December 2, 2010
Apprenticeship
I began my first day as an intern/apprentice with artist James Langley (website) today. He is in the planning stages for a commissioned project on the stations of the cross. I'll probably be doing a lot of go-getting and cutting and preparing panels, but hopefully a lot of learning as well. I'm excited and very honored to be working with such a gifted artist—and especially one who shares a love and appreciation for spiritual artwork.
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I am so excited for you! This will be such a great opportunity for you :D
ReplyDeleteWandering in here several years later . . .
ReplyDeleteHave you ever done a set of stations yourself, your own design, that is? I looked at your "Illustration" and "Liturgical Art" sections and didn't see something like that. Do Lutherans "do" the stations during Lent?
Some of my Truly Reformed friends imagine that the second commandment forbids any depiction of Jesus. Indeed, they're almost (or virtually) Islamic about any image connected in even the most tangential way with the Christian faith. I take it that Lutherans are not like that (or you're not!).
Still, are the stations too "Roman" for Lutherans?
Fr. Bill
Vicar, St. Athanasius Anglican Church
Waxahachie, TX
I have not done my own version of the stations, because I did not grow up with that tradition, and there isn't any demand for it. I am not aware that any Lutherans observe or display the stations during Lent. I think the main reason is simply that some of the tradition is drawn from the Apocrypha, which Lutherans tend to avoid. Anyone not familiar with the source would just see them as being "too Catholic," as you said. (I am disgusted by the obscenely derogatory connotation that label carries among Lutherans. Especially since Luther himself would have considered it a compliment!) That being said, it might be fun to design the stations for myself.
Delete"... I did not grow up with that tradition, and there isn't any demand for it."
ReplyDeleteNor did I (grow up with the Stations during Lent)). I grew up within what most today would call fundamentalist Baptist, and moved into Bible-church kinds of churches while in university, though these were virtually Baptist.
In those climes, you would also find much of the Christians' identity defined by "not being Roman." They don't do this or that because it is "too Catholic." Of course, what is too Catholic for some is just fine for others, as I saw as I matured as a Christian and as an adult. Eventually I settled in the English Reformation -- I'm now an Anglican vicar -- and it's my settled opinion that the high-church Anglicans, unlike their Puritan brothers in the faith, reformed what badly needed reforming (the soteriological aspects of the gospel message), leaving the rest alone.
As far as the topic of this thread is concerned, the Anglicans also left pretty much intact the Church's sacramental spirituality. Yes, there were deplorable spasms of anti-Roman iconoclism in England, beginning with Henry VIII and extending through the Puritan interregnum, but these were driven by political forces which cloaked themselves in religious garb. Once the political octane of the English Reformation receded somewhat, the English Church's sacramental and liturgical heritage reasserted itself, including its iconic heritage.
"I think the main reason is simply that some of the tradition is drawn from the Apocrypha, which Lutherans tend to avoid."
If by Apocrypha you mean the extra-Biblical tradition originating in the Church, you are correct (Apocrypha is usually the term to refer to pre-Christian noncanonical works collected in the Septuagint). The station which mentions Veronica, for example, presents an ancient memory of Christians concerning our Lord's passion. John Paul II wrote a liturgy of the Stations which omitted Veronica and presented events in the Stations all of which are expressly mentioned in the gospels. It was never popular with Romans, partly because (I think) all the pictorial presentation of the Stations are the "traditional" ones, including the station featuring Veronica.
"I am disgusted by the obscenely derogatory connotation that [too Catholic] carries among Lutherans. Especially since Luther himself would have considered it a compliment!)"
That sentiment has worked an ironic consequence among some (many of them within the Truly Reformed camp), namely that such persons have eventually embraced the Roman faith! It happens with conservative Lutherans too, as for example Richard John Neuhaus, founder of _First Things_. If one has a well-developed personal integrity AND has inherited a fundamentally bigoted (rather than principled) view of Roman Christianity, and one THEN recognizes one's own participation in that bigotry -- well, repentence of the bigotry often amounts to an embrace of the position against which one was formerly bigoted! I've seen this, as I said, among those who were formerly anti-Roman in the most virulent ways.
"That being said, it might be fun to design the stations for myself."
Then do it! For fun, but also for your own spiritual health. Surely it would be good to grow up from childhood, worshiping in a sanctuary where the Stations were continually displayed on the walls and the Stations themselves liturgically observed during Lent, as this would keep visually present one of the fundamental elements of Christian worship -- to show forth the Lord's death until He comes.
The above mentioned artist, James Langley, is a devout Roman Catholic, and I have a few other close Catholic friends. James even lent me some books for my thesis research, one of which was written by Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Emeritus. The more exposure I have to devout Catholic Christians, the more softened my view has become toward them. My synod of Lutheranism preaches particularly strong propaganda against the RC church, and they seem content to attach to any Catholic blanket labels. I have not found these to be true of any Catholic I know, and I think Lutherans can learn a lot from them. In any case, we have the Catholic church to thank for much of our visual and aesthetic heritage.
Delete