We have been meditating on turning to art to speak an alternative language in a time of Evil.
We have considered the brilliant satire of Patrice Mersault who brings in the archetype of the antichrist and demons; the paintings of Hildegard of Bingen and Luca Signorelli who do the same; an opera written in the 1920s entitled Anti-Krist that is currently playing in Berlin; the art contest Michael Moore has sponsored to paint alternative portraits of Donald Trump since he complained vociferously of the one hanging in the state capitol of Colorado.
When I was a student in Paris in the 1960s studying for my doctoral degree in spirituality, I received an invitation to accompany about seventy American college students to Russia as a kind of “chaperone” or adult in charge, along with a woman. I eagerly accepted the offer as I had always loved Russian culture—Leo Tolstoy for example, whose War and Peace was a mystical experience for me when I read it during the summer vacation of my junior year of high school.
Of course, at the time of the invitation, February of 1969, the Soviet Union was very much a locked-down place, and we were strictly watched over by our translators and guides (though I did manage to sneak away one day to visit Tolstoy’s home, a venue not on our list to visit).
I tell this story in my autobiography. I had the privilege of chaperoning seventy American college students on a visit to Russia. When our group was scheduled to meet seventy-five Russian college students, we entered a large gymnasium and gravitated to one end. The Russians stood at the other end. Nothing happened. Separating us in the room was a wall of ice representing all the myths, shibboleths, and hatreds that our respective governments had fed us about each other for decades.
It was the coldest and worst party I had ever attended. And very uncomfortable.
Then someone in our group struck up a song, Peter, Paul, and Mary’s hit “Leaving on a Jet Plane.” (This was the first time I had heard it, living as I had been in Paris for two years), and all the Americans joined in.
The Russians responded with a song of their own, the ‘Volga Boatmen,’ which I recognized. Then another song from our side, then from theirs. Then the Russians started to dance a Cossack dance; then with each other. Then the Americans began to dance. And finally, the two groups meshed in their dancing.
It was a profound experience for me of the power of art to melt ideologies and hearts. It was a concrete proof of the importance of art and prophecy that has always stayed with me.
When I look back at this event today, 56 years later, I recognize that I integrated the lesson learned in the pedagogy I employed for over 50 years of leading body prayer or hiring artists to teach art as meditation in creation spirituality retreats and master’s, doctoral, and inner city high school programs.
And I understand better why I was moved by psychologists Oranjo and Ornstein’s teaching that art as meditation (they called it “extrovert meditation”) is “the way of the prophets.” And Brueggemann’s classic book on The Prophetic Imagination. Art is subversive.
Adapted from Matthew Fox, Confessions: The Making of a Post-denominational Priest, p. 94.
See also: Fox, “The Via Creativa,” in Fox, Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality, pp. 178-249.
And Fox, Creativity: Where the Divine and the Human Meet.
And Fox, “The Via Creativa,” in Fox, Sheer Joy: Conversations with Thomas Aquinas on Creation Spirituality, pp. 245-382.
And Fox, “The Via Creativa,” in Fox, Passion For Creation: The Earth-Honoring Spirituality of Meister Eckhart, pp. 291-414.
And Fox, The A.W.E. Project: Reinventing Education, Reinventing the Human.
Banner Image: Dance for Peace 2014 by the EU Children of Peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Photo by Martin Karimi for EU Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid on Flickr.
Queries for Contemplation
Have you had experiences through art that parallel my own in Russia in 1969? Have you learned how art can be subversive? Are you applying those lessons in responding to today’s crises in matricide—the killing of Mother Earth and democracide–the killing of democracy?
Recommended Reading
Confessions: The Making of a Post-Denominational Priest (Revised/Updated Edition)
Matthew Fox’s stirring autobiography, Confessions, reveals his personal, intellectual, and spiritual journey from altar boy, to Dominican priest, to his eventual break with the Vatican. Five new chapters in this revised and updated edition bring added perspective in light of the author’s continued journey, and his reflections on the current changes taking place in church, society and the environment.
“The unfolding story of this irrepressible spiritual revolutionary enlivens the mind and emboldens the heart — must reading for anyone interested in courage, creativity, and the future of religion.”
—Joanna Macy, author of World as Lover, World as Self
Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality
Matthew Fox lays out a whole new direction for Christianity—a direction that is in fact very ancient and very grounded in Jewish thinking (the fact that Jesus was a Jew is often neglected by Christian theology): the Four Paths of Creation Spirituality, the Vias Positiva, Negativa, Creativa and Transformativa in an extended and deeply developed way.
“Original Blessing makes available to the Christian world and to the human community a radical cure for all dark and derogatory views of the natural world wherever these may have originated.” –Thomas Berry, author, The Dream of the Earth; The Great Work; co-author, The Universe Story
Creativity: Where the Divine and Human Meet
Because creativity is the key to both our genius and beauty as a species but also to our capacity for evil, we need to teach creativity and to teach ways of steering this God-like power in directions that promote love of life (biophilia) and not love of death (necrophilia). Pushing well beyond the bounds of conventional Christian doctrine, Fox’s focus on creativity attempts nothing less than to shape a new ethic.
“Matt Fox is a pilgrim who seeks a path into the church of tomorrow. Countless numbers will be happy to follow his lead.” –Bishop John Shelby Spong, author, Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, Living in Sin
Sheer Joy: Conversations with Thomas Aquinas on Creation Spirituality
Matthew Fox renders Thomas Aquinas accessible by interviewing him and thus descholasticizing him. He also translated many of his works such as Biblical commentaries never before in English (or Italian or German of French). He gives Aquinas a forum so that he can be heard in our own time. He presents Thomas Aquinas entirely in his own words, but in a form designed to allow late 20th-century minds and hearts to hear him in a fresh way.
“The teaching of Aquinas comes through will a fullness and an insight that has never been present in English before and [with] a vital message for the world today.” ~ Fr. Bede Griffiths (Afterword).
Foreword by Rupert Sheldrake
Passion for Creation: The Earth-Honoring Spirituality of Meister Eckhart
Matthew Fox’s comprehensive translation of Meister Eckhart’s sermons is a meeting of true prophets across centuries, resulting in a spirituality for the new millennium. The holiness of creation, the divine life in each person and the divine power of our creativity, our call to do justice and practice compassion–these are among Eckhart’s themes, brilliantly interpreted and explained for today’s reader.
“The most important book on mysticism in 500 years.” — Madonna Kolbenschlag, author of Kissing Sleeping Beauty Goodbye.
The A.W.E. Project reminds us that awe is the appropriate response to the unfathomable wonder that is creation… A.W.E. is also the acronym for Fox’s proposed style of learning – an approach to balance the three R’s. This approach to learning, eldering, and mentoring is intelligent enough to honor the teachings of the Ancestors, to nurture Wisdom in addition to imparting knowledge, and to Educate through Fox’s 10 C’s. The 10 C’s are the core of the A.W.E. philosophy and process of education, and include: compassion, contemplation, and creativity. The A.W.E. Project does for the vast subject of “learning” what Fox’s Reinvention of Work did for vocation and Original Blessing did for theology. Included in the book is a dvd of the 10 C’s put to 10 video raps created and performed by Professor Pitt.
“An awe-based vision of educational renewal.” — Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice.
