Couldn’t sleep last night, so got to see the moon through all it’s cycles, nearly full straight over us in northern europe morning, as the Sun filled the skies. I liked their collaboration together, sharing the same sky (that moment, when Sky was named, has always intrigued me!), playing their parts.

I watched out our enormous window as the endless drama played out again, over our heads while most were sleeping. Thought of all those great Psalms by the wild priest, the sons of Korah about badgers, lions, moon, stars and sky itself receiving it’s glory tremor in their unique tenors…(Psalm 104, good example of their ecstatic priestly songs! The priest can’t stay away from the threshold of His Presence! There are those who find the temple of His Presence in everything! Who just can’t live anywhere else! Those who make everywhere they step springs of life because of where they living from!)

The birds of the sky nest by the waters;
they sing among the branches.
13 He waters the mountains from his upper chambers;
the land is satisfied by the fruit of his work.
14 He makes grass grow for the cattle,
and plants for people to cultivate—
bringing forth food from the earth:
15 wine that gladdens human hearts,
oil to make their faces shine,
and bread that sustains their hearts.
16 The trees of the Lord are well watered,
the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.
17 There the birds make their nests;
the stork has its home in the junipers.
18 The high mountains belong to the wild goats;
the crags are a refuge for the hyrax.
19 He made the moon to mark the seasons,
and the sun knows when to go down.
20 You bring darkness, it becomes night,
and all the beasts of the forest prowl.
21 The lions roar for their prey
and seek their food from God.
22 The sun rises, and they steal away;
they return and lie down in their dens.
23 Then people go out to their work,
to their labor until evening.

Everyday, the sky is better than tv, internet or all movies conjoined-if we can enter its required rhythms to see. At dawn today, the moon is still playing with the Sun, and they talk clearly in clouds of pastel silent light exchanges. They know one another, like Christ knows the church, without resistance. They know one another like endless lovers co-ruling Sky in Love. And they kiss in azure charcoal pastels while we are waking up, way above us each day! Only occasionally we catch them playing above our heads, and are again, in wonder at this daily display of operatic splendor.

Just about now, the sea gulls will start singing, their longing song, church bells will chime in time, and people will start dressing for work, things will become more apparent in the overt light of day, the drama more obvious. Still, in the wake of what’s been happening above us each night into dawn, the Sky still somehow knows its name.

Reading meditations on the great Psalms today! I liked this monk priest take on one of my favorite songs by those passionate crazy sons of Korah, who made the places they were like springs! (84)
Blessed are those “whose hearts are the highways to Zion! Passing through the valley of Baca (dryness, death) they make it a spring. The early rain also covers it (and them) with blessings. They go from strength to strength. Everyone of them (already) appears before God in Zion! So, they confess constantly and praise without ceasing. So they bless others as guides as they go towards that place of His Presence.” Bless the priest who are going further into His Forest, so we can see a clear path into that Holy Place in God, and walk already there with our feet now, here on the muddy earth. “Better to even be on the threshold of Your Presence, than anywhere else!” Psalm 84 (The sons of Korah seemed like wild priest to me; they are always so intensely passionate about being near and in the actual living Presence of God; like they would do anything just to be near the threshold of the Temple! I like these guys! They refused anything less, like Jacob wrestling for the blessing; at least that’s the tone of their songs which rings true to me! Their hearts were highways into Zion!)

Living in and as art:
Our building here in Antwerp is a piece of art in which we live. I’ve always liked that basic metaphor. Seeing life as a grand walk in studio! Plus all nations and generations and creatures like having here. I learn the most when the metaphors are all under one roof. Generations, cultures and types of people, when together find the common song. Our building has that collaborative spirit, there are people with young kids, artists who must work all night, and people who love parrots. It’s beyond animal friendly, animals like to gather here. I alway trust that.
In europe in general the metaphors have to sit at the same table, there is more shared space. I appreciate that. But in our building someone is always cutting fabric in the silence of scissors, walking a dog, feeding a parrot or composing music simultaneously. The writer is scribbling notes, the piano player is practicing, the mother is cooking warm stew…many metaphors under one roof, make me happy considering the simultaneous dramas going on in life!
But i always find myself with creatives, ironic participants, wherever i roam. It’s a niche or magnetic spiritual thing. I always live with Opera in the building, and hear it, even when it’s not playing!
Our landlords are both great artists, so i suppose their building is an extension of their vision and haven. My wife and I think the same way, that our home should become a haven for the parts beyond which we carry, the practical haven itself should also be art!
Hunderwasser got this in his philosophy as well! Anyways, i like being living art. And it makes it easier when your building is an arts gallery! I feel right at home!
Always makes me want to cook as well—last night very garlicky pasta, as I’m fighting off a euro cold! Managed to get the clothes cleaned though! Art brings life even when a bit under the weather! Let’s keep being art friends!

While reading Psalm 23 in multiple translations today had a revelation about the nature of art. It carries you to the part of the spiritual realm it was written from! The symbol participates and opens us to the Reality to which is points!

Try to catch the repeated metaphors in each writer or artist: David, shepherding, battle, kingship, priestly—especially since He is the portent of Messiah, look at his metaphors. Psalm 23 is his shepherd one. You can sense, because David was so close to God, there is a transparency into the Kingdom realm in his writing! When someone has united with God deeply, like Merton, Rich Mullins and all the NT writers, you sense Christ through their voice. They are porous, like a filter through which to encounter Him. Even though they still have their own voices and concerns, what you sense is His Presence. It’s like the writings leave traces of their doorways.

When we write from our relationship with God, we create ladders for other’s into His Presence! People don’t have to agree with the words, but they can sense His Presence through them. That is the wonder of spiritual writings.

Art itself leaves us doors into spiritual rooms. It matters which room the artist is in, because that is the room you’ll be lead into. If they are in a room of intellectual curiosity, of healing, of worship, of teaching, of reflecting on their own wounds etc; be assured, if you are reading to encounter, you will encounter wherever their heart actually is or was on their journey. This is essential especially when reading overtly spiritual writers like Kempis or Merton. Merton was frank about how odd it is to write about spiritual things. He chose to have his spirituality overheard. That is not everyone calling, but it was his. He let us into his personal intimacy and explorations with God. In his youth (Seven Storey Mountain) we overhear him exploring his way towards—early stages of spirituality. Later we overhear him learning to rest or abide in God; then still later to explore how God meets other in different cultures. But throughout we are overhearing and entering the spiritual Reality he was encountering then.

This is good to remember for many reasons! For certain seasons, we need certain seeds. Where a writer guides us, may may not be what we need that particular season. It’s good to know what type of food our spirit needs each season.

But regardless, a true spiritual writer will guide us into the part of God they are exploring at their stage of development. This is the wonder—how words become ladders directly into what they are symbolizing! As Paul Tillich taught, “symbols participate in the Reality to which they are pointing!” That hasn’t changed.

Merton compared writing “about” spirituality, to an artist writing “about” art. Sort of redundant, and yet, some have that teacherly calling to do so. It’s like swimming, and at the same time writing about water! That’s a unique calling. But some did it well. Henri Nouwen, Thomas Merton, CS Lewis, and others take us into the part of God they are writing about! Their words participate in that to which they point us.

Art itself portals us into what the artist is exploring, whether just ideas, or essences, or the nature of Nature as some of Van Gogh’s did. We are thrust or invited to enter that area of Reality through the art. The vehicle matters, but it is not the “thing itself”. It is a means to encounter what it is touching! That’s what words or any symbolic form of communication is! This is very practical actually, as once we see and know the nature of language or symbolic communication, we know we are being guided or led somewhere, and we can choose if that is where The Spirit is leading us now in our current season.

Merton tells us, his is a spiritual memoir taken actively from an ongoing journey deeper into God. So we know, and can chose to join him or not. That type of overt honest is rarer than you would think. Some writers sort of trick us into following them. And you aren’t really sure where you are going until you find yourself in the wrong place! Henri Miller and Bukowski come to mind. Both great writers, but where they take us is dark, and mostly about their own wounds projected out onto Reality. Broken lenses, and broken guides I’d say. And where do they lead us, into a pornographic version and view of life. Bad fruit. So be careful which guides you pick, they may have great talent, but are not home yet, to themselves or God.

Be wise which guides you follow, for you will end up in the room they are writing from.

The ladder is not the Reality, but words provide a stairwell in the dark towards something. God Presence incarnates in their words if they are in Him! Then there are part of God which are opened into through a particular writer’s words, depending on where they are in their own journey. Nouwen for instance, “Clowning around in Rome” is exploring freedom from religion and creativity; so you will be led into that part of the Mystery. In other books, he is exploring belonging (Voice of Love etc), so you feel that pastoral care aspect of God. Particular seeds come in particular packages. Notice which seeds you need when, and take those! God does not leave us without shepherd, but good shepherd always lead us into the Great Shepherd!

Put simple, art is symbolic communication which works by the laws of symbols. Symbols participate in the reality which they are talking “about”. That’s why symbols are a higher part of communication. So watch where the symbol guides you. In Dekooning paintings for instance, the symbol leads you into an abused version of womanhood, as many artist did. Gaugiun also takes you into a sort of hedonistic view of females, you feel his own lust more than the woman he is painting. Understanding the nature of symbols is essential for interpretation. Symbols are a strata of how God made things, and how He expresses Himself. God is symbolic. He symbolizes Himself in Nature, in the Bible and in and through people. We also symbolize. It’s part of our humanness.

The nature of art language is unique, it takes us into direct contact with what the art is participating in. Art participates in that to which it points, for this reason, it’s important to know which direction it’s pointing! You will find yourself swimming in that particular water, if the art is real.

This is mystical, but you know how words are windows. So when I am reading MacDonald, or Nouwen, or Merton, i feel God’s Presence, and I feel them. When reading Nouwen for instance, i feel his joyful personality, his humour, his depth insight into the heart, his vulnerability, but what I really feel is God’s Presence, filtering through His words. I don’t always agree with the words themselves, but I feel God in them. Or through them! That’s the true magic of writing. We set up little portals which remain after we are gone, little ladders made of words, which those living can climb and meet God, or at least the part of God we met. Isn’t that what spiritual writing is? Making ladders from our words and lives, so others can climb more easily into His Presence.

Finding other’s ladders helps us, as we grow in union ourselves, we start making ladders with our words or lives for others! We become co-heirs, or more living words.

I still love encountering Merton through reading his words. It’s because they are in God some how, and God I know, so I recoginize those in Him, and if their words are also in Him, then that is a doorway for me. And they served us by leaving their spiritual words with us! By now, they have written more books and moved on to other topics, but even these they left on earth, are still seeds, or doors, or portals into God’s Presence. That is powerful. The NT being the highest example of this.

Studying art just after the two great wars…a few insights:

After the two world wars, many artists had no upper story of hope, and either got hedonistic or egotistic, or nostalgic, or protectionist of their own reputations. Why would that be? And how similar to art’s, and at times, the church’s response now!

What a great time, instead, to be a source of hope for others. Joy, authentic courage to be, dignifying others by creating informed beauty. Not an escapist art, or one in denial of the current and recent sufferings. But an art more like gospel—hey this is happened and we must heal, but I am still actively moving towards wholeness. There is hope.

You didn’t see lots of that after the wars. You saw lots of fragmentation or nostalgia. Interesting. We saw people like Picasso and others becoming more solipsistic, nostalgic, and others more hedonistic or insular. What a missed opportunity. One not unlike ours now!

The biggest global need now is for people to have the courage to continue living joyously authentically as themselves, not in denial of the millions of displaced, but willing to dignify them, and dignifying the unique lives and cultures of those around them. Joy is radical not escapist in times like ours, for it contains the courage to be.

We are in a time of displacement, and dislocation, and confusion of identity. What is needed most is radical sharing of our real heart to heart lives; radical reconciliation between people; and really recognizing the uniqueness of others, rather than imposing our own ways, celebrating uniqueness, dignifies people. And when someone feels dignity, they have a harder time moving in the hatred necessary to randomly kill strangers. Art can model this type of radically informed Hope and reconciliation!

A radical art of authentic Joy is needed now! Not an innocent but an experienced Joy. A Joy actually grounded in vision. This type of vision was missing after the wars, and much art defended into hedonism, nostalgia or celebrity. A radical art now would contain reconciliation joy, a radical sharing of oneself and gifts, a path towards healing, a true gospel of suffering and hope sitting at the same cafe; we need to become the poppies which popped back up in Belgium after the war—red signs of Hope growing from bloodied fields!

So take away from this weeks art history study after the two great wars: few really modeled the right response to that much suffering. Those who did claim the courage to be, to dignify others, to radically share with one another-rather than becoming hedonistic or protectionist, or lost in celebrity or their own reputations (which you can see is happening now also), to make an art and live a life which also dignifies others in view of suffering, to sing that gospel song in clear view; to plant an art which gave informed hope those who did made great art and a lasting contribution to the drama, were unfortunately and perhaps, unnecessarily, rare.

It is not escapist to make even joyous art now. It is not escapist to be our real selves in the sheering face of suffering. Not sentimental to hope we are still here, and other’s true names, still matter. To be authentic, let’s the Author write and paint, or even graffiti our names awake again; Joy, recalls us to ourselves. It actually dignifies, gives room for others to be safe enough to be themselves again, and not live in fear! This needed art and living is not sentimental, but joy which knows suffering! An earned and informed type of Hope is transformational!

Joy which sees the millions of displaced people globally, joy which sees the generational hurts between races and ethnicities, Joy which says yes to life because God says yes, and is reconciling all things. A joy which has moved from innocence into experience, and still says yes to the wonder of being here and becoming! That’s the needed art response to now, just as it was after the wars. So few made that sort of hued by life Beauty which offers a way forwards! Let’s!

And art of true joy is radical, as it contains the suffering and takes it forward towards wholeness! Joy which sees our silly walls, but sees through them to Peace. Joy which has that complexity of awareness, that innocence which has moved on to experience—that type of authentic Joy and freedom of being is what is needed in the world now. Let’s make that art friends! Once we have moved from innocence into experience, through suffering, we have a unique opportunity to offer incarnate hope to one another, and profound dignification of one another. Art is meant to do this in times like ours. Let’s make that art friends!

What the true church could do for Europe now:

Johannes Gunter Gerhartz, the great Jesuit German scholar pointed out three things that the true church or real Christianity has to offer Europe now: The gift of insight into the uniqueness and intrinsic dignity of every person, which leads to a radical respect for differences of the inviolable dignity of each person; the gift of reconciliation, which he saw as europe’s greatest need; and the gift of radical sharing, what he called the strength to give of oneself! And I would add, the courage to be yourself gives freedom for others to do so! Not bad advice I came across in an Antwerp Jesuit archive library today. Earned wisdom, as he went through both wars, he had and came out with hope and kindness, he had something to say!

Especially in a time of radical displacement and identity confusion, these three gifts the church could bring: recognizing the dignity of each people’s identity, the gift and skills of reconciliation between peoples, and a type of radical generosity of sharing, ring true! We give from what we have been given, so all three of these would need to be growing in us as well.

I might add, from my art studies, the courage to be again after the wars, was rare even among many artists! Many instead got lost in hedonism, reputation or a form of protectionism-we see this same pattern now, even as millions are displaced. Art needs to have an informed joy now, as we have moved from innocence to experience, but a joy and authenticity which models and even offers hope! Not a flimsy hope, but living hope.

An art which sees through walls, as i call it, which still has the courage to be oneself and honor, even celebrate others. That’s bold and needed art now. One which contains that gift of reconciliation, dignity, and honoring other’s uniqueness as Gerhartz would call it! Great art contain a joy and hope in full view of tremendous suffering. In this sense, it is meant to be a reconciling agent! Bringing two poles together…I agree with this writer, that it should also be part of the gift of radical generosity or sharing! This restores dignity to others.

This insightful priest, was writing after the wars, and still had a radical but not blind or in denial or escapist type of hope for humanity. He, like John Paul II saw the potential for an “exchange of gifts” in europe! And the true church could offer from these three areas of what she was given!

Nice meditation in study from older manuscripts here in Antwerp. Hopeful about what the real church could do for this special corner of the world, and community of peoples. Again, seeing the dignity of each people, offering the gift of reconciliation, since God is reconciling all things to Himself, and radical sharing especially with those unlike us.

Not bad advice, earned wisdom, i would call it! He was in the wars before becoming a Jesuit priest and scholar! These are the ones i like to listen to, those who have been formed by fire, in-formed by suffering, but came out in that tone of kindness and love, and a desire to help reconcile others to themselves and one another-dignify others. He added, as a challenge to the church, that she herself needed to be reconciled as well. Wise man!

Been thinking about this anniversary of the re-formation, or deeper formation which began from multiple sources back then, but didn’t seem to be finished.

I had a dream once, of what was happening to the actual Body during the reformation, and it kept going up through the revivals and waves of the Spirit up through the 20th C…any place The Spirit was allowed to enter into the hearts of His actual People. It came through music, poetry, art, and fresh revealed theology.

What started as dream and whisper amplified to a global change of sight. It was a stream with many tributaries, and all of culture and society were affected by it—both its lights and shadows. It appears we are in a new type of reformation spiritually now.

Fun thinking about historical hinges or axial moments, especially when they come from true religious reforms, in all their broken cadences. A tree is always known by its long term fruit.

When I went to Jan Hus’ chapel where he preached in Praha, i started to sense the spiritual vision which was trying to download and incarnate through those in that season on earth. It was actually radical in terms of personal transformation and societal!

Perhaps outside our human structures, He was offering a deeper formation of his Life in us. And this historical marker was just the first step towards us becoming more fully human in Him!

Favorite quotes this week in study on finding a friendship spirituality!

“The eighteenth C dramatist G E Lessing used to say if he had one question to ask God it would be: “Is this a friendly universe?” Good question. The Father that Jesus revealed, says yes. If we accept a Father God who is loving, we may not understand life any better, but we will not resent life itself any longer.” William Barclay

I’m a firm advocate for a friendship type spirituality! Nice quote to come across! I’m currently working on an article on a creative friendship spirituality. Fun collecting quotes for it! As Barclay puts it, when we see God as friend, it’s easier to come Home to God. And I would add, funner to collaborate with Him creatively. Stewardship becomes a creative act, a collaboration!

Thomas Merton also said, the “deepest demand of the human heart, the religious demand, is the quest for a personal God. A type of God we can be friends with.” If we are to see God not in our image, but us in His, we will start to see Him as the ultimate sacrificial Friend. Van Gogh put it, “Be friends with God through all things.”

Martin Buber’s relational model of the universe, allows for this deep to deep friendship way in both art and living. He assumes it’s possible to actually have I-Thou encounters with God and others! Nice.

My thesis is that God was trying to make friends with Abraham and a people group, and then later through the prophets and most overtly through Jesus, The Friend who lays down His Life for His friends. He was trying to offer friendship with humanity, rather than just a set of esoteric or ethical principles-intimacy and union, were His preferred methods. To be “in Him” as St Paul put it!

That spirituality rest in a relational model. I’m enjoying finding those who were friends of God throughout history. A friendship spirituality also takes the pressure off a bit! It’s easier to approach a friend as we are, rather than a set of principles we can never live up to, or practices we can’t perfect.

Also, I’m looking at what happens existentially or experimentally, when we base our spirituality in a friendship model rather than a practices or laws model. Fun study! Enjoying collecting quotes as well!

St Francis, another friend of God, also has lots of great quotes of becoming a friend of God through nature. Not worshiping nature itself, but meeting God through tending it with God-like tending God’s art. His friendship led to a great stewardship of the earth model, many are still tracing their way back into! A Christian ecology would have to include and flow from friendship! Like we are tending a friend’s land, while hanging out with Our Friend. So let’s be friends, friends!

Good creative stewardship of the earth comes out of overflow from our friendship with God! We start to love what He loves, and in the way that He loves! That’s the organic fruit of a friendship spirituality!

Creativity is part of our true Homecoming as humans!

Towards and article on…..why art still matters in our true spirituality. How it helps us see “the redeemable other”, including ourselves, more accurately!

The imagination is bigger than just making art, it is part of being human, and part, of what, from a Christian perspective, we must bring into a tranformative, redemptive, formational relationship with The Nature of Life of Christ! What happens when Christ comes into the imagination is we begin to see both ourselves and others more as He does. We have a new creative interpretation of others. This strikes at the root system of both racism and poverty, for we start to coming into God’s dialogue towards people under or moving in both ways of seeing!

First, we must see ourselves more from God’s perspective, but we can grow to seeing others and our world, more as He does, if we allow Him to incarnate in our creativity. Creativity is not just for breakfast anymore, or art galleries, it is an essential part of our personal formation and becomes a huge part of how we disciple or guide others towards their true identities!

As one friend put it, “We no longer have the luxury of esteeming reason, our physical bodies or any other area as our “god”, we need to bring the whole self to the whole Cross and be transformed! This includes our creative faculties!” When we do, it affects how we treat and view others. A baptized creativity leads to better ethics, in short!

How racism and poverty can be overcome by a baptized imagination:

Just one of the reasons why creativity and art still matter in a real, lived, existential, day to day way—it helps overcome racism and poverty! Two of our greatest enemies in our times!

From a Christian perspective, Christ wants to incarnate in every area of who we are, including our creativity and imagination. When He does, we start to see other people differently and more dynamically, and this topples an I-it racist or class system based view of one another. In short, we come into an active creative dialogue with the “Living” God! The Creator. And together in creative dialogue, we begin to see ourselves and others more through His View. We begin to creatively steward ourselves and those around us, and His creation! Live, become a collaboration!

Through Him, as He gets into our perception and creativity, we start to see people more as family or kin. We become adept in emoting and expressing His View, treatment and emotions towards one another. We start to be more truly human in our encounters with one another; and we ourselves get more free to be, in the process. Art can help us see one another more as God does, and so love our neighbors as ourselves.

“Poverty of the imagination leads to all other sorts of poverty-economic, racial-if we do not see ourselves and our world through an illuminated by Love, imagination, we will always be trapped in a flat version of life, and even ourselves. When the imagination is healed, and made more whole-that is when we see more from God’s eyes, our actions into the world is altered and we encounter one another more in Love’s dialogue.” Anonymous Monk.

If, conversely, you have a rich spiritual imagination, no situation is desperate. For Spirit filled creativity contextualizes and interprets our situations. We perish from lack of knowledge yes, but also from lack of proper sight! When Christ get’s into our perception, we start to act out as we truly see through His Lens. That lens of Love!

“Racism most clearly, reveals a poverty of imagination! For it cannot imagine the poetry of others God is trying to write. Instead it writes others off, boxing their beings in a projection of our latest fears.” Anonymous Monk.

So, one way to head at to roots of racism, rather than just fighting false ideology, is to help heal the imagination- how we image others! When I see you as another friend in creative dialogue with their Creator, everything changes about how I treat you!

It seems self evident that we need a clearer view and more dynamic version of one another in order to make it in our times! Creativity in this sense becomes a healing agent, especially in times in which fear and projection from old wounds, dominate our perceptions and interpretations of one another! Can I see you through the creative, collaborative, dynamic lens of Love? Is still the question.

God is creative, and dynamic in how He perceives us. We too, are meant to have an alive and growing perception of one another. “Where the Spirit of The Lord is there is Freedom!” Freedom and growth in the area of how we see one another! This is His ministry to and into the imagination!

The same would be true of the spirit of poverty which sees self in terms of economics! We are more than what we have, as St Paul said—I’ve learned to have much or little and still know spiritual contentment!

It’s a matter of seeing our situation from God’s eyes, whether poor or rich, in prison, as his case, or free to roam about. How we “see” and interpret our situation is the key to freedom. And the imagination has a huge part to play in how we interpret things. Creativity is more than art, it allows for a more dynamic way of interpreting and hence loving one another! For that reason alone, it is worth “discipling and baptizing the imagination” in our days.

If we are called to disciple the whole person, and to be in a process of formation (including ourselves), and nations, into the Name or identity of Christ, then as Christians, we must not neglect bringing the imagination into the the fullness of The Head! How do you see me, and how do you see this situation or other person, is a spiritual practice now!

The imagination is meant to be what sees and images things as they are, and are meant to be! The prophets modeled this, but now we must all incarnate it! Help me “see” others and myself the way You see! Art is part of what we are as humans, and so part of what we are partnering in bringing “home” and stewarding into wholeness!

When we do so, we will begin to be better interpreters of the times, more prophetic (and it is no accident that the prophets were creative!), but also, perforce, move in more Love towards others, especially those unlike us! In this sense, an en-Light-ened imagination is key to overcoming a racist view of the world, and a way to overcome seeing ourselves as stuck in poverty. Overcoming a poverty of imagination is one way to fight both racism and abject poverty!

When we become rich in His Imagination, we no longer judge ourselves economically, or by skin tone or outer appearances. Jesus looked only at the heart in order to interpret and locate our true needs and quest-ions!

In fact, when we see what He has done and is doing for us, and the depth of care and desire to be in and with us, in creative dialogue, we immediately know we are rich spiritually, and want to serve others to escape those static categories of perception! Racism is shattered by His Own creative Perception and deep love for us all!

Jesus was constantly trying to reveal this. And He did so to the cultural insiders and outsiders, to Nicodemus and to the Samaritan woman and the Centurion! He wanted to free up their imaginations of things, and get them to start dialoguing again with the Living Father, and His Perceptions!

Baptizing the imagination into Christ is a great starting point of seeing things more as they actually ARE. And therefore, falling in Love with one another! As CS Lewis pointed out, if we SAW one another as God sees us, we would be amazed, and perforce come into a loving relationship with one another.

Art is part of being human, and so part of what needs to enter, come in communion with the Nature of Christ, so we can begin to see and interpret more in and from His Love—the God who is Love beckons us to enter more fully. What started at the re-formation, wants to go on into a deeper formation in every area of who we are to form us into the brothers of Jesus and sons and daughters of The Most High.

In this sense, the imaginations of His People are being “called home” into Him more deeply in our days. And our creativity can and should be becoming His playground for the New Creation!

Bringing our creativity into our personal relationship with God is essential for us all. This is not just a call for artist but for us all-to come fully home into The Father’s House of Love, for the whole of who we are, one another is, and for the whole of His Creation! Creativity is part of this homecoming!

I was blessed to have great arts and religion professors in school who encouraged me to integrate the two areas in my own heart and mind.

I remember one of my favorite professors—i had several (two active rabbis and another a great artist)-advising me not to become a philosophy major because i would forever be asking: Why is there everything, instead of nothing—and that would drive me crazy. “Study, religion there is more hope and ritual in it.”

I did, and was able to escape college with my mind and heart in tact! Thanks Dr Coleman for that, and for this new book collecting your thoughts on beauty, art and spirituality!

Earle Coleman is also a great magician, humorist, and scholar of St Francis and Martin Buber—he brought magic and those two great men under the same roof in his thinking!

Still remember reading Buber from the German and studying St Francis’ way, as a true pathway. Just the thought that you could bring a catholic mystic and mystical Jew into the same discussion on art and beauty, made me happy then and now. Some teachers put things in you that you never forget!

Dr Coleman in addition to writing many articles on aesthetics and spirituality, was also a great magician and humorist. He had thousands of jokes catalogued in his mind, and could pull them from almost any culture. Thankful for great teachers and models along the way today!

Here is his latest book on spirituality and art. He’s clearly a philosopher of religion and art, so some may find his writing dense, but i love what he has been bringing under the same roof for so many years. And he is a kind and generous scholar! Would always stop his day to answer my odd questions back then.

Fun to re-discover his thinking on line today! https://books.google.com/books?id=MKOERo1EEWsC&pg=PA110&lpg=PA110&dq=beauty+is+in+the+I+of+the+beholder+Earle+Coleman&source=bl&ots=M0CKNZ9WBn&sig=IhTJCvts7r02QE6FY2ei_mJxp_o&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjD1v-T7ZPXAhVnw4MKHRq0BNYQ6AEILTAC#v=onepage&q=beauty%20is%20in%20the%20I%20of%20the%20beholder%20Earle%20Coleman&f=false He’s been working on these for around 40 years! Beauty is neither fully subjective, or fully objective, it occurs relationally in an atmosphere and orientation of Love towards other, would be one statement of his basic thesis.

He has many great quotes about beauty in his book. I love collecting quotes. Here are a few I liked:
“Beauty is that which illumines.” Thomas Aquainus
“Beauty is the Real seen with Love.” Evelyn Underhill
“Things, being themselves, are beautiful.” St Francis

And many others…I love thinking about beauty as relational, which is basically what the book is about. That beauty is somewhere in between the I and the Thou, and has to do with the depth to which we are willing to encounter other, and the amount of Love we bring to the encounter. It is both in the I of the beholder, and in that which is beheld. God turns out to be relational, so is beauty and religion, Earle would say!