Some of the earliest known works of art had religious significance. This object, the Venus of Willendorf discovered in Austria is estimated to be about 24,000 years old. Although it is impossible to say for certain its meaning, is thought by many to be a fertility symbol, or a mother Goddess figure. I can imagine a woman holding this in her hand and praying for a child. It also says something about the image of beauty and what beauty was so many thousands of years ago.
As it did so long ago, art continues to have religious meaning in our times.
I want you to picture the scene - St. Gregory's Of Nyssa Episcopal Church, San Francisco. I am visiting it with a group of students taking a Religious Art course that I'm taking at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. Behind the altar there is a floor-to-ceiling painting with a dark-skinned young woman and a lighter-skinned young man holding hands; an older woman stands behind them; and a man's face painted in icon form is below them. The first three figures are standing on a rooftop and the icon man is standing in front of the building. The style is that of a very colorful modern mural except for the icon. This is an unusual and strange image for the altar backdrop of an Episcopal Church. For a moment, I think I have it wrong, and it wasn't an Episcopal Church - maybe Coptic or something. Or maybe they were timesharing with an Eastern Orthodox Church, or something...
Then, the priest starts to tell us about the symbolism in the painting:
The man whose face is in an icon is Saint Gregory, the church's patron saint. Saint Gregory, he informs us, wrote a treatise on the subject of the Song of Solomon, the Old Testament book that speaks of the love of a man and a woman in sometimes vivid and sexual imagery. Saint Gregory's treatise states that this book is a metaphor for the love and marriage between Christ and the individual human soul.
The scene on the roof is thus a wedding, and the young couple on the roof represents Christ and the individual soul. The couple being bi-racial symbolize that there can be important differences in this union. It also symbolizes that people and couples who are bi-racial are welcome, indeed blessed, in this church. This is a very unconventional welcome for a church in today's world. I find tears coming to my eyes.
In a passage of the Song of Songs, a mention is made of the mother of the groom welcoming the bride into her new family. The older woman behind the couple is this mother. It also symbolizes a feminine view of the divine. Another tear. A feminine vision God openly portrayed - people with this theology are openly welcome here. This is surely some Episcopal Church.
The rooftop on which they are standing looks somewhat familiar. We now learn that it is a view of St. Gregory's roof. The symbolism is clear to me: in this church, you can come into unity with Christ. If this had been a UU church, I would have interpreted this as meaning that in this church you can come into unity with your spiritual self. A few more tears - this is really getting to me.
There is a lot of other art in the church as well, including a very unconventional baptismal font, an as yet unfinished line of dancing Saints, and a chair rather than a podium.
The next week in class, our instructor Rev. Dr. Joan Carter tells us that many of us view religious art as "tourists" who just say something like "that is beautiful" or "Hmmm...". The real blessing is when you become "spiritual pilgrims" who sit down and contemplate a work of art, notice the many multiple layers of symbolism, see the shapes and see the spaces, see things that the artist didn't even intend, let it unite you with the holy, and reflect on its meaning to you and others. This can help you derive the most meaning for your life. Those tears, I think, meant that I was moving from just seeing it as an engaging mural to seeing something with significant spiritual meaning - from being a tourist to a spiritual pilgrim. It made all the difference. This is someplace that I want to return to and to sit and contemplate. It will always have special meaning to me.
The Use of Symbol in Religious Art
I'll be showing you some works of art and I invite you to engage with them, and learn to embark on the journey of being a spiritual pilgrim in exploring what meaning they have for you - how they connect you to the holy.
Symbolism is very important in religious art, so let's talk about what a symbol is. A definition from the theologian Paul Tillich is: "A symbol points to an absent reality." For example, the cross points to Jesus' crucifixion, his resurrection and is sometimes used to mean the Christianity in general. But it can mean a lot of different things as well. A symbol participates in the absent reality. It comes to life. It lives and grows. Other examples are the flag of a country, the chalice, and the swastika. Most religions have adopted a symbol to represent their faith. A symbol won't mean the same thing to everybody - there are many layers of meaning. For some people a particular symbol can be positive, and for others, negative.
Where does the meaning of the symbol come from? From the artist, the media, or the viewer? If you answered "all three", I think you are right. Using my visit to St. Gregory's as an example, before I was aware of the intent of the artist, I thought the painting was merely a pretty and unconventional mural. But, after it was explained, I realized what it was saying about the church and what its intended mission is. This was very moving to me. And, I also interpreted the painting to me as a Unitarian Universalist rather than purely Christian, with perhaps a different meaning than the artist originally conceived of.
Some church hierarchies are afraid of art - This is because they can't control people's emotional responses. Art speaks directly to the people, bypassing official interpretation. This is a frightening prospect for some religious leaders. This is the reason, I think, for much church art that is formulaic, over-sentimentalized, and ordinary - art that doesn't challenge the people to think and feel for themselves. Other synagogues and churches believe that any art violates the commandment given by God in the Torah in Exodus 20: 3-5.
3 "You shall have no other gods before me.
4 "You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.
5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me."
However, later passages in the same book detail plans for an elaborate tent as a center for God's worship, specifying architects, crafts of every kind, and an elaborate cover for the Torah. To me, it seems that the prohibition was in worshiping some artistic creation - a golden calf for example - rather than God.
What are the inspirations for religious art? These can be many things:
Sacred writings - It is common for a painting to be painted about a particular scriptural passage. Here are some examples: Moses breaking the tablets because the Israelites were worshiping a golden calf. You can feel his anger and the terror of the fleeing Israelites.
Another favorite subject is the adoration of the divine child. Here is a mosaic from a location on Cyprus circa 350. It is a striking pagan version of the theme of the adoration of a divine child, which would become one of Christianity's most significant iconographic forms. Hermes in his winged cap presents the infant Dionysius. Two figures approach in adoration.
Here is a Christian version. What does it mean that the same themes occurred in both pagan and Christian art? Could it be that the Christians borrowed symbolism that was in the surrounding culture and this made it easier to spread?
Here are some more examples: The return of the prodigal son. Can you feel the father's joy and the son's humility? Can you see jealousy in the other son? What meaning does this kind of forgiveness have for us today?
Here is a painting about the Good Samaritan by Francesco Bassano. You can see the hard work the Samaritan is engaged in bandaging up the man who was beaten and left on the side of the road. In the distance, you can see the "pious" people who passed by and didn't stop. What message does this have for us today?
Spiritual experiences. William Blake's paintings come to mind as examples of his trying to capture the ecstasy of his visions, and the vision of good and evil. Notice the use of color and shading to capture these two ideas. What role does the child play? Is it Blake? Or is he the good or bad angel? Or maybe all three?
Social/religious statement. Here is a mural conceived by students at Cowell College at UC Santa Cruz to explicitly show that people from all religious and social backgrounds were welcome there because we are all children of the maternal tree. The students conceived of the mural and what it would represent, then chose the artists and helped paint the mural as a group project. Notice the use of various religious symbols.
Spiritual statement. Here is a design I made for a stained glass window at my seminary. I wanted to depict that the school was a place where one could go deeply within, and a place where one could take what one had learned there and go out into the world.
Political events. Guernica by Pablo Picasso, although it isn't always described as a religious painting, is an example of how art can show the horror of war, and has often been used in a religious setting when speaking of the importance of peace.
Symbols (chalice, cross), My weavings are examples of using a chalice. There are countless examples using the cross, or Star of David.
Here is a picture of the Eritrean Sibyl or prophetess pictured with a book to symbolize wisdom. In Christian iconography the Eritrean Sibyl sometimes appears as one who prophesied the Redemption or deliverance from sin. What do you think it would mean to a Unitarian Universalist? The importance of education, maybe?
Healing: Another important connection between Art and the Spirit is the use of art to heal people with mental problems. This picture shows a self-portrait of someone who has schizophrenia. Working with images such as these sometimes leads to breakthroughs in dealing with mental illness. What do you see as symbolizing the breakthrough here?
What can we say about the process of creation of a piece of religious art? Many great artists didn't have complete control of their work - they were the vehicle rather than the master. The process has both conscious and unconscious components.
How can religious art be used? It can tell the story, both factually and in metaphor. It can be used as a dialog between the beholder and the artist. It can be used by the religious leader to illustrate the message he or she is saying by more than just words. It is another means of giving meaning to the lives of the congregants.
The main message of the religious art class was that religious artists should be about the symbolic act of their art, not just creating something "pretty". It needs to be more potent to move people to have a meaningful experience rather than just show up at church each Sunday. I strongly agree with this - the symbol is the way through to transcendence. Art connects us to the holy, the mystery. The art that allows one to participate in worship rather than just show up and be a receiver - this is the kind of art that needs to be made and shown.
Let people share their pieces of art
Around the sanctuary you see works of art by our own members. I'd like to draw your attention to them and understand what they mean to the artist who created them...
Conclusion
I will close with some words from an essay in the book Art, Creativity and the Sacred. The essay is entitled: "Can Art Fill the Vacuum" by Langdon B. Gilkey.
"This is the first and utterly essential role of art and the artistic: to recreate ordinary experience into value, into enhanced experience; to provide the ends - the deep, immediate, present enjoyments - for which all instruments exist and from which alone they receive their point. When an event that we label art thus stops the heedless flow of time in an enhanced moment, a moment of new awareness or understanding, a moment of intense seeing and of participation in what is seen, then (as the Zen tradition has taught us) the transcendent appears through art, and art and religion approach one another."
