Priestly and Prophetic

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Priestly and Prophetic

• How do we use art?

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Viladesau Theology and the Arts (Paulist Press,
2000)
Eusden and Westerhoff Sensing Beauty Aesthetics,
the Human Spirit, and the Church (United Church
Press, 1998)
Begbie Voicing Creations Praise Towards a
Theology of The Arts (TT 1991)
Robinson Where is the arts religion? In the
artists heart. (Philadelphia Inquirer, July 1.
2001)
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Two Functions or Modes of Art

• Priestly
• The revelation of the presence of goodness or
  truth. (Eusden 27)

• Prophetic
• The revelation of the absence of goodness or
  truth. (Ibid.)

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Symbol

• Catholic Tradition
• Participates in referent (Efficacious Sign)

• Protestant Tradition
• Indicates referent

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The Priestly Mode

• Beauty as a Revelation of God

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Eschatological perspective
Fra Angelico The Transfiguration
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Alessandro Boticelli Madonna of the Magnificat
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Idealism

• anticipation of a fulfillment that cannot be
  found in an actual encounter (Tillich)

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God in nature?
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Paul Gauguin Christ in the Garden of Olives
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Van Gogh Olive Trees with Yellow Sky and Sun
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Tillich on Art and Revelation
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The Portrait of Jesus as the Christ

• Original Revelation (The Christ Event)
• Dependent Revelation (The Biblical portrait)

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The Work of Art

• Original Revelation (The Artists Encounter with
  Reality)
• Dependent Revelation (Our Encounter with Artwork)

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The Heavens are Telling

• The Hudson River School

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Frederic Church Iceburgs
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Albert Bierstad Storm in the Rockies Mt.
Rosalie
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The Prophetic Critique

• Beauty is not enough

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he had no beauty in him

• The Christian message is not merely that God is
  lovely, but that God is love not merely that God
  is to be found in the pursuit of what is
  attractive and desirable in the world, but that
  God is transcendently and absolutely beautiful
  and is to be found even in what to the worlds
  eye is ugly and deformed and unworthy. (52-3)

Matthias Grünewald Crucifixion
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Picasso Guernica
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Controversy and Scandal

• Prophetic Elements in Contemporary Art

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Renée Cox Yo Mamas Last Supper
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Andres Serrano Piss Christ
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the existence of God and eternity.
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)
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Dutch Period (1881-1886)

• The Prophetic Voice

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The Potato Eaters
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Head of a Peasant Woman
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Arles 1888-89
The Priestly Voice
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Van Gogh The Sower (June 1888)
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The Sower (November 1888)
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Enclosed Wheatfield with Rising Sun
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Irises
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Auvers-sur-Oise 1890
Starry Night
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Blossoming Almond Tree
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The Church at Auvers