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One thing I love about Regent is its emphasis on art. So the current discussion is if there be something religious about art, both the experience of viewing it and creating it. Having a Bachelor of Fine Art from Parsons School of Design, I am somewhat aware of the conventions – but I also know how godless the study of art can be. Nonetheless, now, almost 15 yrs since I first set foot in NYC’s art scene, I adamantly do believe there be a spark of divinity in the creator and the created. A hermeneutical shift, here the “Christian viewer” can have one of two responses when confronted with “art”:

1. On the one hand the Christian viewer can be repulsed, which is not uncommon. The artist intends to obliterate any Ideal of Good or Beauty – and this is not uncommon at all in much of modern art. The Christian viewer can accept this intention as her own hermeneutic, thus unwittingly buying into this viewing, which usually is revulsion. It’s almost exactly what the artist-as-offender wants. And the artist doesn’t care who’s feathers are ruffled.
2. On the other hand, the Christian viewer sees the divine – even in the most repulsive art; a redemptive hermeneutic is applied. The viewer that is Christian sees past the intended meaning of the infidel artist (to create something devoid of Ideal) and recognizes that the artist himself is made in the image of God; that is to say the artist has the Ideal implanted in his DNA whether he wishes so or not, being made in God’s image; for this is OUR frame of reference. Thus even the infidel artist creates Beauty beit unintentionally or subconciously; for beauty is always foremost in a creator’s mind, even if it is to be subverted; this is part and parcel of being a created Image-bearer. “Thus Spake Zarathustra” has a beauty of its own, not because Nietzsche failed at his task but because he is an object of his Creator whether he acknowledges his creator’s existence or not.

So the Christian viewer goes about a redemptive hermeneutic; seeing past the oft-intentionality of the artist to obliterate Ideal, and the viewer sees past the initial revulsions to a place that redeems the art and the artist himself. So I am more interested in this “divine spark” inherent in the artist who, although an infidel purposefully reneging against all paradigms of Beauty, still retains these ideals in their being (and thus outpouring into their creation / art). The task of the Christian viewer then is to recognize, call out, and redeem this innate beauty, naming the divinity therein.

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