To quote Monty Python, ‘and now for something completely different’, or Elliot Goblet, one of Australia’s funniest comedians, ‘I’m going to change the pace now….’  Most of these Food for Thought columns are a challenge to Australian society at some point of concern.  The last few weeks have been dealing mostly with issues relating to the Federal election. But this week, some light relief and some celebration.

I was in Sydney earlier this week and had the privilege of seeing the off-Broadway show Freud’s Last Session. This is a play about an imaginary meeting of Sigmund Freud and CS Lewis and the conversation they may have had. It was brilliant. I will write my reflections on the content of the show for in another place but I will say here that for someone whose two academic loves are theology and psychology it was quite a treat to see these two disciplines in the form of Freud and CS Lewis battling it out.

I came away from that experience celebrating the great contribution the arts have to life and enjoyment. In the play, Freud periodically turns the radio up to hear the news of the entering of Britain into WWII and turns it back down as soon as the programme returns to music. After doing this a few times Lewis picks Freud up on his actions and asks him why he is doing this. Freud talks about what a meaningless language such music is and that anything that can’t be cognitively understood is a waste of time. Lewis implores him to broaden his perspective and to enjoy the music for its own sake, to move into emotion for life is more that cognition and analysis.

As I thought about this I realised that there are many things in life that cause us to be blind and deaf to the beauty and awe of everyday life. The arts can help us rediscover that beauty and remind us that there is more to life than elections, football, and crime on our streets. I marvelled at the ability of a set and costume designer (Mark Thompson) who could transport us back to 1939 and a study in London. I was deeply impressed by a playwright (Mark St Germain) whose imagination gave birth to a script that well portrayed the writings of both Freud and Lewis and had us believing that this really could have been a conversation between these two giants of thought leadership. And there was the ability of the two actors (Henri Szeps and Douglas Hansell) to memorise a script of one and a half hours length and to act it out so flawlessly. Yes, I came away celebrating the arts.

The Bible celebrates the arts and artists. God is depicted as an artist in creating the universe and King David, himself a musician and poet, is often moved to celebrate God’s artistry (see Psalm 8:3 as an example). God is also seen as the giver of artistic gifts and he desires for them to be used in what he is involved (see for example such passages as Exodus 35:30-35, 1 Chronicles 15:16, and 2 Chronicles 2:14). We even see an example of wall art that God sees fit to use as a communication device (Daniel 5:5-6, 23-28) and a call for very loud music as a way of celebration (Psalm 150).

Acknowledging the twin truths of how much the arts can do for the well-being of our society and how much the Bible values the arts it is sad to hear how undervalued artists often feel in society and in the church. When I was a Councillor in the City of Melbourne the arts were a part of my portfolio. I heard often from artists with horror stories of neglect and lack of support and the feeling of being second rate citizens. I have recently spoken at an artists retreat on how valued the arts are in and to our culture, only to hear of stories to the contrary. I have chaired a roundtable discussion with people from varied art forms and listened to how they felt marginalised by their churches. All this challenges us to celebrate the arts, not only by enjoying the product like I did at that theatre in Sydney but also by encouraging, supporting, and affirming the artists who give themselves to their crafts of music, comedy, drama, dance, film making, drawing, and pottery, just to name a few.  Time to hug an artist I reckon!

Food for thought

Dr David R Wilson is the Director of Sophia Think Tank, a project of Bible Society Australia.

Image from WikiCommons. Used under a CC Licence.