THE FOLLOWING PAPER WAS GIVEN AS PART OF A WORKSHOP AT THE 1998 NATIONAL CONFERENCE FOR LICENSED READERS IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. IT WAS SUBSEQUENTLY PUBLISHED AS A CHAPTER IN "CHRIST IS THE MORNING STAR" EDITED BY CONFERENCE ORGANIZERS LINDA BURTON AND ALEX WHITEHEAD AND PUBLISHED IN 1999 BY VERITAS (ISBN 1 85390 482 1). IT IS REPRODUCED HERE BY KIND PERMISSION OF THE PUBLISHERS.

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If your ministry is one of leading worship and teaching, you cannot afford to ignore the arts. For one thing, you would discount the experience of all the people who find creative activities valuable. For another, you would end up with a lop-sided theology in which words and concepts are given excessive value. As Neil Smith of the Community of Christ the King has written; "The arts are about revelation and are therefore a profound pathway to engagement with spiritual truth".

This paper gives some pointers towards the practical importance of creative activities. It then offers some reflection on the theological significance of the arts.

USING CREATIVE ACTIVITIES

Creativity and learning

The culture of the church is dominated by words. The sermon remains its basic teaching method. Yet it is now recognized that ‘I talk - You listen’ is the least effective way of enabling people to learn. In today’s world, television and computer screens are increasingly replacing the verbal by the visual. Much of the Church’s approach is therefore at odds with a culture in which other forms of education emphasize opportunities for participating and doing.

It may seem obvious to say that different people learn in different ways. Yet churches often fail to offer a variety of learning strategies. Without participative activities as an essential ingredient in a programme of Christian education, some people are denied their most fulfilling way to come to God and for God to come to them.

Participative activity can empower those who feel "disabled" by words and concepts. They find creative activity - perhaps involving drama or making something - inviting, because it means joining in and taking part. It also integrates action and reflection, mind and body, thought and intuition. Purely conceptual learning (such a listening to a sermon) does not.

Those whose preferred learning mode is conceptual can also learn in this way, even though they may find it demanding. All human beings have a left and a right side to the brain. Both need to be valued and used. Faced with a practical activity, conceptualisers can be reluctant to get involved. They are often used to appearing society’s most competent people. They can therefore feel threatened by activities which they sense (consciously or sub-consciously) will expose some felt weakness. In particular, creative activity of most kinds leads into the world of experience. Instead of merely talking about something like the fragility of life, it is felt. Such fears need sensitive handling. However, they offer an opportunity for healing and for growth in a neglected area of the self.

As a Reader, perhaps selected precisely for your skill with words, you nevertheless know that words are not always necessary for spiritual discovery or encounter with God. You know that children and many adults prefer a more concrete approach, but may be uncertain how to respond. Reflecting on the arts or using creative activities offers one way forward.

Creativity and worship

Worship, in whatever tradition, uses symbols. The best symbols do not require explaining; they speak to a deeper level within us. Witness the way in which all sorts of people find help through lighting a candle. But Old Testament warnings against idols have left their mark. They leave some Christians mistrustful of images intended as aids to worship, such as icons or statues. And when the Word is also central to worship, as in the Protestant tradition, symbol and action are downgraded. Seldom, for example, is baptism allowed to speak for itself, without verbal explanation. This may be partially justified because the Church and the world no longer share a symbolic language. But it is also the result of liturgy "done" without conviction. When properly "performed", with trust in the power of symbols to speak for themselves, they can.

The idea of liturgy as "performance" - as a type of theatre - is not new, and it should suggest to those responsible for it that there are things they can learn from performance artists through observation and personal contact. So, look for opportunities to involve performers in imaginative liturgy: they can encourage and help the Church in the challenging task of creating worship which involves action as much as words.

Faith and the arts - a shared exploration

In looking for those from any sphere of the arts who will support your work, do not limit yourself to practicing Christians. The artist and the person of faith are on a similar journey. The common ground we share is a commitment to celebrate and to explore the heights and depths of human existence and to identify the barriers that need to be removed if people are to grow towards the full humanity, which the Christian believes is God’s will for all (St John 10:10). This shared quest engages with the deep realities of life.

Endless opportunities - not just worship - exist for involving arts practitioners in this common exploration. Over the centuries artists have served the Church. Works of art, such as stained glass and paintings, have illustrated its teachings. Composers have set its central texts to music. But the contribution of the artist goes far beyond this. More importantly, their work reflects something of the mystery of God and enhances worship through the creation of mood.

But do not presume from this that works of art are valuable merely as visual (or aural) aids. The value of art does not lie primarily in "illustrating Christian teaching. It is not only sacred art or Christian artists who can enlighten. Artists who are sympathetic to spiritual concerns, but not necessarily believers, are less bound by preconceptions. They are better able to exercise the artist’s gift of seeing familiar things with fresh insight.

So, for example, if you plan to use a painting rather than words as a focus for meditation it does not have to be a religious one. A totally secular painting such as Munch’s The Scream may achieve more than, say, one of the crucifixion. This painting speaks starkly about human suffering and alienation. In its light the crucified Christ’s cry of abandonment can be seen as part of God’s response to the universal human experience of suffering. And because the painting comes from a less familiar context its message is stronger.

So look for ways to encourage your church to offer hospitality to performers and to artworks. Living with an artist’s vision and having the chance to ask questions about the creative process can be an illuminating experience, both in the narrow sphere of the religious and the broader sphere of the human, which is shared territory.

SOME THEOLOGICAL REFLECTIONS

Much of what has been touched upon so far has significant theological implications. Six brief thoughts are offered below to encourage further reflection.

Creativity offers insight into God

Through the first chapter of Genesis runs the refrain "Let there be". The desire and the will to "let there be" lies behind all creativity. It is therefore a unique means of gaining a deeper understanding of God’s activity. Self-giving love is how W. H. Vanstone characterizes this activity in his book ‘Love’s Endeavour, Love’s Expense" (SCM 1977). The whole book is worth reading, but pages 30 - 35 offer a particularly valuable insight. Vanstone describes how two boys make a model of an area around a waterfall, using stones, twigs, plaster and paint. He writes about their initial reluctance, but growing absorption. As the model progresses, he notes the intensity of their discussions when faced by choices which become limited by earlier decisions. The boys find some materials ‘right’, but others ‘difficult’. They are surprised by the use to which apparently unattractive materials can be put and the unexpected value they can assume. They discover how to respond when something goes wrong. Above all Vanstone is moved by the boys’ increasing care as the model takes shape and how they watch and wait more, allowing the model to teach them the next move. They begin to allow the model a certain power over them.

With immense sensitivity Vanstone uses this story to express his understanding of God’s relationship with creation. What it also offers is a paradigm of how the eyes of our understanding can be enlightened through a creative activity such as this. Vanstone emphasizes in particular how any creative work necessitates struggle and risk because at no point is it possible to be entirely certain of the final result. Such things speak of God’s nature and action. They also speak of what it means to become fully human, made in the image of God.

Beauty matters

Part of what the arts have to offer is a sense of beauty. Bishop Leonard Wilson was interned and tortured during World War II. Writing later he said, "There was a tiny window at the back of the cell, and through the bars I could hear the song of the golden oriole. I could see the glowing red flame of the forest tree, and something of God’s indestructible beauty was communicated to my tortured mind." Neil Smith writes, "The search for beauty is universal; it is a spiritual searching for the creative force which sustains all things." Creative activity and experience are essential to Christian growth, because they involve people with beauty in a way which is fundamental their becoming fully human.

Creativity and spirituality

Creativity can stimulate personal reflection and prayer. This is because the essence of both prayer and creativity is paying attention. Activities like drawing or writing demand close observation. Respect for materials is essential to sculpture and the crafts. Listening deeply is fundamental, not only to the creation of music, but also to its performance. But the attention required by creativity is not simply an illuminating parallel to prayer. It can be prayer in itself. The true artist not only looks, but sees - and this deep looking is a spiritual activity.

Such things take time. But in a western world obsessed with busy-ness, we need to learn to "waste" time. A work of art cannot proceed without a standing back for silence and reflection. Let art teach you that a life cannot be made by scurrying round.

Creative activity is an experience of the body of Christ

Creativity can be a solitary experience. But it can also offer an experience of the truth that human fulfilment lies in interdependence with others. Creativity is about nourishing and cherishing gifts. It is about celebrating variety. As part of a weekend on "Art and Wholeness" a group was sat together to draw a great cedar tree. Each person drew a section in his or her own style. They had, however, to be in continual consultation with their neighbours to ensure that the sections married up. Joined together the drawings were an expression of diversity within unity. Within the single tree, the uniqueness of each contribution was preserved. What St Paul says about the body of Christ (I Corinthians 12) had been encountered through experience and so more deeply understood.

Creative activity is also particularly effective in enabling collaboration between adults and children. Here they can work together sometimes as equals, sometimes with the adults leading, sometimes with the children. In a similar way, when learning is a participative activity, understanding comes to be seen as residing in the group, rather than an individual expert. Besides this, when you use creative activities, you will find yourself calling on people who might not normally be expected to take on a leadership or teaching role. You will therefore find yourself affirming a wide variety of gifts in God’s service and the value of individuals in general.

Creativity is healthily subversive

In our society people are frequently valued more for what they do than for who they are. The so-called Protestant Work Ethic is partly to blame, with its fear of "idle hands". But so too are the economic values which dominate current thought. The highly paid are highly valued, because consumers are the diet of the insatiable economic dragon. The impact of both these things, for example on those without paid employment or women in the home, is devastating.

The Church should be foremost amongst those saying that human meaning and value are not defined by productivity. The justification for this is worship. Worship is the highest human calling. It is also a supremely "unproductive" activity! Creativity is often unproductive in precisely the same way. Clearly, it can be a means of making a living. However, even then, the creative urge often remains rooted in a personal joy and fulfillment completely at odds with both the work ethic and economic productivity. As such it subverts our present system of values, by reminding us to let go and to play. It is tempting to wonder if something of this may have been in Jesus’ mind when he said that, "Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it" (Luke 18:17). Children do not need to be taught to play or to wonder. In his book ‘Original Blessing’ (Bear and Co., 1983) Matthew Fox quotes the mediaeval theologian Meister Eckhart who writes about this childlike need "to live without a why, to work without a why, to love without a why’. Fox comments that perhaps "the time has come to play with God more than to pray to God and in our play true prayer will emerge". Let the arts and creative activities offer you ways in which to explore this exciting possibility.

The arts encourage open-ended exploration

The "journey of faith" has become a common image. It is nonetheless valuable for that. It is an image which implies new horizons and unexpected possibilities. Using the arts and creative activities supports this approach. The practice of art place less value on certainty and proof than on struggle, risk and uncertainty. Such things make for growth.

The arts can therefore offer those making the journey of faith a picture of what they are doing with their lives. They speak of "making something of ourselves". We can picture that "something" as a poem, a dance, a symphony – "something beautiful for God", as Mother Teresa put it. To quote Matthew Fox again, "The most beautiful thing that the potter creates is... the potter."

But creative activities can touch our relationships as well as ourselves. A curate tells of a drama exercise in which he had to wrestle with the bishop who ordained him. "Till then I had felt the bishop to be a rather aloof figure, but now I found myself ‘laying hands’ on the man who had ‘laid hands’ on me. My experience of the relationship became quite different. Afterwards, I could never think of him in quite the same way again. It was partly because he gave himself generously to the exercise and did not hide behind his role and authority. It was also simply because I touched him. As a result he became a person of flesh and blood, someone I could relate to as a normal human being." Sometimes, when words fail, a creative, participative experience proves to be a breakthrough.

For further information contact Robert Cooper