What We Make of The Wold

We believe that God is already in the world and working in the world. We recognise God's indefinable presence in music, film, arts and other key aspects of contemporary culture. We wish to affirm and enjoy the parts of our culture that give a voice to one of the many voices of God and challenge any areas that deafen the call of God and hence constrain human freedom (Sanctus1, 2002 as quoted in Graham, 2007 p67).

While the above is written from the perspective of a modern Christian movement, the concept of finding traces of God in the Arts is by no means a modern one. Artist Warner Salman spoke of a 'sudden and revelatory mental visualization' that led to his portrait of Jesus, The Head of Christ. David Morgan suggests in The Lure of Images, that 'the image drew its origin from a higher source, not made by human hands' (Morgan, 212).

This indefinable presence or sudden and revelatory experience seems to describe the transcendent potential of art, yet despite the theological beliefs of the Sanctus movement and Warner Salman, this potential is not restricted to Christianity.

Rabindranath Tagore, a Bengali poet, won a Nobel Prize in Literature for Gitanjali, (Git - songs, Anjali - offerings) a collection of devotional poems /songs in 1913. The following is the second in the book, and my particular favourite. It too, describes the transcendental potential of art.

When thou commandest me to sing it seems that my heart would break with pride; and I look to thy face, and tears come to my eyes.

All that is harsh and dissonant in my life melts into one sweet harmony---and my adoration spreads wings like a glad bird on its flight across the sea.

I know thou takest pleasure in my singing. I know that only as a singer I come before thy presence.

I touch by the edge of the far-spreading wing of my song thy feet which I could never aspire to reach.

Drunk with the joy of singing I forget myself and call thee friend who art my lord.

I am fascinated by the thought of God as an immeasurable force of nature, existing on the edge of conciousness and able to be glimpsed or felt through art. There is a spiritual feeling associated with a chord change, or a written phrase that makes the hairs on your skin stand up, that cannot be explained. These are moments played or written by mortals, but they retain a timelessness to them that exists outside of what we can touch. Perhaps God lies within, existing as our senses, and our ability to recognise and to feel such things. In transcendence we are actually connecting with our inner selves.



References



Sanctus1. (2002). 'Who we are.' (online), available at: http.www.sanctus1.co.uk/whoweare.php


Graham E. 2007. “What We Make of the World”: The Turn to Culture in Theology and the Study of Religion. In G. Lynch, Ed., Between Sacred and Profane: Researching Religion and Popular Culture. London & New York: I.B. Taurus & Co. Ebook.


Morgan, D. (2007). Facing the Sacred: Image and Charisma. In D. Morgan, Ed., The Lure of Images. A History of Religion and Visual Media in America. London & New York: Routledge.


Tagore, R (1913). Gitanjali http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/tagore/gitnjali.htm