To read to the interview at the 'Calvin College' site click here
In the World
The rubric of “cultural discernment,” applied to popular music and film (though not necessarily theatre, dance and visual arts), has striven for ascendency on this campus since about 1993.
The history of Calvin’s progress toward authentic engagement of culture is complex in that it cannot be separated from the larger story of religious/artistic interplay within the church catholic.
Our purpose in this series of articles is to document and critique the larger movement toward art, culture and “the world” that the church has shown signs — in the last decade – of making.
We intend both to highlight Calvin College’s significance within this context and to examine factors and forces at work within what we would like to label “the new Christian cultural renaissance.”
Which leads us to this article. At the forefront of this renaissance is a slew of culture journals published by Christians.
The first issue of Image: A Journal of the Arts and Religion was published in 1989 by Gregory Wolfe and Harold Fickett. Since its inception, it has continued, with small staff and limited budget, to both fulfill and amplify its calling as a forum for the active interplay of art and religion. A&E contacted Gregory Wolfe, publisher and editor of “Image,” for the following interview.
A&E: What events and scenarios surrounded the inception of Image as an idea and Image as a reality?
Wolfe: When I first started Image, I thought it was my idea. Now, after ten years of publication, I realize that I have been, to a great extent, more of a bubble on a wave that is passing through American culture. In other words, the impulses that led to the founding of Image are part of a larger movement of cultural change.
Many Christians have become fed up with the politicization of the churches and have turned to the arts for sources of personal and institutional renewal. For example, many evangelicals have become dissatisfied with the “subculture” they have created — with its separate book publishers, record labels, etc. that churn out knock-offs of secular pop culture — Christian romance novels, Christian hip-hop bands, and the like. A reaction is setting in against this safe-but-shallow subculture.
A&E: Thinking of the tenth anniversary issue, what’s happening today in Christian and non-Christian circles that wasn’t ten years ago? What part do you think Image has played in this?
Wolfe: One clear change is the newfound openness to religion in mainstream cultural circles. Fifteen years ago, publications like the New York Times Sunday Book Review were dismissing novels with religious themes. The Freudian paradigm of religion as “escapism” and “wish fulfillment” was still strong. But I think Freud “died” in our culture around the same time that Marx “died” with the collapse of the Soviet Empire.
Now the Times Book Review treats novels by Christian writers like Doris Betts, Reynolds Price, Larry Woiwode, and others with great respect. The reviewers tend to say: “The religion in this novel is really not escapism but a deeper way of grappling with reality.” That’s a major change. Ironically, many Christian don’t seem to have noticed this. Perhaps they prefer to remain in what I call the “fortress mentality.”
It would be wrong for me to comment on Image’s role in this change. What I hope is that we have helped both the creators and distributors of art to see that Christian faith and great art are not incompatible.
A&E: Do you forsee an end to Christian “ghettos,” such as the CCM industry, the Christian retail industry, etc.?
Wolfe: Not any time soon. In my opinion, too many Christians have bought into the idea that they only need to sprinkle a little holy water on secular pop culture trends, from self-help psychology to genre fiction.
What these ghettoes pander to is the desire on the part of Christians to think in secular terms while retaining a religious gloss to their lives. To challenge this way of thinking is to court unpopularity. That’s why any prophetic challenge to it in the arts will have to come from small quarterlies, independent record labels, and subsidized publishers.
I will say this. What I call the “independent” Christian arts sector is growing in size and maturity. Once it has grown large enough, my guess is that businesses will want to cash in. That’s fine, so long as artistic and ethical standards are preserved. In fact, I’d say that publishers and record labels, for example, are currently behind the curve.
A&E: So far, intellectual and artistic progress among Christians has seemed limited to academia and certain sophisticated circles. Do you foresee a trickle-down effect to the grassroots level?
Wolfe: I don’t entirely agree with the question. If you look at membership organizations like Christians in the Visual Arts and Christians in the Theatre Arts, you will discover grassroots organizations that have experienced enormous growth and progress.
A&E: Thinking of your coverage of the visual arts, it seems that fiction writers and musicians who embrace faith tend to have a higher profile than Christians in the visual arts. Is this a misconception, or a phenomenon grounded in the visual arts community’s perceived high falutin’ inaccessibility?
Wolfe: There’s no doubt that the world of the visual arts is much more resistant to the cultural shifts I’ve been talking about. Perhaps because the centers of power in the visual arts are concentrated on New York and a couple other places, it has been possible to pretend that art with a religious dimension does not exist. But there are cracks in the concrete that surrounds that world. Even such establishment figures as Jasper Johns and George Segal have returned to religious concerns and subject matter. CIVA is also going to make great strides in the coming years. I predict that things will improve rapidly in the visual within the next ten years.
A&E: Is the influx in new culture journals that assume a distinctively Christian perspective a sign of real consolidation among artists and thinkers who are Christians? Previously, the “world” has seemed to be a lonely place for the Christian who embraces the arts. In fact, the church has seemed to treat artists like Jezebel treated the prophets....
Wolfe: For all the reasons I’ve given above, the answer to this question is a resounding “Yes.” And the great thing is that we still have a long way to go, so there are many exciting developments that will be taking place in the near future. My hope is that the younger generations, which have less of a fortress mentality than their elders, will help to foster an integrated Christian approach to culture.