A Response to the 2011 Brehm Lectures
While I am not an artist, the 2011 Brehm Lectures spoke to me in many ways, some of which will percolate quietly in my imagination for a long time (in particular as I reflect on the art works shown). In these lectures I heard a call to give closer attention to the address of the Bible to my imagination, calling me to repent and lament, and to give closer attention to the presence and pain of my neighbors as communicated through their art.
The Brehm Center exists to “revitalize the church and culture through the arts.” Every year the Center offers its Brehm Lectures, “to bring notable Christian theoreticians and practitioners together to discuss vital issues at the intersection of art and faith.” For 2011 the theme of the Lectures was “The Art of Prophecy, the Prophecy of Art,” with the intention of exploring ways in which the arts might respond to global crises, perhaps even in ways that might be called prophetic.
I attended afternoon lectures by Ellen Davis and Makoto Fujimura, and an evening panel discussion that included, in addition, John Chan and Lynn Aldrich.
Ellen Davis exegeted the poetry of the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah in juxtaposition with the art work of the twentieth-century printmakers Emil Nolde and Fritz Eichenberg, and of the contemporary printmaker Margaret Adams Parker. Davis explored how certain prophetic gifts (insight and concrete expression), prophetic disciplines (bearing pain and bearing with God), and certain prophetic arts (covenantal condemnation and lament), are practiced by both the Old Testament prophet and these artists.
Listening to Davis explore the ways in which Jeremiah, Nolde, Eichenberg, and Adams Parker invite and lead us into the bearing of pain and the practice of lament, I marveled at the deep reservoir of inspiration – both encouragement and challenge – available to artists in the Bible. And noticed once again how academic scholarship contributes to our capacity to draw on that reservoir. Without doubt this is one of the great gifts that the Brehm Center offers working artists: opportunity to learn from gifted biblical scholars.
Drawing on the little book He shines in all that’s fair, by Fuller Theological Seminary president Richard Mouw, Makoto Fujimura explained human solidarity in terms of common grace – that is, “(1) the bestowal of natural gifts, such as rain and sunshine, upon creatures in general, (2) the restraining of sin in human affairs, so that the unredeemed do not produce all of the evil that their depraved natures might otherwise bring about, and (3) the ability of unbelievers to perform acts of civic good.”
Fujimura also gave close attention to the dark side of the human solidarity: what he calls the “common curse.” Reflecting on his own experience as a survivor of the 9/11 attacks on New York City, he recognized that sufferers, survivors, and rescuers on that day did not require the shibboleth of confessed religious convictions to share in one another’s pain and grief or offer each other rescue and comfort. Similarly, argued Fujimura, as we make art, and engage the art of others, common grace and common curse draw us into human empathy with one another as we collaborate, giving and receiving gifts of imagination.
Listening to Fujimura I became more thoroughly convinced that Christians are called in all areas of life to live, attentively and intentionally, alongside those who do not share our deepest commitments and yet share our common pain and grief – not only because we can bear the hope of the gospel into this heartbreaking world, but because so often we can receive comfort and rescue from our neighbors, regardless of our deep and important differences.
While the evening conversation continued to explore how artists respond to global crises, in particular ecological crises, I must say that the bright play of color in Lynn Aldrich’s coral reef made from household cleaning equipment made me laugh with delight, which in no way detracted from the seriousness of the crisis to which it alluded. And John Chan’s MAS / Long Beach Mobile ArtSpace project presentation was no less delightful, amazing, or amusing, as it suggested an intervention to heal bad urban spaces, even if only temporarily, or in anticipation of bigger fixes. Pain, even in the context of global crisis, can be made bearable by laughter, and proper lament is sometimes quickened by humor.
– Dr. Gideon Strauss is a senior fellow with the Center for Public Justice in Washington DC and a consultant for the Max De Pree Center for Leadership at Fuller Theological Seminary. His wife, Angela, is a student in the School for Intercultural Studies at Fuller.