"As the choir sang, many listened with closed eyes, seeming to experience in almost mystical sense of God's transcendence. And I was not crying alone; the medieval recorder brought a few other people to tears. These people live music" (p. 203).Do you know what a recorder is? This video shows a quartet (Loeki Stardust Quartett Amsterdam) playing recorders of different sizes. (If the video quits working, view it on YouTube by clicking the link.)
1. What is the role of music and art in your spiritual life? In your congregation?
2. How do you respond to the interview with the Reverend Alice Connor? To Phyllis Tickle's story about the teenage boy? Do Alice's and the boy's comments make sense to you? Do they help you better understand the Trinity or the Virgin Birth? What do you think about beauty as a pathway of theological knowledge?
2 comments:
Do you know what a recorder is? This video shows a quartet (Loeki Stardust Quartett Amsterdam) playing recorders of different sizes. (If the video quits working, view it on YouTube by clicking the link.)
The video worked great and gives me a new appreciation of the lovely music recorders can produce.
1. What is the role of music and art in your spiritual life? In your congregation?
Although I love hearing gospel and other religious music and viewing religious works of art (stained glass windows are favorite mediums for me), they have not been a major focus in my life. As I typed this, I remember the trip my youngest son and I took with a group of Japanese exchange students (a friend was a coordinator for the program and invited us along as there was extra room on the bus) to the Nelson Art Gallery in Kansas City. After the docent told about the Madonna paintings, my friend started to explain to one of the students who Mary/Madonna was. The student looked at her in all seriousness and said that they knew all about Madonna and her baby. I wonder whether the art style was quite a contrast to that which one would expect for a rock star.
Our congregation has a few stained glass windows and, especially in the past, had quite a few members with vocal talent. As the congregation has shrunk, the talent has decreased as well. When the church was built, its structure was impressive because of the crosses on its roof that narrowed up to the base holding the crosses. However, the weight of the crosses caused continual damage to the church and the crosses were removed which makes the pitch of the roof now seem inappropriate.
2. How do you respond to the interview with the Reverend Alice Connor? To Phyllis Tickle's story about the teenage boy? Do Alice's and the boy's comments make sense to you? Do they help you better understand the Trinity or the Virgin Birth? What do you think about beauty as a pathway of theological knowledge?
Alice’s use of art and beauty to help one see God is inspiring.
Alice’s resolution of conflicts regarding the Trinity through her professor’s comment that it is “elegant” reminded me of the satisfaction one felt in high school algebra when the teacher praised a proof with his infrequent compliment that it was “elegant”.
The teenage boy’s acceptance of the truth of the Virgin Birth because of its beauty was gives refreshing insight to the discussion.
I do think that beauty (whether nature or manmade) opens one to God.
1. Art and especially music are central to my spiritual life. I integrate certain hymns with my soul to the point that hymns will spontaneously play in my head at any time. I always reflect on what God is saying to me in those moments. Most of those hymns are loved by me; however, at times one I hate will be used. I try to understand why. Less often visual art will speak to me. The painting that hangs in the adult Sunday School classroom is one example. The minute I saw it, I knew I had to have it even though I couldn't afford it. I have not as yet given it to the church because I can't bear to lose it.
TV shows and movies can also have a spiritual impact on me. I love well-made detective and crime shows because of the understanding it can give me into my brothers and sisters who have chosen to disengage with the world. I yearn to better understand that mindset so that I might be able to learn to be more hospitable toward others and encourage transformation instead of disengagement with some people.
Architecture also has a profound effect on my spirituality. The most recent event was at Sandy Springs Christian Church. The architecture took my breath away. It all said early church to me -- the stone wall and clay jars at the front of the sanctuary, the simple wood altar, the beams and windows and front wall "roof" all pointing steeple-like toward God.
Of course beautifully written books, both fiction and nonfiction, have tremendous impact on keeping my spiritual life fresh and growing.
2. I could be both Alice Connor's and the young man in Phyllis Tickle's stories. What hits me about both is the positive nature of both stories to the "controversial" issues of the Trinity and the Virgin Birth. Both came, not from a position of authority, but from instinctive revelation. Instinctive God revelation beats rational logic with me every time. Theological knowledge must be on the pathway of beauty if it is to be sustained.
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