Artists
- 17 hours ago
- 3 min read
“God creates like an artist rather than a scientist. The language which the Bible and the Fathers employ in describing the creation of the world by God seems to be borrowed from the building of an edifice (Hebrews 3:3-4), ordering and furnishing it, so that it may become cosmos, a well ordered, beautiful thing…There is, of course, major difference between God and a human artist in that the former creates ex nihilo and the latter ex vetere. And yet, when we come to the idea of new creation, which is what eschatology is about, the resemblance is evident: God, too, brings about a new creation ex vetere, i. e., without destroying the old one…God is constantly creating, in us, through us, with us, and to co-create with God is our human calling.” (Metropolitan John Zizioulas, Madeleine L'Engle)
“J.R.R. Tolkien said that through our work and what we create we are acting as a reflection of God and actually doing God’s will because we are “sub-creators” using the talents, abilities, aptitudes and desires He gave us…Human beings, by virtue of being created in the divine image, instinctively engage in mimesis, the imitation of their Creator. As sub-creators, they have all the material (physical and ideological) that the Creator Himself has placed within their reach.” (Sacramental Living Ministries, Edith M. Humphrey)
“The Beauty of the highest art fulfills both of the two conditions of Beauty–of bearing Christ crucified within it and of evoking within us the mature and complete readiness also to be so crucified…The key to cultural renewal in any society is for our artists to dive completely into the liturgy and the noetic prayer of the Church, and then do whatever they are moved to do in their artistic lives…There is a cruciform shape to the work of a Christian writer in this world...To be a writer of faith you have to stand with feet stuck deep in the faulty earth of which you are formed and give bare, honest witness to the fact of a world that crucifies its Maker and unravels everyone else. But generalities are not enough. If you would actually hope to haul your reader out of the pit of their murky sorrow, you have to offer some of your own anguish as rope.” (Timothy G. Patitsas, Sarah Clarkson)
“Artists are often mislabeled as impractical because their intuition senses cultural realities before these are manifested in society….The human creative gift can also be powerfully healing and generative, reconciling the greatest of enemies, bridging the greatest of gaps.” (Makoto Fujimura)
“Now, then, altogether after the manner of bees must we use these writings, for the bees do not visit all the flowers without discrimination, nor indeed do they seek to carry away entire those upon which they light, but rather, having taken so much as is adapted to their needs, they let the rest go. So we, if wise, shall take from heathen books whatever befits us and is allied to the truth, and shall pass over the rest. And just as in culling roses we avoid the thorns, from such writings as these we will gather everything useful, and guard against the noxious. So, from the very beginning, we must examine each of their teachings, to harmonize it with our ultimate purpose, according to the Doric proverb, ‘testing each stone by the measuring-line.’ (St. Basil the Great)