Gerard Manley Hopkins

OK, I admit it, I loved talking about GMH today. Such a rich Christological Creation theology. Don't you think that Christians today need a deeper, more robust theology of creation? OK, not everyone likes poetry, it can be very challenging, but at least we can appreciate the beauty of Hopkins' vision of 'inscape.'

Here is the link to the power point slides from today. I deleted some of Kirstin's pictures from the power point so that it would fit on the google site (the file size is limited!). If you are interested in seeing more of her pictures, you can go to her blog. Then you can let me know why it is she should write a book that includes her photographs!

Peace,
Chelle

Mary Poem

MARY OF NAZARETH

I am mystery,

rebel,

mother,

refugee,

a voice crying out compassion

in the face of cruelty,

human misery.

I am Mary of Nazareth,

I sing my reckless trust,

my ache,

confusion.

Mine are the dirges any mother sings

whose child is cut

down too young.

I sing

of dashed dreams

that turned to diamonds.

I was young and hopeful,

the future danced in my eyes!

I always had a wild streak

(some said

I was a rebel),

My head uncovered,

my hair flying,

I ran

through the streets

with friends.

My voice carried

loudest

they said.

I did not always

heed the Law,

or my parents,

or anyone else.

I sometimes spoke

out.

I asked the why of things.

I was silenced.,

but never

for long,

because

a restlessness ran through me.

It seemed I wanted more from life

than most.

The longing wouldn’t go away.

They hoped that Joseph would

tame my restless spirit

with domestic dreams, a family future

I accepted,

but secretly,

I tucked away

my restlessness

in the corner of my heart

far from

the eyes of anyone.

Yet, God spied my hidden treasure, and smiling,

asked if I’d dare bring

that MORE in me to life,

new life,

for all like me

who dream for more than Law.

I swallowed hard, but

I

said

YES!

I surrendered to birth

a bigger dream

than hearts could capture then.

I said YES

to birthing MYSTERY

midst the darkness.

My YES blasted walls

of Law and custom.

It brought talk,

sniping,

pointing fingers,

stones,

as I walked

pregnant with MYSTERY,

God’s dream.

I remember…

that dark night,

NO’S

slamming in my face,

locked doors,

far from family,

my body bursting

I gave birth

to MYSTERY shining

on a bed of straw

midst blood and tears,

beggar’s breath,

shepherd’s sighs.

Yes, I remember…

hot sand, night chills,

running, foreign lands,

fleeing, strange streets,

fugitives, Herod’s cold cruelty.

But, I do remember warmer days,

watching my boy grow.

I saw myself in him.

I wondered who he might become.

I loved his fire,

his integrity, his joy.

And as he grew, I saw

his YES,

His YES to God and

no one else!

I was afraid.

Mother love could not last longer.

He was a young man

with the future in his eyes, and

compassion in his arms!

I let him go.

I let him go into his YES,

into streets,

salons,

and synagogues,

open arms of prostitutes and beggars, and

Into the slippery hands of hypocrites!

I am a martyr’s mother.

I let him go into his YES.

I let him go into God’s arms.

GOD’S ARMS BECAME A CROSS!

And my YES

hung limp

on the tree—

a last

lifeless

leaf.

I cried all martyrs’ mothers’ tears.

I wailed the death of dreams and hoping.

I moaned my flesh and blood

martyr-child snatched

too young

from the nest!

WHERE ARE YOU NOW GOD?

WHO ARE YOU

TO LET GO OF

YOUR PEARL

SO EASILY?

WHAT KIND OF CRUEL GOD

ARE YOU

THAT SNUFFS OUT

YOUR OWN DREAM?

HE GAVE YOU EVERYTHING,

YOU GAVE HIM DEATH!

SCORPIONS!

SNAKES!

YOU GAVE US STONES, NOT BREAD!

But, I remember…

how there was new

breath

and wind

and blessing.

how God

breathed

into our empty.

Death couldn’t hide,

Death couldn’t hold our YES!

YES! there was breath

and bread

and blessing!

YES! An empty tomb! YES!

bread broken and blessed on a road! YES!

ARMS OPENED

AND HEARTS BURNING

WITHIN US! YES!

There is breath

and wind

and blessing! YES!

He lives!

among us!

I birthed a bigger dream

more than our hearts

could contain,

more truth than death’s arms could bear!

Dreams lie waiting hidden

in you hearts to be born again

carried to all who long like us for MORE.

My sisters, my brothers,

carry them, bear them.

Bring them to YES!

Bring them to birth

midst the darkness!

By Patricia Clemens Repikoff

From DASHED DREAMS AND DIAMOND

Power Point Slides: November 17th, 2009

Here is the link to the power point slides from class.

Hope you liked Luci!

Peace,
Chelle

Thoughts from Luci Shaw on Beauty...

Here are some quotes and poem from Luci Shaw's essay, "Beauty and the Creative Impulse," in The Christian Imagination, Leland Ryken, ed, Colorado Springs, CO: Shaw Books, 2002:

"Beauty is there to be noticed. Too often it is taken for granted because we are moving too fast to let it in and allow it to deliver its message in us. We need to pay attention. To show indifference to beauty is an insult to its Creator." (90)

Earlier in the same essay she talks about "a prairie woman in 1870 who wrote in her diary a note about her quilt-making: 'I make them warm to keep my family from freezing; I make them beautiful to keep my heart from breaking.' " (88) Shaw continues, "God made us human beings in his image; we participate in creative intelligence, giftedness, originality. We each have the faculty of imagination deep within us, waiting, like a seed, to be watered and fertilized. Imagination gives us pictures by which to see things the way they can be, or the way they are, underneath. The prairie woman, hemmed into her sod house with her small children by months of sub-zero cold and snow, used her imagination redemptively. Around the traditional quilt patterns--double stars, wedding rings--her imagination pieced in the exuberant flowers and leaves that redeemed the long winter, that brought her soul back to life. She created beauty and richness from the ordinary stuff, even the castoffs, of her life." (90)

Quilt-Maker (89)

To keep a husband and five children warm,
she quilts them covers thick as drifts against
the door. Through every fleshy square white threads
needle their almost invisible tracks; her hours
count each small suture that hold together
the raw-cut, uncolored edges of her life.

She pieces each one beautiful and summer bright
to thaw her frozen soul. Under her fingers
the scraps grow to green birds and purple
improbalble leaves; deeper than calico, her mid-winter
mind bursts into flowers. She watches them unfold
between the double stars, the wedding rings.

(from Polishing the Petoskey Stone, Shaw Books, 1990, 33)

Fujimura Slides

Here is the link to the power point slides from this past week.

See you next week!! Very exited that Luci Shaw is coming!

Peace,
Chelle

Makoto Fujimura, Take II

So, here are some images from Fujimura. Thanks to Hilary for finding these. This first image is entitled "White Tree" (2000). The link here is to a page of other images with commentary by Fujimura. Check it out.





The other image that Hilary found is entitled "Shalom."

I need to read more of what Fujimura has written before I comment further about his work. I'm really intrigued by his paintings and by his visual theology.

Tell me what you guys think!

Peace (Shalom),
Chelle

Makoto Fujimura

OK, here is my first post about Makoto Fujimura. Mostly this is to show a video of him painting. I'll do a bit of commentary about his art in the following post. Meanwhile, here is a video!



And here is a link to some of his essays.

Enjoy!

Power Points from November 3, 2009

Hello all, here are the power points from yesterday's class.

• Broken Beauty: Part I & Part II
  

Peace,
Chelle

Power Points and Other Things...

I haven't put up the power points for the last couple weeks, so here they are:

• October 13th: Part I & Part II (the file was two big for one file)
  
• October 27th

As for other things, my orchestra is playing a concert tonight. One of the pieces is a bit of aesthetic theology, or it is just a creepy story. At the beginning the piece we hear both the hunting horns and the Church bells calling to the main character of the story. Should he go hunting or should he go to church? He decides to go hunting. It ends up that this was a bad choice, for as he is out hunting, evil spirits come and take him to hell.

I know, an uplifting story. What can I say? Strange French-Catholic stories from the 19th cent. I thought that you would enjoy an old movie version of the piece. I have to admit that I laughed when I watched it! Enjoy!!



Peace,
Chelle

Christ Pantocrator

I've been reading a bit of Rita Nakasima Brock's and Rebecca Ann Parker's Saving Paradise. (Check out their website for great images from their exploration of early Christian images.) Even just the prologue is a good read. The question is why it is that the crucifixion, the dominant image of the Church today, was not depicted in the first 5 centuries of Christendom, or widely used in churches or devotional practice for 1,000 years? That is a great question. Their argument is that the dominant image is that of paradise.

With this in mind, I would like to share a few images with you all. The first is an image of Christ Pantocrator from one of the churches in Ravenna, Italy. Someday I'll go there and do my own research. For now, I'll rely upon the pictures of others.

The second image is from St. Giovanni's Cathedral in Laterano. This image does depict the cross, but not a dead Jesus upon it. Instead the cross becomes the Tree of Life found at the end of Revelation. The Spirit is baptizing the cross and the water of the Spirit is channeled in four flowing streams from the cross; the water of life from which the whole world can now drink. This is really a stunning image, incorporating a very complex theological vision of salvation and redemption. Beautiful. Check out the Saving Paradise webpage for the entire mosaic and more description regarding the image. It is interesting that hovering over this portrayal of the cross is Christ Pantocrator, ruler over all things.

I am still wondering what these early Christian images have to tell us about the tradition of our faith and about who we are as Christians today.

Peace,
Chelle

Power Points from Today

Here is the link for the ppts.

-Chelle

Penguins

So, on the way to school the other day, I saw a guy carrying a large, blow-up penguin across the Ballard Bridge.

Kinda makes you stop and think...

Butternut Squash Soup!

Every year I anticipate the first batch of butternut squash soup. I don't know what it is. Something about the change in the weather, the leaves falling, pulling out all of my favorite sweaters...

Yesterday I made my first batch and it is/was very good. Nothing says "Happy Autumn!!" like a bowl of this soup. It is just plain yummy!

Plus, butternut squash is cheap right now. (Recession proof goodness!) I'm not going to give you are recipe, because I don't really have one. It is always changing. Here are some of my guidelines that I use: I love a bit of apple (not too much), a bit of ginger, a shake or so of cayenne pepper, lots of garlic, onion or leeks, beta carotene veggies of different sorts (this soup is a good emptier of the veggie drawer, just don't use mushrooms!), and some kind of broth. (I dump it all in a pot and let it boil.) When it is all soft, I puree! I don't use butter or cream, but if you want a little you can add a dollop of sour cream or plain yogurt to the top. If you need some more saltiness you garnish with some pan fried bacon or pancetta or just cook up some sausage.

There are lots of good recipes out there. Give it a try.

-Chelle

PS Here is the link to last week's ppts.

Power Point Slides, September 15th, 2009

Here is the link for the power point slides: Icons.

Enjoy!

Chelle

PS Let's watch the Evelyn Glennie documentary on Tuesday, September 29th, 2009.

Beauty and Experience

After class on Tuesday, I began to think about Evelyn Glennie. I know that most of you have never heard of her, so let me introduce you.

Evelyn Glennie is a percussionist. Moreover, she is a soloist, very unusual. She has performed solos with many of the world's major orchestras. I have seen her perform a couple of times, and she is amazing. She usually has a large array of instruments and items in front of her when she performs and she is always bare foot.

I first saw her a number of years ago and was amazed that I could enjoy a concerto for percussion and orchestra so much. It wasn't until years later that I found out that she is deaf. That profoundly surprised me. How could someone play so well, especially with an orchestra, and not be able to hear. A very good question.

She plays by feeling. She hears through her whole body. It really makes you wonder what hearing really is.

I began to think about her because she breaks out of the normal categories. She just lived into her vocation even despite her limitations, or her perceived limitations. If we are talking about being given the vision to really see the world as God sees it, then she is a great example. She has been given the "ears" to hear, even though she cannot hear. She hears the world in a transformational way and then shares that experience with the rest of us.

There was a documentary made about her a few years ago. Perhaps we should watch it in class? Here is the trailer for "Touch the Sound":



What do you think? Should we watch it?

Do yo want to hear something really crazy? Awhile back when I went to visit my friends who live in Methlick, Scotland I had an unusual encounter. Matt is the pastor of a small Church of Scotland congregation there. Julie, his wife, convinced me to play my violin in the service--it was the first week of Advent, so some special music was in order. After the service, an older woman approached me and thanked me for playing. We began to talk a little bit and it came out that her daughter was a musician who played all over the world. She was a percussionist... I looked at her and proclaimed "Are you Evelyn Glennie's mother?" Low and behold, she was. And Evelyn had grown up in that small town in Aberdeenshire. I was flabbergasted and amazed. It is a small world.

Why do I say all of this? Because beauty is not always what we expect It is not always what we know. Moreover, beauty, in whatever form, opens us up to the world in profound ways. I watched the trailer to this documentary and almost cried. It moved me for some reason. This made me realize that I don't always know why something is beautiful, but I know beauty when I encounter it. I guess that is as good a place to begin as any.

Peace,
Chelle

The Seven Last Words

Here are the seven last words of Christ on the Cross. Here is the link to the document of the seven phrases; and the power point from today's class.

1) Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do
Luke 23:34

2) Woman, Behold, Thy Son! ... Behold, Thy Mother!
John 19:26-27

3) Verily, I say unto you, today thou shalt be with me in Paradise
Luke 23:43

4) Eli, Eli, lama sabachtani? (My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?)
Matthew 27:46

5) I thirst
John 19:28

6) It is finished
John 19:30

7) Father, into Thy hands I commend my Spirit
Luke 23:46

A New Class: Beauty and Worship

Kae suggested that I continue this blog so that I can post powerpoints and other such resources for the class. So, here is the ppt for the first week on Beauty. Thank you Adrienne Chaplin for such a thought provoking essay on Beauty.

Let me know if you have anything to contribute to the blog.

Peace,
Chelle

Reading Report

Here is the Reading Report for The Artist's Way.

-chelle

Lewis on MacDonald

We read C.S. Lewis' The Great Divorce for the theology class this weekend. At the very end, Lewis has an imaginary conversation with his guide and mentor, George MacDonald. (Keep in mind that in reality, they did not live at the same time. But this does show the influence that MacDonald had on Lewis' theological imagination...)


So, here it is, a conversation between C.S. Lewis and George MacDonald from The Great Divorce:

"In your own books, Sir," said I, "you were a Universalist. You talked as if all men would be saved. And St. Paul too."

"Ye can know nothing of the end of all things, or nothing expressible in those terms. It may be, as the Lord said to the Lady Julian, that all will be well, and all will be well, and all manner of things will be well. But it's ill talking of such questions."

"Because they are too terrible, Sir?"

"No. Because all answers deceive. If ye put the question from within Time and are asking about possibilities, the answer is certain. The choice of ways is before you. Neither is closed. Any man may choose eternal death. Those who choose it will have it. But if ye are trying to leap on into eternity, if ye are trying to see the final state of all things as it will be (for so ye must speak) when there are no more possibilities left but only the Real, then ye ask what cannot be answered to mortal ears. Time is the very lens through which ye see--small and clear, as men see through the wrong end of a telescope--something that would otherwise be too big for ye to see at all. That thing is Freedom: the gift whereby ye most resemble your Maker and are yourselves parts of eternal reality. But ye can see it only through the lens of Time, in a little clear picture, through the inverted telescope. It is a picture of moments following one another and yourself in each moment making some choice that might have been otherwise. Neither the temporal succession nor the phantom of what ye might have chosen and didn't is itself Freedom. They are a lens. The picture is a symbol: but it's truer than any philosophical theorem (or, perhaps, than any mystic's vision) that claims to go behind it. For every attempt to see the shape of eternity except through the lens of Time destroys your knowledge of Freedom. Witness the doctrine of Predestination which shows (truly enough) that eternal reality is not waiting for a future in which to be real; but at the price of removing Freedom which is the deeper truth of the two. And wouldn't Universalism do the same? Ye cannot know eternal reality by a definition. Time itself, and all acts and events that fill Time, are the definition, and it must be lived. The Lord said we were gods. How long could ye bear to look (without Time's lens) on the greatness of your own soul and the eternal reality of her choice?"

Readings & Music

Just in case, I wanted to remind you that we are reading the Saliers article "Theology Sung." Suggested is Art & Soul parts 3 & 4.

Also, remember to bring in your songs. It would be great to have words as well, so if you put them onto power point slides, we can put up any words for the class.

See you Wed!
Chelle

Power Point Slides

Here are the powerpoint slides from the George Day!!

More George!!

Here is a link to MacDonald's "The Fantastic Imagination."

Enjoy!
Chelle

George!!!

Hello All,

I know that you are excited about reading Lilith this week. Yes, it is a crazy and wacky book! I have really enjoyed it and now feel that I understand C.S. Lewis so much better. (I went on a Lewis binge over Christmas break.)

Those of you who have read a lot of Lewis should be picking up resonances with MacDonald. I felt this with Lilith much more than with Phantastes, but that may be because I have assigned The Great Divorce for the Theology II class meeting this weekend. Definitely resonances there: having a guide (Mr. Raven [it is George MacDonald in The Great Divorce!]), meeting those that are lost and cannot help themselves along the way, or (if you think of Til We Have Faces or The Space Trilogy) the importance of participating in the process of redemption: a becoming the causes us to desire true redemption.

Overall, it seems that George (or GMD, as my friend Kristin writes it) longs for us to have an imagination that explores faithfully what life with God is and could be. We'll talk about this in more depth in class, but if you are interested check out GMD's essay "The Imagination: Its Function and Its Culture." I'll post an edited version of this essay later--I just need to scan it into my computer.

Anyway, I'm having fun reading George!!

Peace to you all,
Chelle

Jen's Offering: 'Writings' & 'Eucharist'

'Writings' (Painting)
'Eucharist' (Song) (I'm experiencing technical difficulties, so I hope to have the song up soon!)

Thoughts from Courtney on "Seredipity"

[Chelle's post on Serendipity] reminds me of Steve Taylor's advice to Donald Miller to be a working artist and "put in his hours". As a storyteller, I think of seminary as "putting in my hours" in some ways. The art we make happens out of what we are immersed in, right? I can't force a serendipitous discovery in rehearsal…but I can rehearse. I can't seem to write performances that reveal God…but I can revel in the revelation I've received and just keep performing. Chelle, you asked "how do these moments happen?"
Is it merely a matter of "noticing"? That language makes me think I could train my senses to sneak up on serendipitous moments and take them by force if I'm self disciplined enough. I do believe in the discipline that keeps our eyes and ears open and ready to receive the beautiful…but isn't there an element of gifting there? It's serendipitous because I wasn't seeking it---but I found it. Or Someone gave it to me.

I guess I'm trusting at some point that the sun will set just right and the people will stand and listen and eventually sit on the grass while I'm telling my story. It will be Serendipity born in the midst of discipline? I'm not saying that one comes from the other, but they definitely seem to touch. I guess I'm left with the same question: How DO these moments happen? I don't know, but thank God they do!

-Courtney

a thought from this summer... or "pat the puppy"

Last night I had a "pat the puppy" moment (a la Annie Dillard). My husband and I took advantage of the beautiful weather and went to Green Lake to hear a friend's bluegrass band. They were set up down from the Bathhouse next to the path.

The music was fun and enjoyable to listen to--I really like that old-timey harmony! I sat back, listened to the music, watched the people, watched the dogs, watched the people with their dogs (lots of dogs) and observed people's reactions to the music. For one thing, the band was really good. When you are walking around Green Lake, you don't expect to come across a good bluegrass band. So, people would stop and stand. Then they would move closer. Then they would come and sit down. Of course, there were those who started to dance, but that never lasted very long. I think everyone was amazed by and drawn to the music. The audience came and went, but everyone seemed, well amazed is not the right word, they seemed delighted and surprized. Serendipity. (The faculty or phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for.)

This moment of joy and discovery came and went very quickly (almost as soon as I noticed it), but I was there, under the fading blue sky of a warm Seattle evening listening to music, content with the world.

How do these moments happen? Random beauty surrounds us, yet we rarely stop to notice. We have no ears to hear nor eyes to see. We just don't have the time, or don't take the time to truly live where we are.

A few years ago, Joshua Bell, one of the great violinists of our time, participated in a little experiment. A reporter in Washington thought it would be great to set up Bell as a busking violinist in the subway. They were worried that they might cause quite a scene and were prepared for crowds and a bit of chaos. What they were not prepared to face was indifference. Only about two people (out of over 1,000) stopped to hear him play. Only one really recognized him (she had just heard him perform a few weeks earlier). Indifference rather than serendipity. Random beauty ignored.

Here are a couple of articles about Joshua Bell's experiment, if you are interested:

* http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html

* http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2007/04/06/DI2007040601228.html

I don't know if there is really anything that we can really learn from this. We all have our moments of "noticing". However, if we don't ignore something at one time or another, then we would be overwhelmed by it all--not just the beauty. "How could any human being endure such ravishment of the senses, every hour of every day for many winters and summers?" But if we don't look, hear and touch, how will we ever experience serendipity?

Yet we prepare for a great music, and we want to be ready to play when the time comes.

Serendipity to you!

Chelle

A New Class, but an Old Blog

I thought that it would be fun to start including this blog in our class. It may be that you love having a class blog, or that you choose simply to ignore its existence. However you view this, it is here.

What is the class? The Artist's Way. No, we are not using the book. Why not? I'm not really sure, I just wanted to teach this class differently.

Anyway, I thought that I would let one of you, yes you students, have the first word; via Maritain. Here is a thought from Jen G!! Thanks, Jen.

"Since the community needs art and artists, the community has certain duties toward them. Just as the writer must be responsible, so must the community.

In actual fact what the artist, the poet, the composer, the playwright expects from his fellowmen, as a normal condition of development for his own effort, is to be listened to, I mean intelligently, to get a response, I mean an active and generous one, to have them cooperate with him in this way, and to feel himself in a certain communion with them, instead of being confined, as happens so often nowadays, in an intellectual ghetto.

This means that the primary duty of the human community toward art is to respect it and its spiritual dignity, and to be interested in its living process of creation and discovery. It is no more easy or arbitrary to judge a work of art than to judge a work of science or philosophy. A work of art conveys to us that spiritual treasure which is the artist's own singular truth, for the sake of which he risks everything and to which he must be heroically faithful. We should judge of it as the living vehicle of this hidden truth; and the first condition for such a judgment is a kind of previous consent to the intentions of the artist and to the creative perspectives in which he is placed. In judging of the artistic achievements of their contemporaries, people have a responsibility, both toward the artist and toward themselves, insofar as they need poetry and beauty. They should be aware of this responsibility."

- Jacques Maritain in The Responsibility of the Artist, 89-90

Well, I hope that we will have more thoughts to share about life, spirituality and the vocation of the artist. Until then, go in peace and serve the Lord.

-Chelle