Howard Finster: The Ordinary And Sacred

 “As for me, I’m just passin’ through this planet.”
— Howard Finster

Before my recent visit to Baltimore’s American Visionary Art Museum (AVAM), I had never heard of Howard Finster. Now, I know exactly how much I was missing.

If one tried to build a Howard Finster museum, it would have to be a pretty big building: in his creative lifetime, Finster finished over 47,000 numbered pieces, not including some early sculptures and art created during his childhood in rural Georgia. Finster’s art is hard to put in a category; he himself called it folk art, and placed himself as the head of the “Folk Art Church,” but others consider it important outsider and visionary art. Finster was an artist and craftsman before a visionary experience in 1976 in which he heard a voice that called him to create sacred art; from there, it was off the races. A 1983 Tonight Show appearance made him a national celebrity, featured in exhibitions in New York galleries and important museums, and his art even appeared on album covers by R.E.M and the Talking Heads.

4344793086_164a175dcdAirships, airplanes, cars, UFOs, trucks, castles… heaven looks pretty fun.

AVAM’s collection of Finster pieces is absolutely delightful; angels cavort, women pick fruit, clouds smile, sinners fall into the flames of Hell, workers build pyramid-temple mansions in Heaven, all surrounded by breathless, all-capitals preaching in quick, defined black ink. Finster’s voice is encouraging, apocalyptic, sure; his subject matter covers literally everything from George Washington to the bowels of Hell to Coca-Cola bottles, Cadillacs and Elvis Presley. The entire world was inspiration for Finster, it seemed, and he could use anything as a jumping-off point for a faith-filled statement or a religious revelation. A 1978 painting called “All Roads One Road Headed The Same Way,” showing Baptists, Methodists, “odd fellows” and “Presbeterians” all headed for the yellow-green, marble temples of heaven. His landscapes are surreal, real, fantastic and sci-fi all at the same time.

finster5Labels: “I SUFFER WITH ALL WHO SUFFER”, “THE RICH AND THE POOR GO IN MY BOOK ON THE SAME PAGE”,
“I SEEK TO HELP ALL UNBELIEVERS IN GOD”, “THERE IS NO LIVING THING THAT IS LEFT OUT OF MY DAILY PRAYERS”

One of my favorite things about Finster is his incessant labeling of everything in his paintings; you can almost hear his voice even if you’ve never heard it before, encouraging you to see things his way, to repent, to be catholic-with-a-small-c, to take an ordinary tree or person or bottle or button and find something sacred about it.

4344790830_7c5744ddbc(The tour guide at AVAM said that Finster would create these and hand them out on the street for people to color in.)

Take a look around you next time you’re out. What do the ordinary things around you say about your own faith? What would you say if you were Howard Finster?

(I could spend hours chronicling the current exhibit at the American Visionary Art Museum, so we’re going to visit the artists there until mid-August, when the exhibit, called St. Francis to Finster, closes. Coming up: the artwork of Unarius and the mindscapes of Ingo Swann. Don’t miss it!)

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photo credit: Howard Finster Folk Art at the Krannert Art Museum (12) via photopin (license)
photo credit: Howard Finster Folk Art at the Krannert Art Museum (36) via photopin (license)

Supernatural: An Absent God

castiel

“Hell […] is the absence of God and the presence of Time.” — Glen Duncan

At times, recent Supernatural episodes seem like they’re ticking off all of the Judeo-Christian boxes they can: Angels. Demons. Purgatory. Heaven. Hell. Cain and Abel. The only thing they haven’t done is resurrect St. Paul and the Thessalonians. (I admit; sometimes it makes me roll my eyes, which is why I don’t usually accept Supernatural-esque stories for Third Order unless they say something new.) Look behind the metaphysical trappings and CGI, however, and you might miss what I think is the most fascinating fact about the Supernatural universe:

God has left the building.

The God of Supernatural is alternatively characterized by the show to be the same Judeo-Christian greeting-card God we’re all familiar with — fatherly, kind, a divine Santa Claus — crossed with the stern teacher of the Old Testament. (There are other, smaller gods in Supernatural, but most are malevolent, and none seem to have the same creative power as the God of Heaven.) None of the angels know why he left, or when he’ll be back, or if he’ll even return. The God of Supernatural is a deserter for some reason, the Earth of Supernatural closer to Nietsczhe’s ideals than C.S. Lewis‘s. The angels of Supernatural are pining away with the loss of God, unable to come to terms with the gaping hole in their lives without the free will given to humans; the fallen angels are using it as an opportunity to get what they wanted the entire time (souls, evil, etc., etc). Of course, our heroes Sam and Dean Winchester find themselves in the center of it all. Without God, chaos reigns. God is still a character even though they cannot see him, feel him, speak with him, or more.

350px-AngelNaomi
Angels are apparently Goa’uld. Tee hee.

The absence of God is a very interesting narrative choice for the series, and it mirrors both the absence and abandonment felt by Sam and Dean and capitalizes, I think, on the sense of the “absent God” many see in the world today. God used to speak through signs and prophets; now, in a time with natural disasters, wars, terrorism, blood shed on beaches and churches and mosques assaulted and burned, it’s not always easy for believers to see the presence of God in their lives — so important to a believer! — in times of sickness or suffering. But they’re not the only ones who feel it. Jesus asked why God had abandoned him on the cross; Mother Teresa did not feel God’s presence for the last 40 years of her life, despite her devotion; St. John of the Cross coined the term “dark night of the soul.” But even in his silence, God is still a major influence in all their lives; they keep writing, praying, believing in hope, just like Sam and Dean continue “on the road.” Perhaps God’s absence is something a believer needs at some point in his or her life.


Over one hour of the poetry of St. John of the Cross. Cheers for YouTube.

I think, at this point, Supernatural‘s endgame has to be the return of God, an explanation of sorts for his absence with some kind of confrontation or answers for Sam and Dean. Let’s continue to hope that everyone out there faced with a silent Divine (and hating it!) finds some sort of measure of comfort and answers.

(Of course, if you’re a Supernatural super-fan, you might have your own ideas as to the identity of God and his purpose in the world… only click on that link if you enjoy spoilers! We’ll get into that down the line!)

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Books: A CASE OF CONSCIENCE by James Blish

caseofconscience

A Case of Conscience is the book that got me into thinking about how speculative fiction could link up with religion, and it’s the first book many people think about when they talk about how religion interfaces with speculative fiction.

It tells the tale of Father Ramon Ruiz-Sanchez, a Jesuit scientist and biologist/biochemist, who is one of a four-man team studying the planet Lithia. On Lithia lives a utopian society: the native Lithians have no war, poverty, or conflict of any kind, but they also have no religion, no concept of God or of faith at all. For Ruiz-Sanchez, who follows Catholic teaching, reconciling this fact leads him to something that he sees as an inescapable conclusion — since the definition of hell is the absence of God, a state chosen by Lucifer during the Fall, the Lithians must be creations of Satan. Ruiz-Sanchez is supported in this belief by the observation that Lithia is a place meant to convince humanity that moral and ethical decisions can be made in absence of God, a position which Ruiz-Sanchez’s espoused Catholicism stands staunchly against. What shall he do about it?

170px-Cover_If_195309First publishing.

Ruiz-Sanchez’s conviction calls back to the ancient conflict between the Persian religion of Manichaeism and the theologians of early Christianity. Manichaeism — which would end up being classified as a heresy by the Catholic Church — taught that the cosmos was a dualistic conflict between a god of light and a god of darkness. Painting Satan as a being equal to God, with creative powers of his own, the hallmark of the teachings of Mani, capitalizes on the confusion and duality Ruiz-Sanchez feels himself: can the Lithians teach their incredible peace to humanity, or should they be cut off from Earth forever to save humanity? Would human sin ruin the Lithians? Should it?

manichaeanprayerwheelPart of a Manichaean prayer wheel

The novel, reworked from an earlier novella and a winner of the 1959 Hugo award for best novel, touches on a number of interesting topics. The disrespectful attitude of politicians and scientists towards Lithia, its natural resources and its people echoes the attitudes of historical western imperialists eager to plunder the New World for gold and slaves; likewise, the human culture in which the Lithian child Egtverchi is raised and wreaks havoc remains a sinister mirror of the Cold War rhetoric Blish was living through at the time. It is also good to remember that this book was also written before the reforms of Vatican II and only eight years after Pope Pius XII’s Humani Generis declared that there wasn’t necessarily conflict between evolution and faith (and decades before the 1996 declaration by Pope John Paul II that human evolution was accepted by the Church).

Most interesting to today’s society, however, is the question of whether morality can exist without the guidance and presence of God. Catholicism is firm on the subject: God is the source of all that is and all that is moral and true. Ruiz-Sanchez would say no; many atheists and agnostics would say yes; many Christian faithful may not be able to provide an answer. It’s certainly evident that many people who do not believe in God still believe in human kindness, in rights for all, in love and in family. It is also certainly evident that wars have been fought in the name of God and religion. If secular morality lines up with Christian thought — love for the neighbor, love for the poor– is it truly devoid of God? Did Ruiz-Sanchez have to worry at all — or, in today’s secular society, would he have considered his nightmare to have come true?

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Support Sacred Earthlings by purchasing A Case For Conscience by James Blish through the link above!

More on this topic:
James Blish @ The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
Kirkus: The Big Ideas of James Blish
The Templeton Gate: The Works of James Blish
The Gnostic Society: Manichaean Writings

World Religion: Christianity

christianity

“Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.” — St. Augustine of Hippo

Christianity, one of the three major Abrahamic religions, developed out of Judaism in the early first century C.E., and quickly spread throughout the ancient world, becoming the official state religion of the Roman Empire in 380 C.E. Christianity developed into a major influence in the Western world, and remains so today.

“Want to keep Christ in Christmas? Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, forgive the guilty, welcome the unwanted, care for the ill, love your enemies, and do unto others as you would have done unto you.”- Steve Maraboli

Christians follow the teachings of Jesus Christ, a preacher and prophet who lived in Roman-occupied Judea in the early first century C.E. During his life, Jesus preached God’s love for mankind, God’s love for the poor and unloved, a salvation that does not take into account race, class or station; love of the neighbor and the coming of the Kingdom of God on Earth. In his early thirties, Jesus was arrested by the Roman governor and executed outside Jerusalem through crucifixion; followers believe that this was God’s great saving act, and he rose from the dead three days later in fulfillment of the promises of ancient Jewish prophets such as Isaiah.

10325803196_1c9a4b91deOrthodox Christians with an icon.

If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved (Romans 10:9).

Currently, there are over 2.4 billion Christians in the world, adhering to thousands of individual sects and divisions; the three largest are the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church and the many Protestant branches. Beliefs regarding grace, Biblical interpretation, free will, original sin, the nature of Communion, and the sacraments differ greatly between these faiths, although all Christians basically believe that Jesus was both the prophesied Messiah and the divine Son of God, and that belief in Jesus is necessary for salvation and eternal life. Christians generally celebrate Communion, or the Eucharist, in remembrance of Jesus’ death and resurrection. While Catholics and some Orthodox divisions believe that Communion is the real presence of God, Protestants generally do not and celebrate it more as a memorial.

7641762082_becab6428aOutdoor Evangelical Christian preacher.

If we believe that Jesus died and rose again . . . so shall we ever be with the Lord (I Thessalonians 4: 14,17).

Central among Christian teaching is the Trinity; the central role of sacraments; the importance of the Eucharist; the promise of eternal life for the faithful; the baptism of adherents; love for and service to the poor; apostolic succession; and the importance of both grace and good works.

“I didn’t go to religion to make me happy. I always knew a bottle of Port would do that. If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don’t recommend Christianity.”– C.S. Lewis

More information on Christianity:

Christianity @ Religious Tolerance
Women in Ancient Christianity: FrontlineOfficial Site of The Vatican
The Orthodox Church in America
Patheos: What is Evangelical Christianity?

photo credit: The Cloisters – NY via photopin (license)
photo credit: 17 октября 2013, Именины митрополита Санкт-Петербургского и Ладожского Владимира via photopin (license)
photo credit: 2012 Festival of the Arts Grand Rapids Sunday June 03, 2012 6 via photopin (license)

About Sacred Earthlings

abouttop

Sacred Earthlings is a blog where faith and religion crosses with science fiction and fantasy. The blog is associated with Third Order, a webzine publishing speculative fiction on the first of every month.

You’ll find a lot to think about here, from analysis to book reviews, interviews with authors and thinkers, writing tips, current events, connections to fictional religions, news, and more. Sacred Earthlings is the kind of blog that might examineJedi celibacy, connects Cersei’s big walk in A Dance With Dragons with the Internet shame spiral, talks about Pope Francis’ new encyclical, explores the Vedas and aggregates all of the short stories we can find where Jesuits meet extraterrestrials in some fashion.

On Sacred Earthlings, we’re catholic with a small ‘c’ — all faiths and religions start from the same point, and their followers are respected, not criticized or bashed. We’re interested in how people believe, why people believe, and what people believe; we’re not interested in punishing or putting down people or their beliefs. We’re interested in how beliefs are expressed and examined, both in real life and in fiction. We read and write about religion in speculative fiction as a mirror and a lens, and for its own sake to wonder what the Creator might have in store for us in the worlds beyond our own. All earthlings are wonderful and important!

Sacred Earthlings is run by Karen Osborne, a writer, filmmaker and photographer from Baltimore, MD.

photo credit: via photopin (license)