In this chapter we want to propose the metaphor of THE PREACHER AS ARTIST as a way to move forward. Preachers are artists that have a role in God’s drama of salvation as they are called to faithfully and creatively reiterate the gospel. They are called to speak the truth beautifully as they witness to the person of Jesus and the work of his Father. Their work is enlivened by the Holy Spirit to invite God’s people to participate in the continuing creativity of the Word. As Flannery O’Connor argues, “The basis of art is truth, both in matter and in mode. The person who aims for art in his work aims after truth, in an imaginative sense, no more and no less.”2 In this spirit of truth telling,
artistry can be considered fundamental to a preacher’s identity, which in turn shapes the practice of preaching “in matter and in mode.” The metaphor of identity of THE PREACHER AS ARTIST assumes that the creative powers of imagination are given by God to be used in preaching not primarily so that preachers might persuade others, taking over the role of the Spirit, but so that they might offer back to the Father their
2 Flannery O’Connor, “Writing Short Stories,” in Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose, ed. Sally and Robert
human gifts that are redeemed in Christ. Therefore, the initial difference between THE PREACHER AS TEACHER and PREACHER AS ARTIST is that the former puts the focus squarely on human agency, while the latter embraces responsible human action as a way of offering back to God what God has provided to humanity. This means that the preacher keeps the primary work of conversion in God’s hands, while at the same time the preacher participates in that conversion by giving to God the use of his or her human gifts. This allows the wisdom of both THE PREACHER AS TEACHER and THE PREACHER AS HERALD to find convergence in a new identity, namely the artist. As noted above, Flannery O’Connor argues that “the basis of art is truth, both in matter and in mode.” While O’Connor roots the task of the artist in truth, others base their artistic endeavors on notions of beauty or personal expression. Pablo Picasso, for example, suggests that “art is not the application of a canon of beauty but what the instinct and the brain can conceive beyond any canon. When we love a woman we don’t start measuring her limbs.”3 Definitions and descriptions of art vary, but a basic
description of the task of the artist at the least includes the following entailments: 1. An artist is one who works with a given material.
2. An artist adds value to what he or she lays hold of, offering back more than is given.
3. An artist works within a tradition of training and skill.
4. An artist has a “gift” which he or she must exercise responsibly. 5. An artist is “creative.”
6. An artist works imaginatively.
7. An artist performs for an audience within a given context.
Theologically, describing THE PREACHER AS ARTIST entails a number of theological assumptions about creativity, imagination, the nature of art and the role of tradition in human endeavor. This description of the preacher also requires a fresh understanding of
performance, the relationship of the preacher and congregation, the context for preaching and, most importantly, the character of Jesus’ priestly ministry, which was thoroughly artistic and beautiful. As the argument of this chapter develops, these various issues will be
3Quoted in an interview with Christian Zervos, editor of Cahiers d’Art, translated by Alfred H. Barr, Jr. in
discussed in relation to the person and work of Jesus Christ, who is both the source and the model of our proposed homiletic identity.
What we mean by artist as we describe the metaphor of THE PREACHER AS ARTIST is not the tortured Romantic notion, but rather the classic sense of a skilled artisan who absorbs a tradition and whose skills are grounded in a larger framework of participation in God’s ongoing work of creation that might best be expressed within an aesthetic theory along the lines of Nicholas Wolterstorff’s art in action.4 This understanding of
the artist takes human imagination and creativity seriously, but not as rivals to God. Instead, the PREACHER AS ARTIST seeks to engage with what has been given in the fallen world by taking things that have been created and redeemed and offering them back to God with added value. In this sense, proposing the term artist is not an attempt to suggest one definitive answer to the question of what an artist does. That would be an impossible reduction. Instead, we are using the term to suggest a way of encouraging the preacher to employ human gifts and capacities that have been redeemed in Christ and to offer these gifts back to the Father in gratitude. This understanding of the artist is captured beautifully by T.S. Eliot:
Lord, shall we not bring these gifts to your service? Shall we not bring to your service all our powers For life, for dignity, grace and order,
And intellectual pleasures of the senses? The Lord who created must wish us to create And employ our creation in his service Which is already His service in creating.5
To develop this concept of the artist faithfully, we have to put it in a Trinitarian framework and let Jesus Christ lead the way forward. Following the way of Jesus in relationship to the Father and the Holy Spirit also requires a particular understanding of creativity in conversation with the triune God. The contribution of this project is the application of the artist metaphor to the ongoing liturgical task of preaching. Others have considered and are considering the beauty of worship and the call to be faithful artists in this context. The emphasis of this project, however, is on putting the preacher
4 Nicholas Wolterstorff, Act in Action (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1980).
5 “Choruses from the Rock,” Movement X inT.S. Eliot, The Complete Poems and Plays: 1909-1950 (New
in relationship to this beauty, with the end of showing how the image of the preacher as artist sends us back to Jesus Christ where we can find a place in his ongoing work with the Father and the Spirit.
Therefore, we need to frame an understanding of artistry and preaching within the doctrines of the Trinity and the incarnation. We will do this by appealing to a theology of communion and the priesthood of Christ developed in the Trinitarian thought of T.F. Torrance and J.B. Torrance. In so doing, we will uncover the significance for preaching of the vicarious humanityof Christ, whose double ministry of God to humanity and humanity back to God redeems our humanity and all of our gifts and thereby sets us free to offer our best – our reason as well as our imagination and creativity – back to God with gratitude.