Art, Transcendence, and Orthodoxy

Melinda Johnson's Orthodox Writers and Readers Series has again brought to our attention a beautiful and thought provoking reflection on art, this time broadly defined, and the Christian experience.

We meet the delightful and, just judging from his picture, exuberant Jonathan Kotinek, an educator, writer, and artist. He reflects on how art and beauty can be gateways to a transcendent experience of God. And he offers such excellent gems as:

The Eucharist is: "the soul-quickening, evil-vanquishing, illuminating, healing, sanctifying entrance of the body and blood of Christ into my person."

"The genius of art, I think, is that it distills a particular person’s perspective and renders it in language accessible to and resonant with others."

And Kotinek is a highly talented artist in his own right. His work can be purchased at the site FineArtAmerica. Here's a sample that shows his brilliant use of color and depth:

Letters to Saint Lydia

I recently read the simply beautiful book Letters to Saint Lydia, by Melinda Johnson. Now, I'm a soft touch. I'll admit it. I can cry while watching a Hallmark commercial. And I knew I was in for it when I was already wiping my face dry during the first chapter.

This is a book about a young woman, about to go to college, whose life is turned upside down by the conversion of the rest of her family to Orthodoxy. It's actually not a very strange premise. I personally know people who converted as almost whole families. And this poor girl is the one left behind. And then all the ordinary but horrible stresses pile upon her. Alongside it all, she begins a correspondence, via journal format, with Saint Lydia of "Rich Purple Dealer from the Book of Acts" fame. And as the poor thing pours out her heart to a Saint she doesn't believe in, we get to read the very real Saint's responses as she prays in heaven for this dear girl.

I have re-read very few books in my life. This one is on the list because I finished it and realized that Saint Lydia had said many things that were deeper than I understood at first glance. Finally, this book found me at a stage in my life when I was struggling through a patch of spiritual aridity. But this book lifted me out of it. And therefore this book did not find me by coincidence.

The Queen and the Cats: A Story of Saint Helena

Just to show you that Hagiographa is no dead letter, Calee M. Lee takes an episode from the life of Saint Helena, and turns it into a delightful and beautiful children's book.

The Queen and the Cats: A Story of Saint Helena explores the arrival of the Empress to Cyprus with a piece of the True Cross, only to find the island so infested with poisonous snakes that people can't safely enter the churches. The story is told through the eyes of a little girl. The illustrations by Turbo Qualls are warm and expressive.

At the end of every Liturgy, my priest invokes the intercessions of "Constantine and Helen, Finders of the Life-Giving Cross." I stood this summer at the very spot they found it, now a chamber within the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

Both that visit and reading the delightful The Queen and the Cats have brought that history to life.

The Orthodox Writers and Readers Series

Writer and Orthodox Christian Melinda Johnson, who blogs at Saint Lydia's Book Club, has just launched the "Orthodox Writers and Readers Series."

This series will feature guest posts from writers, reflecting on matters of faith and their craft.

The launch features writer Molly Sabourin, whose essay explores the quest of the stressed and besieged modern Christian to calm their souls so as to celebrate the Liturgy.

It's a brilliant piece that pulses with biblical and theological allusions. Clearly Sabourin is deeply read and nurtured by the classics and primary texts of the Tradition.

She offers a vigorous, heartfelt, and refreshing defense of the institutional Church:

"I’d drift unknowingly into a comfortable lukewarm state of blasé-ness without the Church. Without the Church and Her sacraments, mystery, iconography, hymnology, antiquity, martyrs, saints to help lift my gaze up from the media-driven, materialistic mire, I’d merely pass the time instead of seizing it – making every second count."

She defines her self-understanding as a writer:

"Writing as a means of communion with the living God is my widow’s mite offered meekly in faith. That Christ can utilize my meager gift, despite my abundant weaknesses, to break through complacency or despair and pierce hearts with His mercy is nothing short of miraculous."

To read more of her reflections, visit Molly Sabourin's blog. She is also the author of Close To Home: A Quest for Patience, Peace and Perseverance.

Jerusalem and Athens

"What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?" Tertullian asked. "Or the Academy to do with the Church" (De Praesciptione 7).

And the answer, as bellowed finally by St. Thomas Aquinas is...plenty. Indeed, everything.

Christianity need not fear philosophy. And theology--good theology--is but philosophy on divine topics.

But in art, the modern age has found it fashionable to praise mere obscenity, when depicting divine topics. And now, sadly, the modern age has decided that one is not a profound and original thinker unless you start from the premise of atheism.

The New Yorker celebrates just such a fraud in its most recent issue in the article "How to be Good: A Philosopher's Quest for Moral Good." 

But the brilliant Dr. Justice has written a review of the article that is more coherent than the subject of the original.

http://worldofdrjustice.blogspot.com/2011/09/philosophy-porn.html