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: Reinventing Education, Reinventing the Human
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.
8 thoughts on “The Power of Art to Melt Hearts, Minds, & Icy Politics”
‘Balls’. Who has them in the figurative sense and not literally because many men have none and many women do. The largest democracy in the world has lost its ‘balls’. Many men and women of legislature and others in the justice system have the power to hold the ‘reckless tide’ back but are fearful and have no ‘balls’. Maybe that is what we would expect of prepubescent children. But the ‘other shoe’ has now dropped and our ‘balls’ need to drop accordingly.
Justice seekers of the common good now need to rise, step-forward and use their power and responsibility to thwart the threat. If you want to see examples of ‘balls’ in action look to the Prime Minister of Canada and most of the Provincial Premiers. Look to the woman President of Mexico. Look to Britain, its Commonwealth, the European Union nations and Nato without the U.S. These men and women are rising to the task at hand and are wearing their ‘balls’ on their sleeves and more so on their hearts.
It is time that the men and women of the U.S. Senate and Congress pull up their pants, tighten their belts, cast fear aside like the rest of the free world, and honour their commitment to freedom and liberty. Right now tyranny is winning the battle. And ‘the Way, the Truth and the Life’ is to be our biggest ally and will bring us together despite some worldly differences. — BB.
Look to Wisconsin, where Musk’s millions of dollars in advertising and bribes, and all the rightwing influencers and dark money were useless — toxic waste — and the people spoke out loud and clear. (And as an aside, Musk defiled the noble cheesehead- proud emblem of our state! May his cheesehead grow mold, crawl away, and hide under a rock in shame!)
As for the form of art that I personally create:
My words — the things I write about mysticism — are my voice of rebellion. I dare to keep speaking out about what I know, from both direct Mystical Revelation and extensive research. The “radical” Mystical Truth.
It is a Soul-Art, this Mysticism.
It is the highest-level Christian theology, proclaimed in John’s Prologue, in Moses’s Revelation, in Jesus’s teachings, in Genesis 1. It is Supreme Source and Template of both Creation and the entire religion — and of monotheism itself.
In Christian theology, it takes precedence over all. It is “high(est) christology” — the Central Source and Truth — It is “That Which Creates and Determines all Creation, Ethics, Justice and Social Order. ”
It is “That Which Gave Source and Foundation For the Bible”.
But it is NOT what is taught to the people, nor has it been since even before Constantine.
Therefore, I speak out.
“Sermon and Deeds of the Antichrist.” Fresco by Luca Signorelli >>>>
All of those dark marauding figures remind me of the Trump-inspired attack on the Capital shocked the world. Dark soul Trump wouldn’t accept the outcome of a free and fair election.
Corey Booker’s 25 hour plus speech on the senate floor was ART in motion. Perhaps because of his speech he melted one heart in the MAGA world. Who knows? Thanks to Corey for getting into ‘good trouble’!
In general Creation Spirituality has sensitized me with it’s Wholistic understanding of the Presence of God’s Spirit of Divine Love~Wisdom in All of the diversity of ongoing Creation/Evolution in Our inner and outer lives with humanity, Our Sacred Mother Earth/Her living creatures/Her graceful abundance, and Our interconnectedness with All the physical/nonphysical spiritual dimensions of the COSMOS — LOVING DIVERSE ONENESS of COSMIC CHRIST CONSCIOUSNESS….
I do what I can to advance the cause of peace and help people look at the world with new eyes in every play I write–even the comedies. In 2023, we produced my play “La Posada” at Prescott’s Elks Theatre. It is a story of using one’s skills to make the world a better place, be that through the arts, one’s actions, or a 1987 peace march (“walk” as the Soviets had the organizers call it) through the Soviet Union. The two main (and real) characters in my play met on that peace march, organized by one of them. While most people in the U.S. forget that march happened as I say in the play, many Russians and Ukrainians remember it. In our production, we projected 14 plays by Tina Mion whose portrait of Jackie Kennedy hangs in the Smithsonian. You can see all of Tina’s paintings if you click around on my website. There are also several photos from our production. Yes, art can change the world, but it takes all of us and art in many different media working together. https://www.mickishelton.com/full-length-plays
The story about meeting the Russians is wonderful. It reminds me of the tale told by Barry Lopez in his magnificent book “Arctic Dreams” about the English sailor, John Davis in the Elizabethan period who sailed along the west coast of Greenland and encountered some Inuit. They, never having seen a ship or a European before, lined up on the beach and suddenly broke out into song and dance with their musical instruments made from bone. In response, John Davis instructed his pipers on board to strike up a tune and the crew began to dance. It must have made the most wonderful form of greeting between two peoples who never knew of each other’s existence. Meanwhile, I envy you for the chance to visit Tolstoy’s home.
Amen, Bill. Every Democrat in Congress should emulate our brave Cory Booker and filibuster the truth.