visual arts

Planning Visual Arts for Worship

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This article gives practical advice for planning art for worship, focusing particularly on temporary art. It argues for the importance of planning art that coordinates with other aspects of the worship service and that is characterized by simplicity.

The Artist in Cooperation with Worship Planners

The cooperation of the pastor and the worship committee is essential for an artist to make any meaningful visual contribution to the worship service. The total service needs to be taken into account when we alter the worship environment: the kinds of songs we sing, the readings, and the sermon all may suggest a particular mood—affirmative, confessional, devotional, or celebrative. That mood should be reflected in the worship environment where God’s people gather.

The Christian church uses colors to mark the moods of the various seasons of the church year. The Advent color has traditionally been purple, but recently blue-purple or even dark blue has been used to separate this season from Lent. Christmas, because it is one of the holy days of the church, is colored white, as is Epiphany. During these days and seasons, the designated colors should dominate the worship environment.

Images that are introduced into the worship environment should connect with either a song, a reading, or the sermon. By definition, symbols are visual reminders, so if an image stands alone, it will lose its purpose—its connection with the service. That is why it is so important to plan ahead, to attempt to integrate the total service by talking with everyone who will be contributing to worship. The ideas and concepts that emerge from such a dialogue will best serve your particular congregation. Everyone will know why a particular image is used; it will be a meaningful element in the total worship experience rather than just a decoration.

Visual Planning

But how does one begin this process? Start with the biblical texts the pastor has chosen for the sermons; begin, by reading and listening.

To illustrate how this process might work, take a close look at some of the first Sunday of Advent readings from the Common Lectionary Year B. You gain a number of insights simply by listing the concepts expressed in the various lessons. Some are abstract; some are visual. For the purpose of this general study, here are a few from the RSV, underlining those that have specific visual possibilities.

  • Isaiah 63:16–64:8 (First Sunday in Advent). rend heavens, come down, mountains quake, fire kindles, fire causes boiling, make name known, heard nor seen, a God like you, unclean, filthy garments, wither like a leaf, iniquity like wind, Father, like clay, potter, all are work of thy hands
  • Psalm 80:1–7 (First Sunday in Advent). face, shine upon, tears, save
  • Mark 13:32–37 (1st Sunday in Advent). take heed, keep alert
  • Isaiah 40:1–11 (Second Sunday in Advent). every valley, every mountain, grass withers, flower fades

If all of these texts will be part of the worship service, and especially if the sermon deals with the Isaiah text, the pot from the first Sunday and the flower from the second Sunday could be combined into one image. If you have a potter in your congregation, it may be effective to ask her to create a pot during the service. That pot will serve in weeks to come as a reminder of the message for this day.

Keep It Simple

When creating images, it is important to remember two things: simplicity and proportion. By keeping an image simple, the trap of becoming overconcerned with detail is avoided. For example, the profile of a pot allows people to recognize it as a pot; fancy decorations or a three-dimensional effect are unnecessary. All that is important is the symbol—it reminds us that God is the potter and we are the clay. People may not understand the symbol when they first enter the sanctuary and have not yet been told the story. But when they leave, the meaning of the visual image should be clear.

In addition to simplicity proportion, or relationships within the overall image, should be remembered. How big is the space of the banner should the pot be? What emphasis, what kind of focus are we trying to create? How does the church sanctuary influence the decisions made about the size of the image?

Most of those who contribute to filling the worship space with symbols and color quickly discover that each church sanctuary presents demands as well as solutions. They also find that their congregation’s unique style of worship has a lot to do with the types of visuals designs that will be effective in worship.

A Call for the Recovery of Visual Arts in Reformed Worship

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The Presbyterian Directory of Worship provides authority and guidance for artists and liturgists who desire to proclaim the gospel through various art forms. This article describes this document and imagines new possibilities for the role of the arts in Reformed worship.

There has never been a time when the arts have not been present in the development and language of human expressions of faith in the Presbyterian church. The Directory for Worship suggests possibilities for worship, invites development in worship and encourages continuing reform of worship. Incorporating all the arts in worship as a form of proclamation and prayer is clearly lifted up throughout the Directory for Worship.

Possibilities

In the Christian tradition, the arts have always been essential. Today there is no corporate act of worship by any group of Christians that does not appropriate some aspect of the arts to enact and proclaim its praise and prayer. In the processional or recessionals, the choir director’s movement, the physical gestures of the clergy during the sacraments, dance, and drama are present. The shape of space, the placement of the pews, the pulpit, the lectern, the Communion table, and the baptismal font all create and sculpt environmental art in worship. The Directory for Worship liberates us to move toward integrating all the arts: Christian worship joyfully ascribes all praise and honor, glory, and power to the triune God (W1.0000). Heart, soul, strength, and mind, with one accord, … join in the language, drama, and pageantry of worship (W1.2000).

These opening lines, taken from chapter 1 of The Directory for Worship, no longer allow us to shy away from understanding praise and proclamation as expressions of doxology. We enter worship simultaneously at three levels: socially, connecting human beings with God and with each other; publicly, involving practices and beliefs; and systematically, a collective ensemble of practices, sentiments, and beliefs which are carried out in “liturgical” acts.

We participate in a public “ritual,” “festivity” or celebration. In the Reformed tradition, religious celebration is carried out in community. Community or communitas is direct and spontaneous modeling of relationships. To celebrate is to perform rituals publicly and formally. Our liturgical heritage is corporate, public, and inclusive. Worship embraces not only the individual but the community, providing space, environment, language, sights, sounds, smells, and pageantry that allows one to feel confronted by God and oneself. Religious practices, rituals, or rites can be identified in three simultaneous and harmonious ways: (1) by what is shown, (2) what is done, and (3) what is said.

Invitations

Historically, the art forms in liturgical settings of the Protestant faith have not been rich and elaborate architecture, painting and sculpture, or spectacular and thought-provoking drama or dance, but limited to the art forms of oratory, testimony, and sermon. We have fallen short of the enormous gifts and richness of the expressive art forms, gestures, dance, and mime. We have done somewhat better with the visual arts: painting, sculpture, vestments, paraments, and banners. In his recent article entitled “Worship as Art, Evangelization, and Mission” (Reformed Liturgy and Music 23:107–113), Horace Allen, Professor of Worship at Boston University’s School of Theology, writes: “Praise means art, and art in Christian praise means light, song, and cult, as essential expressions of the freedom of God for us and of ourselves for God.”

Continuing Reform

If we are to understand anything about ourselves, the world, and God’s continual creating and recreating activity, we cannot ignore the forms of expression that come to us through the arts. Not only is worship art, but the arts are worship, doxology, and proclamation. The Directory for Worship makes every effort to grant us this freedom within its guidelines and suggestions. A quick glance at the index to the Directory gives several citations for dance, drama, music, and a category entitled “general.”

All works of art are instruments and objects of action: actions on the part of artists and actions on the part of the public. It is true that works of art carry the convictions and concerns of the artist, and this has been described in works of dance, drama, sculpture, painting, architecture, vestments, or music. The arts are expressions of the world behind them. Art historians, anthropologists, and sociologists can find vivid representations of this in the remarkable and prophetic masterpieces of the Renaissance. For example, one cannot stand before the fifteenth-century tapestries of The Hunt of the Unicorn at the Cloisters without experiencing the world behind, within, and revealed. They speak words while moving beyond linguistics. They dance and sing without musical notation or physical movement. These tapestries proclaim!

The rejection and dismissal of art forms in the Christian community have left a huge void in our worship life. The Directory for Worship offers an opportunity, under the guidance of the session of a particular church (W1.4004), for new possibilities to be explored and new ministries to be utilized.

It is important that the artist touch the lives of people around him or her. An artist’s gifts and talents are a public expression of ministry. The difficult struggle is, and continues to be, the issue of motives and of “good taste.” It is said that we have to single out the arts, for this issue is present in the life and work and mission of the entire church. We are free to allow the spoken and written works of art to be presented and criticized later, but the visual and performing arts create human vulnerability and a prejudgment is often required … or demanded.

The aesthetic value and quality of liturgical arts will lie in their unity and integrity. It is important not to deposit a dance here, a banner there, and a drama in between during worship. The Directory for Worship clearly offers a process, a guidance for the freedom to use the arts in worship. It does not attempt to place a value or merit system on any one of the arts but correctly invites all the arts to be considered in the development of liturgical art forms. The cultural and ethnic diversity in this country does not allow the Directory for Worship to isolate any particular art form nor dictate what is appropriate and when it should or should not be used. It does not qualify or quantify artistic designs, actions, or objects. An art form that is aesthetically excellent when considered in isolation may be inappropriate, out of place, even jarring when included in a liturgical setting. The opposite is also valid. A vestment, banner, painting, or sculpture displayed on the street, on the beach, or in a supermarket may not have a meaningful place in a service of worship. Many factors in a liturgical whole must be considered if the arts are to be aesthetically assessed. St. Thomas Aquinas in Summa Theologia 1.184 Q.39. art. 8, says: … beauty includes three conditions, integrity or perfection, since those things which are impaired are by the very fact ugly; due proportion or harmony: and lastly brightness, or clarity, whence things are called beautiful which have bright color.

A beautiful work of art is the consequence of harmonious cooperation of the inner and the outer. The artist, dancer, actor, composer, feel emotion and moves towards what is to be sensed, then on to the work of art. The work being exhibited in a public space, or in a community, is what is sensed by the observers until it rests in their emotions.

Aesthetic tastes differ. Some aesthetic aspects may give one person satisfaction while giving another person no satisfaction whatsoever, and causing him or her acute distress. And within the structure of church governance the Directory for Worship in harmony with the Form of Government assigns the responsibility for worship to the session including: “ … those who lead worship through music, drama, dance, and other arts” (W1.4005). Art in worship is and will constantly be struggling to achieve wholeness and integrity. Sessions and worship committees will find the Directory for Worship a document that is descriptive, prescriptive, and theological, making this part of our constitution a creative and instructive piece of educational material.

Conducting Worship

The arts are tools, tools of expressing a ministry, expressing a life message. The word read, sung, enacted, or proclaimed includes these tools of ministry. The question raised by The Directory for Worship is this: Do we allow a ministry through these tools? Do we consider art, dance, drama, music, or other media in the same way we have considered the tools of a typewriter, print, pen, brush, and ink? Often on the front of a worship bulletin, one can read the titles Ministers or Minister of Music. Is it possible someday to read Minister of Liturgical Arts? A few churches have tried naming and identifying a ministry of arts. Individual congregations have established this only after careful and conscious education, preparing, and providing leadership training and congregational understanding.

Liturgical art, or using the arts in worship, is participatory in character; it is the art of a community. The word proclaimed, whether it is through music, art, drama, or dance is proclamation because it is exhibited in community.

Drama and dance, poetry and pageant: indeed most other human art forms are also expressions through which the people of God have proclaimed and responded to the word. Those entrusted with the proclamation of the word through art forms should exercise care that the gospel is faithfully presented in ways through which the people of God may receive and respond (W2.2009).

Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

The Modern Renaissance of the Arts

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The twentieth century has seen a significant recovery of the arts in both secular and religious culture. The following essay delineates some of the areas in which the arts have emerged within the church and discusses the contribution that the arts make to the worship of God.

A renaissance of art has occurred in twentieth-century worship. A wide variety of new music is being written, much of it in “contemporary” styles. Sermons are being acted out as dramas. Permanent and temporary visual art graces the worship environment. Even solo, ensemble, and congregational dancing are being used to give bodily expression to our praise. Where did all this creative activity in worship come from? Why is it now in our liturgies and services? Many congregations are asking these questions and others. In what follows, we will examine some of the impulses and influences that have helped bring about this intensified artistic expression in worship.

From the beginning of this century, many factors have been operative in the regeneration of the arts in worship, some from within the church and some from without. Several artistic revivals have taken place in the Christian community, each bringing with it some change or enhancement in worship, as well as greater creativity and freedom of expression. Social changes affecting our culture have also affected the church and its creative response in worship. Changes and developments within the artistic community itself have made an impact on the role of art within the church.

Congregations, artists, and theologians have grappled with the issues raised when the arts are introduced more fully and more broadly into worship. Who should present it—professionals or amateurs from the congregation? Should it be a regular feature, or reserved for special events? For Catholics, Vatican II and the subsequent liturgical renewal opened up these questions, some of which have been addressed by the Bishops’ Council on the Environment and Art in Worship. Christian artists, as individuals and as a group, have struggled with how best to offer their gifts to the glory of God.

As the church has responded to the culture around it, seeking to reach out in relevant ways, it has made use of the arts with increasing regularity. The emphasis on evangelism and church growth has brought about an enlarged role for drama and other arts in worship. In trying to communicate with the unchurched, many congregations have used music, mime, drama, and other art forms to attract new people into worship services. Churches have found a focus on the arts to be a helpful way to win back former members.

Movement Arts. Artistic trends have affected the use of dance and other movement arts in worship. In the early twentieth century, Pentecostalist worshipers would raise their hands, wave, do the “Holy Ghost jig,” or run. This activity may not have seemed like a refined, choreographed dance, but it was a break from the staid and static worship that preceded it.

The “Jesus people” movement and the charismatic renewal added increased momentum to the liturgical dance movement. Contemporary worship choruses often invite those who sing them to lift their hands, bow, kneel, run, and even dance before the Lord. With the establishment of the state of Israel and the rise of Messianic Jewish groups, Israeli-style folk dance began to be included as part of celebration and worship.

The development of modern dance has also influenced its use within contemporary worship. The impetus for modern dance was the desire to express the inner soul of men and women through movement. Ballet was seen as too rigid and out of touch with the ordinary person’s experience to be able to communicate the emotional or spiritual side of humanity. It is interesting to note that Ted Shawn, one of the fathers of modern dance, had been a seminary student before his career shift into dance. He and Ruth St. Dennis, the founders of the Denishawn School, were very interested in religious matters and performed many works based on Bible passages. Ted Shawn also loved to turn theater audiences into a congregation, and vice versa, through the program of dance he presented. Many Denishawn students shared this interest in the spiritual, which was reflected in their work. The result of this phenomenon was that both students and audience wanted to take the spiritual side further and incorporate it into worship. This type of dance would be called creative, interpretive, or dramatic movement.

Music. The counter-culture movements of the 1960s and 1970s brought innovations to musical style in worship, such as the folk mass. Contemporary forms of linguistic expression, along with contemporary music and other media, began to appear in the effort to interpret the relevance of the gospel to a new generation. During the last decade or so, choruses and musical styles once thought inappropriate for worship have become dominant. This has occurred not only in newer church movements; it is evident also in the recent hymnals of historic denominations.

Visual Arts. The visual arts in the church have also been affected by contemporary artistic trends in society as a whole. The growing popularity of the craft industry has created an appreciation for handmade items which add a personal touch to church decor. As visual artists and sculptors have found receptivity to their medium within the church, their creations have emerged as more than mere “decoration” in the place of worship. Such works can serve as powerful expressions of the truth and reality of the gospel, in a visual language we in the West are beginning once again to understand and appreciate.

With the demise of communism, the opening up of the “iron curtain” countries to travel and exchange has encouraged a new interest in the iconography of the Eastern Orthodox church. The whole question of the church’s attitude toward art in worship, and the issues joined during the iconoclastic controversy of the eighth century, are being brought to light once again for artists and for the local congregation, not just for the theologian or seminary student. Our society is fast becoming (or already is) a visually-oriented, rather than literature-oriented, culture; this trend has profound implications for the role of visual arts in Christian worship.

Christian artists have been searching within worship for an outlet for the expression of the gifts they have to offer. Today many regional or disciplinary groups of artists around the world are meeting for discussion of issues relevant to their role in the Christian community. Challenged by thinkers like Hans Rookmaaker and Francis A. Schaeffer, such artists wrestle with the questions of art and faith. Worship-related issues can play a major part in these discussions, depending on whether the artistic discipline in question is already used in the church. Many artists wrestle with their role as Christians in the secular marketplace. Others are more concerned with how to find their place within the church, especially if their discipline does not yet have a recognized role in worship.

The philosopher of aesthetics, Calvin Seerveld, has said, “Art is worship.” We recognize the work of art as something which goes beyond ourselves, a work that transcends us and points towards another reality. Father Alexander Schmemann spoke of sign and symbol in art as an “epiphany of reality.” To be sure, not all art points towards God! But let us continue to respond to that creative expression called art as it speaks to us in our worship, and makes present the reality of our Creator and Redeemer.

A Biblical Philosophy of the Visual Arts in Worship

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As worship arts, the visual arts include architecture, sculpture, painting, mosaic, and the crafting of artifacts. These arts create durable objects that may be seen and handled. Although of lesser importance in the biblical perspective than some other art forms, the visual arts may serve as effective windows into the holy.

Static Nature of the Visual Arts

With the exception of architecture and its associated furnishings, the visual arts are given lesser importance in biblical worship than are other art forms. The reason for this may be found in the character of Yahweh. The Bible associates his name with a Hebrew phrase meaning “I will be who I will be,” and makes clear that he is known by his people through their experience with him in the ongoing events of redemptive history. In other words, Yahweh is not known statically, as a reality to be grasped only at one moment of time; no static image can represent him. Rather, he represents himself dynamically, as one known through his actions and deeds of deliverance.

The visual arts tend to have a static character; that is, objects of visual art may exist in their entirety at one moment. Moreover, they do not require the participation of a community in order to exist; a temple or a painting does not cease to be when no one is looking at it. On the other hand, literature (especially in its oral stage), music, and liturgy are dynamic arts. They must be presented over a period of time, and they require the participation of the community in order to exist. These dynamic arts can more adequately reflect the character of God as he has revealed himself within the biblical tradition, in the context of his covenant, and of the unfolding of his historical purposes. Further, though all the fine arts tend to be the creations of gifted individuals, the need for individual design and execution is greater for a material object than for a work of music, literature, or drama, which can be modified by those who recite or perform it. The visual arts, however much they may assume traditional forms and may be intended to express the identity and faith of the artist’s community, are still prone to be personal expressions, stand-alone creations representing the work of an individual.

Nevertheless, since worship depends on symbolism, the visual arts play a role in the worship of the covenant people. The fashioning of effective symbols requires the skilled hand of the artisan. There is the ever-present danger that the symbol can be misunderstood—the dilemma of Jeroboam, whose bull images of Yahweh’s throne (1 Kings 12:28) were too easily taken for Baalistic motifs. Ancient Israel always faced, and often yielded to, the temptation to compromise the historical faith of Yahwehism by combining it with the cyclical, mythological rites of popular fertility cults, with their associated idolatry. Also, it is an easy step to magnify the symbol over the reality it represents. The indispensable function of symbols as windows into the holy, however, requires that the biblical worshiper employ them, taking the risks involved and trusting in the integrity of the covenant faith and its precepts to protect him or her from apostasy.

Architecture: The Temple

The great visual symbol of biblical worship is the temple. Both the Solomonic and the Herodian temples were architectural monuments, neither of them destined to survive the centuries (although the foundation stones of the temple enclosure remain as the Qotel Hamma‘‡ravi, or Western Wall, in Jerusalem). The temple of Herod was still under construction during the time of Jesus’ ministry and was completed only a few years before its destruction by the armies of Rome in a.d. 70, as Jesus had predicted (Mark 13:1–2). The decorative motifs of Solomon’s temple, of which we have a good biblical description, disclose the link between the created order and human artifice. On a larger scale, the temple was really an architectural microcosm of the whole of creation, of “heaven and earth.” In it, the worshiper encountered God enthroned in the heavens (Ps. 123:1), establishing the earth (Ps. 96:10) and preserving its creatures (Ps. 36:6–7), defeating the enemies of his people (Ps. 76:2–3), and blessing the land as the source of the river of life (Ps. 46:4; Ezek. 47:9).

Israel’s theologians understood, of course, that the sanctuary, however magnificent as a work of art, was inadequate as a bearer of the sacred (1 Kings 8:27; cf. Isa. 66:1). Moses did not invent the design of the tabernacle but was told by Yahweh to make it according to the pattern he would reveal (Exod. 25:9); in the New Testament, we encounter the concept of the heavenly sanctuary, of which the earthly one is but a copy (Heb. 8–9; cf. 2 Cor. 5:1; Rev. 11:19). No holy place of human construction may contain the presence of the holy; in Jesus’ words to the woman of Samaria, “neither on this mountain [Gerizim] nor in Jerusalem” (John 4:21) may people worship the Father in the authenticity of spiritual worship. Nevertheless, the Israelite temple, as a work of art and beauty, is the background for the New Testament symbolism of the worshiping church, the New Jerusalem, the tabernacle in which God dwells among his people (Rev. 21:1–3).

Artistic Craftsmanship

To execute a work of art requires craftsmanship; in the biblical perspective, craftsmanship itself is an art form, employing the skills of the artisan in the creation of useful objects. A corollary of the dynamic conception of Yahweh as Creator of a coherent universe and the doer of “mighty works” in his historic deeds of deliverance is the ability to find beauty in that which is utilitarian, that which functions properly and accomplishes useful work, as well as in that which is decorative. This is especially true of the implements of worship. Only this can account for the prominence given to the skilled craftsmen Bezalel and Oholiab in the instructions for the creation of the tabernacle (Exod. 31:1–11). When viewed with an eye to visual appeal, the artifacts of the Mosaic sanctuary are mostly functional rather than “beautiful” in the aesthetic sense. They are described in terms of how they are to fit together for assembly, disassembly, and transport during the travels of the people; this is their “beauty.”

Scripture places a high value on skillful work: “Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will serve before kings; he will not serve before obscure men” (Prov. 22:29). Such was true of Huram-abi (also called Hiram), the chief craftsman of Solomon’s temple. He was sent to Solomon by Hiram, the king of Tyre, who furnished the materials for the sanctuary, and though Phoenician he was half Israelite (2 Chron. 2:13–14). The application of training and skill to the worship arts is also seen, for example, in the work of David’s musician Asaph and his associates (1 Chron. 25:1–7). The apostle Paul gave voice to the foundational biblical philosophy of artistic craftsmanship when he placed it within a wider context: “Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Col. 3:17).

Painting, Sculpture, and Mosaic

Painting as an art form was practiced in ancient cultures, though most of what has survived for the appreciation of the modern student has been limited to decorated pottery or frescoes on the walls of tombs. The sculpture and statuary of Hellenistic civilization are well known and played a major role in the recovery of the principles of classical art during the Renaissance. Sculpture in stone was an important art in Semitic cultures of the ancient Near East, as attested by the numerous cultic images, palace bas-reliefs, commemorative obelisks, and the like that have come to light through archaeological research. Mosaic, or inlaid multicolored tile, came into use at a later period than these other arts, beginning with Hellenistic floor designs and becoming increasingly important until well into the Christian era.

The Bible does not discuss these visual arts, except to condemn and ridicule the sculpted images of the polytheistic religions (Ps. 115:4–8; Isa. 44:12–19; 46:1–2; cf. Acts 17:16; 19:23–26). In the centuries following the New Testament period, Christian theologians held a negative view of the visual arts, rejecting them as sensual and unspiritual. Here, as with so much else, the post-apostolic church departed from the biblical perspective, influenced by Hellenistic philosophy, which created an unscriptural dichotomy between the spiritual and the material. Paul had decried such asceticism, calling it “hollow and deceptive philosophy” (Col. 2:8) and asking, “Why do you submit to regulations, ‘Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch?’ ” (Col. 2:20–21 RSV).

Despite the strictures of theologians, the visual arts flourished in the early church; the ordinary worshiper at this period had a more sure instinct than the theologian for what was biblical. The walls of the Roman catacombs, or burial chambers, are adorned with scenes and characters from the Bible, including events in the ministry of Jesus, and with Christian symbolism. The same is true of sculpture on early Christian sarcophagi or stone coffins. A favorite theme, for example, was that of Jonah and the great fish, a symbol of the Resurrection (Matt. 12:40); it appears on the tomb alleged to have been Peter’s, in Rome. The loaves and fish of Christ’s feeding of the multitude (John 6:1–14) occur, in fresco, as a symbol of the Eucharist. Furthermore, the catacomb paintings provide a pictorial record of the early church, depicting men and women with arms lifted in prayer. As the church emerged from its subversive status and began to erect buildings for worship, the art of mosaic took up many of the same themes. The pointillistic, two-dimensional technique of mosaic gives it a special quality as a vehicle for the expression of the numinous. It was to reach its peak of development centuries later in the majestic Christos Pantokratōr (“Christ, Ruler of All”) mosaics above the apses of many basilicas in the Mediterranean world; in them, we view an awesome, powerful, living Christ, his right hand raised in the gesture of blessing, in his left the gospel book.