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Good evening. It is

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my pleasure to be able
to welcome you all to

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this 43rd Annual Winfred
E-Weter lecture for

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meritorious scholarship.

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The Weter Annual Faculty
Award lecture was

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established in 1975
to honor Dr. Winfred

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E. Weter in the year of
her retirement after

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she had served for 40
years as an SPU professor.

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The endowment to support the
scholarship was given by

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another SPU emeritus professor
of the late Ross Shaw.

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The Weter lecture this is in

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the language specifying
what this is for

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"provides a public platform
from which the claims of

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the liberal arts in the
Christian University

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are espoused."

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Each year a faculty
member is chosen by

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the faculty to receive
this honor and to

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present "scholarship informed
by a Christian worldview."

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I myself never had the
chance to meet Winfred Weter

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although I know a
number of you in

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this room did have
that pleasure.

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She earned her doctorate in

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1933 from the
University of Chicago.

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When she joined the SPU faculty,

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she was one of the
very few members of

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the faculty who actually
had an earned doctorate.

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She said herself later in
life that a young lady with

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a brand new unused PhD
was pretty special.

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She was pretty special.

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She quickly set out to
create first a new class and

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eventually a whole
new department

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for classical languages.

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Over the next 40 years
her passion for Greek

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and Latin inspired
thousands of students.

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She was also interested
in physical education.

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She was SPUs first female coach,

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leading athletic programs
for over a decade.

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Her great love of
teaching and devotion to

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this institution left
an indelible mark

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on a whole generation.

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This lecture is a
wonderful tribute

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to Dr. Weter's 40
years of service.

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If she were here,

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and I gather she
came to every one of

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these lectures from
1975 till 2001.

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But if she was here on
confidence she'd be

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thrilled to hear
tonight's presentation.

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With that I want to
turn this over to

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Dr. Margaret Brown to
introduce tonight's speaker.

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[APPLAUSE]

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Thank you Provost van de Ser.

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Good evening everyone
and welcome.

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I'd like to thank Jen Wilson
who's been working in

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the fatigability for
the last half an hour

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or two and he gets
some chairs out

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here that weren't set up.

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Jen where are you at?

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Thank you so much.

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Can we all thank Jen for

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[APPLAUSE] just
making this happen?

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She's our Assistant Director in

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the Center for scholarship
and faculty development.

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Thanks to everyone
else who helped with

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chairs and helped
organize tonight's event.

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Tonight we have a very
special honor of hearing from

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Dr. Brian Bantum who's

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a professor in our
School of Theology.

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It's an honor to introduce
him to you this evening.

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He teaches courses in
university foundations and

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the theology major as
well as in the seminary.

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His teaching and
research focused on

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the intersection of
theology and identity,

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exploring how the claims
of Christian identity,

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our aluminum challenge by

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the realities of race,
ethnicity, and gender.

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Dr. Bantum's first book
which if you haven't read,

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I encourage you to pick
up both these books.

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His first book Redeeming Mulatto
at Theology of Grace and

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Christian Hybridity explores how

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black mixed race identity.

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Lumens how race shapes us and

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re-imagined Christian
discipleship through

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Christ's body as both
human and divine.

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A union of flesh
and divinity that

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remakes the lies of
disciples into new people,

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a holy mixture of
flesh and spirit.

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His second book which we had

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the pleasure of
hosting a book club

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on last year The Depth of Race,

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building a new Christianity
and a racial world offers

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the church ways of re-imagining

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Christian claims
regarding humanity,

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human fallenness,
and Christ's work

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in light of modern
race and racism.

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In addition to serving on

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the editorial board of

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the Journal of theology
and literature,

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Dr. Bantum is a
regular contributor

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to the Christian Century and has

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published numerous
articles and chapters

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in academic journals
and popular magazines.

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He has a really good
Twitter feed as well.

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You can follow him on there.

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His lecture tonight is entitled

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the Artists Will Be My Priests,

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a theology of the iconic body.

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Dr. Bantum examine
the implicit theology

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of the icon and how
that shaped and

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understanding of what
it means to be human

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and who could
reflect God's image.

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Let's listen closely, reflect,

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and be edified, challenged,

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and convicted by what Dr.

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Bantum has to say
to us this evening.

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Brian. [APPLAUSE]

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Oh my gosh there's a
lot of people here.

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Thank you all so
much for coming.

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Make sure this is loud
enough for everybody.

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It really is a little

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overwhelming to see
all these faces.

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If your professor required you
to be here, don't tell me.

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I'm just going to [LAUGHTER]

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pretend like you all wanted to

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be here and they're not taking

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notes and get tested later.

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But I want to thank so
much Margaret Brown and

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her leadership at the center for

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a scholarship and
faculty development.

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Not just for all the work
that goes into this lecture,

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but for the ways in which she
supports us and pushes us

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as faculty in this campus
throughout the year.

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Thank you so much Margaret.

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What I'm going to do is I'm
going to start off reading.

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We'll see how far that goes.

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But I really I'm a
little overwhelmed.

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I'm going to read
so I don't tear up,

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and then we'll see
how things go.

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At its heart Christianity
is essential faith.

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The word made flesh is

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a confession that what
was once heard or

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felt in fleeting or ephemeral
waves became tangible,

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felt, seen, present in

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ways that were at once
paradoxical and irrefutable.

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As the early Jewish followers of

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Jesus continued
to walk with Him,

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a growing and disturbing reality

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would begin to emerge for them.

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Their God, the one whose name
could not be enunciated,

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whose presence was
signified more

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by a veil by then presence and

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recognition seems to be

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walking with them,
laughing with them.

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In Christ, the meaning
of God's promise to them

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I will be your God
and you will be

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my people become
something more than

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an abstract promise in his

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now a person who
walks with them.

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They see God walking
in their midst.

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But the incarnation far from
subverting the belief in

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the body is opposition to God
reminds us that our bodies,

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our lives are something
to be seen and to see.

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Just as Adam and Eve open

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their eyes to see
one another and in

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that moment are confronted with

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a beautiful truth
that in this other,

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that they can see touch here.

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They come to see themselves
more truthfully.

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They come to see
God more faithfully

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through this body that
stands in front of them.

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In the midst of
seeming to have seen

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God the earliest disciples

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walked carefully when
it came to images and

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depictions of Christ
and who God was.

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The Jewish sensibilities
against creating

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graven images remained even as

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Christianity shifted
from a movement of

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Jews to a movement of Gentiles.

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Perhaps a subtle depiction of

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the Good Shepherd
who would adorn

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a wealthy Christians tomb
or home might have a mural

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depicting a biblical
passage that

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centered on a
community's devotion.

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When Constantine comes into
power in the fourth century,

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we see a broader use of images.

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As the church moves from
marginality to power,

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images become a
means of signifying

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Christian identity and God's
work among the people,

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whether in the architecture
or paintings or frescoes are

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mosaic images much like

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the emperor's own image begin
to communicate devotion,

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power, and communicate a
way of seeing the world.

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In the East however this
interrelationship between

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image and faith would become

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a well-developed
theology of the icon.

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A deep and generative attempts
to consider the truth of

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Jesus was person as
human and divine,

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as a visual and
anthropological phenomenon.

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As we gaze at the
icon as we kiss it,

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we're drawn into the
image that it reflects.

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We pray that we might to
come to reflect that image.

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The image is living if you will.

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Pavel Florensky the Russian
theologian describes

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the icon as a transfixing
an annunciation.

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The proclaims in color
the spiritual world.

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Therefore, icon painting
is the occupation of

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a person who sees
that world as sacred.

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In this presence
of icon writing,

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the artist is the one who prays,

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who mediates this presence
into the world through

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a union of contemplation
and skill and insight.

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At its heart, the theology of

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the icon is a theology
of personhood,

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suggesting that who we
are is more than a soul.

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Who we are is somehow
inextricably bound to

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the materiality of
our lives together,

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spirit and fresh,

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and that we are more
than what we see.

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But what we see is also
essential to who we are.

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What these early theologies

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the icon had their finger on was

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an understanding of the
inevitable relationship

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between flesh and spirit,

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between the material
conditions of

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our lives and the
notions of spirit and

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spirituality that animate who

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we are and who we believe
that we ought to be.

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Put differently, the
Eastern theology is

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the icon acknowledged
and sought to

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theologically account for what I

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call an economy of visuality.

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By economy of visuality,

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I mean the currents of
sense, sight, sound,

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touch, taste, through which we

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experience and
express our world.

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Our lives are
continually navigating,

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seeing and being seen,

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accounting for all of the
differences that we see among

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ourselves in the world
and in the very universe.

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Theorist Maurice
Merleau-Ponty suggests

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this phenomenon is one
of navigating space.

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This was the longest quote,

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so I put up there for you.

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"I do not reflect," he says,

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"I live among things,

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and I vaguely consider space

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sometimes as the
milieu of things,

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sometimes as their
common attribute;

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or I reflect, I catch hold
of space at its source,

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I think at this moment of

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the relationships that
are beneath this word,

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and I notice in this
way that they are not

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only sustained through a subject

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who traces out and bears them,

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I pass from spatialized
space to specializing space.

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What Merleau-Ponty is expressing
here is that perception,

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how we see,

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visuality is not simply
a theological concept.

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00:12:16,210 --> 00:12:17,980
It is a fact of

259
00:12:17,980 --> 00:12:22,675
human recognition in navigation
in the sensing world.

260
00:12:22,675 --> 00:12:25,240
We cannot move our way

261
00:12:25,240 --> 00:12:28,930
around this world without
some sense of perception,

262
00:12:28,930 --> 00:12:32,290
some sense of accounting
for the world that we see,

263
00:12:32,290 --> 00:12:33,550
whether through our eyes,

264
00:12:33,550 --> 00:12:35,620
or through our ears,
or through touch.

265
00:12:35,620 --> 00:12:38,980
We perceive the world
and manifest ways.

266
00:12:38,980 --> 00:12:42,130
What I want to investigate
this evening is

267
00:12:42,130 --> 00:12:45,160
how this economy of
visuality develops

268
00:12:45,160 --> 00:12:47,350
in the West and how

269
00:12:47,350 --> 00:12:49,870
that shapes our contemporary
life because this

270
00:12:49,870 --> 00:12:51,730
happens in a very
different way in

271
00:12:51,730 --> 00:12:55,700
the West than it does
in Eastern theology.

272
00:12:59,460 --> 00:13:05,755
The icon is not an explicitly
theological phenomenon.

273
00:13:05,755 --> 00:13:09,100
We are inundated
with advertisements,

274
00:13:09,100 --> 00:13:13,690
screens, media, images
are ubiquitous.

275
00:13:13,690 --> 00:13:16,000
We know these images
shape us even

276
00:13:16,000 --> 00:13:18,670
as they reflect
aspects of who we are,

277
00:13:18,670 --> 00:13:21,445
or at least we believe
ourselves to be.

278
00:13:21,445 --> 00:13:24,580
Notions of beauty,
danger, peace,

279
00:13:24,580 --> 00:13:26,950
what is healthy
or successful can

280
00:13:26,950 --> 00:13:29,725
be equated with visual cues
or icons, if you will.

281
00:13:29,725 --> 00:13:32,200
Even these, we have a meaning.

282
00:13:32,200 --> 00:13:34,285
For some of the folks of my,

283
00:13:34,285 --> 00:13:36,580
maybe middle ages generation.

284
00:13:36,580 --> 00:13:40,420
Facebook, that's cool.

285
00:13:40,420 --> 00:13:43,195
That's where you get to know
everybody and all this.

286
00:13:43,195 --> 00:13:45,730
My son, he's like, no Snapchat.

287
00:13:45,730 --> 00:13:47,830
Or I was like, I
sent you a text.

288
00:13:47,830 --> 00:13:48,970
I didn't check texts.
I was like, why

289
00:13:48,970 --> 00:13:50,095
do you not check texts?

290
00:13:50,095 --> 00:13:52,705
He was like, because did
you DM me on Instagram?

291
00:13:52,705 --> 00:13:54,250
I was like, why would I do that

292
00:13:54,250 --> 00:13:55,780
[LAUGHTER] when I
can just text you?

293
00:13:55,780 --> 00:13:58,690
I don't understand.
[LAUGHTER]. All ready,

294
00:13:58,690 --> 00:14:03,415
in these images alone,
we see meaning.

295
00:14:03,415 --> 00:14:06,415
There are associations that
are beginning to happen.

296
00:14:06,415 --> 00:14:08,560
But even inside of
these platforms,

297
00:14:08,560 --> 00:14:11,320
you see that little mosaic
thing. I was so out if it.

298
00:14:11,320 --> 00:14:15,010
[LAUGHTER] We take images

299
00:14:15,010 --> 00:14:17,350
of ourselves and
then we post them.

300
00:14:17,350 --> 00:14:19,210
Or in a way,

301
00:14:19,210 --> 00:14:21,895
maybe even we curate
our own life.

302
00:14:21,895 --> 00:14:24,190
This is my Instagram.
I have Instagram.

303
00:14:24,190 --> 00:14:26,875
This is the best
parts of my life.

304
00:14:26,875 --> 00:14:29,410
Me and my love.

305
00:14:29,410 --> 00:14:32,275
We did a wedding.

306
00:14:32,275 --> 00:14:33,520
That was us all looking fly,

307
00:14:33,520 --> 00:14:35,665
I got to put it on Instagram.

308
00:14:35,665 --> 00:14:38,320
Then this was the one Sunday out

309
00:14:38,320 --> 00:14:40,300
of 20 Sundays that

310
00:14:40,300 --> 00:14:41,800
my son and I decided
to build something.

311
00:14:41,800 --> 00:14:43,720
But you put it on an
Instagram, building Sunday,

312
00:14:43,720 --> 00:14:46,150
because that's who I am, I'm
creative, I'm a maker man.

313
00:14:46,150 --> 00:14:48,700
[LAUGHTER] What am I doing?

314
00:14:48,700 --> 00:14:51,880
I'm creating a visual identity.

315
00:14:51,880 --> 00:14:55,115
I'm curating my own identity.

316
00:14:55,115 --> 00:14:56,625
We have lots of
other people too.

317
00:14:56,625 --> 00:14:59,070
I asked my son, who would be
really cool to put up here?

318
00:14:59,070 --> 00:15:02,100
Daniel Caesar and Zendaya.

319
00:15:02,100 --> 00:15:04,845
We all do this. We're caught up.

320
00:15:04,845 --> 00:15:06,900
They're looking at us,
we're looking at them,

321
00:15:06,900 --> 00:15:09,350
we're looking at us,
looking at them.

322
00:15:09,350 --> 00:15:14,170
There's just this constant
current of perception,

323
00:15:14,170 --> 00:15:16,120
and we are navigating it,

324
00:15:16,120 --> 00:15:20,030
trying to think about who
we are in the midst of it.

325
00:15:20,250 --> 00:15:23,830
What do we do in
the midst of this?

326
00:15:23,830 --> 00:15:28,450
All of these images though
are always pointing beyond

327
00:15:28,450 --> 00:15:30,940
themselves and are part of

328
00:15:30,940 --> 00:15:34,615
a network of meaning and
values that shape us,

329
00:15:34,615 --> 00:15:37,465
and that we
participate within it.

330
00:15:37,465 --> 00:15:39,490
But of course, the church is not

331
00:15:39,490 --> 00:15:42,370
immune to this visuality either.

332
00:15:42,370 --> 00:15:44,530
Whether the hipster pastor with

333
00:15:44,530 --> 00:15:46,480
tattoos and the goodwill jacket.

334
00:15:46,480 --> 00:15:50,380
That's my pastor, Pastor
Eugene Cho [LAUGHTER].

335
00:15:50,380 --> 00:15:52,120
I'm calling him
out on it. I love

336
00:15:52,120 --> 00:15:53,170
it that he shops at Goodwill,

337
00:15:53,170 --> 00:15:55,690
but it's a visual thing.

338
00:15:55,690 --> 00:15:57,820
I was like, hey, I
shop at Goodwill.

339
00:15:57,820 --> 00:16:00,010
It's doing work all the time.

340
00:16:00,010 --> 00:16:03,010
Or Joel Osteen who really
does not shop at Goodwill.

341
00:16:03,010 --> 00:16:06,040
[LAUGHTER].

342
00:16:06,040 --> 00:16:09,895
All of these preachers
are doing visual work,

343
00:16:09,895 --> 00:16:13,675
even in their presentation
of themselves.

344
00:16:13,675 --> 00:16:15,550
The church is not immune.

345
00:16:15,550 --> 00:16:17,230
We are all looking at this.

346
00:16:17,230 --> 00:16:19,240
There is an economy of visuality

347
00:16:19,240 --> 00:16:22,705
buzzing from the
pulpit and back again,

348
00:16:22,705 --> 00:16:24,910
over and over and over again.

349
00:16:24,910 --> 00:16:27,070
But of course, these
preachers are not

350
00:16:27,070 --> 00:16:29,650
just happening in a
vacuum, in a void.

351
00:16:29,650 --> 00:16:32,560
They happen inside spaces.

352
00:16:32,560 --> 00:16:35,350
There are cathedrals,
there are churches,

353
00:16:35,350 --> 00:16:36,805
there are store fronts,

354
00:16:36,805 --> 00:16:39,925
there are frames for
these preachers,

355
00:16:39,925 --> 00:16:45,160
for these pastors that
look many different ways.

356
00:16:45,160 --> 00:16:48,400
How did we get at this?

357
00:16:48,400 --> 00:16:52,555
At the same time, even
without paintings, or murals,

358
00:16:52,555 --> 00:16:54,820
or stained-glass windows,

359
00:16:54,820 --> 00:16:58,945
visuality is permeating
those spaces.

360
00:16:58,945 --> 00:17:02,710
There are things to see
and things not to see.

361
00:17:02,710 --> 00:17:05,590
When we consider the
central images and

362
00:17:05,590 --> 00:17:08,320
sounds of our sacred spaces,

363
00:17:08,320 --> 00:17:11,170
even in their many diversities,

364
00:17:11,170 --> 00:17:14,605
we're confronted with a
troubling commonality.

365
00:17:14,605 --> 00:17:17,230
The centrality of men

366
00:17:17,230 --> 00:17:21,175
in the pulpits and
images and prayers.

367
00:17:21,175 --> 00:17:23,440
Again and again in
our worship life,

368
00:17:23,440 --> 00:17:25,570
we encounter a
mysterious God through

369
00:17:25,570 --> 00:17:28,060
male voices and male bodies.

370
00:17:28,060 --> 00:17:29,590
All I did was google,

371
00:17:29,590 --> 00:17:33,505
preachers images, and
this is what came up.

372
00:17:33,505 --> 00:17:35,845
I was scrolling for

373
00:17:35,845 --> 00:17:38,800
five minutes before I
saw the first woman.

374
00:17:38,800 --> 00:17:41,275
What does that mean to us?

375
00:17:41,275 --> 00:17:44,290
What does it mean to see
that reality Sunday after

376
00:17:44,290 --> 00:17:48,250
Sunday everywhere you go?

377
00:17:48,250 --> 00:17:51,280
So my concern this
evening is how

378
00:17:51,280 --> 00:17:55,420
this inevitable
relationship unfurls in

379
00:17:55,420 --> 00:17:56,950
the Western church and how

380
00:17:56,950 --> 00:17:59,110
this economy of
visuality continues

381
00:17:59,110 --> 00:18:03,415
to permeate our lives in
our Christian spaces.

382
00:18:03,415 --> 00:18:06,280
I want to suggest
that the question of

383
00:18:06,280 --> 00:18:09,505
the image is the
question of the body,

384
00:18:09,505 --> 00:18:14,050
and that the body is a
question of the image.

385
00:18:14,050 --> 00:18:16,720
To begin to account
for the differences of

386
00:18:16,720 --> 00:18:19,240
our world and the significance
of the word made flesh,

387
00:18:19,240 --> 00:18:20,680
we have to begin to account for

388
00:18:20,680 --> 00:18:22,600
the visuality of our world,

389
00:18:22,600 --> 00:18:25,315
the visuality of
spaces and worship

390
00:18:25,315 --> 00:18:28,310
and visuality of
our lives together.

391
00:18:28,310 --> 00:18:30,060
To think through this question,

392
00:18:30,060 --> 00:18:32,490
I want to approach
the iconicity of

393
00:18:32,490 --> 00:18:36,535
bodied life through two
angles or questions.

394
00:18:36,535 --> 00:18:38,380
By iconicity of bodied life,

395
00:18:38,380 --> 00:18:39,820
what I mean simply is to say

396
00:18:39,820 --> 00:18:42,235
that in the same way that we see

397
00:18:42,235 --> 00:18:46,825
all of these images and
we see meaning in them,

398
00:18:46,825 --> 00:18:51,475
you all carry meaning in your
bodies and in your lives.

399
00:18:51,475 --> 00:18:55,135
We all have an iconicity to us.

400
00:18:55,135 --> 00:18:58,750
We are, in a sense,
revelatory of things,

401
00:18:58,750 --> 00:19:01,810
or in some ways
navigating meanings and

402
00:19:01,810 --> 00:19:06,480
ideas that we do not intend
to be attached to our bodies.

403
00:19:08,400 --> 00:19:11,935
I want to look at this
through two different lenses.

404
00:19:11,935 --> 00:19:14,080
The first is the
emergence of what I am

405
00:19:14,080 --> 00:19:16,525
calling the Protestant icon.

406
00:19:16,525 --> 00:19:19,240
How in a movement that expressly

407
00:19:19,240 --> 00:19:22,285
sought to suppress
images in many cases,

408
00:19:22,285 --> 00:19:24,940
and in other cases sought
to reduce images to

409
00:19:24,940 --> 00:19:27,610
primarily didactic purposes,

410
00:19:27,610 --> 00:19:30,790
can we even speak of
a Protestant icon?

411
00:19:30,790 --> 00:19:34,360
It would seem sacrilegious,
or put differently,

412
00:19:34,360 --> 00:19:35,980
what happens to an economy of

413
00:19:35,980 --> 00:19:38,965
visuality when it is
seemingly denied?

414
00:19:38,965 --> 00:19:42,220
I'll give a hint
here, it's not good.

415
00:19:42,220 --> 00:19:45,715
The second approach
offers a way forward.

416
00:19:45,715 --> 00:19:49,525
I want to suggest that the
artist should be our priest.

417
00:19:49,525 --> 00:19:52,030
By this I mean in a world where

418
00:19:52,030 --> 00:19:54,340
visuality and sensuality is

419
00:19:54,340 --> 00:19:57,310
an indelible and vital aspect
of what it means to be

420
00:19:57,310 --> 00:19:59,829
human and a necessary

421
00:19:59,829 --> 00:20:03,055
means to understand and live
into God's life with us,

422
00:20:03,055 --> 00:20:07,524
our hope will not come in
simply reading more books.

423
00:20:07,524 --> 00:20:13,180
Yes, I said that. [LAUGHTER]
We need an understanding,

424
00:20:13,180 --> 00:20:15,010
a way of experiencing and

425
00:20:15,010 --> 00:20:17,140
seeing the world
that draws us more

426
00:20:17,140 --> 00:20:22,360
deeply into the materiality
of God's creative life.

427
00:20:22,360 --> 00:20:24,310
I take this to be the heart of

428
00:20:24,310 --> 00:20:28,000
the theological task
that Christology and

429
00:20:28,000 --> 00:20:31,150
theological anthropology
are to trace patterns and

430
00:20:31,150 --> 00:20:35,710
movements of refraction that
are looming or obscure us.

431
00:20:35,710 --> 00:20:38,470
I return again and
again to artists as

432
00:20:38,470 --> 00:20:42,550
guides for what it means
to navigate this world.

433
00:20:42,550 --> 00:20:44,800
How visual artists see and

434
00:20:44,800 --> 00:20:48,775
represent the world and
who we are and might be,

435
00:20:48,775 --> 00:20:51,220
called to see the world they not

436
00:20:51,220 --> 00:20:53,845
only observe but must create.

437
00:20:53,845 --> 00:20:55,825
They cut, they bind,

438
00:20:55,825 --> 00:20:58,615
they crush, they layer, build,

439
00:20:58,615 --> 00:21:00,940
fold until there is

440
00:21:00,940 --> 00:21:04,030
something where there
was once no thing.

441
00:21:04,030 --> 00:21:07,105
But in the wake of
the colonial project,

442
00:21:07,105 --> 00:21:09,610
for the black artist
or any other artist of

443
00:21:09,610 --> 00:21:12,640
color and women artists as well,

444
00:21:12,640 --> 00:21:16,405
this task was an extension
of being seen in the world.

445
00:21:16,405 --> 00:21:18,580
That those who were
in the sense told

446
00:21:18,580 --> 00:21:21,190
again and again that
they were not human

447
00:21:21,190 --> 00:21:23,920
through the artistic
task created and

448
00:21:23,920 --> 00:21:27,040
articulated their own
humanity into being,

449
00:21:27,040 --> 00:21:30,590
again and again and again.

450
00:21:30,590 --> 00:21:34,590
Navigating the visceral
nodes of contact that render

451
00:21:34,590 --> 00:21:40,250
one's body anesthetic or
anesthetic presence they create.

452
00:21:40,250 --> 00:21:43,390
As Toni Morrison reminds
us in The Bluest Eye,

453
00:21:43,390 --> 00:21:45,670
"Was there ever a
more dangerous idea

454
00:21:45,670 --> 00:21:48,025
in the world than beauty?"

455
00:21:48,025 --> 00:21:50,800
The idea that who we are and our

456
00:21:50,800 --> 00:21:53,440
worth or our possibilities are

457
00:21:53,440 --> 00:21:55,570
indelible to our
bodies and can be

458
00:21:55,570 --> 00:21:59,410
seen and weighed and measured.

459
00:21:59,410 --> 00:22:03,220
In a way, visual
artists witness to

460
00:22:03,220 --> 00:22:05,140
the reality of a current of

461
00:22:05,140 --> 00:22:07,630
visuality that
permeates all of us.

462
00:22:07,630 --> 00:22:09,670
That is, we see in our seeing,

463
00:22:09,670 --> 00:22:12,445
we touch, and we
taste, and we listen.

464
00:22:12,445 --> 00:22:15,370
All of these things are
fundamental aspects of

465
00:22:15,370 --> 00:22:18,085
what it means to be
made a human being,

466
00:22:18,085 --> 00:22:19,690
to be made in the image of God.

467
00:22:19,690 --> 00:22:20,980
There was all of these things

468
00:22:20,980 --> 00:22:22,330
were part of what it means when

469
00:22:22,330 --> 00:22:26,569
God said, "It's good."

470
00:22:27,210 --> 00:22:29,890
For me, visuality is

471
00:22:29,890 --> 00:22:33,670
a curious sight of identity
and identification

472
00:22:33,670 --> 00:22:36,550
that requires a theological
accounting given

473
00:22:36,550 --> 00:22:40,750
the claim that we are
made in the image of God.

474
00:22:40,750 --> 00:22:42,640
Of course, most of us know

475
00:22:42,640 --> 00:22:44,950
the question of
God's visuality was

476
00:22:44,950 --> 00:22:46,660
an aspect of the controversy and

477
00:22:46,660 --> 00:22:48,895
scandal surrounding the
claims of Jesus' divinity.

478
00:22:48,895 --> 00:22:49,690
Maybe you don't, but just

479
00:22:49,690 --> 00:22:50,770
pretend like you
do for right now,

480
00:22:50,770 --> 00:22:51,790
because I only have 50 minutes.

481
00:22:51,790 --> 00:22:55,030
[LAUGHTER] We continue
in the debates

482
00:22:55,030 --> 00:22:57,640
regarding iconoclasm
and iconophilia

483
00:22:57,640 --> 00:23:00,280
throughout the churches history.

484
00:23:00,280 --> 00:23:02,650
I'm going to tell you,
because I'm a teacher.

485
00:23:02,650 --> 00:23:07,675
[LAUGHTER] Iconoclasm is
the hatred of images.

486
00:23:07,675 --> 00:23:10,585
This idea that God is so holy

487
00:23:10,585 --> 00:23:13,660
that we should be worshiping
God who is invisible,

488
00:23:13,660 --> 00:23:17,785
not a copy of who God is,

489
00:23:17,785 --> 00:23:20,470
and when we worship
the copies of God,

490
00:23:20,470 --> 00:23:24,835
it becomes idolatry and points
us away from the true God.

491
00:23:24,835 --> 00:23:28,270
You see this
iconoclastic sensibility

492
00:23:28,270 --> 00:23:29,500
arise in the eighth,

493
00:23:29,500 --> 00:23:30,700
ninth, 10th centuries,

494
00:23:30,700 --> 00:23:31,810
then you see it pop up

495
00:23:31,810 --> 00:23:33,850
again in the Protestant
Reformation,

496
00:23:33,850 --> 00:23:37,580
which is what we're going
to talk about this evening.

497
00:23:38,730 --> 00:23:41,830
The Protestant Reformation was

498
00:23:41,830 --> 00:23:44,995
a period of profound upheaval,

499
00:23:44,995 --> 00:23:48,175
not only in theological terms,

500
00:23:48,175 --> 00:23:50,755
rapidly expanding
ways of knowing,

501
00:23:50,755 --> 00:23:53,260
gleaned from the Renaissance
and knowledge gleaned from

502
00:23:53,260 --> 00:23:55,945
humanist intellectual
and artistic inquiry,

503
00:23:55,945 --> 00:23:59,890
as well as technological
advances that expanded

504
00:23:59,890 --> 00:24:03,460
the means of both
discovering knowledge

505
00:24:03,460 --> 00:24:04,960
and disseminating
that knowledge.

506
00:24:04,960 --> 00:24:07,705
The world is just transforming

507
00:24:07,705 --> 00:24:10,270
and this is radical change,

508
00:24:10,270 --> 00:24:11,920
and very much in the
ways I think that we

509
00:24:11,920 --> 00:24:14,020
can think of our life right now.

510
00:24:14,020 --> 00:24:16,180
Martin Luther, one of

511
00:24:16,180 --> 00:24:20,350
the founders of this Protestant
Reformation movement,

512
00:24:20,350 --> 00:24:22,915
he opposed to the papacy,

513
00:24:22,915 --> 00:24:25,420
because he believed he had

514
00:24:25,420 --> 00:24:27,655
questions about
doctrine and practice,

515
00:24:27,655 --> 00:24:29,675
practice really primarily,

516
00:24:29,675 --> 00:24:33,315
and about questions over
the Lord's Supper, baptism.

517
00:24:33,315 --> 00:24:36,300
Church polity roiled and
continually splintered

518
00:24:36,300 --> 00:24:37,950
the reformers even after they're

519
00:24:37,950 --> 00:24:39,860
split from the Catholic Church,

520
00:24:39,860 --> 00:24:42,700
and maybe continues
to do so today.

521
00:24:42,700 --> 00:24:45,520
The question of images also was

522
00:24:45,520 --> 00:24:48,520
a central question
for these reformers.

523
00:24:48,520 --> 00:24:50,379
They'd be arguing about baptism,

524
00:24:50,379 --> 00:24:52,420
they'd be arguing about
salvation by faith,

525
00:24:52,420 --> 00:24:54,384
and they'd be arguing
about images.

526
00:24:54,384 --> 00:24:56,320
You'd have people breaking
into churches and

527
00:24:56,320 --> 00:25:00,970
smashing statues and tearing
paintings down off the wall.

528
00:25:00,970 --> 00:25:04,750
While the Catholic church
though saw a wide range of

529
00:25:04,750 --> 00:25:08,050
visual elements in its
worship and devotional life,

530
00:25:08,050 --> 00:25:11,350
whether it's images of Mary
to other saints, to statues,

531
00:25:11,350 --> 00:25:12,880
to elaborate vestments of

532
00:25:12,880 --> 00:25:14,710
them the priests
and the bishops,

533
00:25:14,710 --> 00:25:17,110
to even the Eucharistic
altar itself is

534
00:25:17,110 --> 00:25:21,700
a visual element in
Catholic spaces.

535
00:25:21,700 --> 00:25:24,190
Visuality was a vital aspect of

536
00:25:24,190 --> 00:25:26,350
piety and lives were

537
00:25:26,350 --> 00:25:28,810
seeking to live into
the Kingdom of God.

538
00:25:28,810 --> 00:25:31,810
This is not to say that
Catholic notions of images

539
00:25:31,810 --> 00:25:35,620
mirrored Eastern theologies of

540
00:25:35,620 --> 00:25:37,405
icon, they were different.

541
00:25:37,405 --> 00:25:40,600
Still in the Catholic
in the West,

542
00:25:40,600 --> 00:25:42,820
they would say they
would use variety

543
00:25:42,820 --> 00:25:44,530
of different images and
the church would still

544
00:25:44,530 --> 00:25:46,570
say that these were

545
00:25:46,570 --> 00:25:49,180
meant for pointing us
towards the gospel,

546
00:25:49,180 --> 00:25:52,420
pointing us towards the
goodness of who God is,

547
00:25:52,420 --> 00:25:53,560
whereas in the East,

548
00:25:53,560 --> 00:25:56,350
there was a living
almost presence

549
00:25:56,350 --> 00:25:59,845
maybe in-between these two.

550
00:25:59,845 --> 00:26:04,360
But the reformation is

551
00:26:04,360 --> 00:26:06,250
it becomes a curious movement

552
00:26:06,250 --> 00:26:08,500
of retrieval and innovation,

553
00:26:08,500 --> 00:26:10,180
but it continues to struggle

554
00:26:10,180 --> 00:26:12,445
with the question of visuality.

555
00:26:12,445 --> 00:26:15,130
But this economy was
now caught within

556
00:26:15,130 --> 00:26:18,340
a very different set of
questions and consequently,

557
00:26:18,340 --> 00:26:22,165
a fundamentally different
framework of possibilities.

558
00:26:22,165 --> 00:26:24,220
The differences and
similarities of

559
00:26:24,220 --> 00:26:27,430
the three primary
reformers shows us

560
00:26:27,430 --> 00:26:32,980
something of these varying
understandings of what it was.

561
00:26:32,980 --> 00:26:36,010
One of the most
iconoclastic reformers.

562
00:26:36,010 --> 00:26:37,210
This is one of the
people that was

563
00:26:37,210 --> 00:26:40,090
most literally violently

564
00:26:40,090 --> 00:26:44,110
opposed to images was
Andreas Karlstadt.

565
00:26:44,110 --> 00:26:49,784
[LAUGHTER]

566
00:26:49,784 --> 00:26:51,460
If I'm good or ill enough,

567
00:26:51,460 --> 00:26:54,175
I'll path along the
right pronunciation.

568
00:26:54,175 --> 00:26:57,399
But listen to what he
says about images.

569
00:26:57,399 --> 00:27:02,215
He says God hates in his
jealous of pictures.

570
00:27:02,215 --> 00:27:06,220
As I will demonstrate
and considers them an

571
00:27:06,220 --> 00:27:08,650
abomination and proclaims that

572
00:27:08,650 --> 00:27:12,414
all men in his eyes are
like the things they love.

573
00:27:12,414 --> 00:27:14,560
Pictures are loathsome.

574
00:27:14,560 --> 00:27:16,570
It follows that we also become

575
00:27:16,570 --> 00:27:18,850
loathsome when we love them.

576
00:27:18,850 --> 00:27:20,800
Thus, images bring death to

577
00:27:20,800 --> 00:27:23,155
those who worship
or venerate them.

578
00:27:23,155 --> 00:27:27,190
Tell us how you really
feel Andy [LAUGHTER].

579
00:27:27,190 --> 00:27:30,100
Obviously, he is not a fan.

580
00:27:30,100 --> 00:27:33,010
This is a wood cut of
some of the iconic

581
00:27:33,010 --> 00:27:36,550
last being in the
essence of faithfulness.

582
00:27:36,550 --> 00:27:39,055
As we can see,
Karlstadt is fairly

583
00:27:39,055 --> 00:27:42,610
unambiguous in his
contempt for images.

584
00:27:42,610 --> 00:27:46,930
But his point was fundamentally
actually Christological.

585
00:27:46,930 --> 00:27:50,155
He says we worship
a risen Jesus.

586
00:27:50,155 --> 00:27:53,260
A Jesus who sits at
the right hand of God,

587
00:27:53,260 --> 00:27:55,870
and that's where his body is.

588
00:27:55,870 --> 00:27:58,255
It's not anywhere else.

589
00:27:58,255 --> 00:28:00,010
If we worship God,

590
00:28:00,010 --> 00:28:02,470
we worship a God
whose image cannot

591
00:28:02,470 --> 00:28:04,930
be captured where we
are right now and

592
00:28:04,930 --> 00:28:06,190
any attempts to capture

593
00:28:06,190 --> 00:28:08,430
that image is
ultimately an act of

594
00:28:08,430 --> 00:28:13,250
idolatry because we worship
now a Christ who is with God.

595
00:28:13,250 --> 00:28:15,160
In a refrain that we actually

596
00:28:15,160 --> 00:28:18,310
see through all
of the reformers,

597
00:28:18,310 --> 00:28:22,465
the body of the Christ
is not found in image,

598
00:28:22,465 --> 00:28:24,925
but it's found in the people.

599
00:28:24,925 --> 00:28:28,510
There is a this
democratic unfolding,

600
00:28:28,510 --> 00:28:31,060
moving away from the
images, the altar,

601
00:28:31,060 --> 00:28:32,620
the things that we
see at the front

602
00:28:32,620 --> 00:28:34,870
and cortical Catholic spaces

603
00:28:34,870 --> 00:28:37,945
with a reformers thought they
were doing was in a sense,

604
00:28:37,945 --> 00:28:40,180
unfolding the image onto

605
00:28:40,180 --> 00:28:43,449
the bodies of all people who
were in the congregation.

606
00:28:43,449 --> 00:28:47,650
We collectively are now
the body of Christ.

607
00:28:47,650 --> 00:28:49,360
When people see us,

608
00:28:49,360 --> 00:28:51,010
they see Christ in

609
00:28:51,010 --> 00:28:53,500
some form of fashion.
That's pretty deep.

610
00:28:53,500 --> 00:28:55,240
We could maybe work with that.

611
00:28:55,240 --> 00:28:57,010
But does it work out that way?

612
00:28:57,010 --> 00:28:58,390
Not usually.

613
00:28:58,390 --> 00:29:01,270
[LAUGHTER] John Calvin,

614
00:29:01,270 --> 00:29:04,240
a slightly different way
of thinking about this,

615
00:29:04,240 --> 00:29:08,590
he would write regarding images,

616
00:29:08,590 --> 00:29:10,645
he says God has
forbidden two things.

617
00:29:10,645 --> 00:29:13,240
First, the making of
any picture of him.

618
00:29:13,240 --> 00:29:17,270
The other is that no
image may be worshiped.

619
00:29:17,670 --> 00:29:20,290
He continues.

620
00:29:20,290 --> 00:29:22,690
The setting up of
images in churches is

621
00:29:22,690 --> 00:29:27,985
a defiling act by and by folk
go and kneel down to it.

622
00:29:27,985 --> 00:29:32,080
The papists paint and
portray Jesus Christ who as

623
00:29:32,080 --> 00:29:33,850
we know is not only man but also

624
00:29:33,850 --> 00:29:36,490
God manifested in the flesh.

625
00:29:36,490 --> 00:29:38,530
He is God's eternal Son in whom

626
00:29:38,530 --> 00:29:40,750
the fullness of the
Godhead dwells.

627
00:29:40,750 --> 00:29:43,150
Yes, even substantially.

628
00:29:43,150 --> 00:29:46,000
Should we have
portraitures and images

629
00:29:46,000 --> 00:29:48,895
whereby only the flesh
may be represented?

630
00:29:48,895 --> 00:29:51,040
Is it not a wiping away of that,

631
00:29:51,040 --> 00:29:53,620
which is the cheapest in
our Lord, Jesus Christ,

632
00:29:53,620 --> 00:29:56,875
that is to wit, his
Divine Majesty.

633
00:29:56,875 --> 00:29:59,590
You catch a little bit what
Calvin's trying to say here,

634
00:29:59,590 --> 00:30:02,245
it's like if we believe that
God is flesh and spirit,

635
00:30:02,245 --> 00:30:05,080
then you have to be able
to capture both equally.

636
00:30:05,080 --> 00:30:06,865
Because you can't
capture spirit,

637
00:30:06,865 --> 00:30:09,085
you shouldn't do flesh.

638
00:30:09,085 --> 00:30:13,045
What we see here is actually
his Chapel in Geneva.

639
00:30:13,045 --> 00:30:15,700
We see maybe architecture
doing the work,

640
00:30:15,700 --> 00:30:17,155
but there are no images,

641
00:30:17,155 --> 00:30:21,640
there's no paint, it is
stone and wood and a pulpit.

642
00:30:21,640 --> 00:30:23,920
Of course, it should
be said here that

643
00:30:23,920 --> 00:30:27,650
not all reformers were as
stridently against images.

644
00:30:28,470 --> 00:30:30,850
This more moderate view is

645
00:30:30,850 --> 00:30:33,400
encapsulated best
by Martin Luther.

646
00:30:33,400 --> 00:30:37,375
Like many reformers, Luther
had a suspicion of images.

647
00:30:37,375 --> 00:30:41,110
He thought that they could
be moved towards idolatry.

648
00:30:41,110 --> 00:30:43,090
What he saw, the
idolatry that they

649
00:30:43,090 --> 00:30:46,690
represented and perhaps
even could draw us into.

650
00:30:46,690 --> 00:30:48,550
But yet at the same time,

651
00:30:48,550 --> 00:30:49,570
Luther was a little bit more

652
00:30:49,570 --> 00:30:53,185
liberal in allowing
vestments and banners.

653
00:30:53,185 --> 00:30:54,820
But like Calvin and Zwingli,

654
00:30:54,820 --> 00:30:57,730
he would whitewash
his sanctuary walls.

655
00:30:57,730 --> 00:31:00,730
Images and paintings, for
the most part would be taken

656
00:31:00,730 --> 00:31:03,520
down unless they were
altarpieces like this,

657
00:31:03,520 --> 00:31:06,505
painted by Chranac the elder,

658
00:31:06,505 --> 00:31:11,215
leaving only ornately cold
or carved pulpits or alters.

659
00:31:11,215 --> 00:31:13,750
The preacher would stand
before the gathered people,

660
00:31:13,750 --> 00:31:16,900
sharing the good news to
be heard and received.

661
00:31:16,900 --> 00:31:20,605
This idea of heard
becomes very important.

662
00:31:20,605 --> 00:31:22,630
As the Protestant
Reformation moves on,

663
00:31:22,630 --> 00:31:24,790
we start to see more
and more conversations

664
00:31:24,790 --> 00:31:26,260
about how do we actually

665
00:31:26,260 --> 00:31:31,450
restructure design spaces
so that everyone can hear?

666
00:31:31,450 --> 00:31:35,720
Because salvation
comes by hearing.

667
00:31:35,940 --> 00:31:39,280
Like other reformers,
Luther had the suspicion of

668
00:31:39,280 --> 00:31:40,660
images and what he saw as

669
00:31:40,660 --> 00:31:43,120
the idolatry that
they represented.

670
00:31:43,120 --> 00:31:45,669
A fascinating study of Luther

671
00:31:45,669 --> 00:31:48,070
and Chranac to elders
collaboration.

672
00:31:48,070 --> 00:31:50,620
Historian Stephen Ozment writes,

673
00:31:50,620 --> 00:31:53,290
in the aftermath of the
iconoclastic controversy

674
00:31:53,290 --> 00:31:54,370
Chranac and Luther

675
00:31:54,370 --> 00:31:56,740
collaborated on the images

676
00:31:56,740 --> 00:31:59,155
that would fill the
Protestant churches.

677
00:31:59,155 --> 00:32:01,300
Both men had an
interest in keeping

678
00:32:01,300 --> 00:32:04,645
decorative art and portraiture
prominently on display.

679
00:32:04,645 --> 00:32:07,000
For Chranac, the Church art was

680
00:32:07,000 --> 00:32:11,260
the painters staple while

681
00:32:11,260 --> 00:32:15,415
for Luther art gave the
gospel sermon immediately,

682
00:32:15,415 --> 00:32:17,320
and the church a
captive audience.

683
00:32:17,320 --> 00:32:18,820
It's like look, we can create

684
00:32:18,820 --> 00:32:21,235
a picture of what
faithfulness looks like,

685
00:32:21,235 --> 00:32:22,960
and all these people
have to sit here

686
00:32:22,960 --> 00:32:24,580
and look at it. Let's do it.

687
00:32:24,580 --> 00:32:28,855
[LAUGHTER] That was the
conversation in the back-office.

688
00:32:28,855 --> 00:32:31,150
Luther's worked with Chranac the

689
00:32:31,150 --> 00:32:33,460
elder in an interesting way

690
00:32:33,460 --> 00:32:35,560
actually mimics the relationship

691
00:32:35,560 --> 00:32:38,245
between the Eastern priests
and the icon writer.

692
00:32:38,245 --> 00:32:40,929
Luther understood a
critical relationship

693
00:32:40,929 --> 00:32:42,460
between the visual and the word

694
00:32:42,460 --> 00:32:46,615
preached and ultimately for
the life of the congregant.

695
00:32:46,615 --> 00:32:48,640
But notice a critical
difference in

696
00:32:48,640 --> 00:32:51,310
Luther and Chranac's economy.

697
00:32:51,310 --> 00:32:53,020
The one who sits in

698
00:32:53,020 --> 00:32:57,055
this ecclesial space is
primarily a hearer of the word.

699
00:32:57,055 --> 00:33:00,610
The images are subservient
to the deeper,

700
00:33:00,610 --> 00:33:05,110
more fundamental truth
of the word spoken.

701
00:33:05,110 --> 00:33:08,544
In this relationship, the
image becomes didactic.

702
00:33:08,544 --> 00:33:12,880
That is, it becomes
only intended to teach.

703
00:33:12,880 --> 00:33:17,139
It becomes subservient to
the word that is preached.

704
00:33:17,139 --> 00:33:20,035
This notion of
instruction is important.

705
00:33:20,035 --> 00:33:21,970
At the initial impulse behind

706
00:33:21,970 --> 00:33:24,370
Luther's thinking bears
a certain resemblance to

707
00:33:24,370 --> 00:33:26,410
a Catholic clarification of

708
00:33:26,410 --> 00:33:30,805
images that would emerge in
the Council of Trent in 1563,

709
00:33:30,805 --> 00:33:34,255
where it says the bishops
shall carefully teach this

710
00:33:34,255 --> 00:33:35,920
that by means of the histories

711
00:33:35,920 --> 00:33:37,795
of the mysteries
of our redemption,

712
00:33:37,795 --> 00:33:40,630
portrayed by paintings
are other representations

713
00:33:40,630 --> 00:33:44,260
the people are
instructed, instructed,

714
00:33:44,260 --> 00:33:46,330
and confirmed in the habit of

715
00:33:46,330 --> 00:33:49,990
remembering that and
continually revolving in

716
00:33:49,990 --> 00:33:53,140
mind the articles
of faith as also

717
00:33:53,140 --> 00:33:56,350
that great prophet is derived
from all sacred images.

718
00:33:56,350 --> 00:34:02,920
Again, images teach us what
we had heard to be true.

719
00:34:02,920 --> 00:34:07,600
They show us a way way what
something should look like.

720
00:34:07,600 --> 00:34:11,800
Images oriented the
viewer towards faith and

721
00:34:11,800 --> 00:34:13,390
allowed them in side into what

722
00:34:13,390 --> 00:34:16,000
faithfulness has looked like.

723
00:34:16,000 --> 00:34:18,700
What it might look
like in their lives,

724
00:34:18,700 --> 00:34:20,560
whether in stained
glass windows,

725
00:34:20,560 --> 00:34:24,129
illuminated manuscripts,
pocket-size images of saints.

726
00:34:24,129 --> 00:34:27,100
These all serves to
visualize the mysteries of

727
00:34:27,100 --> 00:34:30,340
redemption in Catholic teaching.

728
00:34:30,340 --> 00:34:31,990
But for the reformers,

729
00:34:31,990 --> 00:34:34,480
the mysteries of
redemption could not be

730
00:34:34,480 --> 00:34:38,210
imaged because they weren't
grounded in belief.

731
00:34:38,550 --> 00:34:41,140
A notion of faith
that's centered

732
00:34:41,140 --> 00:34:43,300
upon the gospel
preached and heard and

733
00:34:43,300 --> 00:34:47,470
responded to though in varying
ways among the reformers.

734
00:34:47,470 --> 00:34:50,200
The reformers saw
Catholic images as

735
00:34:50,200 --> 00:34:53,500
detracting from this
central message.

736
00:34:53,500 --> 00:34:56,110
Resisting what they
saw as attempts to

737
00:34:56,110 --> 00:34:58,390
mediate Christ's presence
through various means.

738
00:34:58,390 --> 00:35:02,440
They understood God's mystery
as extending promise to

739
00:35:02,440 --> 00:35:07,060
our lives in a way that people
become the body of Christ.

740
00:35:07,060 --> 00:35:09,475
For Luther, the images are not

741
00:35:09,475 --> 00:35:12,745
operating within an
economy of transformation,

742
00:35:12,745 --> 00:35:16,900
wherein the image or icon
serves as a window into

743
00:35:16,900 --> 00:35:19,000
a true image that lies always

744
00:35:19,000 --> 00:35:21,970
beyond and behind the
image that we see,

745
00:35:21,970 --> 00:35:24,640
they can never really
truly be known.

746
00:35:24,640 --> 00:35:26,080
But it's only glimpsed.

747
00:35:26,080 --> 00:35:28,660
This is a part of the why if
you look at Eastern icons,

748
00:35:28,660 --> 00:35:32,395
they often times have
elongated faces and fingers,

749
00:35:32,395 --> 00:35:34,750
odd big eyes,

750
00:35:34,750 --> 00:35:37,540
skin tones that are not
necessarily the lightest,

751
00:35:37,540 --> 00:35:38,710
although for me,
that'd be perfect.

752
00:35:38,710 --> 00:35:40,390
[LAUGHTER] But the
idea is to say

753
00:35:40,390 --> 00:35:42,460
that the icon for the East,

754
00:35:42,460 --> 00:35:45,730
the icon cannot be an
exact representation of

755
00:35:45,730 --> 00:35:46,810
anything because that's not

756
00:35:46,810 --> 00:35:49,630
the true aspect of who we are.

757
00:35:49,630 --> 00:35:52,434
There's always mystery and

758
00:35:52,434 --> 00:35:55,705
visuality mixed up
in these moments.

759
00:35:55,705 --> 00:35:57,400
But for the reformers,

760
00:35:57,400 --> 00:35:59,425
for Luther and Chranac,

761
00:35:59,425 --> 00:36:02,260
they are creating
a visual cue of

762
00:36:02,260 --> 00:36:05,800
fidelity that serves as
a mirror and it tell

763
00:36:05,800 --> 00:36:09,070
us its aim was to
reflect the viewer with

764
00:36:09,070 --> 00:36:10,420
an ideal image of

765
00:36:10,420 --> 00:36:13,515
faithfulness so that they would
know what it looked like.

766
00:36:13,515 --> 00:36:15,570
What you get in these images

767
00:36:15,570 --> 00:36:19,775
are one side of faithfulness.

768
00:36:19,775 --> 00:36:22,450
One side, it looks
like faithfulness and

769
00:36:22,450 --> 00:36:27,515
the other side looks destitute.

770
00:36:27,515 --> 00:36:29,800
In a way there's a
propaganda that's

771
00:36:29,800 --> 00:36:32,435
happening that we'll see later.

772
00:36:32,435 --> 00:36:34,240
I started getting excited
so I can move forward as

773
00:36:34,240 --> 00:36:36,370
a long progression here.

774
00:36:36,370 --> 00:36:40,738
[LAUGHTER]

775
00:36:40,738 --> 00:36:43,660
I want to get to the end,
I'm sorry about the end.

776
00:36:43,660 --> 00:36:46,285
But this will be worth
it. We've got to go slow,

777
00:36:46,285 --> 00:36:47,770
we got to build and
build the case.

778
00:36:47,770 --> 00:36:54,639
[LAUGHTER] The
reformers resisted

779
00:36:54,639 --> 00:36:56,665
images. I almost see it.

780
00:36:56,665 --> 00:36:59,155
I almost get my own
most important part.

781
00:36:59,155 --> 00:37:02,815
What happens in
creating these images?

782
00:37:02,815 --> 00:37:07,000
I want to suggest that the
reformers unwittingly created

783
00:37:07,000 --> 00:37:09,490
an icon even as

784
00:37:09,490 --> 00:37:12,190
they destroy the images
of their churches.

785
00:37:12,190 --> 00:37:17,245
That is in stripping
their walls,

786
00:37:17,245 --> 00:37:19,915
washing them,
turning them white.

787
00:37:19,915 --> 00:37:24,625
They transformed their
preachers into icons,

788
00:37:24,625 --> 00:37:29,350
into images of the image
that ultimately reified,

789
00:37:29,350 --> 00:37:33,190
hardened, and enclosed
the possibilities

790
00:37:33,190 --> 00:37:35,905
of what any preacher
could look like.

791
00:37:35,905 --> 00:37:38,110
What anyone who hears

792
00:37:38,110 --> 00:37:40,690
and speaks the truth
could look like.

793
00:37:40,690 --> 00:37:43,990
Luther and the reformers
reflect an attempt to

794
00:37:43,990 --> 00:37:47,200
dam up the currents
of visuality,

795
00:37:47,200 --> 00:37:50,050
to redirect its energy
and in doing so,

796
00:37:50,050 --> 00:37:51,670
created new icons and

797
00:37:51,670 --> 00:37:55,030
new images imprinted
upon our bodies,

798
00:37:55,030 --> 00:37:57,580
work that the enlightenment
would build upon with

799
00:37:57,580 --> 00:38:01,405
tragic and enduring
consequences for so many of us.

800
00:38:01,405 --> 00:38:04,360
If I were to quote the
good book of Harry Potter,

801
00:38:04,360 --> 00:38:07,660
[LAUGHTER] they
were the Horcruxes

802
00:38:07,660 --> 00:38:09,280
they never intended to make.

803
00:38:09,280 --> 00:38:13,210
[LAUGHTER] Some of you
all read the book.

804
00:38:13,210 --> 00:38:18,590
Hope you got that. Some of
you all like no.That's okay.

805
00:38:19,500 --> 00:38:22,870
If the reformers
resisted images as

806
00:38:22,870 --> 00:38:24,580
mediating or drawing us

807
00:38:24,580 --> 00:38:26,845
into the mysteries
of God's presence,

808
00:38:26,845 --> 00:38:29,170
what we're images for then?

809
00:38:29,170 --> 00:38:31,030
I want to suggest that we see

810
00:38:31,030 --> 00:38:33,430
four visual enactments and

811
00:38:33,430 --> 00:38:36,550
the development of
protestant church life.

812
00:38:36,550 --> 00:38:40,885
The first was the pedagogical
invocation of images.

813
00:38:40,885 --> 00:38:43,630
Whether images of
Cranach the Elder or

814
00:38:43,630 --> 00:38:45,790
Holbein the Younger, paintings,

815
00:38:45,790 --> 00:38:48,580
woodcuts, altarpieces served to

816
00:38:48,580 --> 00:38:51,520
highlight foundational
messages of the gospel.

817
00:38:51,520 --> 00:38:53,680
Perhaps one of the most
prevalent of these

818
00:38:53,680 --> 00:38:55,690
was law and grace,

819
00:38:55,690 --> 00:38:57,400
which took on several forms,

820
00:38:57,400 --> 00:38:58,780
both in paintings and in

821
00:38:58,780 --> 00:39:01,640
woodcuts that were
reproduced wildly.

822
00:39:01,640 --> 00:39:04,530
Cranach's work highlights
a world divided.

823
00:39:04,530 --> 00:39:07,590
On one side we see a
world ruled by law,

824
00:39:07,590 --> 00:39:09,870
the ruler of this
world, we see death,

825
00:39:09,870 --> 00:39:11,100
we see obedience,

826
00:39:11,100 --> 00:39:14,000
we see the devil
lurking in corners.

827
00:39:14,000 --> 00:39:16,030
But on the other side,

828
00:39:16,030 --> 00:39:18,310
we see Christ, the cross,

829
00:39:18,310 --> 00:39:21,024
redemption, law and grace

830
00:39:21,024 --> 00:39:23,380
is a fundamentally
an educational tool.

831
00:39:23,380 --> 00:39:25,960
What side of the tree
do you want to be on?

832
00:39:25,960 --> 00:39:28,075
I want to be with Jesus.

833
00:39:28,075 --> 00:39:31,060
The good side is so
good it has two Jesus'.

834
00:39:31,060 --> 00:39:34,360
[LAUGHTER] Double the fine.

835
00:39:34,360 --> 00:39:37,120
Dead and risen all in once.

836
00:39:37,120 --> 00:39:40,240
[LAUGHTER] You can
have it all in all,

837
00:39:40,240 --> 00:39:41,500
it gets all the
little cherry bombs

838
00:39:41,500 --> 00:39:42,820
on having, I want
to be wall then,

839
00:39:42,820 --> 00:39:44,680
I want to be a little face
in the sky watching over

840
00:39:44,680 --> 00:39:46,630
two Jesus'. That's for me.

841
00:39:46,630 --> 00:39:49,810
[LAUGHTER] What's so fascinating

842
00:39:49,810 --> 00:39:51,069
about this is the reformation

843
00:39:51,069 --> 00:39:52,645
now we have printing for us.

844
00:39:52,645 --> 00:39:57,280
What you can do is you
have the nice original,

845
00:39:57,280 --> 00:39:59,380
then you reprint it.

846
00:39:59,380 --> 00:40:01,060
Now this one's a little scary.

847
00:40:01,060 --> 00:40:04,810
[LAUGHTER] This got a
little bit more attention

848
00:40:04,810 --> 00:40:06,760
just in case you weren't totally

849
00:40:06,760 --> 00:40:08,200
clear about the first one.

850
00:40:08,200 --> 00:40:09,790
This one's going to be real

851
00:40:09,790 --> 00:40:11,020
clear about what's
going to happen,

852
00:40:11,020 --> 00:40:12,430
what side do you want to be on?

853
00:40:12,430 --> 00:40:15,340
[LAUGHTER] Now notice what's

854
00:40:15,340 --> 00:40:18,895
happening here if you are
familiar with Eastern icons,

855
00:40:18,895 --> 00:40:21,115
there is a dogma or doctrine.

856
00:40:21,115 --> 00:40:24,970
If you were to Google
Nativity Eastern icon,

857
00:40:24,970 --> 00:40:27,835
you would get a basic structure.

858
00:40:27,835 --> 00:40:29,920
A lot of them would
like we've done with

859
00:40:29,920 --> 00:40:32,320
varying levels of
quality and color.

860
00:40:32,320 --> 00:40:33,910
But you would have
a little baby Jesus

861
00:40:33,910 --> 00:40:35,140
and little sarcophagus with

862
00:40:35,140 --> 00:40:37,480
a huge Mary with a mountain

863
00:40:37,480 --> 00:40:39,955
and tomb and two waters
going like this.

864
00:40:39,955 --> 00:40:41,590
All of them, it's a dogma,

865
00:40:41,590 --> 00:40:46,000
a doctrine because
the icon writers

866
00:40:46,000 --> 00:40:47,620
in every single line there was

867
00:40:47,620 --> 00:40:50,710
a deeper spiritual
truth that's happening.

868
00:40:50,710 --> 00:40:52,690
In a way,

869
00:40:52,690 --> 00:40:56,275
Cranach and Luther have
created their own icon,

870
00:40:56,275 --> 00:40:58,450
their own doctrine,

871
00:40:58,450 --> 00:41:02,020
a visual set of cues that

872
00:41:02,020 --> 00:41:05,155
get represented and
reflected and disseminated.

873
00:41:05,155 --> 00:41:07,150
But again, what they are

874
00:41:07,150 --> 00:41:11,720
reflecting is not
mystery, but a decision.

875
00:41:12,150 --> 00:41:15,460
Not the hoping what could be,

876
00:41:15,460 --> 00:41:17,920
but what does your life
look like right now?

877
00:41:17,920 --> 00:41:19,750
You want to be the monstrosity,

878
00:41:19,750 --> 00:41:21,715
or you want to be Jesus?

879
00:41:21,715 --> 00:41:29,180
Decide. I lost my
place, I got excited.

880
00:41:30,380 --> 00:41:32,460
This is the first example.

881
00:41:32,460 --> 00:41:36,450
A second example of

882
00:41:36,450 --> 00:41:38,385
explicit images of reformers

883
00:41:38,385 --> 00:41:40,365
were more, these
are more political.

884
00:41:40,365 --> 00:41:47,060
What's happening?

885
00:41:47,670 --> 00:41:49,750
I usually don't use PowerPoint,

886
00:41:49,750 --> 00:41:51,560
so it gives me a little faster.

887
00:41:51,720 --> 00:41:55,090
I don't have giant whiteboard.

888
00:41:55,090 --> 00:41:56,410
We hard to do a whiteboard

889
00:41:56,410 --> 00:41:57,850
that all this whole
thing in whiteboard.

890
00:41:57,850 --> 00:42:00,280
[LAUGHTER] If I could,
that would be awesome.

891
00:42:00,280 --> 00:42:03,680
If I could have that
superpower, that'd be great.

892
00:42:04,020 --> 00:42:06,910
What happens here in

893
00:42:06,910 --> 00:42:09,070
the reformation in
terms of the icons.

894
00:42:09,070 --> 00:42:12,580
Historian Houston
deals suggest that

895
00:42:12,580 --> 00:42:14,679
traditional icons of judgment

896
00:42:14,679 --> 00:42:17,740
do not disappear in the
new Protestant art.

897
00:42:17,740 --> 00:42:19,540
Even in England, in spite of

898
00:42:19,540 --> 00:42:21,640
polemics against
religious images.

899
00:42:21,640 --> 00:42:24,340
Ordinances which prohibit
image worship in

900
00:42:24,340 --> 00:42:27,175
violent outburst of iconoclasm.

901
00:42:27,175 --> 00:42:30,850
These images are not
repressed by the reformers.

902
00:42:30,850 --> 00:42:32,980
Instead, they are
transformed and

903
00:42:32,980 --> 00:42:35,830
reinterpreted according
to the tenants

904
00:42:35,830 --> 00:42:37,900
of this new Protestant faith.

905
00:42:37,900 --> 00:42:40,555
The images persist
in other words,

906
00:42:40,555 --> 00:42:42,895
but their function changes.

907
00:42:42,895 --> 00:42:44,950
As all this is a very
interesting little rabbit hole

908
00:42:44,950 --> 00:42:46,600
when you go down about the ways

909
00:42:46,600 --> 00:42:50,530
that actually used old Catholic
images and change them,

910
00:42:50,530 --> 00:42:52,600
smash out certain
faces and put it

911
00:42:52,600 --> 00:42:54,445
in new faces and so
there's actually

912
00:42:54,445 --> 00:42:59,125
all of this again current
visuality that's happened.

913
00:42:59,125 --> 00:43:02,110
The reformers say that
they don't like images,

914
00:43:02,110 --> 00:43:04,120
but yet at the same
time images are

915
00:43:04,120 --> 00:43:07,490
serving and functioning
a use for them.

916
00:43:07,890 --> 00:43:10,270
As the reformers struggled to

917
00:43:10,270 --> 00:43:12,040
discern the
significance of images,

918
00:43:12,040 --> 00:43:13,930
we see that for the most part,

919
00:43:13,930 --> 00:43:16,585
they actually
recognize their power.

920
00:43:16,585 --> 00:43:20,110
Even while trying to
determine the orientation of

921
00:43:20,110 --> 00:43:23,335
that power towards a
more singular idea,

922
00:43:23,335 --> 00:43:25,910
salvation by faith.

923
00:43:27,180 --> 00:43:29,740
While resisting the implicit

924
00:43:29,740 --> 00:43:31,705
and explicit theological logic

925
00:43:31,705 --> 00:43:33,370
of the icon found in

926
00:43:33,370 --> 00:43:36,340
Catholic and Eastern
Orthodox piety and thought,

927
00:43:36,340 --> 00:43:39,040
the reformers could
only read or vector

928
00:43:39,040 --> 00:43:42,130
this visual economy
into terms that

929
00:43:42,130 --> 00:43:45,160
reinforced their
theological commitments to

930
00:43:45,160 --> 00:43:48,325
notions of faith as the
central aspect of their life.

931
00:43:48,325 --> 00:43:50,485
Now again, I have
to reiterate here

932
00:43:50,485 --> 00:43:53,605
that the faith comes by hearing.

933
00:43:53,605 --> 00:43:56,140
In essence, what's
happened is as you have

934
00:43:56,140 --> 00:43:59,425
a preacher articulating a word.

935
00:43:59,425 --> 00:44:01,840
What is going on
here, but in a sense,

936
00:44:01,840 --> 00:44:05,110
the materiality
of the promise is

937
00:44:05,110 --> 00:44:08,620
getting ripped away
from the bodies in

938
00:44:08,620 --> 00:44:10,630
the life and turns into

939
00:44:10,630 --> 00:44:15,430
literal ephemeral word
that enters into us,

940
00:44:15,430 --> 00:44:18,400
and then it has to be
responded to through a spirit.

941
00:44:18,400 --> 00:44:20,875
Our bodies are not necessary

942
00:44:20,875 --> 00:44:23,810
in the preaching of the word.

943
00:44:24,270 --> 00:44:27,925
But in addition to these
explicit re-articulation

944
00:44:27,925 --> 00:44:29,695
of image in ecclesial life.

945
00:44:29,695 --> 00:44:32,020
These Protestant
churches also began to

946
00:44:32,020 --> 00:44:36,310
transform even their
ecclesial spaces.

947
00:44:36,310 --> 00:44:39,715
Two significant shifts are
important to note here.

948
00:44:39,715 --> 00:44:43,405
The first is the practice
of whitewashing walls.

949
00:44:43,405 --> 00:44:46,210
One example of this
practice incorporated into

950
00:44:46,210 --> 00:44:49,015
the confessional life of
church life in Strasbourg,

951
00:44:49,015 --> 00:44:52,180
Switzerland in 1566
reads this way,

952
00:44:52,180 --> 00:44:54,985
"The true ornamentation
of sanctuaries."

953
00:44:54,985 --> 00:44:56,920
Therefore, this is what

954
00:44:56,920 --> 00:44:59,245
the true ornamentation
of sanctuary should be.

955
00:44:59,245 --> 00:45:02,530
"All the jury is
attire or pride,

956
00:45:02,530 --> 00:45:04,240
and everything unbecoming to

957
00:45:04,240 --> 00:45:06,250
Christian humility, discipline,

958
00:45:06,250 --> 00:45:08,260
and modesty are to be

959
00:45:08,260 --> 00:45:10,810
banished from the sanctuaries
and places of prayer to

960
00:45:10,810 --> 00:45:13,720
Christians for the
true ornamentation

961
00:45:13,720 --> 00:45:16,090
of churches does not
consist in ivory,

962
00:45:16,090 --> 00:45:17,950
gold, and precious stones,

963
00:45:17,950 --> 00:45:19,390
but in the frugality,

964
00:45:19,390 --> 00:45:24,190
piety and virtues of those
who are in the church."

965
00:45:24,190 --> 00:45:28,900
From this ordinance,
we can see the hope by

966
00:45:28,900 --> 00:45:30,760
stripping these
ecclesial spaces of

967
00:45:30,760 --> 00:45:33,370
ornamentation and
other extravagances,

968
00:45:33,370 --> 00:45:36,265
we are focused not
on earthly wealth,

969
00:45:36,265 --> 00:45:38,050
but on heavenly wealth.

970
00:45:38,050 --> 00:45:39,520
That this shift reflects

971
00:45:39,520 --> 00:45:42,010
a sincere adherence
to Jesus's warnings

972
00:45:42,010 --> 00:45:44,200
concerning wealth and the
ways that we can become

973
00:45:44,200 --> 00:45:46,885
bound to idols and
status of power.

974
00:45:46,885 --> 00:45:49,165
At the same time though,

975
00:45:49,165 --> 00:45:51,760
I want to suggest that
these reformers may have

976
00:45:51,760 --> 00:45:55,120
obscured signs of human
wealth and opulence.

977
00:45:55,120 --> 00:45:57,430
But if we are attentive
to the economies of

978
00:45:57,430 --> 00:46:00,985
visuality that permeate
any space whatsoever,

979
00:46:00,985 --> 00:46:05,965
they simply redirected
this energy. But where?

980
00:46:05,965 --> 00:46:10,540
We see the slow shift in
ecclesial spaces from an alter

981
00:46:10,540 --> 00:46:14,500
centric space with multiple
visual cues dispersed

982
00:46:14,500 --> 00:46:16,570
throughout the worship space to

983
00:46:16,570 --> 00:46:20,020
ecclesial spaces where
the most prominent visual

984
00:46:20,020 --> 00:46:23,755
cue as either the pulpit or

985
00:46:23,755 --> 00:46:26,110
a prominent cross or

986
00:46:26,110 --> 00:46:28,570
image of Christ sacrifice
above the altar.

987
00:46:28,570 --> 00:46:32,530
The reformers in fact
create a new icon,

988
00:46:32,530 --> 00:46:35,320
a new constellation
of visual cues that

989
00:46:35,320 --> 00:46:38,110
form a new economy of visuality.

990
00:46:38,110 --> 00:46:40,660
In other words, these
various reforms work

991
00:46:40,660 --> 00:46:44,470
together to form a new
icon, the preacher.

992
00:46:44,470 --> 00:46:47,695
The reformers unwittingly
created an icon

993
00:46:47,695 --> 00:46:50,965
even as they destroyed the
images of their churches.

994
00:46:50,965 --> 00:46:53,290
That is in stripping the
walls of their churches,

995
00:46:53,290 --> 00:46:56,230
they transformed their
preachers into images of

996
00:46:56,230 --> 00:46:58,570
an image that ultimately

997
00:46:58,570 --> 00:47:00,580
reified and enclose
the possibilities

998
00:47:00,580 --> 00:47:02,575
of what this preacher
could look like.

999
00:47:02,575 --> 00:47:04,990
Luther and the reformers reflect

1000
00:47:04,990 --> 00:47:07,465
an attempt to dam
up these currents.

1001
00:47:07,465 --> 00:47:12,700
I already read that. I
guess it was so good,

1002
00:47:12,700 --> 00:47:19,726
I wanted to read it
twice. [LAUGHTER]

1003
00:47:19,726 --> 00:47:23,195
What is this protestant
economy of the icon?

1004
00:47:23,195 --> 00:47:26,780
But to make sense of these
protestant reformations

1005
00:47:26,780 --> 00:47:28,010
, conflicted understanding,

1006
00:47:28,010 --> 00:47:29,900
and the use of the image,

1007
00:47:29,900 --> 00:47:31,910
we have to expand a little bit

1008
00:47:31,910 --> 00:47:34,295
on the Eastern
theology of the icon.

1009
00:47:34,295 --> 00:47:37,220
Put differently, the East
theology of the icon with

1010
00:47:37,220 --> 00:47:40,040
its emphasis on the
visuality of the word,

1011
00:47:40,040 --> 00:47:44,720
and fleshed and created

1012
00:47:44,720 --> 00:47:48,290
a related theological
emphasis on visuality as

1013
00:47:48,290 --> 00:47:52,265
a node of participation
with the living word.

1014
00:47:52,265 --> 00:47:55,430
This gestures towards
two realities,

1015
00:47:55,430 --> 00:47:58,370
the Incarnate Word
and the visual

1016
00:47:58,370 --> 00:48:02,060
central life as interrelated
in our life with God.

1017
00:48:02,060 --> 00:48:05,840
In essence, the word
and body are sacred,

1018
00:48:05,840 --> 00:48:07,190
and in the icon,

1019
00:48:07,190 --> 00:48:11,945
the sacredness of our body
is a lumen, shown, revealed.

1020
00:48:11,945 --> 00:48:16,160
When we kiss the icon and
we feel it touch our lips,

1021
00:48:16,160 --> 00:48:19,685
we're reminded that our
bodies too are holy,

1022
00:48:19,685 --> 00:48:21,890
that there's some transference,

1023
00:48:21,890 --> 00:48:25,950
there is a movement between
the holy and who we are.

1024
00:48:28,480 --> 00:48:30,950
The Incarnate Word
and the visual light.

1025
00:48:30,950 --> 00:48:33,450
In essence, the word and
the body are sacred,

1026
00:48:33,450 --> 00:48:37,315
so the profane is a leisure.

1027
00:48:37,315 --> 00:48:40,710
It is the dismemberment
of body and soul.

1028
00:48:40,710 --> 00:48:43,640
This separation becomes
signified in the splitting

1029
00:48:43,640 --> 00:48:46,565
of person and image such
as in the iconic class,

1030
00:48:46,565 --> 00:48:48,200
or in later colonial and

1031
00:48:48,200 --> 00:48:51,065
modern racial gender
constructions.

1032
00:48:51,065 --> 00:48:52,820
But for the reformers,

1033
00:48:52,820 --> 00:48:55,460
the sacred was bound to promise,

1034
00:48:55,460 --> 00:48:58,565
to word, to exhortation.

1035
00:48:58,565 --> 00:49:00,710
The sacred was something true

1036
00:49:00,710 --> 00:49:02,510
that hid beneath and all that we

1037
00:49:02,510 --> 00:49:06,065
see either pointed
toward sacred or away.

1038
00:49:06,065 --> 00:49:08,720
Everything is the tree
of good and evil.

1039
00:49:08,720 --> 00:49:11,510
You are on one side
or on the other.

1040
00:49:11,510 --> 00:49:13,835
To say that this
is indicative of

1041
00:49:13,835 --> 00:49:16,160
an anemic dualism is to miss

1042
00:49:16,160 --> 00:49:18,560
the reformers'
attempts to express

1043
00:49:18,560 --> 00:49:22,280
the truth of the earliest
disciples of Jesus saw in him.

1044
00:49:22,280 --> 00:49:24,215
That to see was to point,

1045
00:49:24,215 --> 00:49:26,585
taste, hear, to be touched.

1046
00:49:26,585 --> 00:49:28,670
Again, I'm not trying to
bag on the reformers.

1047
00:49:28,670 --> 00:49:30,065
They were doing the
best they could.

1048
00:49:30,065 --> 00:49:31,160
They thought they were being

1049
00:49:31,160 --> 00:49:34,550
faithful in a
certain kind of way.

1050
00:49:34,550 --> 00:49:38,210
But the reformers in focusing
on this word preached and

1051
00:49:38,210 --> 00:49:41,690
heard did not disperse
the visual economy.

1052
00:49:41,690 --> 00:49:45,920
Rather like shock waves moving
throughout these spaces,

1053
00:49:45,920 --> 00:49:48,320
the visual energy of
this economy becomes

1054
00:49:48,320 --> 00:49:49,925
inflicted through

1055
00:49:49,925 --> 00:49:53,015
the emerging protestant
cultural field,

1056
00:49:53,015 --> 00:49:54,980
into images for teaching,

1057
00:49:54,980 --> 00:49:57,020
into propaganda,
into architecture,

1058
00:49:57,020 --> 00:49:59,690
and geography, or
defacto theology,

1059
00:49:59,690 --> 00:50:01,070
the icon, but they did not

1060
00:50:01,070 --> 00:50:03,440
realize the icons that
they were creating.

1061
00:50:03,440 --> 00:50:04,760
Part of what we have to get

1062
00:50:04,760 --> 00:50:06,470
our sense of how
powerful this was,

1063
00:50:06,470 --> 00:50:08,120
is that now all of a sudden,

1064
00:50:08,120 --> 00:50:11,690
you don't need an image
because you have Mr. Smith who

1065
00:50:11,690 --> 00:50:13,430
holds himself so uprightly and

1066
00:50:13,430 --> 00:50:15,530
he's seems like such
a good Christian man.

1067
00:50:15,530 --> 00:50:16,670
He seems so kind,

1068
00:50:16,670 --> 00:50:19,685
and he never curses,
and he never drinks.

1069
00:50:19,685 --> 00:50:21,710
That's the image of Jesus.

1070
00:50:21,710 --> 00:50:29,310
[LAUGHTER] That is the
work of the reformation.

1071
00:50:29,470 --> 00:50:35,000
Writing some 400 years
later on the other side of

1072
00:50:35,000 --> 00:50:37,280
a world where bodies
had become indelibly

1073
00:50:37,280 --> 00:50:39,814
marked by race, gender,

1074
00:50:39,814 --> 00:50:42,275
nationality, and sexuality,

1075
00:50:42,275 --> 00:50:45,470
there Stuart Hall
would try to make

1076
00:50:45,470 --> 00:50:48,350
sense of just how
images in the media or

1077
00:50:48,350 --> 00:50:52,460
popular culture
functions to create and

1078
00:50:52,460 --> 00:50:54,740
maintain the meaning that

1079
00:50:54,740 --> 00:50:57,140
seemed to mark all of our lives.

1080
00:50:57,140 --> 00:50:59,510
He writes, the shaping
and reshaping of

1081
00:50:59,510 --> 00:51:02,420
space-time relationships
[NOISE] within

1082
00:51:02,420 --> 00:51:06,200
different discursive systems
of representation have

1083
00:51:06,200 --> 00:51:08,180
profound effects for how

1084
00:51:08,180 --> 00:51:10,925
identities are narrated
and understood.

1085
00:51:10,925 --> 00:51:15,455
All identities are located
in symbolic space and time.

1086
00:51:15,455 --> 00:51:19,235
Like sexuality, they take
place in the field of vision,

1087
00:51:19,235 --> 00:51:22,190
as Jacqueline Rose suggests
in her book of that name.

1088
00:51:22,190 --> 00:51:25,865
Envision always has its
spatial coordinates,

1089
00:51:25,865 --> 00:51:27,890
real or imaginary,

1090
00:51:27,890 --> 00:51:30,590
in a field or the
overall gestalt in

1091
00:51:30,590 --> 00:51:33,815
which the subject is
perceptually placed.

1092
00:51:33,815 --> 00:51:35,915
He goes on to say,

1093
00:51:35,915 --> 00:51:37,700
to say that all identities are

1094
00:51:37,700 --> 00:51:40,610
located or imagined
in symbolic space and

1095
00:51:40,610 --> 00:51:43,010
time is thus to say that we

1096
00:51:43,010 --> 00:51:45,830
can see cultural
identities as landscaped,

1097
00:51:45,830 --> 00:51:49,850
as having an imagined
place or symbolic home.

1098
00:51:49,850 --> 00:51:52,955
What Hall is pointing to here,

1099
00:51:52,955 --> 00:51:56,375
is the interrelationship
between images or bodies,

1100
00:51:56,375 --> 00:51:59,165
and the meanings that
get ascribed to them,

1101
00:51:59,165 --> 00:52:01,010
that ultimately constitute

1102
00:52:01,010 --> 00:52:03,455
cultural values and identities.

1103
00:52:03,455 --> 00:52:06,140
To put this in the
language of our evening,

1104
00:52:06,140 --> 00:52:08,660
Hall suggests there is
a visual economy that

1105
00:52:08,660 --> 00:52:12,035
shapes and is produced
by any given culture.

1106
00:52:12,035 --> 00:52:14,510
We all navigate these currents

1107
00:52:14,510 --> 00:52:15,800
because we see one another,

1108
00:52:15,800 --> 00:52:16,880
and we make assumptions and

1109
00:52:16,880 --> 00:52:18,590
classifications of one another.

1110
00:52:18,590 --> 00:52:20,330
Or as we see one another,

1111
00:52:20,330 --> 00:52:24,020
we're trying to process
who they are through

1112
00:52:24,020 --> 00:52:28,295
the notions of knowledge
that we see through them.

1113
00:52:28,295 --> 00:52:30,710
All the stuff is always
bouncing around,

1114
00:52:30,710 --> 00:52:33,170
and in a way this is
just given in our world,

1115
00:52:33,170 --> 00:52:34,250
you all say, "Duh, Dr. Brian,

1116
00:52:34,250 --> 00:52:36,230
this is 101." We all know this.

1117
00:52:36,230 --> 00:52:39,335
But in a way, it wasn't
always like this,

1118
00:52:39,335 --> 00:52:42,750
at least not in the ways
that we feel it today.

1119
00:52:43,360 --> 00:52:46,550
The Western resistance
to veneration does

1120
00:52:46,550 --> 00:52:49,775
not quite capture what
is it work in the East.

1121
00:52:49,775 --> 00:52:52,370
But there is an
underlying economy,

1122
00:52:52,370 --> 00:52:54,560
or in my way of thinking
a current visual reality

1123
00:52:54,560 --> 00:52:55,865
that shapes us,

1124
00:52:55,865 --> 00:52:59,840
and this economy or current
is not simply the icon,

1125
00:52:59,840 --> 00:53:02,795
but it is grounded
in the incarnation,

1126
00:53:02,795 --> 00:53:05,270
and perhaps we could say
that the incarnation is

1127
00:53:05,270 --> 00:53:08,090
itself a condensation of Israel,

1128
00:53:08,090 --> 00:53:11,540
itself as a particularity of
God's presence in the world.

1129
00:53:11,540 --> 00:53:13,700
That is to say,
God wants it to be

1130
00:53:13,700 --> 00:53:16,610
seen not simply in Jesus,

1131
00:53:16,610 --> 00:53:17,930
but already wanted to be

1132
00:53:17,930 --> 00:53:21,110
seen in Adam and Eve's
recognition of one another,

1133
00:53:21,110 --> 00:53:25,560
or even in this strange
people called Jews.

1134
00:53:25,630 --> 00:53:30,170
In a way, there was a
transposition away from union of

1135
00:53:30,170 --> 00:53:33,770
word and body encapsulated
in Catholic understanding.

1136
00:53:33,770 --> 00:53:35,525
This is my bad attempt to edit.

1137
00:53:35,525 --> 00:53:37,400
I worked so hard on this,

1138
00:53:37,400 --> 00:53:41,540
[LAUGHTER] so hard.
Hopefully, it'll make sense.

1139
00:53:41,540 --> 00:53:43,670
In a way, there is
a transposition

1140
00:53:43,670 --> 00:53:45,350
away from the union of

1141
00:53:45,350 --> 00:53:46,370
word and body that

1142
00:53:46,370 --> 00:53:49,325
encapsulated in Catholic
understandings of Eucharist.

1143
00:53:49,325 --> 00:53:51,740
But what I think
what's also permeated

1144
00:53:51,740 --> 00:53:54,725
Catholic understandings of
art and image more broadly,

1145
00:53:54,725 --> 00:53:57,620
that the visual could speak and

1146
00:53:57,620 --> 00:54:01,325
signal something of the
divine and draw us into it.

1147
00:54:01,325 --> 00:54:03,740
In the same way that
the Eucharist is

1148
00:54:03,740 --> 00:54:07,760
a holy mystery that we
see and taste, and touch,

1149
00:54:07,760 --> 00:54:10,070
and at the same time
has this reality

1150
00:54:10,070 --> 00:54:14,465
underneath it that we partake
in and participate in.

1151
00:54:14,465 --> 00:54:16,205
So to our any image,

1152
00:54:16,205 --> 00:54:19,310
all of these things
are possibilities.

1153
00:54:19,310 --> 00:54:21,710
The visual could
speak and signal

1154
00:54:21,710 --> 00:54:24,380
something divine and
draw us into it.

1155
00:54:24,380 --> 00:54:27,004
In a way, in the
Catholic visual economy,

1156
00:54:27,004 --> 00:54:29,750
there are a lot of
different markers.

1157
00:54:29,750 --> 00:54:32,495
There are a variety
of different markers.

1158
00:54:32,495 --> 00:54:34,040
But in the midst of

1159
00:54:34,040 --> 00:54:36,440
the Protestant
hesitancy over creating

1160
00:54:36,440 --> 00:54:41,600
visual images something
strange happens.

1161
00:54:41,600 --> 00:54:43,880
The Protestants didn't dissolve

1162
00:54:43,880 --> 00:54:46,655
this energy of image and body,

1163
00:54:46,655 --> 00:54:49,940
of this vital interrelationship
between what we see,

1164
00:54:49,940 --> 00:54:52,700
and feel, and hear in the world.

1165
00:54:52,700 --> 00:54:56,180
Instead, as Protestant pastors

1166
00:54:56,180 --> 00:54:59,360
and priests strip their
halls, and ornamentation,

1167
00:54:59,360 --> 00:55:02,000
and color pushed pulpits
to the center of

1168
00:55:02,000 --> 00:55:03,890
their sanctuaries
all for the sake of

1169
00:55:03,890 --> 00:55:06,380
centering the
spoken word of God,

1170
00:55:06,380 --> 00:55:09,845
they unwillingly
created a new icon,

1171
00:55:09,845 --> 00:55:11,420
the body of the preacher,

1172
00:55:11,420 --> 00:55:15,215
the one who speaks truth and
divide the word rightly.

1173
00:55:15,215 --> 00:55:17,090
In the reformation struggle

1174
00:55:17,090 --> 00:55:18,530
with the significance
of the image,

1175
00:55:18,530 --> 00:55:20,030
we see a distortion of

1176
00:55:20,030 --> 00:55:23,840
the body and its relationship
to Christian discipleship.

1177
00:55:23,840 --> 00:55:26,000
The icon is not the image,

1178
00:55:26,000 --> 00:55:28,955
but the preacher
in the pulpit is.

1179
00:55:28,955 --> 00:55:31,370
The economy of the icon

1180
00:55:31,370 --> 00:55:34,700
reverberates as a
relationship between his,

1181
00:55:34,700 --> 00:55:38,495
and I do mean his body
and a deeper truth.

1182
00:55:38,495 --> 00:55:41,405
His body becomes a mediator.

1183
00:55:41,405 --> 00:55:43,940
The window into which
the here somehow

1184
00:55:43,940 --> 00:55:47,375
gazes and must discern what
faithfulness looks like,

1185
00:55:47,375 --> 00:55:51,035
but also what it can
never look like.

1186
00:55:51,035 --> 00:55:53,780
While the legacy of men as

1187
00:55:53,780 --> 00:55:57,155
the sole authority in the
church is certainly not new,

1188
00:55:57,155 --> 00:55:59,480
I want to suggest that the
protestant reformation

1189
00:55:59,480 --> 00:56:00,590
is the introduction of

1190
00:56:00,590 --> 00:56:03,455
a patriarchal iconicity that

1191
00:56:03,455 --> 00:56:07,215
underlies the racism and
misogyny of the modern world.

1192
00:56:07,215 --> 00:56:10,090
Put differently, the
protestant reformation

1193
00:56:10,090 --> 00:56:11,890
subdued the varied
and expressive

1194
00:56:11,890 --> 00:56:14,950
possibilities of artists and
artistic [NOISE] image and

1195
00:56:14,950 --> 00:56:16,960
concentrated the iconic power of

1196
00:56:16,960 --> 00:56:19,660
the image into the
preacher himself.

1197
00:56:19,660 --> 00:56:21,580
Reifying his maleness as

1198
00:56:21,580 --> 00:56:26,350
the normative arbiter of
theological truth and judgment.

1199
00:56:26,350 --> 00:56:30,145
By dividing Christian life
from reflection upon images,

1200
00:56:30,145 --> 00:56:32,320
the Protestant tradition
was rendered even

1201
00:56:32,320 --> 00:56:35,240
more incapable of theologically

1202
00:56:35,240 --> 00:56:37,670
comprehending the difference
that they would encounter in

1203
00:56:37,670 --> 00:56:40,220
the world or within
its walls and

1204
00:56:40,220 --> 00:56:42,920
certainly more subject
to actually abusing

1205
00:56:42,920 --> 00:56:46,790
those differences in their
own theological constructs.

1206
00:56:46,790 --> 00:56:49,640
As we navigate a world
where differences of

1207
00:56:49,640 --> 00:56:52,070
embodiment seemed to
be proliferating,

1208
00:56:52,070 --> 00:56:53,810
and we continue to worship in

1209
00:56:53,810 --> 00:56:55,310
churches where women consist of

1210
00:56:55,310 --> 00:56:58,910
only 12 percent of lead
or soul pastoral roles,

1211
00:56:58,910 --> 00:56:59,960
and that number might even be

1212
00:56:59,960 --> 00:57:03,155
a little way, way actually.

1213
00:57:03,155 --> 00:57:05,900
Where a few churches
are led by pastors of

1214
00:57:05,900 --> 00:57:08,915
different race or ethnicity
than their congregation,

1215
00:57:08,915 --> 00:57:10,940
we have to begin
to account for how

1216
00:57:10,940 --> 00:57:13,130
these theological challenges are

1217
00:57:13,130 --> 00:57:16,055
not simply about
a wrong theology,

1218
00:57:16,055 --> 00:57:19,340
but also about the ways in
which our bodies speak and

1219
00:57:19,340 --> 00:57:23,450
how images are formative
within our Christian lives.

1220
00:57:23,450 --> 00:57:25,370
Our understanding
of Christian life

1221
00:57:25,370 --> 00:57:26,960
and imagining our
lives together,

1222
00:57:26,960 --> 00:57:28,820
it must begin to account for

1223
00:57:28,820 --> 00:57:31,085
the ways that we
see one another,

1224
00:57:31,085 --> 00:57:33,260
in ourselves as an
essential aspect

1225
00:57:33,260 --> 00:57:34,339
of Christian discipleship.

1226
00:57:34,339 --> 00:57:35,570
That is to say, if

1227
00:57:35,570 --> 00:57:38,315
our Christian life isn't
accounting for our sight,

1228
00:57:38,315 --> 00:57:40,130
our vision, not simply in

1229
00:57:40,130 --> 00:57:42,800
terms of things that we
should not be looking at.

1230
00:57:42,800 --> 00:57:44,750
But actually cite as

1231
00:57:44,750 --> 00:57:48,365
a vital means that draw
us into the divine,

1232
00:57:48,365 --> 00:57:49,910
turn us, and transform

1233
00:57:49,910 --> 00:57:52,205
us into reflections
of the divine,

1234
00:57:52,205 --> 00:57:55,320
our theology is decrepit.

1235
00:57:57,040 --> 00:57:59,870
What I am suggesting
here is more than

1236
00:57:59,870 --> 00:58:02,240
a question of representation

1237
00:58:02,240 --> 00:58:05,450
as some sort of politically
correct call to have

1238
00:58:05,450 --> 00:58:08,930
diverse faces in
prominent positions.

1239
00:58:08,930 --> 00:58:11,255
I'm not calling for tokenism.

1240
00:58:11,255 --> 00:58:14,540
At stake here is
something much deeper.

1241
00:58:14,540 --> 00:58:16,790
When we consider
the visuality of

1242
00:58:16,790 --> 00:58:18,800
our spaces, our institutions,

1243
00:58:18,800 --> 00:58:21,230
our classrooms, as not

1244
00:58:21,230 --> 00:58:24,560
simply representational
but as formational,

1245
00:58:24,560 --> 00:58:26,615
as doing the generative

1246
00:58:26,615 --> 00:58:29,300
transformational
work of the icon,

1247
00:58:29,300 --> 00:58:32,630
we begin to see everything
that happens in

1248
00:58:32,630 --> 00:58:36,005
our Christian spaces as
brimming with possibility,

1249
00:58:36,005 --> 00:58:38,960
of visualizing in declaring

1250
00:58:38,960 --> 00:58:42,755
the truth of what God
has done and is doing.

1251
00:58:42,755 --> 00:58:47,285
That the word has come into
the world and it's seen,

1252
00:58:47,285 --> 00:58:50,270
it's tasted, it's heard.

1253
00:58:50,270 --> 00:58:53,060
God becomes incarnate
in the world,

1254
00:58:53,060 --> 00:58:56,885
not through an idea
but through flesh,

1255
00:58:56,885 --> 00:58:58,970
through material, through color,

1256
00:58:58,970 --> 00:59:01,160
and sound, and smell.

1257
00:59:01,160 --> 00:59:03,530
The theology of the
icon is important,

1258
00:59:03,530 --> 00:59:06,005
not simply because it helps
us to understand whether

1259
00:59:06,005 --> 00:59:09,020
images should be allowed or
whether they're even useful.

1260
00:59:09,020 --> 00:59:10,970
That's not the point.

1261
00:59:10,970 --> 00:59:13,970
The theology of the
icon is reflective of

1262
00:59:13,970 --> 00:59:17,255
the fundamental truth
of our human existence.

1263
00:59:17,255 --> 00:59:20,540
We are shaped by what we see,

1264
00:59:20,540 --> 00:59:25,625
and what we see helps us to
create what is possible.

1265
00:59:25,625 --> 00:59:30,500
We are formed by our
sensual lives and

1266
00:59:30,500 --> 00:59:32,840
these senses constitute
what we believe

1267
00:59:32,840 --> 00:59:35,870
we are and what is
possible for us.

1268
00:59:35,870 --> 00:59:38,000
If we are to live
into the fullness of

1269
00:59:38,000 --> 00:59:41,435
God's purposes and
God's present Kingdom,

1270
00:59:41,435 --> 00:59:46,745
we cannot do it without
varied fines and bodies.

1271
00:59:46,745 --> 00:59:49,580
We need them not simply
to reflect the world as

1272
00:59:49,580 --> 00:59:52,310
it is but because without
these variations,

1273
00:59:52,310 --> 00:59:54,590
we fall into a
constant temptation

1274
00:59:54,590 --> 00:59:56,060
to stabilize the word of

1275
00:59:56,060 --> 01:00:00,695
God into singular,
domesticated shapes.

1276
01:00:00,695 --> 01:00:04,985
Every time my wife leads
worship or preaches,

1277
01:00:04,985 --> 01:00:08,195
she would have a young woman
approach her hesitantly,

1278
01:00:08,195 --> 01:00:10,715
usually with tears in her eyes.

1279
01:00:10,715 --> 01:00:14,045
She'll say, "your
are the first woman,

1280
01:00:14,045 --> 01:00:17,760
I've ever heard preach. "

1281
01:00:18,310 --> 01:00:20,675
Which is a baptism.

1282
01:00:20,675 --> 01:00:22,520
She realized, I've never

1283
01:00:22,520 --> 01:00:25,710
seen a woman baptize
someone before.

1284
01:00:29,050 --> 01:00:33,230
While Catholic theologies
of image certainly

1285
01:00:33,230 --> 01:00:37,670
stabilize the male priest
as a mediator of God.

1286
01:00:37,670 --> 01:00:41,630
They surround that image
with images of Mary,

1287
01:00:41,630 --> 01:00:43,850
with nuns, with the
Eucharistic table,

1288
01:00:43,850 --> 01:00:46,025
with statues, with rosary.

1289
01:00:46,025 --> 01:00:48,680
The Catholic aesthetic
as a mosaic of

1290
01:00:48,680 --> 01:00:51,020
bodies in material life that

1291
01:00:51,020 --> 01:00:53,120
transfers this visual economy of

1292
01:00:53,120 --> 01:00:56,315
God's work and life in
multiple directions,

1293
01:00:56,315 --> 01:00:58,475
in the very least.

1294
01:00:58,475 --> 01:01:00,680
But in the process refusal of

1295
01:01:00,680 --> 01:01:04,100
images and the emphasis
upon a disembodied word.

1296
01:01:04,100 --> 01:01:06,230
They transferred
the full weight of

1297
01:01:06,230 --> 01:01:08,180
this visual economy to

1298
01:01:08,180 --> 01:01:11,120
the preached word and
the one who preaches it.

1299
01:01:11,120 --> 01:01:12,830
In that field division,

1300
01:01:12,830 --> 01:01:14,405
we see men and women

1301
01:01:14,405 --> 01:01:16,880
inundated on a daily
and weekly basis

1302
01:01:16,880 --> 01:01:18,260
with images of the Word of

1303
01:01:18,260 --> 01:01:21,545
God embedded within a male body.

1304
01:01:21,545 --> 01:01:25,010
In the same way that the
circumscribes women's vision

1305
01:01:25,010 --> 01:01:26,705
of what is possible for them,

1306
01:01:26,705 --> 01:01:29,420
of God's life and
promises as sounding

1307
01:01:29,420 --> 01:01:32,165
in their voices
and their bodies.

1308
01:01:32,165 --> 01:01:34,220
This image also continually

1309
01:01:34,220 --> 01:01:37,220
reinforces the image
of men as authority,

1310
01:01:37,220 --> 01:01:39,290
as reflective of
something in God's life.

1311
01:01:39,290 --> 01:01:40,595
That is more true,

1312
01:01:40,595 --> 01:01:42,560
even despite the incongruence

1313
01:01:42,560 --> 01:01:44,510
of the males preachers words,

1314
01:01:44,510 --> 01:01:47,370
and so often his life.

1315
01:01:48,580 --> 01:01:54,740
By now, it should be clear
that I am advocating

1316
01:01:54,740 --> 01:01:56,570
for a theological argument of

1317
01:01:56,570 --> 01:02:00,395
varied images of Christian
life and embodiment.

1318
01:02:00,395 --> 01:02:02,060
Not only in our churches,

1319
01:02:02,060 --> 01:02:03,560
but throughout our institutions

1320
01:02:03,560 --> 01:02:05,555
and spaces of Christian life.

1321
01:02:05,555 --> 01:02:07,820
The most part, I don't
imagine that this is

1322
01:02:07,820 --> 01:02:10,130
a terribly controversial idea.

1323
01:02:10,130 --> 01:02:13,190
But as I hope has become clear,

1324
01:02:13,190 --> 01:02:16,460
the image is not simply
about different faces.

1325
01:02:16,460 --> 01:02:19,355
If we are to live into
disincarnation into

1326
01:02:19,355 --> 01:02:22,370
incarnational reality
of God's work and life,

1327
01:02:22,370 --> 01:02:24,065
in and among us,

1328
01:02:24,065 --> 01:02:27,185
we cannot look for
utilitarian images.

1329
01:02:27,185 --> 01:02:30,440
We must begin to develop and
live into a theological,

1330
01:02:30,440 --> 01:02:34,250
and spiritual understanding
of image and body.

1331
01:02:34,250 --> 01:02:36,560
We need a theology of the icon

1332
01:02:36,560 --> 01:02:38,330
that shapes our communal lives

1333
01:02:38,330 --> 01:02:40,100
together and begins to

1334
01:02:40,100 --> 01:02:43,160
enliven our understanding
of our body lives.

1335
01:02:43,160 --> 01:02:47,300
The question that
iconoclasm or I feel,

1336
01:02:47,300 --> 01:02:48,410
it was never about whether

1337
01:02:48,410 --> 01:02:50,765
images were appropriate or not.

1338
01:02:50,765 --> 01:02:54,350
They weren't contestations
of the visual.

1339
01:02:54,350 --> 01:02:55,910
There were contestations of

1340
01:02:55,910 --> 01:02:58,835
what bodies were for
and what they could be,

1341
01:02:58,835 --> 01:03:01,730
and what our lives
mean together.

1342
01:03:01,730 --> 01:03:04,190
How do we make sense
of this world that we

1343
01:03:04,190 --> 01:03:07,170
see in the midst of us?

1344
01:03:08,860 --> 01:03:12,380
Neither Luther nor Calvin nor

1345
01:03:12,380 --> 01:03:16,970
Zwingli could quell the
visuality of our lives together.

1346
01:03:16,970 --> 01:03:20,540
As we saw on Luther and climax
collaboration images could

1347
01:03:20,540 --> 01:03:24,020
even be redirected towards
the re-creation of icons,

1348
01:03:24,020 --> 01:03:27,545
as long as they weren't
technically being venerated.

1349
01:03:27,545 --> 01:03:30,050
But I wanted to close
our time with a question

1350
01:03:30,050 --> 01:03:32,120
that builds from Chranac,

1351
01:03:32,120 --> 01:03:35,270
where do the artists
fit in to this economy?

1352
01:03:35,270 --> 01:03:39,200
How might we invite them
to show us a way forward?

1353
01:03:39,200 --> 01:03:41,960
In world permeated by visuality,

1354
01:03:41,960 --> 01:03:43,370
should we not ask those

1355
01:03:43,370 --> 01:03:46,340
whose lives are intertwined
with this economy.

1356
01:03:46,340 --> 01:03:49,865
About what Christian
life might mean.

1357
01:03:49,865 --> 01:03:51,800
The artist is the one who

1358
01:03:51,800 --> 01:03:54,560
works in economies
of incarnation,

1359
01:03:54,560 --> 01:03:56,285
feeling, and seeing,

1360
01:03:56,285 --> 01:03:58,325
thinking the world around them,

1361
01:03:58,325 --> 01:04:00,170
drawing from the phenomenon of

1362
01:04:00,170 --> 01:04:02,375
their existence, of their faith,

1363
01:04:02,375 --> 01:04:03,770
they knit and paint,

1364
01:04:03,770 --> 01:04:05,870
and stitch or carve
something into

1365
01:04:05,870 --> 01:04:09,080
being that reflects what
they see in that moment.

1366
01:04:09,080 --> 01:04:10,700
Through the witness of artists,

1367
01:04:10,700 --> 01:04:12,680
we are encountered
with the holiness of

1368
01:04:12,680 --> 01:04:15,830
the world that artists see.

1369
01:04:15,830 --> 01:04:19,085
Permeating the distinction
between church and world,

1370
01:04:19,085 --> 01:04:21,590
sacred, and profane.

1371
01:04:21,590 --> 01:04:24,635
Artist Kerry James
Washington writes about

1372
01:04:24,635 --> 01:04:27,185
his work as an
artist in this way.

1373
01:04:27,185 --> 01:04:28,760
Perhaps you might hear some of

1374
01:04:28,760 --> 01:04:32,090
the resonances of the
theology of the icon.

1375
01:04:32,090 --> 01:04:34,070
There was a complicated exchange

1376
01:04:34,070 --> 01:04:35,780
within a painting between

1377
01:04:35,780 --> 01:04:37,414
the subject and the picture

1378
01:04:37,414 --> 01:04:39,785
and the subject who
views the picture.

1379
01:04:39,785 --> 01:04:43,130
The artist wants to set up
a negotiation between the

1380
01:04:43,130 --> 01:04:46,580
two in order to draw
attention to something.

1381
01:04:46,580 --> 01:04:48,770
What I want you
to be aware of in

1382
01:04:48,770 --> 01:04:51,215
these pictures is
the act of looking,

1383
01:04:51,215 --> 01:04:54,410
it's both the act of
looking and then locating

1384
01:04:54,410 --> 01:04:55,970
yourself and the relationship to

1385
01:04:55,970 --> 01:04:58,175
the subject you're looking at.

1386
01:04:58,175 --> 01:05:00,800
Washington's reflection
upon the nature

1387
01:05:00,800 --> 01:05:03,245
of his work should
sound a bit familiar.

1388
01:05:03,245 --> 01:05:06,530
In essence, Washington sees
his work as working with

1389
01:05:06,530 --> 01:05:08,780
an economy that is not unlike

1390
01:05:08,780 --> 01:05:12,200
Florensky's description that
we saw earlier in the paper.

1391
01:05:12,200 --> 01:05:16,130
The description of
Eastern theologies

1392
01:05:16,130 --> 01:05:18,020
of icon both understand

1393
01:05:18,020 --> 01:05:20,090
a continual interrelationship or

1394
01:05:20,090 --> 01:05:22,670
reciprocity between looking and

1395
01:05:22,670 --> 01:05:25,055
becoming, seeing and knowing.

1396
01:05:25,055 --> 01:05:28,820
The artist vocation, their
identity is grounded in

1397
01:05:28,820 --> 01:05:32,210
this interrelationship
between site and materiality.

1398
01:05:32,210 --> 01:05:34,550
There is no word
without incarnation.

1399
01:05:34,550 --> 01:05:36,260
There was no image
of God without

1400
01:05:36,260 --> 01:05:39,020
water and dirt and breath.

1401
01:05:39,020 --> 01:05:43,160
What is the artist but
a mediator of sorts,

1402
01:05:43,160 --> 01:05:47,465
one who stands between you
and another and conjures

1403
01:05:47,465 --> 01:05:49,520
something into existence that

1404
01:05:49,520 --> 01:05:52,310
requires you to see
yourself differently.

1405
01:05:52,310 --> 01:05:55,130
To acknowledge that you
are looking at something,

1406
01:05:55,130 --> 01:05:57,320
that you are in the
world and that you are

1407
01:05:57,320 --> 01:06:02,720
seen like a sermon or
reading scripture.

1408
01:06:02,720 --> 01:06:05,660
We are undone and knit together

1409
01:06:05,660 --> 01:06:08,810
again in ways that
are made possible

1410
01:06:08,810 --> 01:06:11,570
through the mediation
of this one

1411
01:06:11,570 --> 01:06:15,275
who stands and makes and
creates in our midst,

1412
01:06:15,275 --> 01:06:17,285
who walks with us,

1413
01:06:17,285 --> 01:06:19,385
who prays with us,

1414
01:06:19,385 --> 01:06:22,505
without the acknowledgment
that we are looking,

1415
01:06:22,505 --> 01:06:25,685
that we see is only a
glimpse of something,

1416
01:06:25,685 --> 01:06:26,900
that everything that we see is

1417
01:06:26,900 --> 01:06:28,760
only a glimpse of something.

1418
01:06:28,760 --> 01:06:32,599
Perhaps with all of
these varying images

1419
01:06:32,599 --> 01:06:36,440
that are getting created
again and again and again.

1420
01:06:36,440 --> 01:06:40,460
Perhaps our inclination
to stabilize the one we

1421
01:06:40,460 --> 01:06:45,620
see preaching might become
untethered a bit more.

1422
01:06:45,620 --> 01:06:48,920
What if we considered
pastoral ministry or teaching

1423
01:06:48,920 --> 01:06:51,530
or any aspect of our
Christian life as in

1424
01:06:51,530 --> 01:06:54,350
fact an artistic
exercise that is

1425
01:06:54,350 --> 01:06:57,980
always navigating the
economies of the visual.

1426
01:06:57,980 --> 01:07:00,200
Where our work is
something closer to

1427
01:07:00,200 --> 01:07:03,230
Ellen Gallagher's notion
of work where she says,

1428
01:07:03,230 --> 01:07:07,475
''I am interested in signs
not as static but as moving,

1429
01:07:07,475 --> 01:07:09,740
as things that start
with something that

1430
01:07:09,740 --> 01:07:11,825
has already been discarded.

1431
01:07:11,825 --> 01:07:13,790
I try to make my images

1432
01:07:13,790 --> 01:07:17,270
through the unruly
cracks in the edifice,

1433
01:07:17,270 --> 01:07:20,990
underneath which there is
something to be protected.''

1434
01:07:20,990 --> 01:07:24,380
The Christian life is like this.

1435
01:07:24,380 --> 01:07:26,960
An act of incarnation,

1436
01:07:26,960 --> 01:07:29,240
an act of recreation.

1437
01:07:29,240 --> 01:07:31,040
A life that resuscitates

1438
01:07:31,040 --> 01:07:33,950
the moments of our
coming into being.

1439
01:07:33,950 --> 01:07:36,260
The first breath drawn in by

1440
01:07:36,260 --> 01:07:38,795
those Earth creatures
so long ago.

1441
01:07:38,795 --> 01:07:43,445
Those who enfolded into
themselves Jahweh's identity,

1442
01:07:43,445 --> 01:07:45,560
into a people who would speak

1443
01:07:45,560 --> 01:07:48,725
this God's name into the world.

1444
01:07:48,725 --> 01:07:51,230
In the welcome of a
young Jewish woman

1445
01:07:51,230 --> 01:07:52,580
who said, how can this be,

1446
01:07:52,580 --> 01:07:55,760
and at the same time offered
herself to let it be

1447
01:07:55,760 --> 01:07:59,870
so and in a word made flesh,

1448
01:07:59,870 --> 01:08:02,750
a body, a life of
tastes and scents and

1449
01:08:02,750 --> 01:08:06,965
hope and sight to
see and be seen.

1450
01:08:06,965 --> 01:08:10,430
We might even say that
this is true of any woman,

1451
01:08:10,430 --> 01:08:16,040
of any LGBTQ person who
imagined a call to ministry.

1452
01:08:16,040 --> 01:08:19,040
Who imagined that in their gut,

1453
01:08:19,040 --> 01:08:21,110
in their mind, in their soul,

1454
01:08:21,110 --> 01:08:24,710
they had a word for people and

1455
01:08:24,710 --> 01:08:28,400
yet everything in
their space told them

1456
01:08:28,400 --> 01:08:30,305
that whatever word they had

1457
01:08:30,305 --> 01:08:32,600
was meaningless because
of the body that it was

1458
01:08:32,600 --> 01:08:35,960
contained within and
yet what do they

1459
01:08:35,960 --> 01:08:39,500
do through artistic incarnation,

1460
01:08:39,500 --> 01:08:44,330
a conjuring what do they
do but create a calling,

1461
01:08:44,330 --> 01:08:47,630
create a presence, incarnate

1462
01:08:47,630 --> 01:08:51,125
this word through
their pursuit of this.

1463
01:08:51,125 --> 01:08:55,790
Every woman who was
ordained is an artist,

1464
01:08:55,790 --> 01:08:59,269
is one with incarnated
a possibility

1465
01:08:59,269 --> 01:09:03,900
because no one showed her
that in her whole life.

1466
01:09:04,530 --> 01:09:08,875
The Christian body
is an iconic body.

1467
01:09:08,875 --> 01:09:13,510
It lives as the artist
lives and sees and creates,

1468
01:09:13,510 --> 01:09:17,920
creating a life with
constant recognition that

1469
01:09:17,920 --> 01:09:22,390
we are seen and yet what
we see is never exhausted,

1470
01:09:22,390 --> 01:09:26,125
never complete, never total.

1471
01:09:26,125 --> 01:09:30,100
The Protestant reformers
and their artisans,

1472
01:09:30,100 --> 01:09:33,415
perhaps afraid of
this sensuality

1473
01:09:33,415 --> 01:09:36,775
sought to obscure
image and likeness.

1474
01:09:36,775 --> 01:09:39,130
In many ways, the
cultural, political,

1475
01:09:39,130 --> 01:09:41,410
and economic conflict
we are embroiled

1476
01:09:41,410 --> 01:09:44,620
in in our moment can be
traced to the legacy of

1477
01:09:44,620 --> 01:09:48,335
Christianity that
fundamentally refused

1478
01:09:48,335 --> 01:09:52,790
the iconicity of our bodies
and built spiritualities,

1479
01:09:52,790 --> 01:09:56,300
institutions in ways
of imagining the world

1480
01:09:56,300 --> 01:10:00,080
that could be whole without
the material world,

1481
01:10:00,080 --> 01:10:04,505
without the particularities
of our bodies together.

1482
01:10:04,505 --> 01:10:07,280
They built churches,
lives, homes,

1483
01:10:07,280 --> 01:10:09,995
and nations that
were simply vessels.

1484
01:10:09,995 --> 01:10:12,560
While the truth, the word, hope,

1485
01:10:12,560 --> 01:10:16,220
and the spirit sat inside
waiting to be taken up

1486
01:10:16,220 --> 01:10:20,930
into an afterlife free of
these shells that we're in.

1487
01:10:20,930 --> 01:10:23,870
Like Adam and Eve
just after they ate

1488
01:10:23,870 --> 01:10:26,450
the fruit of the tree of
knowledge of good and evil,

1489
01:10:26,450 --> 01:10:28,550
our eyes are open,

1490
01:10:28,550 --> 01:10:31,670
but we do not
understand what we see.

1491
01:10:31,670 --> 01:10:35,690
We hide what is
beautiful too often

1492
01:10:35,690 --> 01:10:38,030
and we destroy the
material world

1493
01:10:38,030 --> 01:10:40,535
in our midst in
order to cover it.

1494
01:10:40,535 --> 01:10:44,270
But what if the economies
of visuality cannot be

1495
01:10:44,270 --> 01:10:48,950
obscured or hidden or
smashed into bits?

1496
01:10:48,950 --> 01:10:50,990
What if visuality is

1497
01:10:50,990 --> 01:10:55,205
an inevitable reality in
the world that we live in,

1498
01:10:55,205 --> 01:11:00,185
imbued with consciousness
and love and hope.

1499
01:11:00,185 --> 01:11:03,935
How do we respond to
this world of color,

1500
01:11:03,935 --> 01:11:08,450
to texture, to hue, to shade?

1501
01:11:08,450 --> 01:11:10,370
If we're to begin to see

1502
01:11:10,370 --> 01:11:12,560
the kingdom of God
more truthfully.

1503
01:11:12,560 --> 01:11:14,870
If we are to become
a people who can see

1504
01:11:14,870 --> 01:11:17,825
wholeness of our
bodies and lives.

1505
01:11:17,825 --> 01:11:19,850
Who can see difference
and not fear

1506
01:11:19,850 --> 01:11:23,180
it or silence it
or disregard it.

1507
01:11:23,180 --> 01:11:25,940
If we are to become
true images of God,

1508
01:11:25,940 --> 01:11:30,260
perhaps we all need the
artists to be our priests,

1509
01:11:30,260 --> 01:11:34,535
so that we might embrace the
artistic as a Jesus way,

1510
01:11:34,535 --> 01:11:37,430
and incarnational
and incarnating

1511
01:11:37,430 --> 01:11:40,610
life with God and
with one another.

1512
01:11:40,610 --> 01:12:08,510
Thank you. [APPLAUSE]

1513
01:12:08,510 --> 01:12:09,530
Good afternoon.

1514
01:12:09,530 --> 01:12:11,240
That was wonderful.

1515
01:12:11,240 --> 01:12:13,175
At this time,

1516
01:12:13,175 --> 01:12:18,620
I'd like to bestow upon
you the medallion which

1517
01:12:18,620 --> 01:12:21,590
every weird lecturer gets to

1518
01:12:21,590 --> 01:12:42,860
wear with their academic
regalia [LAUGHTER]

1519
01:12:42,860 --> 01:12:44,810
[APPLAUSE] I also have
a letter for you.

1520
01:12:44,810 --> 01:12:47,510
You would think the
check would be in here

1521
01:12:47,510 --> 01:12:50,210
[LAUGHTER] but you'll be

1522
01:12:50,210 --> 01:12:53,480
receiving an honorarium of
$1,500 in your next paycheck,

1523
01:12:53,480 --> 01:12:57,510
so thank you.

1524
01:12:57,510 --> 01:13:03,905
[APPLAUSE] At this time,

1525
01:13:03,905 --> 01:13:05,630
I'm sure that Dr.
Bantum would be happy

1526
01:13:05,630 --> 01:13:07,430
to answer any questions
that you have,

1527
01:13:07,430 --> 01:13:10,385
we'll be up here when
the lecture is over.

1528
01:13:10,385 --> 01:13:12,665
We have some refreshments
up there for you.

1529
01:13:12,665 --> 01:13:13,940
Thank you so much for

1530
01:13:13,940 --> 01:13:15,665
coming tonight and we
really appreciate it.

1531
01:13:15,665 --> 01:13:18,110
We had such a great
time with Dr. Bantum.

1532
01:13:18,110 --> 01:13:25,662
Thank you so much. [APPLAUSE]