Misdirections
Had a nice conversation with Rob Pepper and Aimee Littler the other night. There were lots of parts to it, but it seems to me that one thread that ties artists and theovangelists together is that we both find ourselves in the somewhat awkward and occasionally unintentionally misleading position of saying, in effect, "pay attention to me as I tell you to pay attention to Someone (the theovangelist) or something (the artist) else." Not surprisingly, people are confused. They don't really believe in God or in Jesus, say; well, then, they think that what I mean when I say "trust Jesus" is in a very obscure way I'm saying "trust me." I suppose also, not getting or trusting in the truth of art, or being unused to being affected significantly by beauty, they assume that the artist is just trying to get people's attention for herself.
But au contraire, Pierre: artists are just those people who think that beauty is more than decor, and theovangelists are people just fundamentalist enough to think that Jesus is actually there.
Now: how do we communicate that when any straightforward attempt to do so runs in to this communicative complexity that looks like a sleight of hand, and hence like either a claim to positive magical abilities, or a cover-up of some agenda more sinister?
But au contraire, Pierre: artists are just those people who think that beauty is more than decor, and theovangelists are people just fundamentalist enough to think that Jesus is actually there.
Now: how do we communicate that when any straightforward attempt to do so runs in to this communicative complexity that looks like a sleight of hand, and hence like either a claim to positive magical abilities, or a cover-up of some agenda more sinister?
posted by Mark at 12:20 PM
1 Comments:
really glad you posted this. it puts words to some inner workings i've been wrestling with lately.
it goes along the lines of some other thoughts as well. with as much attention that is being paid to xtianity in the news (positive and negative), and the proliferation of knowledge leaping about the interweb, the average person is now able to know so much about the myriad of beliefs that surround the followers of Jesus. one area of thought that we might do well to consider is an apologetic for our apologetics. in other words, it will eventually become widely known that, as you noted above, one goal of bellievers is to 'make disciples of all peoples.' how will we deal with the reaction that some people might have to this line of thought? will they feel like our 'projects'? how will we develop a deep enough apologetic that will move us beyond that type of thought and into a place where we can honestly, truly explain to people that the way of Jesus is the final way.
thanks again for your voice.
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