands of both gifted and (as most of us are) common creators. Whether we participate in this or not makes no difference. If we ceased creating due to hopelessness it would matter little. In this visible world our lives would diminish in beauty a bit but the unalterable transcendence of Beauty would remain and eventually rear its head like a phoenix from the ashes.

Von Balthasar described Beauty as being closely united to her two sisters Truth and Goodness. He warned that Beauty would not be long separated from her siblings. In fact, she in her exile would take both Truth and Goodness with her in an act of what he called “mysterious vengeance”. A world that scorns Beauty eventually does the same to the True and the Good. Von Balthasar later states that those who lose Beauty are not only unable to pray, but also unable to love.

If Beauty is dependent on an institution’s resources then it is easily lost. But if it is dependent on some transcendent principle, or as I argue here – God, then no amount of an institutions resources matter. They certainly can help – as we have seen over the last several decades – but they ultimately aren’t needed by an eternal Beauty because by definition an eternal Beauty is infinitely resourced.

So I say to you artists, and supporters of the arts to pursue Beauty. When they take away your money – paint! When they tell you it’s useless – sculpt! Use whatever is at hand to create beauty because it IS worth the effort.

As I wrote this essay I am reminded of that passage in the Christian Bible where Jesus in his last days was entering Jerusalem and greeted by throngs of admirers chanting his name and yelling “Glory to God in the Highest!!!” – everyone seemed to favor him. Yet there was a group of leaders there who reprimanded him for the ostentatious display of praise directed at him. It was too much, they said. They wanted the admiration taken away and they told him so.

His reply? “I’ll use rocks.”

Peace,
Kirk & Sarah

[1] Aquinas, Thomas. transl, O’Brien, T.C, Summa Theologiae, New York, NY, 1976, p133

[2] Aquinas, Thomas. transl, O’Brien, T.C, Summa Theologiae, New York, NY, 1976, p133

[3] In her book On Beauty and Being Just

[4] CS Lewis’ “Learning in Wartime” can be found in any copy The Weight of Glory.

10 years ago...

2011-09-11T18:10:00.008-04:00

I had always thought I’d get to the top of them…but it could wait, after all they would always be there.

The morning started like I it normally did for me – reluctant to leave sleep but looking forward to seeing the students. Knowing that I was meeting Paul to collect materials to hand out at Pace University resonated in my mind as I slipped on my shoes and made my way to the subway.

The books, music CDs, info postcards, and special toys were all safely deposited in a self-storage building west of Times Square. Our plan was to meet at the storage, load everything we needed in a taxi and take it down to Pace located three blocks from the World Trade Center. We would hand these materials out to incoming and returning students as we did every year before looking for ways to help students during their years in college…and to remind them also that there is a Jewish carpenter who loved them. So Paul and I met at 9AM.

The first sign for me of anything unusual that morning was the sound of emergency vehicles echoing off the buildings. Normally there isn’t anything strange about this sound in Manhattan, after all there are a lot of people with needs in the City. But what was strange was seeing eleven vehicles pass hurriedly down 11^th Ave, a brief red blur. I remember making a remark like, “Must be something big” or “You don’t see that everyday” to a fellow pedestrian as we both paused to watch the passing vehicles taking the firemen downtown…some for the final time.

“A plane flew into one of the Trade Center towers,” was the reply I got from my brief friend. My initial thought was “Seems like a lot of fire trucks for a small plane” and I walked into the storage center – seems like such a ridiculous thought now, but not at that moment.

Images of old footage of the aftermath of the B-25 bomber that flew into the Empire State Building at the end of World War II entered my mind as Paul and I grabbed a cart and took the elevator to the 4^th floor. Fog was blamed for that accident in 1945 but this September day, as all remember, was crisp and clear.

When Paul and I arrived at our small storage space we began the process of sorting the materials and stacking the desired items onto our cart. I remember being frustrated with the time it was taking to collect a small amount of materials – I think we ended up loading and unloading that cart a half dozen times. When we finally finished we took the cart down the elevator and I waited on the loading platform while Paul went to hail a cab – there was little thought in my mind of that “small” plane that went into one of the Trade Center towers.

That changed when Paul came back 45 minutes later, cabless – that’s too long to not hail a cab on a beautiful, clear Fall day in Manhattan. He said that the authorities weren’t letting any cabs below 14^th Street. That small plane I had in mind? It got much bigger.

We decided we’d head back to our offices in the basement of the Empire State Building and determine from there what to do. So after heading back upstairs and “RE-storing” what we had not taken, we grabbed a crosstown bus on 42^nd Street to take a subway from Times Square. As we approached the Square the “small plane” that became a “much larger plane” exploded into a serious international incident when I read this line march across the Times Square ticker:

“President Bush says plane crashes are terrorist attacks!”

When we exited the bus and went down the stairs to the subway we walked up to the subway booth attendant who said in exasperation, “I have no idea WHAT is running and what ISN’T running, but if I were you I would not go in there.” I was on foot most of the rest of the day. From that point on the whole day took on an “apocalyptic movie” tone.

Paul and I decided to walk to the Empire State Building to see if our friends and teammates were still there or had at least evacuated. Walking down Broadway I wondered if all the activity around me was some sort of movie shoot. There were people gathered around cars, doors open, with radios blaring the local news channel. People gathered in front of “Mom and Pop” electronics stores watching the TVs as they broadcast the immediate scene happening downtown. People were on cell phones yelling to be heard over the antagonized buzz of the moment. People lined up at pay phones waiting their turn to call friends or loved ones because cell phone availability was sporadic. It was surreal, it was unusual – sadly historic.

As we passed one of the cars emanating the blaring news – I think it was a cab – I overheard the words “the tower had collapsed” over the din of noise. The severity of the moment punched my heart and I turned to Paul and said, “We need to pray.” So there we were two friends in Manhattan with little knowledge of what had just occurred a mere three miles away praying out loud for the people at the Trade Center, the City, and the Nation as we made our way down the crowded sidewalks of Broadway.

At the Empire State Building we were relieved to hear that everyone had been evacuated. But lacking information we decided to head to Paul’s place on 13^th Street because my place, even though closer lacked a TV. Our prayers for the City and Country continued as we walked to 13^th Street still wondering yet dreading the true depth and breadth of what had just occurred. We rushed to the roof of Paul’s building to look down 6^th Avenue to see what was there.

It was an astonishing thing expecting the two monolithic buildings to be there, but instead to see merely smoke and ash left me speechless. I still wondered when the movie was going to be over. We returned to the roof several more times that day with still the same sense of disbelief – was this just a nightmare?

The other thing that hit us was the stench. It’s hard to describe, not the natural smells of wood burning but an almost burnt manufactured smell. It lingered for weeks afterwards especially when the wind shifted from north to south – something I won’t forget.

From our vantage point most pedestrians were walking north, it seemed only emergency vehicles were on the roads moving both up and down town, sirens blaring.

We watched on the TV what all Americans pretty much saw, and we are different for it. I attempted to make calls to my parents and friends throughout that day with no success. I wouldn’t be able to reach anyone until later that night.

Two other things strike me about that day, one was around lunch time. Paul and I ventured out to see if we could find food. When we exited his building there was a line of people across the street that extended around the corner and down the block. At first I was a cynical New Yorker and thought people were in line to get food from the supermarket around the corner but when we walked by that corner I noticed that the line went past the supermarket and around the next corner. Apparently, it was a line of people who wanted to give blood at the local hospital, St Vincent’s, for any victims in need. I knew in my heart we were going to be alright from that moment, to see that line and New Yorkers wanting to pitch in and help reminded me that even in the midst of something so dark God’s generous spirit can move anyone.

The other moment I remember that was so poignant was later that afternoon. I didn’t even make an attempt to take the subway knowing they might not be running so I walked. It was about 5 o’clock, the time that is supposed to be the height of rush hour the streets full of life – and there was no one. Just another strange moment in a surreal day.

My day ended when a friend of mine asked me if I would come up and sleep on her couch because she didn’t want to be alone in her apartment that night. In the days after September 11^th all New Yorkers felt closer – or at least the desire to be closer.

In the ten years that have passed since that day I can honestly say I have become more emotional about the tragedy. I think the “surrealness” of it all created a sense of detachment on the 11^th. Since that day we have had time to hear and reflect on all the stories, both tragic and heroic, and allow them to touch the part of our humanity that Lincoln called the “better angels” of ourselves.

The things that I continue to reflect to this day are:

· The moment I saw the emergency vehicles pass – how many of those firefighters lost their lives?

· How Paul and I took so long to get our materials almost as if we were being delayed – a similar story heard from others in the days, weeks and even now years later.

· Walking down the busiest street in Manhattan, Broadway, the noise and mayhem surrounding us praying out loud to God for mercy and strength for the city and the nation.

· The line to give blood.

· The smell when the wind shifted.

· The desire for community in the days after.

· The regret I will always feel for never having been to the top of the towers because I thought they would always be there

May God Bless America,
Kirk and Sarah
(below are two pictures, one of Freedom Tower at Ground Zero being built, and the second a pic of us in front of Freedom Tower)

At the end of the Arts project...

2011-07-22T12:38:00.024-04:00

TOP: Sarah and I with Manhattan skyline in back
BOTTOM: The Arts Project in Times Square

I know it’s been a bit of a delay on recent blogs from us but we kinda got sucked into immediate life where it was difficult to find a moment for an update. But now we have a moment, and we wanted to tell you about the end of project in NYC.

Some pics of the students working on their art (It got a little messy at times)

We really had a great finish to the arts project in NYC, it was a refreshing time for both Sarah and I. The students were able to finish their collaborative art pieces in time for the show on July 6^th. We had a substantial turn out to see the art and hear about the project and Here’s Life Inner City and their work on behalf of the poor. The people that came to the show were mostly from the Long Island City neighborhood where we conducted the project. This turned out to be an advantage because we felt like we were serving the local neighborhood rather than feeling like we had to invite the entire city.

More pics of the students working hard on beautiful things

There are a couple of highlights that stand out: one, is that Sarah and I were able to have a great discussion with a gentleman who worked right next door to the warehouse. He seemed to appreciate the spirit of the art show, it represented a place for people to reflect and discuss meaningful issues. He also liked that we did the show in partnership with an organization that sought to meet the needs of the poor. We agreed (it was great to talk with you Harlan – please keep in touch!). The other story we really liked was about two older ladies who came to the show. During the previous week, they had been approached by a couple of our students and had gone through the Soularium survey cards. (Whenever the students went through a survey with someone, they invited the “surveyees” to the show.) Both these ladies came as a result of this interaction. One commented to our friend Leigh Ann that they really enjoyed the survey, saying that they were able to have a meaningful discussion about spiritual things without it being pushy. I find that to be a huge compliment.

Sarah working on a painting (she collaborated with fellow staff, Kristie Koll) and the finished piece

Students interacting with some of the art show attendees

Sarah with one of the students, Ziad and his finished works

We are posting some pics of the art work and show as well as a few from the entire time on project. We really are grateful to you all for your prayers and support – you helped make the time a great success!

Sarah and I after the project banquet in downtown Manhattan - that's Freedom Tower under construction making it's slow reach to the sky behind Sarah. When completed it will be 1776 feet tall.

We are currently in Colorado at the staff conference for Campus Crusade for Christ. We’ll be posting more updates about our trip here and other thoughts. Stay in touch!

Kirk and Sarah

Arts Summer Project update...

2011-07-01T14:39:00.005-04:00

Hey friends,

We are at the end of our second week here in NYC with the arts project. We have a great bunch of students. We are finished with painting the mural that Sarah designed (see the pic), and the students are deep into the creation of the art for the show in a week

Sarah in front of the mural

It's gonna be a busy week. Sarah and I were here until after 11PM last night and this morning I led a teaching time on the basis of our reality - God. It was a great discussion.

Me leading a teaching time

We appreciate your prayers and ask that you continue to pray for our summer.

Thank you,
Kirk and Sarah

Weary legs and Beauty...

2011-06-23T21:49:00.006-04:00

It had been a long wonderful day; lots of work with the satisfaction that you knew you were participating in something larger than yourself. Nevertheless, the weight of the First Father’s curse prevailed as it does on most days and our legs felt the weariness of suburban life, unused to the city. To reduce the burden, we spent a few hours on our friend’s deck sipping at two bottles of wine I had purchased at a local shop. It was nice to find some invigorating moments with good friend over drinks. It’s these times that make you look forward to the Great City when they become perpetual.

I told Sarah that I wanted to transfer to the next train even though it was one stop. As I was telling her that my shins were developing splints, we ran into a crowd coming down the transfer ramp having just disembarked from the previous train – one we would have liked to have boarded. Disappointed, we trudged our way to the platform. “10 minutes” flashed as an indicator of the next train and I began to regret the choice of taking the transfer. I knew we could probably walk the distance in the same amount of time but was too tired to even make that decision. Thankfully there was a bench with two seats, as we sat, we took a breath and settled in to wait the eternal “10 minutes” – at least my shins could rest.

Then, from across the tracks we heard the familiar sound of one of the many street performers in the City. It was unusual in that it was almost midnight, but we were thankful to hear the plucking of a classical guitar. The sounds grew more satisfying when the flautist joined in. “Where is that water?” Sarah asked. I hadn’t noticed the sound until that moment, but the normal sound of liquid draining somewhere through the complex pipe system of the City was evident. “I don’t know?” I replied. The guitar, flute, and sound of running water could well have been replicated in any rural scene where a creek is full of life. But here we were resting our weary legs ten feet underground waiting for the next train. It was worth missing the previous train, and making an attempt at a one stop transfer.

Peace,

Kirk and Sarah

A friend's project...Dickens...

2011-06-20T12:19:00.008-04:00

John Hendrix's upstairs studio

This past March I had the privilege to go to a conference in St. Louis that was about the Church and the Arts. My friends John and Andrea Hendrix were gracious enough to take this poor traveler in for almost a week. I was able to spend considerable time with them all including going to see where John works as an illustration professor on the campus of Washington University, and partake of some ice cream at a favored Hendrix spot after bowling...I lost both rounds.

John hard at work on a "Charles Dickens" illustration

Andrea had story time with Jack and Annie (apparently Annie needed help smiling)

The whole St Louis Hendrix crew

I was also able to observe my friend's work habits as an illustrator. I slept on the futon upstairs next to John's studio. One of the projects John was working on was illustrations for a children's book on Charles Dickens. He recently posted on this project (click here for the site) saying it was ready for publishing. I thought I would share his site with you and also a few of my own pics of my time with the Hendrixes.

Peace,

Kirk and Sarah

On our way...

2011-06-16T22:18:00.008-04:00

Smokey downtown Jacksonville, Florida

By the time you read this we will be in New York City for our summer project. We spent the last few days traveling up to Maryland where my (Kirk's) parents live. We traveled through wildfire zones (Jacksonville, Florida - the pic of the city skyline is Jacksonville, that's not fog, but smoke) stopped over night in Charlotte, NC with Scott and Audrey (thanks you two). We then drove through the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia (I was reminded of my Civil War history and "Stonewall" Jackson) before arriving today in Elkton, MD. It was two long days and I am quite tired - I hope I recover enough for the project.

I-81 in the Shenandoah Valley

Tomorrow we are taking the train into the Big Apple where we will begin the project for the staff - the students arrive on Monday. Sarah will be making furious preparations for the art work to be done and I will be doing more prep for the teaching times. Please pray that we focus and are able to get work done.

little white church on the way

We will be sending out a "funds update" (probably something referring to "pie") soon, but in the meantime ask that you continue to pray for God's provision for our summer.

Thanks for your continued prayers!
Kirk and Sarah

In my reading...

2011-06-09T14:33:00.004-04:00

I've really come to enjoy reading the theology of Herman Bavinck (more on him click here). I came across this passage in my reading as I prepare for teaching college students this summer about the importance of the arts to the mission of God.

In no way should the Christian faith be represented as otherworldly or anti-creation. Rather, grace and nature are united in the Christian faith, and general revelation links the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of earth - it joins creation and redemption together in one great eschatological cantata of praise. Grace restores nature, a religious life is woven into the very fabric of ordinary human experience. Finally, God is one and the same loving God in creation and redemption; grace restores nature.

This comes from his Reformed Dogmatics, volume I, Prolegomena. His entire dogmatics have recently been published by Baker Academic. I commend all four volumes to you. I only say that to you all because my wife also has come to like Bavinck. In a recent paper I did quoting him often she said, "I really like this Bavinck guy!". And we all know her opinion is much more important than mine could ever be.

Peace,
Kirk and Sarah

More info please...

2011-06-06T12:34:00.002-04:00

I looked at the date of our last blog post and realized I hadn't done anything in 4 months. That is waaaaaaay too long.

Seminary is a bit to blame for that as I had four papers to do for my four classes. that isn't all that big a deal for a Master's level program EXCEPT that the topics of the papers were all ones related to the arts, and of very high interest for me. I finished them, some better than others, but I am satisfied to know I will be returning to those same topics again in the course of my career.

This summer Sarah and I will be on the road for two months, spending three weeks in NYC, 10 days in Colorado, and a week of vacation in the Outer Banks with family. Squeezed in between will be travel and seeing family and friends - some we haven't seen in quite a long time. (If you are interested in helping out with the ministry expenses of the summer - which we would be most grateful - go to https://give.ccci.org/give/View/0402593)

This summer marks the start of what we are trusting is our permanent return to NYC. It is our hope that we will be moving to (or very close to it!) The Big Apple by September 2012. The thought of getting back to the City excites me to no end. We are grateful for your continued prayers and support.

Peace,
Kirk and Sarah

Jesus and the Rockettes...

2011-02-28T14:59:00.007-05:00

A friend of ours posted this story (click here) about a veteran Rockette and how Jesus impacted her life and those among the ranks of lovely ladies with the high kicks. It brought home to me how even in the most unusual places the Nazarene appears in the life of someone who trusts in him.

The world of dance is not known as a culture that "knows Christ", in fact in many ways it is completely opposite. I found this story extremely encouraging and leading me to pray that God would shine more of His light in the dance world of NYC and beyond.

"...you will take up your timbrels and go out to dance with the joyful."
Jeremiah 31

Peace,
Kirk & Sarah

Fujimura interview...

2011-02-24T13:22:00.004-05:00

Thought this might interest you. This is an interview Mako did recently that he has said is one of the best he's given. (click here)

Enjoy,
Kirk

A Four Gospels update...

2010-12-02T16:34:00.003-05:00

FYI...a show has been arranged in NYC at the Dillon Gallery and a website for pre-orders posted for Mako's upcoming release of the Gospels. In case you are interested.

Click here for the website and info.

Kirk & Sarah

Another friend who illustrates...

2010-11-22T13:38:00.003-05:00

I recently came across this exhibition of a friend (click HERE for the website) whom I got to know through my work with the International Arts Movement. Jerry was a fellow board member with Mako Fujimura on the National Endowment for the Arts. In fact I would say Jerry was the one Mako became the closest with (outside the chairman, Dana Gioia) over his years of service. Jerry and his wife Gloria have both been involved in the arts for a very long time. His art has not only a wonderful straightforward quality, one that connects with children, but also a depth that makes you notice that good art is being made here. Added to his desire to produce beautiful things, is a desire also to see more good done as a result of his work; an admirable drive.

So, if you find yourself in western Massachusetts near Stockbridge it might be worth a visit to the Norman Rockwell Museum.

Peace,
Kirk & Sarah

Jerry Pinkney's exhibtion link to Rockwell Museum

The Four Holy Gospels...

2010-11-15T12:22:00.009-05:00

Just found out about this newly released short documentary (click HERE to see it) about my friend Mako's project for the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible (click HERE for more info on the project). What's awesome about this work is not only do I (Kirk) know the people in front of the camera, but I also know the guys behind the camera. The director and editor, Brendan and Adam, were students of mine while they were studying at NYU Film School. They were key leaders in the transFORM movement in NYC while I was there. This brings me deep satisfaction to see, AND an abundance of praise to the Creator who is the source of all beauty.

Kirk (& Sarah)

4 Holy Gospels link

EP Mission's Conference...

2010-11-05T13:31:00.007-04:00

Hey friends,

Well, we returned Monday afternoon from our trip up north after enjoying a wonderful Fall weekend (see the pics) in Delaware and Maryland. We've already told you on a previous post of our trip to DC to take in some of the art but wanted to give you a brief summary of our time at the EP Church of Newark's Mission's Conference.
We were one among six groups represented at the conference. three from the United States, the rest from a country in Southeast Asia (The country these missionaries were from is a Muslim country). We were honored to be amongst this group of fellow ministers and were encouraged quite a bit in our work by them as well as by the church. I wish I could tell you more about the work of our fellow missionaries in Southeast Asia but I want to minimize publication as much as possible for their safety. Suffice it to say we admire their faith in our Lord and pray for their continued impact.
Sarah and I had an opportunity to talk with the Adult Sunday School on Sunday morning. I shared "5 vignettes of arts and culture" from the Bible and Sarah shared about our ministry and her most recent project the "Perspective Cards". Thank you to all the members of EP who made us feel welcome, and to our fellow missionaries with whom we definitely felt a camaraderie regarding this mission God has placed on our hearts.

Kirk & Sarah

MD/DE/DC...

2010-10-29T12:53:00.010-04:00

Ministry Updates

Sarah and I are in Maryland for the weekend to take part in a Missions Conference at my childhood church in Delaware-Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Newark, DE. On Wednesday, Sarah spoke to two women's groups, and yesterday morning I spoke to a men's bible study at the church. We had a good time sharing about what we are currently doing and what we hope to do in the coming years for our ministry. We will be here through Sunday then return to Orlando Monday. We'd appreciate your prayers.

a day of ART

After the men's bible study, my parents, Sarah and I went down to Washington, DC to take in some of the galleries...it was fun day. We especially wanted to see the Edvard Munch print exhibition, and the Rothko, black on black works-special exhibits in the National Gallery of Art East Building.

Munch is best known for his painting, The Scream. This exhibit, though, showcased his works in printmaking. I plan to write something on this particular show as it stirred in me some interesting thoughts on an individual considered to be rather somber.

When we first walked into the East Building of the NGA we were greeted by an enormous "troll-like" head on the second floor. It turned out to be a wonderful discovery. This head was a three-dimensional rendition in fiberglass of an Arcimboldo work (called Winter) a painting completed in the 16th century. Arcimboldo, whom I knew nothing about, was known for painting portraits by putting together a variety of items, like various fruits or items found in a forest, to make it look like the subject of the portrait. Arcimboldo's style is very clever and playful-a real treat to observe. His works apparently had an influence on the Surrealists, like Man Ray and Max Ernst. If you are in DC it is worth a trip.

Winter (shot from below)

Winter (closer look-check out the scale!)

The Rothko show is located in the "Tower" of the East Building. Six of his black on black works loom brightly as you finish ascending the stairs. While taking in these works of variations on black, the room is also filled with a musical piece written in Rothko's honor by his friend Morton Feldman-a year after his death. The works and music are hauntingly complimentary in the space.

We finished the day in the National Portrait Gallery where we immersed ourselves in the pictures of current and past American history. We especially enjoyed the various presidential portraits. If you haven't visited that Gallery, you are missing out.

Abraham Lincoln by George P.A. Healy

Bill Clinton by Chuck Close

Make plans to see these works on your next visit to DC.

Some great resources on faith and the arts from IAM...

2010-10-25T15:35:00.003-04:00

The International Arts Movement (their website here) recently opened a new resources page. It features some of the talks recorded at their conferences from the last few years. I was just listening today to part of Jeff Speck's talk on the New Urbanism, and the importance of HOW we build our communities. The way a community is laid out affects how that community relates. My favorite quotes from Jeff are when he talks about giving prominent spaces in our communities to buildings that deserve that honor...like schools, and churches...very interesting stuff. Take advantage of the content...it's worth it. Click here for the resource page.

In case you don't know what IAM is, it is the organization that I worked with for just about all of my 10 years in New York City. It is the organization that Sarah and I hope to serve alongside when we return there.

If you are of a creative mindset or an artist in some form you might want to check out IAM's upcoming IAM "Encounter 11" in March (click here for details). Even if you are a friend of the arts or a leader in your church or community this would be a great place to get a sense of the artists heart.

Kirk

Thinking about the Sacraments...

2010-10-21T14:57:00.004-04:00

We started the second half of our Systematics class on Sacraments today. So I have been thinking a lot lately about the Sacraments (Baptism, and the Lord's Supper) and how what they were instituted for is similar to the way the visual arts work. It's not an exact match, the Sacraments are a sacred act of the Church instituted by God and performed for a particular function. Yet function they do. Art, especially visual art functions similarly...they visualize something (hopefully something meaningful) beyond what you see. I found this quote stir me to think about this issue more in relation to the Sacraments It is from the Heidelberg Catechism, Question and Answer 75 (Italicized color change is my highlight):

Question 75. How does the Lord's Supper remind and assure you that you share in the one sacrifice of Christ on the cross and in all his gifts?
Answer. In this way: Christ has commanded me and all believers to eat of this broken bread and to drink of this cup. He has thereby promised: First, as surely as I see with my eyes the bread of the Lord broken for me and the cup shared with me, so surely his body was offered and broken for me and his blood was shed for me. Second, as surely as I receive from the hand of the one who serves and actually taste the bread and the cup of the Lord which are given me as sure signs of the body and blood of Christ, so surely he feeds and nourishes my soul to everlasting life with his crucified body and shed blood.

A friend's letter...

2010-10-17T22:03:00.002-04:00

My friend painter Makoto Fujimura (www.makotofujimura.com) recently wrote a letter (click here) to the Churches of North America. I believe there are some very piercing and appropriately provocative things written in it. I hope you are as challenged by it as I was.

Kirk

Worldwide Day of Prayer

2010-10-15T14:09:00.009-04:00

Campus Crusade for Christ staff members around the world gathered for our Day of Prayer on October 5. During that time, we heard from staff leaders in India about what God is doing in their country and how we could be praying for them. It was a great privilege to pray for them and to have them bless us as we visited with them via video conferencing.

We also heard from fellow staff member—Marilyn Adamson. She has been at the helm of the website, Everystudent.com for several years. In 2009, there were 5 million visits to this site. She also shared with us about a great site for new believers to get information about how to grow in their walk with God called StartingWithGod.com. There is a link there for a 'spiritual starter kit'.

Kirk and I will be traveling to Maryland at the end of this month (October 27-31). We look forward to sharing about our ministry with friends at his boyhood church—Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Newark, Delaware—during their Missions Conference.

GDUSA Award Annual

2010-09-02T09:55:00.012-04:00

We won a design award!

Kirk and I actually blogged about this in May, but now it's official because it appears on the awards website and I've just received a printed copy of the annual. I say 'we' because there was a team of design students I worked with last summer as we prepared for the US Campus Crusade for Christ Staff Conference. We had a great time 'brain-storming' ideas for what ultimately became the program (comprised of the schedule, bios of speakers, maps, etc.) The award is from Graphic Design USA annual awards competition for Inhouse design. There are 400 winning pieces featured in their Inhouse Design Annual, from a competition that drew over 4,000 entries.

You can see our piece on their website: gdusa.com

BTW, one of the designers who was with us last summer is joining us for an internship this year. Her name is Erin. Here's a pic of her working in our temporary office last summer.

Erin working diligently.

This year is going to be pretty exciting. We have an influx of creatives joining us. Our office is expanding from 2 designers + 1 videographer to 6 designers + 2 videographers + 1 production manager + 1 part-time production manager. Whew! We have plenty of work to get done, so I look forward to what we can accomplish with God's help and inspiration.

Peace,
Sarah & Kirk

Two weeks of travel - weddings to attend...

2010-07-11T20:55:00.003-04:00

This summer seems to be the "wedding summer" for us as we are attending three weddings of friends we just can't miss. We've already witnessed our friends Stephen and Erica's wedding but there are two more, one in NYC the other in Myrtle Beach. We are quite excited for both the couples involved as they have both been people that have been in my life since I moved to NYC.

With the weddings in different parts of the country this means travel and we will launch north this Tuesday for two weeks on the road. Our schedule is as follows:

Tuesday, July 13th - travel to North Carolina
Wednesday, July 14th - travel to Maryland
July 15th through July 19th - In NYC for some business (more on this in a later blog) and wedding
Tuesday, July 20th - travel from Maryland to North Carolina
July 20th through July 24th - In North Carolina area visiting friends
July 24th through July 26th - In Myrtle Beach, South Carolina for wedding
Monday, July 26th - travel back to Orlando, home again...yeah.

If you say a prayer for our travels and safety and fruitfulness...we'd be extremely appreciative.

Peace,
Kirk & Sarah

Our Summer 2010 so far...

2010-07-02T13:03:00.009-04:00

Hello Friends,

It's been a few weeks since my last update and that's because, as you will see, we had a very full month of June. This summer we are staying put in Orlando to continue what we have done throughout this past year. I am studying and Sarah is designing.

In June I took two one week classes at RTS and have started a third—an independent study to be completed by August. The June classes were intense but satisfying. The first class I took was in Apologetics and was taught by a visiting —Bruce Baugus—from the Jackson, MS campus. It was an enjoyable week where we met Monday through Friday from 8:30AM to 3:30PM. Bruce is a great teacher with a style that easily engenders questions and interaction. We have a month after the class to complete all the class work as well as arrange a phone oral exam that I will take next week. I am looking forward to that part. I am about 2/3rds of the way through the reading, right now in the middle of Corneilius Van Til's short tome, Christian Apologetics. I am particularly interested in the concepts behind Van Til's ideas regarding "presuppositionalism"—a form of Theology/Apologetics that I suspect might be useful when approaching and interacting with the art world.

The second class I took and finished last week was on the Church and the World. We met Monday through Friday 8AM to 4PM. The class was taught by John Meuther—RTS Orlando's librarian. I have taken a class with John before and enjoyed his style of teaching as well...he enjoys good interaction with the students. One book we are reading that has begun to cause a stir in Christian circles is James Davison Hunter's book, To Change the World. Hunter—a sociologist at the University of Virginia—is challenging predominant thinking in the Church regarding models of cultural change. John is sympathetic to Hunter's perspective and I have found my thinking attracted to his line of reasoning, although the jury is not fully in for me quite yet.

Last Friday, the last day of class for me, Sarah and I got on the road for an eight hour trip to northern South Carolina to attend a former student's wedding in Rock Hill. Stephen Crotts is someone Sarah and I met the summer of 2006—the same summer she and I started dating. He has become a much loved friend, and we are excited he and his new bride Erica are finally husband and wife. Stephen works as an illustrator and Erica is a school teacher. They will continue to live in Rock Hill. It seems our circle of friends grows in the North and South Carolina area.

After the wedding Sarah and I were able to spend a few days with Sarah's best friend, Audrey. As you may know from our newsletters, Audrey has been dealing with breast cancer and will most likely be entering radiation treatment sometime in July. Both Audrey and Sarah had an invigorating few days of "junkin'" as they traveled to as many thrift shops and secondhand stores as the could get to. I sat home and read. We are grateful to Audrey and Scott for allowing us to stay with them a few days...not that it was an effort for Audrey (she and Sarah love discovering unique items).

At the end of July we will be on the road again, traveling to Maryland, then NYC for another wedding, and then back down to North and South Carolina for another wedding before returning to Florida. We appreciate all your prayers!

Peace,
Kirk and Sarah

A family visit and class prep...

2010-06-04T13:31:00.009-04:00

Hey Friends,

We have had a wonderful week in Florida as Sarah's older sister, Rebecca and her daughter, Mia came to visit us. We get to see them none too often as they live in the panhandle of Texas in Lubbock. Rebecca is a Microbiology teacher at a local college in Lubbock, and Mia is a growing teen who is quite talented in music and dance (ballet is her specialty). We are very fond of them and are thrilled they are here.

Rebecca's husband, Wronsky, is a professor at Texas Tech in Spanish literature and takes a group of students each summer down to Mexico, where he is from, for language and history studies. He left last week so Rebecca decided to come see us to start their and our summer off. Both she and Mia have not been here to Florida to see Sarah in close to 10 years.

We spent a few days at Disney with them enjoying the short lines and beautiful details in the design of the Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom. Sarah and Mia rode the "Mount Everest" ride four times yesterday while Rebecca and I could only stomach once...I don't have the same constitution as my wife when it comes to roller coasters...she's a bandit for roller coasters. We are sad to say they leave tomorrow, but we hope to see them again over the holidays.

I start classes next week, I will do five intense days from 8:30AM to 3:30PM for a class on apologetics. Pray that I remain alert and receptive to the content. I came across this Van Till quote in one of the books I am reading for the class. This book by Thom Notaro called Van Til and the use of Evidence is a summary of what my thinking has been regarding apologetics and defending Christianity to non-Christians for the last 10 to 15 years. I am looking forward to the class. "Ideally '...what is meant by knowing God in Scripture is knowing and loving God,' says Van Til; 'this is true knowledge of God; the other is false.'"

Thanks for all your interest, prayers and support of what we are trusting God for...

Peace,
Kirk and Sarah

Another quote...

2010-05-28T12:11:00.017-04:00

So I am deep into my reading in preparation for my upcoming summer classes. I have two in June, and I am arranging an independent study on the Images of Ancient Israel—really looking forward to that one. The first class in June is on Apologetics and is being taught by a visiting professor from RTS's Jackson, MS campus. The book I am currently reading is a collection of excerpts from apologetic writings before 1500. The other day I was reading part of Tertullian's Apology. Tertullian was a lawyer in the 2nd century AD who lived in Carthage North Africa. He is considered one of the early Christian thinkers that set a foundation for Carthage to become a center for theological discourse...Carthage was where Augustine (considered one of the greatest Christian thinkers) made his home in the 4th and 5th centuries.

I found this in chapter 17 of Tertullian's Apology:

"The object of our worship is the One God, He who by His commanding word, His arranging wisdom, His mighty power, brought forth from nothing this entire mass of our world, with all its array of elements, bodies, spirits, for the glory of His majesty...The eye cannot see Him, though He is (spiritually) visible. He is incomprehensible, though in grace He is manifested. He is beyond our utmost thought, though our human faculties conceive of Him. He is therefore equally real and great...He is presented to our minds in His transcendent greatness, as at once known and unknown. And this is the crowning guilt of men, that they will not recognize One, of whom they cannot possibly be ignorant. Would you have the proof from the works of His hands, so numerous and so great, which both contain you and sustain you, which minister at once to your enjoyment, and strike you with awe; or would you rather have it from the testimony of the soul itself? Though under the oppressive bondage of the body, though led astray by depraving customs, though enervated by lusts and passions, though in slavery to false gods; yet, whenever the soul comes to itself, as out of a surfeit, or a sleep, or a sickness, and attains something of its natural soundness, it speaks of God; using no other word, because this is the peculiar name of the true God."

Peace,

Kirk and Sarah

The ecology of a design...

2010-05-11T19:47:00.008-04:00

Hey all,

Usually when Sarah puts her hand and mind on a design she has some idea of how that design may be used...but not always. It's exciting to see what you've designed go from sketches on a page to a final physical item, something you can hold in your hand.

This past February Sarah did some designs for Campus Crusade for Christ's National Leadership Conference for the Campus Ministry. The theme was "Passage". For the design Sarah used the concept of a tree whose leaves "pass" from being leaves to butterflies. The pics above show some of the materials designed for the conference, as well as how it was used on the stage of the conference.

What's even more exciting is seeing the visuals come to life through animation. The video below shows how Sarah's design was given a different level of creativity by 2 of her teammates-Rob Jorgensen and Rafal Zielinski. It is also an interesting summary of this year in ministry.

Peace,
Kirk and Sarah