A View from the Heitz

If you get a chance to visit any of the churches of Europe or even some historical churches in Boston, you will notice right away that something is distinctly missing from most of our churches: visual arts.  Back when most of these churches were constructed visual art forms of the day were architecture, painting and sculpture.  Take St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, which is Sir Christopher Wren’s masterpiece, as a stunning example.  It includes monuments, paintings, mosaics, and an impressive dome.

Today our churches meet in shabby worship spaces by comparison–some even in high school gyms.  Let me be clear that I am not advocating a return to focusing resources on physical buildings when it could be used to build bridges for the gospel.  I am struck however by our lack of visual arts.  In centuries past this meant paintings and sculptures today it means video and interactive media.  In the past the Church commissioned these works.  This meant that the artist was paid, and that the Church directed the theme and purpose of the art.  Today artists create their work and hope to sell it rather than getting commissioned to create works of art for patrons.  The main way art is created for patrons today is through advertising.  And if you think about many art in churches and even the buildings themselves communicated and advertised its message.

Here is an example of the work of Caravaggio, part of a chapel dedicated to St. Matthew which depicts the Calling of St. Matthew and the Inspiration of the Gospel.

Another great example is the church of Santa Maria in Trastevere. This church dates from the 4th century and has fantastic mosaics.

What can be done to encourage this today?  Is Vegie Tales our version of Berninni sculptures?  Do we have really skilled artists like Michaelangelo working their entire lives to create masterpieces of visual art?  Are we surrounded by the visual arts in our worship?   I think we may have a long way to go…

As I walk around the ruins of Ancient Rome, I find myself musing about how future generations will explore our ruins.  Today we build for the hear and now, even the current buildings have expected life spans of 20-40 years.  I’m also struck by amount of recycling of everything from surfaces to art as power shifted throughout the centuries.  Most of Ancient Rome was built to last and is still an engineering marvel to this day.  For example, today in Rome there is less water per person then the ancient Romans had with their extensive aqueducts and plumbing.

The reason for all of this was tied up in the idea of memory.  The Roman emperors were especially concerned with how they would be remembered and for them memory was the link to the eternal.  Their buildings were a testament to their power and would still remain when they were gone.  And so I found in Rome a disturbing quest for eternity that ranges from violent emperors to corrupt popes expressed in everything from religion and construction to art and culture.

Being there in physical space and seeing the immense structures from the Colosseum to St. Peters Basilica, brings this whole idea in focus.  St. Peters took so long to build that the last pope just plastered his name on the front of the building and took credit for the whole project–no mention of Peter the Apostle.  Maybe the pope really was that unsure of his salvation…

When I arrived for our tour of the Colosseum I had many questions.  Having studied Ancient Rome extensively during school I thought I had a pretty good understanding of it all.  We had just visited the Tower of London where I was reminded of its bloody past; here again I was encountering a culture that made the monarchy look tame by comparison.  Over 500,000 people met their deaths in the Colosseum.  There was plainly no respect or value of life.  The main distinction in Roman society was whether you were slave or free without regard to race.

What I discovered, thanks to our well educated guide, was that the Colosseum was really the main vehicle for communication in Ancient Rome.  If you are an emperor with a population of over one million people how do you tell everyone of the heroic battles you’ve just won far away?  And if you are really subduing nations how do you communicate your power without CNN?  You need the violence of the games and events in the Colosseum to reenact and reenforce the power you have.  The Colosseum was in reality state controlled propaganda.

Think of the labor involved in daily games at the Colosseum or in the building projects in and around Rome.  Fortunes were spent on these things, today we spend them in media, advertising, and public relations and likely in similar proportions.

Many Christians in America outside of the Orthodox and Catholic traditions have a renewed interest in traditional forms of worship and piety.  Just a few weeks ago the lead article in the East Valley Tribune reported the Pope’s call on American Catholics to return to the Latin mass suggesting that this honored tradition will have spiritual benefits.  During my trip to Rome, I attended mass at St. Peter’s Basilica, which was of course performed in Latin.  Since I did not receive the Eucharist, the main benefit I felt was a 45 minute seat from which I could admire the surrounding art.  I could not help but think of this building as the place that triggered the reformation.  The magnificence of St. Peters was accomplished through the purchase of salvation–the selling of indulgences.  Much of the art was part of the communication of the Counter Reformation–the church defending itself.

The search for tradition outside of the Catholic church goes back to the Orthodox Church.  And at first blush, we find a church that many would say is much closer in doctrine and practice with protestant Christianity practiced by Lutherans.  I should note that understanding Orthodox doctrine can be difficult as word meanings and phrases are not the same.  A pamphlet at one church I attended quoted Ephesians 2:8-9, “by grace you are saved…and not by works,” while at the same time expressing that salvation is achieved through living as an Orthodox Christian.  Patriarch Bartholomew, in his recent book entitled Encountering the Mystery: Understanding Orthodox Christianity Today, claims that salvation and participation in liturgy go hand in hand.  Here is what he says:

Moreover, this salvation through participation is accomplished through the Holy Spirit in the sacramental life of the Church.  The Orthodox Church experiences and expresses its theology in worship.

In fact, worship is referred to by the Orthodox Church as “divine liturgy” which can be understood through the words of the lenten hymn “standing in the temple of Thy glory, we think we are in heaven.”  This is a transcendent event which communicates the divine by engaging all the senses including site and smell through icons and incense. Liturgy does not directly translate to worship as protestant Christians might be inclined to think.  In both the Orthodox and Catholic traditions, liturgy refers to the sacrament of holy communion and is a sacramental experience.

So what is the main benefit of these traditions?  Luther changed many things, but he did this as a result of his commitment to sola Scriptura–to get the scriptures into the hands of the people.  While he did not set out to completely revamp everything, that focus changed the language of the mass and included music as a key way of communicating the truths of scripture.  The whole basis for protestant Christianity is finding final authority in the text of the Bible.  This focus is literal not mystical or transcendental.

So how should Christians approach worship?  What benefits can we gain from 2,000 years of historical Christianity?  And what does it mean for Lutherans who are one of the few protestant groups with a liturgical worship style?

For Lutherans the matter is further complicated by the semi-sacramental nature of worship.  There are two lines of reasoning that follow:

either embrace traditionalism in its fullest sense, or
make form and style subservient to the preeminence of the means of grace by embracing confessional worship.

If tradition is to be embraced in the form of the liturgy then go all the way and make it sacramental.  That means all services would have communion and should consider adding back the missing sensory elements of visual art and incense to make it truly transcendent, including visual art and incense.

The alternate approach is to shift the focus from form and style by placing the means of grace and its communication as the main priority, thus leaving the form, style, and frequency of the sacrament to Christian liberty.  This leaves room for both the current non-sacramental style of some of today’s Lutheran liturgies along side of confessional forms of worship that use modern art forms.

Confessional worship then should provide maximum exposure to the means of grace, which is the gospel message in word and sacrament.  The efficacy of worship in transforming lives is not ours to manipulate.  Rather it comes only by the working of the  Holy Spirit through the means of grace.  This means that confession and absolution should be even more of a priority, and possibly a mandate, because in confession and absolution the pure gospel is revealed in all its glory.

Confessional worship, regardless of art forms or instrument types, maximizes the use of confession and absolution along with the teaching of the scriptures can be used by God the Holy Spirit to transform and strengthen his people for works of service.

As I look at historical Christian traditions I am amazed by the continuity of 2,000 years of history, yet I am at the same time uncomfortable.  For when I see great traditions, I also see that they can keep the church from performing its mission by turning the focus to the form and style rather than on the work of the Holy Spirit.  I see that it takes centuries or more to happen and it is always gradual but I am more and more convinced that traditions are there for the purposes of men.  Since scripture is the only final authority we should continue to be cautious of anything that could stand in the gap between a person and the Bible.

While the old man in me wishes that future generations could walk through protestant sites and art like that of St. Peters, the new man hopes that all they find is the truth of scripture.

I had lunch with a good friend a week or so ago who was telling me that today the buzz is about experience and memory.  The baby boomers used to be into things and materialism but now that they have all this stuff there is still something missing.  So now the focus is on experience and memory.  I was contemplating memory and experience during my visit to Ancient Rome and was surprised to find that nothing has really changed in thousands of years–see my post on Building for Eternity.

What I did find interesting was that our guide, who was really fantastic, brought this idea of memory and experience together in helping us to understand both ourselves and Ancient Rome.  Physically standing in the Colosseum is very different from text book education.  It crystallized for me in a real way and the memory of Rome for me is now a powerful experience.  I could see myself as part of Ancient Rome both in the past, present and future.  We walked and walked and walked in Rome.  Some days as much as 8 miles in the 95 degree, high humidity of July in Rome.  Starting as early as 8 AM, using public transport, sitting at a coffee bar just to rest for an hour or two.  Turn the corner and statues or buildings of massive scale present themselves.  Piazzas everywhere filled with people.  Even though our hotel room had air conditioning we had to purchase a fan in order to sleep.

All of this gave me a much deeper understanding for its culture, personality, and values.  Sometimes the little things you experience if you really get local when you travel makes all the difference.  Confidence, flamboyance, posture, and attitude all translate best in person.  They did so much in Ancient times without the creature comforts we take for granted.  And they did things with passion, intention, and detail.  I don’t think I would have been able to put Rome together from the comfort of an air conditioned bus tour with a few short stops and a five star hotel.  And I wouldn’t recommend it for anyone who truly wants to get to know Rome.

As for memory and experience, all of these blog posts are my modern way of capturing it in memorial.

The most interesting thing about London for me was that it really is an “underground city.”  You wont see many sky scrapers in London, at least not on the scale of New York or Chicago.  But the extensive train system they refer to as the underground, totally changes everything about day-to-day life.

We arrived in London at the new Terminal 5 in Heathrow and from there went through customs and passport control.  We then took the Heathrow Express to Paddington station to connect with the Circle/District lines to Victoria Station.  I must admit that I was not mentally prepared for the experience.  Thankfully our luggage was light by most standards but figuring out everything made for an interesting trip.

Once we got to our hotel we moved around London mainly using the underground.  What struck me as odd was that adjacent to these major train stations were complete urban shopping with everything from groceries to major electronics.  People were buying laptops right outside the station and walking them home.  Many people were also carrying their groceries home in one or two bags right from the station.  It was all very efficient.  Makes me wonder if I will ever be able to give up my car for a quick train ride and a short walk… In Phoenix probably not even with the light rail.