"The spiritual life to which art belongs, and of which it is one of the mightiest agents, is a complex but definite movement above and beyond, which can be translated into simplicity."
Wassily Kandinsky, Concerning the Spiritual in Art.

"I want to paint men and women with that something of the eternal which the halo used to symbolize, but which we now seek to counter through the actual radiance of colour vibrations."
Vincent Van Gogh

Integrity and Articulation.

The Chaplaincy to the Arts and Recreation works both within and beyond the Church to explore and promote the open questions asked by art in contemporary society. It recognizes the creative gifts in all people and the particular insights and skills of artists, and respects the integrity of those gifts, while remaining committed to the integrity of the Christian vision and story.

"That belief in Christ is to some a matter of life and death has been a stumbling block for readers who would prefer to think it a matter of no great consequence. For them Hazel Motes’ integrity lies in his trying with such vigour to get rid of the ragged figure who moves from tree to tree in the back of his mind. For the author Hazel’s integrity lies in his not being able to. Does one’s integrity ever lie in what he is not able to do?"
Flannery O’Connor, Author’s Note to Wise Blood.

(Flannery O’Connor’s novel of the American Deep South is the story of a Christ-haunted man, a shocking, violent work of art that unpicks our ideas of religious integrity through the integrity of the novelist as artist.)

Theology cannot be content with a ghetto existence.
Maurice Wiles

True to this understanding of the broad nature of theology, the Chaplaincy seeks to articulate religious faith and experience both within and beyond the Church, insisting that its work is central and not marginal to the Church’ mission, whether it be consoling or discomforting, reassuring or provoking. While having an independent status outside the Church, the Chaplaincy remains very closely linked to it and to its work.
It believes that the different forms of integrity and articulation can be mutually enhancing and enriching, as they are aspects of a single search. Even while we may continue to celebrate the great traditions of Christian theology and belief, we should acknowledge that we live in an age of multiculturalism and fragmentation, and that the articulation sought by the artist, through sight and sound as well as word, is crucial in the ever-changing task of reconciling the material and spiritual, and the recovery of hope and vision in our world. While having an independent status, the Chaplaincy remains part of the Church and promotes its work.

….as for that absence of a shared symbolic order….Even if we have ceased to believe in God, nature can provide it for us: the answer lies not in the reproduction of appearances, but in an imaginative perception of natural form, in which its particularities are not denied, but grasped and transfigured.
Peter Fuller, Images of God.

Engagement.

The Chaplaincy is committed to a task of engagement and education, of encouraging and enabling the creative work of artists and of all people. It seeks to draw together this creative work and the spiritual, intellectual and pastoral life of the Church. Its work is deeply theological, but it questions where theology begins, its methods and processes. This theological activity is, at the same time, without any circumscription of artistic creativity, but finds in it restatements of the church’s ancient celebration of all creation – a celebration that is at the heart of society’s health and well-being.

Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!
Psalm 150:6

The Chaplaincy to the Arts and Recreation continues to encourage and support the work of artists, and to draw the church to a greater understanding and awareness of artistic activity as lying at the very heart of its vision and mission. It works to develop creative relationships between artists, both professional and otherwise, and the Church. Through its website and other means it seeks to be a channel of communication, stimulating discussion and debate at every level, preferring theological reflection or exploration to theological statement, celebration to dogmatic utterance.

He moves his hands – no more than that; and at his motion, the very order of space, the laws governing visibility, are revealed as a divine emanation.
Leo Steinberg, on the Christ of Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper.