I was blown away by this 1995 clip from “Smoke,” as my pastor showed this in a course on symbolism in film. Harvey Keitel’s character Auggie, is a smoke shop owner and William Hurt’s character Paul, is a writer who has been suffering from writer’s block since the death of his wife.

“The church as a living witness to God s narrative became the place where the consumer could buy a product that fulfilled his or her needs. Of course, the church does fulfill needs, but they must be placed within the cosmic narrative, thereby reducing the individual’s focus on self and turning his or her contemplation to God’s saving deeds, whereby the whole world is made right.”
- Robert Webber

This is the weekly Bob Webber quote that IWS sends out to all students. This quote struck me especially hard in congruence with my current reading. Dr. Ralph P. Martin states in his book Worship in The Early Church states,

“Worship which is man-devised and conducted according to human dictates and whims, however impressive and aesthetic it may appear, is not acceptable. The verdict upon Jeroboam’s rival sanctuary at Bethel is a case in point. Worshiping by the Spirit of God entails a rejecting of all ‘confidence in the flesh’ (Philippians 3:3). Our first inquiry must be one which seeks to understand the character of the God whom we worship. The nature of God as He has graciously disclosed it in the pages of the Bible will determine all subsequent consideration of this subject, and will affect every phase of our desired communion with Him. Some of the main facets of God’s self-revelation may be listed.”
- Ralph P. Martin

This is a terrifying reality that plagues Western Christianity. As we have focused more and more on our individual justification and sanctification we have taken steps towards dove into this pit of self-comforting, culturally relevant subjectivism that God seems to warn against in 1 Kings 12 & 13. What are we doing?
“O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest.” Psalm 22:2 (ESV)

Sources
____
Ralph P. Martin, Worship in the Early Church. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1964, pg. 13

Robert E. Webber, Who Gets to Narrate the World? Contending for the Christian Story in an Age of Rivals. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2008, pg. 131.

This is a beautiful quote from an interview of Makoto Fujimura given by Stewart Lundy, regarding art and worship. Complete interview found here!

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He was asked:

How can a particular work of art be “untwisted” for the glory of God? What is an example of “bad” art? Or is the term “bad” art a bad way of phrasing it, since all art, if actually art, is good art?

Hezekiah’s snake is a good example (see II Kings 18:4). By having the right understanding of our trust of God, which Isaiah the prophet proclaimed to Hezekiah, and only by surrendering to trust God did Hezekiah begin to see the proper perspective to untwist the misuse of Mose’s snake.

Only when the King trusted God did he see the need to reform worship and correct the misuse of the object which Moses created to heal people under God’s guidance.  Proper worship is central to our understanding of reality, the arts, and it affects everyone, Christians and non-Christians. Culture is affected by how we worship God (Bill Dyrness makes this point in many of his books).

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As If the Music Wasn’t Bad Enough in this Country, the Live Nation, Tickemaster merger has been approved. I love how rock n roll used to be about sticking to The Man. Now The Man is sitting next to you at every concert, sold you your tickets, over-priced beer, merchandise, and even charged you $20 for parking. I guess that I shouldn’t say that they kill art though, but they do however, make it blatantly easy to see what is and isn’t art in this day and age.

Joel Rose’s Story on NPR - Audio Story Posted as Well

My wife’s student, Christopher Waugh, drew this on her board this morning in Home Room.

{Image Found Here}

This guy should write for Co Co!

This looks incredibly brilliant.

Stained Radiance - Nels Cline & Norton Wisdom from Greenleaf Music on Vimeo.

Crossway Publishing Announces:

Renowned artist and writer Makoto Fujimura is not shy about the importance of his latest project. “Whether I like it or not, this is what I will be remembered by,” Fujimura asserts. “I don’t think it’s an overstatement to say that it is a commission of the decade, if not more,” says Valerie Dillon, whose Dillon Gallery is Fujimura’s main exhibitor.

Makoto Fujimura’s “Golden Summer.”

The commission is an illuminated manuscript published by Crossway, to commemorate the four hundred year anniversary of The King James Bible, set to be released January 2011. The leather-bound English Standard Version of the Bible, printed with a six-color metallic process, will comprise the four Gospels as designed and illustrated by Fujimura. Five major new works, painted in the artist’s Manhattan studio, will be the volume’s main images, making this the first such manuscript to feature abstract contemporary art in lieu of traditional representational illustrations. It is this unprecedented marriage of a modern, usually secular art form with ancient scripture that most interests Fujimura, who aims to depict “the greater reality that the Bible speaks of… for the pure sake of integrating faith and art in our current pluralistic, multicultural world.”

The artist is quintessentially multicultural. Born in Boston to Japanese parents, Fujimura lived in three countries before the age of ten. While attending school in Japan and the US, he met and married an American woman, then became a New Yorker. He is both culturally and literally bilingual, a seasoned navigator of the uneasy overlap between East and West. But he also traverses the deeper divide between the art world and the church. As an Artist and a Christian rather than a Christian Artist, Fujimura is Crossway’s ideal candidate, an individual defined by the very juxtapositions this Bible will display.

Fujimura’s work also fits the commission. As a student of Nihonga, a Japanese technique dating to the 8th century, Fujimura and his classmates at the Tokyo University of Fine Art set out to “[break] with tradition in order to revitalize and expand the art form,” according to Dillon. The Dillon Gallery is the foremost Western gallery representing contemporary Nihonga artists. The work of that group, which includes Hiroshi Senju, Norihiko Saito and Chen Wenguang, created an “entirely new approach to Nihonga,” a synthesis between traditional and modern techniques.

Fujimura is not alone in his complexity. Sociologist Tony Carnes sees Fujimura as part of a “global religious transformation,” the result of blurring lines between mainstream and religious culture. Another recent illustrated manuscript of Genesis, by decidedly secular illustrator R. Crumb, is evidence of this shift.

Fujimura also recognizes this movement, saying “the Age of Faith is coming.” This illuminated manuscript, painted in Midtown Manhattan by a cultural navigator like Fujimura, will be further affirmation. “Jesus is a New Yorker,” Carnes says. “And he’s got an illustrated Bible.”

Fujimura’s latest show, Soliloquies, is a joint exhibition with 20th century French painter Georges Rouault. It is on view at Dillon Gallery through December 24.

1300 Crescent Street t 630.682.4300 Wheaton, Illinois 60187 f 630.682.4785

www.crossway.org
Special Vespers Service tomorrow at Dillon Gallery:

With Georges Rouault’s and Makoto Fujimura’s works in the background, Rev Ian Cron of Greenwich, CT, will lead in this unique and special Vespers Service featuring an exhortation by Makoto Fujimura and special music by Kelley McRae and Kevin Gosa.

Time: 6:00-7:30
Place: Dillon Gallery, 555 West 25th St., between 10th and 11th