Marginal Christianity

David Brooks JAN. 15, 2016 Across the street from my apartment building in Washington there’s a gigantic supermarket and a CVS. Above the supermarket there had been a large empty space with floor-to-ceiling windows. The space was recently taken by a ballet school, so now when I step outside in the evenings I see dozens of dancers framed against the windows, doing their exercises — gracefully and often in unison.       It can be arrestingly beautiful. The unexpected beauty exposes the limitations of the normal, banal streetscape I take for granted every day. But it also reminds me of a worldview, which was more common in eras more romantic than our own. Read more at http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/15/opinion/when-beauty-strikes.html?mwrsm=Facebook&_r=0

Fr. Stephen Freeman 2 Comments   Nothing is as difficult as true theology. Simply saying something correct is beside the point. Correctness does not rise to the level of theology. Theology, rightly done, is a path towards union with God. It is absolutely more than an academic exercise. Theology is not the recitation of correct facts, it is the apprehension and statement of Beauty.   It is this aspect of liturgical life that makes it truly theological. It is also the failure of most contemporary Christian worship efforts. Gimmicks, emotional manipulation and a musical culture that barely rises above kitsch reveal nothing of God – and embarrassingly much about us.   This is equally a failure of theological argumentation in most quarters. Authoritative sources, managed like so-many hands of trump cards, are deftly played in order to dominate and destroy. But words have a divine origin, having preceded all of creation. They have a right relationship with every created thin

30  Then Moses said to the Israelites: “Look, the Lord has chosen Bezalel, Uri’s son and Hur’s grandson from the tribe of Judah. 31  The Lord has filled him with the divine spirit that will give him skill, ability, and knowledge for every kind of work. 32  He will be able to create designs, do metalwork in gold, silver, and copper, 33  cut stones for setting, carve wood, do every kind of creative work, 34  and have the ability to teach others. Both he and Oholiab, Ahisamach’s son from the tribe of Dan, 35  have been given the skill to do every kind of work done by a gem cutter or a designer or a needleworker in blue, purple, and deep red yarns and in fine linen or a weaver or anyone else doing work or creating designs.           According to the Nicene Creed the Holy Spirit is “the Lord, the giver of life.”   Wherever signs of genuine life and humanity are found, there the “divine spirit” is at work.   The people of God, constituted as such by that same Spirit, ought to be

www.brianvolck.com/art/beauty-and-suffering/ I learned today, via the UK’s Telegraph , that I share with newly-elected Pope Francis a favorite painting: Marc Chagall’s White Crucifixion . We also share an appreciation for the film, Babette’s Feast , his favorite, though I’d place Gabriel Axel’s masterpiece just behind Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red Line and Roland Joffe’s The Mission in my personal cinema trifecta. All of them stand at the intersection of beauty and suffering, and while Babette’s suffering – and that of her two patronesses – may be subtler than others, we nevertheless feel it through the medium of art. Pope Francis and I may find meaning in these works for very different reasons, I don’t know. Perhaps one day, after the fuss, scrutiny, demands, and accusations now directed his way grow routine, if not necessarily manageable, he’ll share some thoughts on art and film. I, for one, am interested in the aesthetics of this highly educated son of an immigrant