Looking at Culture and Faith from Other Angles.

In order to be effective Christian artists, we must learn about various philosophies, religions, and even denominations within Christianity.  All perspectives on culture and faith and how they relate to thoughts, actions, and lifestyles are pertinent pieces to the puzzle we are creating. 

In this entree, I am recommending a look at one Atheist opinion on the matter of faith and culture.

The recommendation......  A facebook friend posted a book review for Alain de Bottom's, 'Religion for Atheists' written by David Brooks in the New York Times recently.  I think it poses key thoughts on the connection between culture and faith through the eyes of an Atheist philosopher, as well as, the author of the review.  Alain de Bottom writes about the gap between Art and the human condition.  He says that art has the potential to affect the soul, impart wisdom, and fill a void. As the writer and freelance philosopher Alain de Botton argues in “Religion for Atheists,” cultural and intellectual institutions are no longer about the salvation of souls: He states that is has been effective in the past, but not in today's political or cultural scene.

"De Botton looks around and sees a secular society denuded of high spiritual aspiration and practical moral guidance. Centuries ago, religions gave people advice on how to live with others, how to tolerate other people’s faults, how to assuage anger, endure pain and deal with the petty corruptions of a commercial world. These days, he argues, teachers, artists and philosophers no longer even try to offer such practical wisdom.

'We are fatefully in love with ambiguity, uncritical of the Modernist doctrine that great art should have no moral content or desire to change its audience,' he writes.

Museums were once temples for the contemplation of the profound. Today, he says, they offer pallid cultural smorgasbords: 'While exposing us to objects of genuine importance, they nevertheless seem incapable of adequately linking these to the needs of our souls.”

In order to create palatable art that encourages meaningful dialogues and connections and imparts truth, we must first understand sources of hunger by the masses.  I found that Alain de Bottoms thoughts on art, education, politics, and other social matters to be interesting, but lacking.... of course. The solution lacks the cohesive 'glue' that binds all things. It is a call of hunger for soul satisfying existence.  Boy, could we contribute to that!

We know the solution to the issues de Bottom describes is a relationship with our Creator, and not religion.   Through prayer, discernment, grace, and our acquisition of knowledge and wisdom, we will deliver this Truth through our media.

Here is the full article: 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/18/books/review/alain-de-bottons-religion-for-atheists.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

A little more about Alain de Botton:
His website:   www.alaindebotton.com/

Other Christian sources on Alain de Botton:
http://www.christianitymagazine.co.uk/Browse%20By%20Category/features/alaindebotton.aspx

http://m.christianpost.com/news/athiest-alain-de-botton-insists-society-needs-guidance-from-religion--69941/

Be blessed!  Be Inspired

Aldys

I highly recommend Dr. Gary Smalley's, "Change Your Heart, Change Your Life"

I attended a two day seminar at my church with invited speakers, Dr. Gary Smalley and Steven K. Scott. These speakers covered topics pertaining to us as individuals, our relationships, perspectives on life, success, and of course our relationship with God (this was the premise of the aforementioned topics and directly integrated within each).  If these speakers are anywhere near your area, I recommend that you go.  The insight is really profound, yet simple.  What a great paradox!  It's the way God is, really:  Profound yet simple!

 It is at that seminar where I purchased Dr. Gary Smalley's, "Change Your Heart, Change Your Life".  What a great principle.

Essentially this book is based on the what the Bible says regarding our every action and word stemming from what is in our hearts “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he is". Proverbs 23:7  [The heart, here, signifies the innermost subconscious mind- where our thoughts dictate our actions.]   The primary message in this book is for us to look closely at our responses to different things in life and re-align them to how God recommends that we respond. 

If we feel that our responses are not Godly, beneficial, nor productive, whether they be internal thoughts or emotions, or actions we take, we should study and re-evaluate the belief systems behind them, and finally substitute those beliefs with specific scriptures.  There are any number of events that have created our belief systems: our upbringing, society, a traumatic experience, deficiency in positive emotions through our lives, etc.

It is an enjoyable and unpretentious read.  It is entertaining and fluid, and comes from an author who quickly points out his own deficiencies to show how life altering the principle of hiding key scriptures into his heart has been in positively transforming his life for the better. 

This book delves into various topics and gives numerous beneficial insights that help to create new perspectives to facilitate our becoming more like God; and live joyful, free, and uncomplicated lives. 

What I enjoyed about this book the most was the conversational tone that Dr. Smalley carries throughout.  I felt as though I was conversing with a wise counselor teaching me the "secret" to overcoming stress, hurt, anger, rage, anxiety, unfulfilled expectations, and so much more.

I have already applied some of the principals and have seen a huge difference in my shift in perspective.  I see where I need to concentrate on God's Word to carve out some beliefs that have had me ramming into walls in the past, and am already on my way to doing so.  The principals contained in the book are all Biblical, but are organized in a way that makes perfect sense and are very simple to apply.

There is a place in the back of each Chapter with scriptures that pertain to the chapter's topic, as well as, Scriptures organized by topic in the appendix.

You can click on the link to Amazon if you'd like to read others' reviews and see if this might be a book that you would enjoy reading.

Be blessed!  Be inspired!

My review on Chaim Potok's National Bestselling Novel, My Name is Asher Lev.

     I was excited to pick up a fictional novel after many years of self help, Christian spiritual growth, maternity and parenting books.  I eagerly checked out this book from the library soon after an esteemed mentor in the areas of Art and Culture, Makoto Fujimura, mentioned it on his Facebook page (he was to speak about it at a University to Freshmen who had read the book as part of a class.)

     I began to read it in November and just finished it two days ago.  It is not a long book, I've just had to split my interests into short segments because of all that being a mom to two small children entails.  In any event, some evenings I wanted to read it and others I did not.  Some evenings I picked it up to progress a little to get to the climax because, as I have seen in some reviews posted by others, this author can have a style of writing that may seem slow at times.  So I thought to myself, through those slow places in the book, "Am I so fast paced that I have forgotten how to enjoy a book without bullets or bold topic headings, or is this dragging a bit?".  Well, after completing the book I was happy to see that others shared some of my opinions about the first almost 3/4 having you waiting for something eventful to happen.  Most importantly, after completing it, I was thrilled and extremely satisfied to understand the purpose behind the slow, detail rich first 3/4 which were purposeful and necessary.

     I read through the last 1/4 all in one sitting, uninterrupted, through a nap and as daddy indulged me by taking the girls in the late afternoon.  I was so fulfilled with this book.  It is rich with emotion, faith, passion for art, struggles between the two, and struggles between those you love and that which drives you.  I don't like to disclose detail in my reviews because I don't like to ruin the experience for a potential reader, but I will enclose what the back of the book reads: 

"Asher Lev is a Ladover Hasid who keeps kosher, prays three times a day, and believes in the Ribbono Shel Olom, the Master of the Universe.  Asher Lev is an artist who is compulsively driven to render the world he sees and feels, even when it leads him to blasphemy.  In this stirring and often visionary novel, Chaim Potok traces Asher's passage between these two identities, the one consecrated to God, the other subject only to the imagination.

Asher Lev grows up in a cloistered Hasidic community in postwar Brooklyn, a world suffused by ritual and revolving around a charismatic Rebbe.  But in time, his gift threatens to estrange him from that world and the parents he adores.  As it follows his struggle, My Name is Asher Lev, becomes a luminous portrait of the artist, by turns heartbreaking and exultant, a modern classic."

      It was a heartbreaking story of a boy, then a man, who was sad, lonely, and misunderstood.  The gift, which was given by God was thought to be something to take his attention away from God, by most, sometimes even thought to have been given to him by the enemy, or the other side (the sitra archra as the book refers to it).  As a result, there is the cruel nonacceptance by his father and select peers, that give way to a lifelong struggle between what he cannot control (creating his art) and the love and acceptance of his father and the community of Hasidic jews that he lives amongst.

     There are glimpses of light, bursts of hopes, and streams of happiness that come in the later course of the book, but in the end- the struggle prevails.  There are many topics addressed here, for people who have a love for their faith and a passion for art, as well as dynamics pertaining to family and acceptance.  I was compelled and deeply moved by this book.

     As for myself, there are some bold reflections that am happy to have been confronted with.  I felt extremely honored and blessed to be able to, in this time and place in the world, merge my passion for God and Art.  It is gratifying beyond any extent of the word not only to combine the two, but to know it is a calling, a divine calling.  I felt like the riches had poured upon my head after having read this book and wished that I could let our poor protagonist, Asher Lev, in on a profound secret, he could do both- simultaneously, with a divine purpose. 

Here a few quotes from the book that I found to be poignant, in context: 

Asher speaking with his mother as a young boy, through her illness:  "Mama. Mama, Here are the birds and the flowers, Mama.  I made the world pretty, Mama.  Mama, aren't you well now? I'll make more birds and flowers for you, Mama."

to Asher Lev:  "Do not try to understand.  Become a great artist.  That is the only way to justify what you are doing to every one's life."

A dialogue between Asher and another Jewish artist, 
-"I have lost that faculty.  I cannot pray.  I talk to God through my sculpture and painting."
-"That's also prayer."

An conversation that takes place in Asher's mind with his father:
"There is nothing in the Jewish tradition that could have served me as an aesthetic mod for such a painting. I had to go to- I had to use a - Do you understand, Papa?  Why are you looking at me like that, Papa?  It isn't the sitra achra, Papa.  It's your son.  There was no other way, no other aesthetic mold."

I highly recommend this book, although it is not a pick-me-up.  It is a beautiful look into the mind and experiences of an artist and the cruel world we live in.

Be blessed!  Be Inspired!