FOUNDATIONS IN WORSHIP,
THEOLOGY, AND THE ARTS:
AN INTRODUCTION TO
THEOLOGICAL AESTHETICS
Fall Semester, 2005
Thursdays, 9 – 11:50 a.m.
Mark S. Burrows, Ph.D.
Professor of the History of Christianity
and
Director of the Program in
Worship, Theology, and Arts
with Priscilla Deck, Ph.D.,
and guests
mburrows@ants.edu 617.964.1100 (x235); pdeck@ants.edu (x209)
Office hours by appointment
~
I
do not believe that art (all art) and beauty are ever separate, nor do I
believe that either art or beauty are optional in a sane society. That puts me on the side of what Harold Bloom
calls ‘the ecstasy of the privileged moment.’
Art, all art, as insight, as rapture, as transformation, as joy. Unlike Harold Bloom, I really believe that
human beings can be taught to love what they do not love already and that the
privileged moment exists for all of us, if we let it. Letting art is the paradox of active
surrender. I have to work for art if I
want art to work on me.
Jeannette
Winterson, Art Objects, 5 - 6
The
work of art has its true being in the fact that it becomes an experience that
changes the person who experiences it.
The ‘subject’ of the experience of art, that which remains and endures,
is not the subjectivity of the person who experiences it but the work itself.
Hans-Georg
Gadamer, Truth and Method, 102
Beauty
is not so plentiful that we can afford to object to stepping back a dozen paces
to catch it.
Willa Cather, as
cited in Writers on Artists, ix
To
say that the tone of postmodern life is determined largely by consumer-related
activities which themselves are incompatible with beauty may be another way of
describing the loss of a master narrative.
Edward Farley, Faith
and Beauty, 6
CLASS INTENTIONS
What is
beauty, or the beautiful? Does such a
question have anything to do with theology, faith, ministry, or even the quotidian
tedium and urgencies of life, properly speaking? Is this necessarily a theological matter, properly
speaking? Or, in what manner might it
become such a matter? Are such questions
ones that come to us with an abstracted neutrality, or are they not always
bound by culture and tradition, memory and hope, desire and fear – and thus
woven into a wider fabric of human experience than we alone can ever know? Is the question of beauty, in other words,
one that always comes to us an ethical claim with real and “worldly”
implications, reminding us that the aesthetic is both real in its
transcendental referent as well as being inevitably and inherently social and
political?
This
seminar is shaped by the conviction that beauty is not one category of experience
and expression among others, but rather the primary mode of our
being-human-in-the-world. It is the
invitation to us to incarnate our creativity as human beings. It is the measure of the hope we live from,
and toward – and, in this particular sense, both within and beyond our
“experience.” It is the shape of love
enacted in and through our bodies, and by means of the communities of witness
in which we find ourselves living. One
might even say that beauty – or, “making [in] beauty,” as Socrates would have
it – is a true form of faith, not measured by doctrine or dogma nor exhausted
in its direct ethical implications or social consequences. It is a trans-cultural category of human
experience, one distinct expression of its transcendental nature that implies
both personal and socio-political dimensions.
And yet it comes to us also as a distinct mandate; it is a calling,
framing our lives in a wider metaphysical invitation.
Above all, it is not simply “there.”
It must emerge through distinct ways of being. As expressed in acts of human creativity and
discovered in the natural order, it is “not a version of the facts, it is an
entirely different way of seeing” (J. Winterson).
In this
seminar, we will ask about the nature of aesthetics, and whether there is a
properly theological
perspective
on the matter – and, if so, what this might look like for each of us. We will wonder about what the implications of
such an understanding might have upon our life in communities of faith. We will inquire about the implications of
beauty for living in society and church.
We will explore what it might mean to “practice” beauty as an expression
of our deepest convictions – viz., as “the assurance of things hoped for, and
the conviction of things not seen” (Heb. 11. 1). And, we shall find ourselves compelled to
ask, again and again, what it means for us to make the claim that “the word
became flesh and dwelt among us” (Jn. 1. 14).
This is a physical
claim,
one that places – as the orthodox theologians in their defense of icons remind
us – a certain pressure on our view of the ordinary and mundane, the earthly
and what lies close-to-hand. As we shall
suggest in the course of our work together, it is a claim that might most
adequately be understood not in historical but rather in aesthetic terms.
This class
is thus an experiment in thinking, an exercise in theological discernment, a
practice of contemplative engagement. It
is constructed on the premise that beauty is a primary category of human
experience and expression (creativity), and shaped by the presumption that
engaging the depths of being human depends on how we grasp beauty, and how
beauty grasps our very being. The
seminar aspires to become not merely an academic exercise (though surely also
this), but also an expression of transformational “seeing” and a goad toward a
more attentive and faithful way of living in this world.
REQUIREMENTS AND EXPECTATIONS
Grades for this seminar will reflect each student’s
active engagement of the material in written and oral form during the
semester. Active participation is
expected. Students who submit eight of the
(eight) weekly assignments will be eligible for an “A” grade (as measured by
progress during the semester, and the quality of this work together with the
final paper). Students must complete
five of these (eight) assignments to receive credit for the course and be
eligible to earn a “B” grade. The final
paper will constitute 50% of the overall grade, with the remaining 50% given to
these written assignments and in-seminar participation. The first short paper will be ungraded; it
will become a measure of each student’s learning, and will be submitted with
the final paper.
READING/SEMINAR SCHEDULE
Sep.
15 Openings and framings of
the questions
In class “readings”
Sep.
22 Foundations, 1: Platonism and the origins of the aesthetic in
the West
Read: Plato, Symposium
Iris
Murdoch, “Art and Eros: A Dialogue About
Art,” in
Existentialists and Mystics. Writings on Philosophy and Literature, 464 - 95
Also of
relevance: Edward Farley, “Beauty as
Being: The Irrepressible
Character of
Beauty,” in Faith and Beauty. A
Theological Aesthetics,
15 – 30;
and, Richard Viladesau, “God and the Beautiful:
Beauty as
a Way to
God,” Theological Aesthetics. God in
Imagination, Beauty,
and Art, 103 – 140
For class: formulate a written response to Socrates’
contribution
(the dialogue with Diotima; Symposium,
199c – 212c); how
does Murdoch engage
Socrates’ insights in the imaginative
dialogue she
constructs? Is it truthful, and useful,
for us?
N.B .: First short paper on “What is beauty?” due at
classtime.
Sep.
29 Foundations, 2: A medieval debate about the proper uses of
art
Read: Abbot Suger, selections, On the Abbey
Its Art Treasures
Bernard of
Clairvaux, Apologia 28 – 29 (Xerox)
Frank Burch
Brown, “Art in Christian Traditions,” in
Good
Taste, Bad Taste, and Christian Taste, 26 – 61;
The
Substance of Things Seen, 101 - 24
For
class: Formulate a written response to
this debate,
and specifically to the
question of the proper use of art given
the function of a particular
sacred space (i.e., a “public” church;
a monastic church; another
space)
Oct.
6 Interlude: The performance of art, and the question of
cultural meaning
Read: George Steiner, Real Presences, pp. 3
– 50, 200 – 32; and,
Jeanette
Winterson, Art Objects: Essays on
Ecstasy and
Effrontery, 3 – 21 and Alejandro
García-Rivera, The Community
of the Beautiful. A Theological Aesthetics, 39 – 61
For
class: In a short essay (2 – 3 pages),
insert yourself in the
“debate” between Steiner and
Winterson and/or García-Rivera, on
the question of art and
culture. Steiner asks, “Why should there
be art?” but seems to presume
a cultural and gendered neutrality in
this question. How do assess the question?
Oct.
13 Foundations,
3: Are images defensible? An orthodox defense and
a reformed response to the
iconoclastic question
Read: John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian
Religion Bk. I, ch. 11; and,
St. John of Damascus, First Apology against those
who Attack the Divine Images
For
class: What is at stake in the argument
John makes, and how
does this relate to Calvin’s
quest to find a “pure and legitimate use”
of sculpture and
painting? How might one “imagine” God, beyond
representational art? That is, is representation the only viable
form of theological
expression of the divine?
Oct.
20 A philosophical
interlude: On the history of aesthetics
in the modern west
Read: Truth and Method, 2nd rev’d
edition, trans. Joel Weinsheimer
and
Donald Marshall, pp. 42 - 169
Also of
relevance: Farley, “Beauty as
Sensibility,” Faith and Beauty,
31 – 42
For
class: Gadamer muses that “play” has
everything to do with
how we experience
art. Discuss this claim, and design a
simple
exercise to express your
claim; try it out with friends or church
members before class, and be
prepared to discuss this “practical”
application.
Oct.
27 A Roman Catholic
challenge: Can one speak of a
distinctively
“Protestant” aesthetic?
Read: Hans Urs von Balthasar, The Glory of the
Lord: A Theological
Aesthetics. Vol. 1:
Seeing the Form, pp. 45 – 79; or, Wendy
Steiner, The Scandal of
Pleasure
For
class: What is the point in von
Balthasar’s critique, and is
it correct? If not, offer an initial musing about what he
missed.
Nov. 3 A
philosophical challenge: Are there
“norms” in art?
Read: Nicholas Wolterstorff, Art in Action,
156 – 74
For class: What criteria do you bring to bear in
evaluating the quality
of an artwork? Be specific; your own opinions are not
sufficient as
arguments. What specific authorities – e.g.,
theological, biblical
socio-cultural, political, etc. – would you bring to
bear on this
question?
Nov.
10 An ethical
challenge: On “radical decentering” and
the ethics of beauty
Read: Elaine
Scarry, On Beauty and Being Just, and
Simone Weil, “Love of the Order of the World,” in Waiting
for God,
158 – 81
Also of relevance:
Farley, “Beauty as Benevolence” and “Beauty in
Human Self-Transcendence,” Faith
and Beauty, 43 – 50 and 51 – 63;
And, Viladesau, “The
Beautiful and the Good,” in Theological
Aesthetics, 183 - 214
For class: The philosopher
Ludwig Wittgenstein once concluded
that “the aesthetic and the ethical are one” (Tractatus
Logico-Philosophicus). How does
Scarry view this relation? Offer a
specific
response to her contention that beautiful objects
(artworks, etc.)
“turn us toward justice.” What does she mean by this? How do you
assess her claim?
What limitations might we need to raise, if any, to
this?
Nov.
17 Aesthetic
discernment and the question of taste
Read: Frank Burch Brown, Good Taste, Bad Taste,
and Christian Taste,
esp.
pp. 3 – 127; Robin Jensen, “The Beautiful and the
Disturbing,”
in The Substance of Things Seen, 125 - 52
For
class: In what manner might art reform
faith, even if it
is not
specifically “Christian”? In what sense
are – or, might – criteria
of artistic “taste” related
to Christian doctrine, faith, or experience?
What do you make of Brown’s
argument that we might speak
Properly of “Christian
taste”?
Dec.
1 Practicing beauty, 1 (field
trip)
Dec.
8 Practicing
beauty, 2 (field trip)
Dec.
15 Final discussion
For
concluding discussion: Each student is
to bring the thesis
statement that will shape
their final paper; they should be
prepared to explore these
thesis and suggest resources they anticipate
being pertinent to such an
exploration.
Balthasar,
Hans Urs von. The Glory of the Lord,
vol. 1: Seeing the Form.
Barth,
Karl. Church Dogmatics II/1
Begbie,
Jeremy. Voicing Creation’s
Praise. Toward a Theology of the Arts.
Brown,
Frank Burch. Good Taste, Bad Taste,
Christian Taste. Aesthetics in Religious
Life.
__________. Religious Aesthetics.
Dyrness,
William. Visual Faith. Art, Theology and Worship in Dialogue
Farley,
Edward. Faith and Beauty. A Theological Aesthetics.
Gadamer,
Hans-Georg. Truth and Method. Second revised edition.
Garcia-Rivera,
Alejandro. The Community of the
Beautiful. A Theological
Aesthetics.
__________. A Wounded Innocence. Sketches for a Theology of Art.
Gilson,
Etienne. The Arts of the Beautiful.
De
Gruchy, John. Christianity, Art, and
Transformation: Theological Aesthetics
in the Struggle for Justice.
Hazelton,
Roger. A Theological Approach to Art.
Heidegger,
Martin. “What Is a Painting?” in Poetry, Language, Thought.
Jensen,
Robin. Understanding Early
Christian Art.
__________. The Substance of Things Seen. Art, Faith, and the Christian Community.
Laeuchli,
Samuel. Religion and Art in
Conflict. Introduction to a
Cross-Disciplinary Task
Maritain,
Jacques. Art and Scholasticism and
the Frontiers of Poetry.
__________. Creative Intuition in Art and Poetry,
Mothersill,
Mary. Beauty Restored.
Murdoch,
Iris. The Fire and the Sun. Why Plato Banished the Artists.
__________. Existentialists and Mystics.
Nichols,
Aidan, O.P. The Art of God
Incarnate. Theology and Symbol from
Genesis to the 20th Century.
O’Donohue,
John. Beauty. The Invisible Embrace.
Plato,
Symposium
Scarry,
Elaine. On Beauty and Being Just.
Steiner,
George. Real Presences.
Steiner,
Wendy. The Scandal of Pleasure.
Thiessen,
Gesa Elsbeth, ed. Theological
Aesthetics. A Reader.
Tillich,
Paul. On Art and Architecture. Ed. John Dillenberger.
Viladesau,
Richard. Theological Aesthetics. God in
Imagination, Beauty, and Art
__________.
Theology and the Arts. Encountering God through Music, Art, and
Rhetoric
Weil,
Simone. Waiting for God.
Wolterstorff,
Nicholas. Art in Action.