Finale

...And now to resume and conclude on the comment I was so pleased to find posted by a friend of mine on facebook:

Lately I'm very interested in the role music and art play in our religious experiences. "Church" music and the performing of it seem to have this effect of precipitating serenity and welcoming God into our minds. A communion of sorts.

I would argue the role music and art can play in our religious experience of it depends on the quality of the work. The quality of the work depends on the artist’s state of mind. In music, there are two works of art: The song and the performance. Anyone can sing Amazing Grace; a person singing it from the heart, because they identify with the words, or a celebrity singer with a phenomenal voice.

My mind recalled the lyrics, following my encounter with the object of the song, when I was walking on that sunny day in West Palm Beach (see http://acupofjoe-daniela.blogspot.com/2009/06/expression.html) . I’d heard it enough times to recall the words I’d been indifferent to singing the song or listening to a performance of it in church. A once mundane hymn became alive to me, in other words, when I became alive, or awakened, to the same reality of the person who wrote it.

The communion between the work of art, the creator of it, the Creator and the audience was complete at that moment when I sang, I once was lost but now… was blind but now I see. Anyone can sing Amazing Grace, but not everyone can write it. Religious art thus has the capability to provide for such complex and dynamic communion. However, the participation in the communion provided by the work of art will equally depend on the state of mind of the audience. Again, I cite my own experience.

My question is this: do you think the creation of music and art has a different religious function or ... does it to bring about communion?

The function is first and foremost to communicate, by doing so it creates communion – to greater or lesser extent – depending on the work, the performance and the person engaged in the work of art.

Often I feel as if I am merely the conduit of the divine when I do music. Do you share this view?

I personally feel more than a conduit of the divine when I create.

Luke 6:40 (NASB)
"A pupil is not above his teacher; but everyone, after he has been fully trained, will be like his teacher.

A teacher is able to communicate knowledge. Artistic expression, on the other hand, is actualized through artistic talent. This brings me to the next question:

One more thing if I might add, how do you view artistic expression?

Artistic expression is a vehicle to communicate delightfully and profoundly. It must be seized by artists! Or as Dylan Thomas wrote: Rage, rage against the dying of the light in “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night:”

How are artists supposed to relate to the divine?

My answer: as the divine (or as the teacher). I would argue the integrity of art is to communicate - deliberately. The use of metaphors in the Bible such as the ant, spider, lion, and a bear robbed of her cubs, flowers, stars, ground, water, fire, tree, fruit, snake, wolf, lamb, sheep, bread, wine and on and on… is his creation! This is alongside his written word, which also became flesh!

John 1:14 (KJV)
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us…

1 Corinthians 15:45 (NIV)
So it is written: "The first man Adam became a living being"; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit.

There is clearly one mind, at work, in his works. His work is a picture (pun intended) of artistic perfection . He is communicating deliberately, coherently, cohesively, delightfully and profoundly; incorporating the very fabric of existence as the medium to communicate the unseen by things which are seen (and written!). The ability to see, understand and experience the meaning thereof is the utterly speechless gift of the divine; since personally knowing the man is necessary for it. The ability, in conclusion, to be as the teacher means we can know to likewise communicate deliberately in our artistic expression as the divine - incorporating every means available... Rage, rage against the dying of the light!