Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Good Letters

Home
Catholic
What Now?

What Now?

Last updated on: May 6, 2014 at 6:38 pm by Guest Contributor

What Now? 2014-05-06T18:38:58-07:00 Guest Contributor

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Guest Post

By Scott Cairns

Image has just published its 25th anniversary issue (#80). We’re pleased today to run an excerpt from a symposium in that issue entitled “The Road Behind Us: Image*’s Founding Generation,” in which we asked several writers and artists who have been part of* Image*’s community from its beginnings what they see as having changed over the years, whether there’s still a need for a venue like* Image*, and what our new calling might be.*

Yes, the cultural landscape in America has changed dramatically since the 1980s. And building upon the previous brilliant, pioneering successes of a relative handful of remarkable writers—among them, John Updike, Annie Dillard, Denise Levertov, and Larry Woiwode come to mind—Image journal has been key to effecting dramatic change in the three decades of interim.

I believe that it was sometime in the fall of 1993 that I first learned of Image. I was gigging a Texas writers’ conference in San Angelo, and I met up with Virginia Stem Owens and her husband David who were also presenting their work. We hit it off, and—between readings, panel discussions, and other typical conference fare—struck up a series of conversations that led to what has been a continuing friendship. It was during that long weekend that Ginger first told me about this newish “Journal of the Arts and Religion,” suggesting I might send some work to Greg Wolfe, her then colleague at Newman University in Wichita, Kansas, and the editor and publisher of the magazine.

To be honest, I didn’t think I would be sending anything to Greg anytime soon. I had by then seen more than my share of literary journals attempting to bridge the chasm between art and faith, and in no previous case had I witnessed anything other than an acute diminishment of art, more often than not coupled with a cartoonish take on faith, to boot. That is to say, I was not expecting anything different along those lines.

Then I saw a copy of the new journal, Image Number 3, published the previous spring.

What I found was something far different than I had expected: actual art by Edward Knippers, actual fiction by Andre Dubus and Owen Barfield, actual poetry by Dana Gioia. There was also an essay on the art of Ed Knippers by the sculptor Ted Prescott, some of the best art writing I had ever read. What many others had attempted, Greg and Suzanne Wolfe were able to achieve.

Long story made short, I sent along some new work, and Greg was kind enough to accept a few of my “Recovered Midrashim of Rabbi Sab” for issue Number 5.

That much, as they say, is history. In the late 1980s, Greg and Suzanne Wolfe shared the vision of a culture that prized both genuine accomplishment in art and genuine religious faith. They thereafter provided—at great personal cost and sacrifice—an exemplary venue that has proven to be a continuing catalyst for bringing their beautiful dream into a beautiful reality. Not to put too fine a point on it: the journal itself was instrumental in bringing about the cultural change we have witnessed since then; artists of faith have been accepted, embraced, even, by the culture at large.

So—Greg has asked us to consider—what now? Now that the chasm between accomplished art and genuine faith has been significantly and convincingly bridged, now that the need for change feels somewhat less pressing and the disconnect between good art and good faith somewhat less acute, how might Image further assist both present and future artists of faith?

I may have a couple bright ideas along that line, but forgive a brief detour into anecdote—well, make that two anecdotes, which may well be related.

Anecdote One: By way of countless emails, sequential classrooms, frequent workshops, ongoing editorial duties, and the occasional quaint bit of snail mail, I come upon a good bit of writing by writers of faith—young and old and in between. Various as these works can be, various as the authors can seem, they appear often to share in two common errors: first, the premise that a writer is someone with a message to deliver, and, second, that the text is simply a means of delivery. That is, they appear to understand their vocation as presenting something primary (an agenda) by way of something secondary (a work of art).

How this has come to be I can only guess. A nostalgic fondness for allegory? A fear of imagination? A lack of respect for the stuff of creation? Maybe many years of bad instruction along the way, which has treated each literary text as a dressed up theme?

I’m guessing that the cause is some combination of the above.

All young artists—religious or otherwise—appear to have fallen prey to the error that their art is supposed to impart to others what that artist thinks he knows. Young Christian artists appear still to be most susceptible to mistaking art for a means of presenting their religious faith, albeit cryptically encoded in allegorical or symbolic terms.

Anecdote Two: Many of my students—even some English majors, even some graduate students hailing from the most prestigious universities in our nation—appear these days to be manifestly unskilled in shaping English sentences. They regularly misuse words, they love to yammer abstractly, and surprisingly often they fail to recognize when they have not quite produced a sentence at all. They don’t appear to give much attention to linguistic detail. These are the English majors, mind you. How has this come to be?

It could be that the latter-day fixation on expression—subcultural, ethnic, political, individual—has led them to privilege what is intended over how it is articulated. They give little attention to how the utterance is shaped on the page, and miss out on learning how good writing always says more than we mean to say.

Unduly enamored of intention, thus focused on some prior purpose, they fail to find how the act of writing—poring over words, phrases, and sentences as they are pressed to the page—is itself the means of the artist’s discovering new matter to share. The rule holds for all the arts—writers must love language, painters must love pigment, sculptors must love iron and stone, and musicians must delight in song; in this way, each medium duly attended becomes itself the agent of revelation.

I have a hunch that the great common flaw of mainstream American literary culture is not so much a lack of religious faith as it is a lack of faith in words—as such—accompanied by an ignorance of style. And I’m guessing that this curious phenomenon has left us with an odd generation of writers who cannot write.

They may wish to build new and great towers reaching to the clouds, but have no skill with stone, nor much in the way of stone. The new Babel of their creation is already rubble.

So, what might Image and its devoted crew do to assist the unskilled laborers of these slim constructions?

Raise the bar.

It’s time, I think, for artists of faith to cease hankering simply to be accepted by the mainstream galleries, writers, editors, and publishers. It’s time for artists of faith to recover their historical expertise in what makes great art great—an absolute ownership of every tool in the toolbox, coupled with a rich and enriching, dialogic relationship to the great art that precedes them.

Raise the bar.

In the public square, we witness a generation of writers who cannot make good sentences, a good number of sculptors who understand neither stone nor metal nor wood, a good number of painters who cannot draw. We should not want so much to blend in with them; we should work to be far more accomplished.

This is our inheritance, and it is our calling.

Time to shine.

Artists and editors both, raise the bar.

Scott Cairns is professor of English at the University of Missouri. His most recent books are Idiot Psalms and Endless Life. He has received a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Denise Levertov Award.

Art Pictured: Edward Kippers. The Pest House (Christ Heals the Sick), 1991. Oil on panel, 1500 x 987 inches. This painting was reproduced in Image #3 (1993).

Previous Post

May 5, 2014

Let’s Hear It for the Dull Habit

Next Post

May 7, 2014 Christians in the Age of Sincerity

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category A. G. Harmon Alissa Wilkinson Allison Backous Art Authors Brad Fruhauff Bradford Winters Bryan Bliss Caroline Langston Chad Thomas Johnston Chris Hoke Christiana N. Peterson Culture D.G. Myers D.L. Mayfield Daniel Bowman Jr. David Griffith Elizabeth Duffy Faith Film Greg Wolfe Guest Contributor Interview Jan Vallone Jeffrey Overstreet Jessica Eddings-Roeser Jessica Mesman Griffith Kelly Foster Lindsey Crittenden Morgan Meis music Natalie Vestin Nick Olson Peggy Rosenthal Personal Reflection Poetry Friday Reflection Relationships Review Richard Chess Richard Cole Sara Zarr Shannon Huffman Polson Sonya Bilocerkowycz Tania Runyan Tony Woodlief Topical Categories Uncategorized Vic Sizemore Writing

Select a Month October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 February 2008

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

According to James, what should you do when you are in trouble?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Sing Hymns Repent Serve others Pray