I really enjoyed reading this -- the journey with Von Balthasar and Murdoch and the current conversation in "Faith & Art" circles was interesting, and I took notes (not something I often do for a Substack essay!). So thank you. I heard the emphasis on the Incarnation, which of course, we know about because of the witness of the Scriptures, but I was also looking for the Scriptures as a whole to be offered as at least an informer in shaping this "more substantive bedrock for the practice of art." I get that the Scriptures can be used and abused to discourage artists, to silence creative work, and as a blunter of every sharp edge. That's not what I'm after --rather, I'm coming to see the whole Biblical narrative as a revelation of "the world as it actually is: a gift of God's Love." It felt like that was missing from this essay. I'm a writer so I know that you can't say everything in any given piece, but if he's after a "new metaphysic" -- yes and amen to the centrality of the Incarnation of the Word, but what a glorious gift we've been given in all of the Old and New Testaments. I'm becoming passionately convinced that artists who are Christians would do well to spend more time there.
And then there is the perception of the witness of the art. Consistently, Christians call my work non-Christian and non-Christians call my work very Christian. I call my work very Christian. It is what I am and so must pervade all that I write. However, when I am making my art my focus is on excellence. Full stop.
Oh man… Another live event projection mapping artist who had success in the pulsating “liturgies of the rock concert” and then went to a monastery & considered becoming a monk! But then found a deeper calling into being an artist taught by the whispered wonders of Creation…
Umm… ME TOO!
Would love to hole up in a pub with a few pints and process our similar journeys together. 🍻
Some of the BEST writing I have ever read! I want to read all the works he mentions, I want to hack open my own buried creativity, I want to go to Melbourne and meet this man. Astonishingly, refreshingly, hopelessly and hopefully GOOD.
"This actual 'gap' between the image and me is itself the possibility of Love’s eruption." - This gave me chills. Thank you for articulating so beautifully the mystery of creation - of art, life, everything. Every time I am still and wait, the gap fills again and again.
I felt my heart racing as I read this. It was gorgeous, illuminating, urgent, profound. I’m
working on my next book (nonfiction on art, the faithful creative, and the church) and I have been reading, thinking, praying, and researching on this very topic. Sublime and necessary.
“wonder: a wonder that is linguistically robust and not just surface-level; that seeks to cultivate a yearning for otherness, for that genuine desire to enter into dialogue with that which is not me. In laying this foundation, we might just find language that permits us to love more deeply even in the midst of our artistic becoming.”
Yes! Yes! We need more (deep) wonder. And maybe if we weren’t so caught up in the constant age-old dilemma and dialogue of should we or should we not write about crucifixes, would we actually discover there’s an entirely new language to unearth. One hidden just underneath the crosshairs of both “sides”, and left unseen because our gazes are constantly getting caught in the crossfire. One that gives fluency to our muted and atrophied souls. Whether you’re in the Abby or in Imber Court, we’re all living lives of hopeful becoming.
I can speak as a frustrated artist who remained amateur. ...We artists rely on sense & feeling: I'd have to hear what you mean, or see, in order to understand. If you make me experience something contemporary, vital in 2025, then I'll contemplate it & absorb it. Theology & Art Criticism are for higher minds...not for the best of artists (often). Show it to me then I might really get it.
Mr. Morris is hopelessly caught up in his words making it difficult for him to say what’s on his mind. Within his essay lie some truths, but one needs a trench digger to unearth them. The simplicity of the Gospel and the steadfast love of God (whose creation—Yes!—is a gift of his love) is all I need each day to wrestle with my stories.
This essay is wonderful, exploring the nature of artistic expression as a follower of Christ. As artists we struggle to understand and reconcile these seemingly distant worlds. Here these themes are worked and kneaded as one would knead dough, and found to be of the same origins and perhaps substance. There are just endless thought-provoking lines here. A "gotta read".
This is a miraculous essay. I’m struck by the site of ‘gaze’ here. If the glance towards art here is the site from which Love erupts, what does ‘good’ art demand of us - that is, what kind of gaze does it require of us? What does it mean to ‘look rightly’? I’m thinking deeply here of where gazes are bound up in the colonial project/objectification of persons. What’s that art that calls us to gaze on personhood?
Isaiah threaded this needle masterfully.
I really enjoyed reading this -- the journey with Von Balthasar and Murdoch and the current conversation in "Faith & Art" circles was interesting, and I took notes (not something I often do for a Substack essay!). So thank you. I heard the emphasis on the Incarnation, which of course, we know about because of the witness of the Scriptures, but I was also looking for the Scriptures as a whole to be offered as at least an informer in shaping this "more substantive bedrock for the practice of art." I get that the Scriptures can be used and abused to discourage artists, to silence creative work, and as a blunter of every sharp edge. That's not what I'm after --rather, I'm coming to see the whole Biblical narrative as a revelation of "the world as it actually is: a gift of God's Love." It felt like that was missing from this essay. I'm a writer so I know that you can't say everything in any given piece, but if he's after a "new metaphysic" -- yes and amen to the centrality of the Incarnation of the Word, but what a glorious gift we've been given in all of the Old and New Testaments. I'm becoming passionately convinced that artists who are Christians would do well to spend more time there.
And then there is the perception of the witness of the art. Consistently, Christians call my work non-Christian and non-Christians call my work very Christian. I call my work very Christian. It is what I am and so must pervade all that I write. However, when I am making my art my focus is on excellence. Full stop.
Oh man… Another live event projection mapping artist who had success in the pulsating “liturgies of the rock concert” and then went to a monastery & considered becoming a monk! But then found a deeper calling into being an artist taught by the whispered wonders of Creation…
Umm… ME TOO!
Would love to hole up in a pub with a few pints and process our similar journeys together. 🍻
Some of the BEST writing I have ever read! I want to read all the works he mentions, I want to hack open my own buried creativity, I want to go to Melbourne and meet this man. Astonishingly, refreshingly, hopelessly and hopefully GOOD.
"This actual 'gap' between the image and me is itself the possibility of Love’s eruption." - This gave me chills. Thank you for articulating so beautifully the mystery of creation - of art, life, everything. Every time I am still and wait, the gap fills again and again.
I felt my heart racing as I read this. It was gorgeous, illuminating, urgent, profound. I’m
working on my next book (nonfiction on art, the faithful creative, and the church) and I have been reading, thinking, praying, and researching on this very topic. Sublime and necessary.
Excellent stuff
Banger
“wonder: a wonder that is linguistically robust and not just surface-level; that seeks to cultivate a yearning for otherness, for that genuine desire to enter into dialogue with that which is not me. In laying this foundation, we might just find language that permits us to love more deeply even in the midst of our artistic becoming.”
Yes! Yes! We need more (deep) wonder. And maybe if we weren’t so caught up in the constant age-old dilemma and dialogue of should we or should we not write about crucifixes, would we actually discover there’s an entirely new language to unearth. One hidden just underneath the crosshairs of both “sides”, and left unseen because our gazes are constantly getting caught in the crossfire. One that gives fluency to our muted and atrophied souls. Whether you’re in the Abby or in Imber Court, we’re all living lives of hopeful becoming.
I can speak as a frustrated artist who remained amateur. ...We artists rely on sense & feeling: I'd have to hear what you mean, or see, in order to understand. If you make me experience something contemporary, vital in 2025, then I'll contemplate it & absorb it. Theology & Art Criticism are for higher minds...not for the best of artists (often). Show it to me then I might really get it.
Mr. Morris is hopelessly caught up in his words making it difficult for him to say what’s on his mind. Within his essay lie some truths, but one needs a trench digger to unearth them. The simplicity of the Gospel and the steadfast love of God (whose creation—Yes!—is a gift of his love) is all I need each day to wrestle with my stories.
This essay is wonderful, exploring the nature of artistic expression as a follower of Christ. As artists we struggle to understand and reconcile these seemingly distant worlds. Here these themes are worked and kneaded as one would knead dough, and found to be of the same origins and perhaps substance. There are just endless thought-provoking lines here. A "gotta read".
This is a miraculous essay. I’m struck by the site of ‘gaze’ here. If the glance towards art here is the site from which Love erupts, what does ‘good’ art demand of us - that is, what kind of gaze does it require of us? What does it mean to ‘look rightly’? I’m thinking deeply here of where gazes are bound up in the colonial project/objectification of persons. What’s that art that calls us to gaze on personhood?