Close to nature: Life in Lenten environments

Sermon preached at All Saints Church, Tooting on the first Sunday of Lent and the beginning of their Lent in Pictures project.

Readings: Job 38.1-7, 25-29, 36-41, 42.1-6; Revelation 22.1-5; and Matthew 4.11-17, 24. 1-3

Around the mid-point of his life, my father switched careers from community work to retrain as a landscape gardener. We moved from the city of Oxford to a village in Somerset and, although the change was to some extent forced on him and caused financial difficulties for us as a family, he came to greatly appreciate the enhanced sense of being in nature and of living closer to the natural rhythms of the seasons and the circle of life.

However, while our awareness of nature is undoubtedly enhanced by times in the countryside, we don’t need to live in a rural area in order to aware of and affected by the natural world. Those who live here in Britain are, for example, well known for being obsessed with talking about the weather. According to research, 94% of British respondents admit to having conversed about the weather in the past six hours, while 38% say they have in the past 60 minutes. Kate Fox, who performed the studies in 2010 for an update of her book Watching the English, says “This means at almost any moment in this country, at least a third of the population is either talking about the weather, has already done so or is about to do so.” This is because there are several features of this country’s geography that make our weather the way it is: mild, changeable, and famously unpredictable. For many the changing seasons and weather affect our mood and can, for some, cause depression with Seasonal affective disorder (SAD), for example, being a type of depression that comes and goes in a seasonal pattern possibly linked to reduced exposure to sunlight during the shorter autumn and winter days.

Our theme for today, based on your Lent project, is relationship with the natural world, thinking especially of the environments in the Lenten stories. Our readings illustrate key aspects of that relationship – challenge, awe, mission, healing. In fact, these readings can be ordered to suggest a journey through the environments of Lent and life, involving environments of remove, ruin, renewal, and recuperation.

The readings from the Book of Job are about the expansive nature of the universe in which we find ourselves; both the breadth and depth of creation in macro and micro dimensions. We move through a series of questions that range from the earth’s foundations in creation through the patterns of the weather to the hunting practices of predators. Job is asked whether he was present at creation, how creation occurred, whether he understands the workings of the natural world, and whether he can provide for the creatures of the world. The answer to all these questions is clearly ‘No, he does not’ and that realisation brings him to his knees with a sense of awe towards the God who can answer such questions and a sense of humility through a realisation of his place within a world that is immense and teeming with myriad forms of life.

Job has an experience of the vastness of the universe and the awesome nature of the God who created; a God who is removed from us because we have no means of comprehending the length and breadth, height, depth or diversity of his nature, activity and potential. All Job can do in the environment of remoteness is to stand in awe and wonder, aware of his insignificance in the face of such expanse.

I wonder whether you have had such an experience; maybe lying on a hill contemplating the night sky or at the peak of a high mountain on a cloudless day seeing what seems to be the whole earth laid out beneath you or in the depths of a wood or forest surrounded by an amazing array of flora, fauna and creatures. That same sense of immensity can also be found in the micro as well as the macro if we learn to look with attention; the beauty of a snowflake or the intricacies of a cobweb, the patterns of a leaf or the hues of a petal. I wonder whether you can find an environment – literal or virtual – in which you can experience a sense of remove bringing awe and humility. I wonder too whether you can capture something of that sense of remove in a photo, poem, painting or other creative work for your Lenten project, exhibition and film.

In Matthew 24 we hear Jesus conjure up an environment of ruin for his disciples. His disciples came to point out to him the magnificence of the buildings of the temple and he assured them that, in the near future, not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down. All human environments are subject to decay yet the natural impermanence and temporality of our constructions and creations was not the point that Jesus was making here. His statement was a prophecy regarding events that would occur within the lifetime of his disciples – the fall of Jerusalem in AD70 – which would be a confirmation to those disciples of the truth of Jesus’ words and a vindication of him as a true prophet. His words were also a warning preparing his disciples for a time of trauma and trial when their lives would be at risk and their faith tested.

The environment of ruin – whether physical, emotional, spiritual or all three – is a place of real trauma which can nevertheless become the place where God becomes more real to us than ever was the case in times of prosperity. That was the experience of the Israelites in exile as Babylon was the place where their scriptures were written down and compiled. For Christ, the letting go of life through the agony of the cross was inextricably united to the astonishing renewal of resurrection. For the first disciples, the destruction of the Temple and the perils of persecution were the crucible in which the Early Church was fashioned.

This lockdown Lent it may be that the pandemic has formed an environment of ruin for us and for our world as economies have contracted, jobs have been lost, restrictions enforced, and millions have died. As we survey the devastation that has been caused, can we encounter God with us in new ways and in new depths of experience as we see the myriad ways we can find at this time to be with others through in-person care and virtual connections. I wonder how you can reflect on the environment of ruin through your Lenten project and Lenten experiences.

By contrast our reading from Matthew 4 sees Jesus leave the place of trial and restriction to make his home in Capernaum by the sea and to go on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, to Galilee of the Gentiles proclaiming that the kingdom of heaven has come near and that light has come to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death.

This is the environment of renewal; a place of activity and vocation, of gatherings and shelters, of journeys and arrivals, of farming and fishing. In three short years, Jesus travelled throughout Galilee and beyond, calling and training disciples sending out 12 and then 72 while others supported them financially from their homes. This is the environment in which his teaching was shared; whether sermons on mountains, stories from boats or acted parables in upper rooms. The stories he told were also set in this environment and peopled by farmers and fishermen.

This environment is one of daily life and work. It is ordinary, everyday and mundane yet the kingdom of heaven is near and the light of illumination is at hand. I wonder what you will find of heaven in your everyday life and work this Lent. How will your stories and sharing, your activity and travel – whether literal or virtual – be blessed and broken for revelation and renewal? How will you picture or describe the in-breaking of the kingdom in the environment of renewal for your Lenten project?

The final environment in our readings is that of recuperation. Our destiny, our destination, is a city where the river of the water of life flows through the middle of the street with the tree of life alongside and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. This is a place of restoration where nothing accursed will be found any more, where God will wipe every tear from our eyes and death, mourning and crying and pain will be no more. The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. They will not hurt or destroy for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

Our experience in this world is of being led to green pastures and of being led through the valley of the shadow of death, but our ultimate end is to dwell in the house of the Lord forever where goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our lives. I wonder where are the green pastures and still waters to which we can be led this Lent in order that we experience a taste of the restoration we shall experience in that final environment of recuperation. What images and words can we find to illustrate and illuminate that experience for those that will see your Lenten project, exhibition and film?

If you seek out these environments and experiences this Lent and if you share them through pictures, photographs, films for your Lenten project, then you will have the experience that my father knew, in moving from community work to landscape gardening, of coming closer to the natural rhythms of the seasons and the circle of life. By coming into these Lenten environments of remove, ruin, renewal, and recuperation, you will experience challenge, awe, vocation, and healing while coming closer to the pattern of death and resurrection, letting go and receiving back that is the natural rhythm of the spiritual life. It is my prayer that that may be your experience this Lent. Amen.

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John Tavener - Eternity's Sunrise.

Barking Episcopal Area Art Trail

To understand why an Art Trail like the Barking Episcopal Area Art Trail is needed it is necessary to know some of the background to the relationship between Christianity and the Arts in the 20th century.

After classical antiquity, ‘Christianity became the predominant power shaping European culture between the 13th and 19th centuries. Biblical texts, commentaries, and apocryphal stories inspired artists and patrons alike to create these objects of devotion ...’ and ‘to evoke the nature of ... sacred mysteries in visual terms.’

‘Artists and their advisors were faced with the challenge of suggesting, in visual terms, the nature of Christian mysteries – such as the visions experienced, or miracles performed, by the saints – as well as other profound theological beliefs and debates.‘

However, by the time Impressionism initiated modern art, art had already freed itself in many ways from the patronage of the Church and, as form not content became the primary focus of modernism, the developments of modern art led to an increasingly strained relationship between the Church and the visual arts.

Andrew Spira, writing in The Avant-Garde Icon, notes that ‘Avant-garde artists were passionate and vociferous in their denunciation of the credulity, passivity, manipulation and conservatism of conventional religiosity.’

Mark C. Taylor has noted that ‘the development of modern art follows an "inexorable logic" that leads from figuration and ornamentation to abstraction and formalism. The process of abstraction reaches closure when the work of art becomes totally self-reflexive and transparently self-referential ... Painting that is essentially about painting seems to leave little room for religious and spiritual concerns.’

Additionally, as Dan Fox has stated in frieze, ‘For most of the 20th century, art aligned itself with progressive rationalist secularity and radical subjectivity; the ideas that have fed into art come from modern philosophy, liberal or radical politics, sociology and pop culture rather than theology.’

Fox also writes that ‘It’s also a question of finance: the money that funds art doesn’t come from churches or religious orders like it did hundreds of years ago.’

Anselm Franke, head of visual arts and film at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin, sums the situation up by saying that: ‘The historical break with religion continues. We would not think of hanging something that someone prays to in a museum ... Faith is incompatible with art end even destroys the sovereignty of art and the kinds of experiences we are looking for when we frequent art spaces.'

As a result, Dan Fox states, ‘contemporary artists who openly declare affiliation to Judaeo-Christian or Islamic religions are usually regarded with the kind of suspicion reserved for Mormon polygamists and celebrity Scientologists.’

Modern art looked, sounded and felt very different from the art that had traditionally been made for the Church, meaning that the Church avoided using modern art while many modern artists were excitedly exploring new ways of creating art and couldn’t see any connection between what they were doing and the styles of art which the Church continued to use. As a result, there was a whole segment of society – artists and art lovers – that were not being impacted by Christianity.

The Church has often not valued sufficiently the artworks it has commissioned; at times their significance has not been understood or shared, at other times the works have been controversial and may have been banned or not publicized as a result. Often the artworks have been regarded as subsidiary to the liturgy and have not been publicized in order that the focus of the faithful would not be deflected. ‘Christian Art’ has become a contested term and the Church has been unsure whether to continue to use it and, if not, how else to speak of its commissions. There has also been significant debate about the relative values of commissioning artists who are Christians and contemporary ‘masters’ who may not be Christians.

The Rt Revd David Hawkins, former Bishop of Barking and Patron of commission4mission, has said that, ‘There is a great need for the Church to re‐engage with the visual Arts. The Church has enjoyed a long and happy marriage with art in the past but in recent centuries has suffered something of a separation.’

Despite this sense of conflict and separation, there is a more positive story to tell of engagement between Christianity and the Arts. There has been a continuing engagement by the Church with contemporary art from the Post-Impressionists to the present day. This engagement has often been contentious and contested but it has nevertheless been a continuing relationship involving both mainstream artists with a Christian faith and church commissions undertaken by mainstream artists who have not professed the faith.

Mark C. Taylor insists that, ‘One of the most puzzling paradoxes of twentieth-century cultural interpretation is that, while theologians, philosophers of religion, and art critics deny or surpress the religious significance of the visual arts, many of the leading modern artists insist that their work cannot be understood apart from religious questions and spiritual issues.’

Benedict Read in his 1998 lecture to the Royal Society of British Sculptors noted that following the Second World War: ‘Churches were being repaired. New work was being installed in them. There was an expansion of church buildings with works of art in them … There is an alternative world there of the commissioning of art for specific purposes that, with no disrespect to established art historians, simply doesn't feature in our notion of cultural history in the post-war period.’

Read was speaking of the UK but a similar situation occurred in mainland Europe and in both settings, while the church building programme has slowed somewhat, the commissioning of contemporary art has not, meaning we have and are witnessing something of a renaissance of commissioned art for churches and cathedrals.

Key figures in initiating and then sustaining aspects of this renaissance in its initial phases included the artists Maurice Denis and Albert Gleizes, the philosopher Jacques Maritain, and the churchmen Bishop George Bell, Dominican Friar’s Couturier and Régamey, and Canon Walter Hussey.

Commission, a relatively recent exhibition at the Wallspace Gallery, and the Art + Christianity Enquiry monograph Contemporary Art in British Churches brought that story up-to-date. Artists featured in Commission included Tracey Emin, Henry Moore, Craigie Aitchison, Mark Cazalet, Stephen Cox, Chris Gollon, Shirazeh Houshiary, Iain McKillop, Rona Smith and Alison Watt.

The central argument of Contemporary Art in British Churches is that we are witnessing something of a renaissance of commissioned art for churches and cathedrals in this country. Paul Bayley argues that this upsurge of commissioning from the church sees many significant contemporary artists, such as those featured in Commission, creating art for church spaces. The approach underpinning this upsurge is synonymous with that of Bell and Hussey, Couturier and Régamey, who argued that ‘each generation must appeal to the masters of living art, and today those masters come first from secular art.’

The aim of the Art Trail is to raise awareness of the rich and diverse range of modern and contemporary arts and crafts from the last 100 years which can be found within churches and, in particular, the 36 churches featured on this Trail. The significant works of art in these churches, taken collectively, represent a major contribution to the legacy of the church as an important commissioner of art.

These include past contributions by significant artists such as Eric Gill, Hans Feibusch, John Hutton and John Piper. In recent years, churches have continued to commission work by many important artists such as Mark Cazalet, Jane Quail and Henry Shelton together with other emerging artists who are now coming to prominence.

Work on the Art Trail was initiated by commission4mission, an arts organisation encouraging churches to commission contemporary art, with the hope of increasing interest and stimulating engagement with the visual arts in the service of contemporary Christian faith.

The visual arts can contribute to the mission of the church by speaking eloquently of the Christian faith; providing a reason for people to visit a church; making a link between churches and local organisations and providing a focus around which local people can come together for a shared activity.

A leaflet documenting the Art Trail, which was researched and developed by commission4mission member, artist and Fine Arts lecturer, Mark Lewis, publicises the Trail and provides information about the featured artists and churches. The leaflet includes a map showing the churches featured on the Trail together with contact details, so that visits to one or more churches can be planned in advance.

Mark Lewis’ brief was to research commissioned art and craft in the Episcopal Area from the past 100 years. While stained glass is the dominant Ecclesiastical art form, he was also concerned to show a diversity and variety of media and styles within the selections made. He highlighted works such as the significant mosaic by John Piper at St Paul’s Harlow and the striking ‘Spencer-esque’ mural byFyffe Christie at St Margaret’s Standford Rivers. Churches with particularly fine collections of artworks included: St Albans, Romford; St Andrew’s Leytonstone; St Barnabas Walthamstow; St Margaret’s Barking; St Mary’s South Woodford;; and, the church chosen as the location for the launch event, St Paul’s Goodmayes.

The Trail was launched at St Pauls Goodmayes on Thursday 17th February by the Bishops of Chelmsford and Barking. At the launch event, The Rt. Revd. Stephen Cottrell, Bishop of Chelmsford, said: “I do not know what other art form could convey and hold the possibility of converging in so many layers. Not just do the visual arts comment on biblical narrative, but they illuminate it in a way that written or spoken forms cannot, being linear forms. Art opens windows on a set of concepts and ideas and brings them together. These windows offer a fresh perspective onto the faith we share, that other forms simply cannot.”

The Bishop of Barking stated that: “Our inspiration for understanding Christianity comes from the visual arts … The visual arts continue to be an important way of communicating our faith. Words are not enough to express the breadth, depth and height of what we want to communicate. It’s then that the visual arts express what we want to communicate.

God knew that: for centuries he relied on the words of the prophets and then he realized that he needed to send his Son to communicate in ways that words could not, the breadth, depth and height of his love. The word became flesh: the most beautiful living sculpture ever created – Jesus Christ.”

The Barking Episcopal Area Art Trail has inspired at least two similar initiatives. The Revd David New has created a leaflet as a guide to stained glass windows created by Thomas Denny for churches in the Three-Choirs area (Gloucester, Hereford and Worcester Dioceses).

David writes that: "Thomas Denny, born in London, trained in drawing and painting at Edinburgh College of Art. One day a friend asked him to consider creating a stained glass window for a church in Scotland (Killearn 1983). Thus began a remarkable career that has produced over 30 stained glass windows in Cathedrals and Churches of this country. Tom’s love for painting and drawing, especially the things of nature, is evident in his windows ... All of Tom’s windows express biblical themes and are conducive to silent meditation. Find a seat; feel the colours; give time for the details to emerge; reflect."

In addition, and also inspired by the Barking Episcopal Area Art Trail, Beat Rink is organizing an Art & Church Trail in Lucerne, in the context of a Christian conference, at the end of this year. Church leaders in this beautiful city are very excited about the concept and are currently working to develop their plans.

The web page for the Art Trail on the website for the Chelmsford Diocese also features new and additional works which could not be included in the original Trail. This includes:

• Altar frontal by Anne Creasey at Christ Church Thamesview, Bastable Avenue, Barking IG11 0NG. Contact: Gerry Williams. Tel: 07914 676079 (http://www.christchurch-thamesview.org.uk); 
• Graffiti Love, a mosaic by Viki Isherwood Metzler, and a Trinity sculpture incorporating a mosaic by Sergiy Shkanov can be seen in the community garden at St John's Seven Kings, St John's Road, Ilford IG2 7BB. Contact Churchwardens. Tel: 020 8598 1536 (http://stjohns7kings.org.uk/);
• Holy Water Stoup by Mark Lewis at St Margaret of Antioch, Perth Road/Balfour Road, Ilford IG1 4HZ. Contact: Fr. Stephen Pugh. Tel: 020 8554 7542 (http://www.stmargaretilford.org.uk);
• Life of St Augustine, cast concrete achitectural frieze by Steven Sykes at Holy Trinity & St Augustine of Hippo, Leytonstone, 4 Holloway Road, Leytonstone Ell 4LD. Contact: Revd Ian Harker. Tel: 020 8539 6067 (http://www.trinityleytonstone.org/indexnext.htm);
• Nativity reredos with cross and candlesticks by Francis Stephens (a pupil of Martin Travers) at the Church of the Holy Innocents, High Beach IG10 4BF. Contact: Revd. Gill Hopkins. Tel: 01992 760492. (http://www.highbeachchurch.org.uk/); 
• People praising God and giving grace received to others, sculpted oak panels by Jane Quail at St Paul's East Ham, Burges Road, East Ham E6 2EU. Contact: Rev. Merrin Playle. Tel: 020 8472 5531 (http://www.achurchnearyou.com/east-ham-st-paul/);
• Restoration, a wood engraving by Peter S. Smith (a member of the Society of Wood Engravers) commissioned by St John the Baptist Leytonstone in 2011 to celebrate the completion of restoration work at the church. Church Lane/High Road, Leytonstone. Contact: Churchwardens. Tel: 020 8257 2792 (http://www.stjohns-leytonstone.org.uk/);
• Stained glass including a window designed by Edward Burne-Jones at Ilford Hospital Chapel, 48 Ilford Hill, Ilford IG1 2AT. Contact: Fr. Martin Hawse. Tel: 020 8590 2098 (http://www.ilfordhospitalchapel.co.uk);
• The Good Samaritan, engraved window by John Hutton at St George's Barkingside, Woodford Avenue/Gants Hill Crescent, Barkingside IG2 6XQ. Contact: Revd Benjamin Wallis. Tel: 020 8550 4149 (http://stgeorge-barkingside.co.uk/); and
• Graphic art and banners by Caroline Richardson at the Church of the Good Shepherd, Collier Row (http://www.thegoodshepherd.co.uk/).

All of which demonstrates that the Church is engaged with the visual Arts and that the long and happy marriage with art that the Church has enjoyed continues to this day.

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U2 & BB King - When Love Comes To Town.

When was the last time you saw an explicitly religious work of contemporary art?

“When was the last time you saw an explicitly religious work of contemporary art?” Dan Fox asks in his November – December frieze editorial. Religious art, he argues, “when it’s not kept safely confined within gilt frames in the medieval departments of major museums, is taboo.”

Art about religion is totally kosher however; as are: “modernist dalliances with spiritualism;” the “obsessive cosmologies and prophecies” of ‘visionary’ or ‘outsider’ artists; and “a little dusting of Buddhism or Eastern philosophy.” But, “contemporary artists who openly declare affiliation to Judaeo-Christian or Islamic religions are usually regarded with the kind of suspicion reserved for Mormon polygamists and celebrity Scientologists.”

Why is the art world wary of religion? Fox gives five reasons:

1. “For most of the 20th century, art aligned itself with progressive rationalist secularity and radical subjectivity; the ideas that have fed into art come from modern philosophy, liberal or radical politics, sociology and pop culture rather than theology.”

2. “It’s also a question of finance: the money that funds art doesn’t come from churches or religious orders like it did hundreds of years ago.”

3. “Religion is broadly seen by many progressive thinkers to be a cause of intolerance and war.”

4. “The early 21st century has been characterised by a dangerous return to faith-based political conviction, be it radical Islam or neo-conservative fundamentalist Christianity, neither of which has much sympathy for cutting-edge art or ideas.”

5. “Also, religious organisations aren’t, of course, exactly known for their forward thinking attitudes to women or sexuality: the moral teachings of many religious denominations can be at odds with the ways artists want to live their lives.”

His editorial goes on to question the taboo without fundamentally challenging these five perceptions and the content of this edition of frieze, as a result, tends to confirm the taboo rather than shatter it by focusing primarily on art about belief, Occult art, and art with a little dusting of Buddhism or Eastern philosophy. Accordingly, the religious or spiritual commitments highlighted by the articles in this edition include: hermeticism (Lorenzo Lotto), radical atheism (Slavoj Žižek and Simon Critchley), sikhism (Linder), and spiritualism (Hilma af Klint, Ethel Le Rossignol and Austin Osman Spare) together with several profiles of artists creating art about religion or belief (Kai Althoff, Jay Chung and Q Takeki Maeda, Matthew Day Jackson, and Aura Satz, among others). Set against these, in terms of the dichotomy advanced by Fox in his editorial, is one article on the changing shape of the mosque in Britain and a book review exploring political theology.

The reasons Fox gives for the art world’s wariness towards religion can be challenged and, were those challenges to be engaged with, could open up a different engagement with religion. Taking them in order, we could say briefly, that:

1. Theological and religious contributions to modern art existed throughout the 20th century but were consistently overlooked and ignored (see my ‘Airbrushed from Art History’ series of posts for examples). There is great scope for rediscovering and re-examining these contributions in order to broaden our understanding of the development of modern art and to inform future creativity. What is needed, as Daniel A. Siedell suggests in God in the Gallery, is "an alternative history and theory of the development of modern art, revealing that Christianity has always been present with modern art, nourishing as well as haunting it, and that modern art cannot be understood without understanding its religious and spiritual components and aspirations."

2. Commission is a current exhibition claiming a contemporary renaissance of Church commissioning which could be critically reviewed (both claim and exhibition) by frieze. The Dictionary Corner in this edition of frieze contrasts curate and curator but does not mention the current experiments within emergent church communities which apply insights from artistic curation to the creation and oversight of alternative worship experiences (see Curating Worship by Jonny Baker).

3.  Significant research exists which suggests that religion increases wellbeing and makes people better citizens, as religious people are much more likely to volunteer and give money to charity. The linking of religion to intolerance and war has a tendency to ignore or downplay such findings and to do the same to religious teachings themselves, with their common strand which is the Golden Rule: 'Do to others as you would have them do to you'. This raises the question as to the extent of bias or prejudgement which informs such opinions. 

4. To see the 21st century return of religion in the sole form of religious fundamentalism is to see only part of the picture. The fact that struggles are occurring within Christianity and Islam between fundamentalism and liberalism means both that the future of religions is not settled in terms of fundamentalism and that other creative alternatives may emerge. This is potentially fertile ground for artists to explore.

5. Again, this is to focus on only one side of the debate within religions. There is potentially fertile ground for artists to explore in dialogue with people of faith who share forward thinking attitudes to women or sexuality.

It is worth noting that only two out of the five have significant links to Art per se, suggesting, as Fox points out, that "the art world is seen to be an open-minded and tolerant community in which to work ... until someone tells you casually that they regularly attend mass." 

Fox also rightly points out the belief which art and religion share when objects and images are invested with meaning and argues that a cognitive dissonance is experienced when this is ignored. Similarly, Jean Luc Nancy argues in his frieze interview that the destruction of the frameworks, or references, of religious and emancipatory politics have resulted in a society with fewer foundations that it had before 1968 and has unleashed the spirit of consumerism. We should respond, he argues:

“not with politics or economics but with thinking, with imagination, with what I call worship: a relationship to the infinite. We must stop believing that economic measures or political models can respond to what is happening. What is happening, in Hegel’s words, is the spirit of the world being transformed.”

This is reinforced by Simon Critchley’s argument in his interview that:

“To jettison [religious philosophical] traditions in the name of some kind of scientific rationality is simply philistine and counter-productive, so it becomes a question of inhabiting and mobilizing religion for interesting and radical ends.”

Or as Žižek bluntly states, “Christianity is too precious a thing to leave to conservative fundamentalists.”

So, frieze 135 talks the talk of critical engagement with contemporary artists who openly declare affiliation to Judaeo-Christian or Islamic religions but doesn’t actually show us anyone genuinely walking that walk, although examples do exist in contemporary art (Breninger, Celaya, Fujimura, Howson, Nowosielski et al) and certainly have existed throughout the history of modern art (Bernard, Serusier, Denis, Nolde, Rouault, Gleizes, Chagall, Severini, Manessier, Jellett, Spencer, Jones, Sutherland, Piper, Congdon, McCahon, Smith, Hayman, Adams, Herbert et al).

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Mumford and Sons - Sigh No More.