MLitt curriculum
Master of Letters in Theology, Imagination and the Arts
This exciting new masters programme was launched in September 2008. Students will take three modules taught by ITIA staff (see details below) and write a 15000 word dissertation on a topic to be agreed in consultation with their appointed supervisor. The programme is designed to provide a broad based introduction to postgraduate work in the field of theology and the arts. As well as constituting a convenient self-contained programme of study, this MLitt is intended as a natural preparation for those intending to pursue doctoral research in this field.
The three taught modules provide an appropriate grounding in broad questions of rationale and method (why bring Christian theology and the arts together at all, and how might it helpfully be done?), as well as an opportunity to earth methodology in the exploration of more focused and concrete issues. The dissertation is a piece of independent research, conducted under the guidance of a supervisor, and providing a chance to explore a particular topic or question in greater depth and in a sustained fashion.
The modules for the coming academic year (2011-12) are as follows:
- Theological Engagements with the Arts: Rationales, Methods and Texts (Prof Trevor Hart & Dr Gavin Hopps , Semester 1 )
- Christian Doctrine and the Arts (Prof David Brown, Semester 1)
- Religious Experience and Aesthetic Theory (Prof David Brown, Semester 2)
(The dissertation is supervised and written during Semester 2, and must be completed by the end of August 2012.)
Module 1: Theological Engagements with the Arts: Rationales, Methods and Texts
The arts are central to most human cultures, and are widely valued as an important and enriching part of our existence together as creatures in God’s world. But what exactly are ‘the arts’ anyway? What precisely is it that they do? and (crucially) what merit might there be in engaging with them theologically? Protestant Christians in particular have, typically, been somewhat reticent about the usefulness of such engagement, and have found it difficult to articulate a positive theological perspective on human artistry, or (sometimes) a place for artists in the life of the community of faith. Today there is a burgeoning interest in the arts among theologians and biblical scholars across the denominational and theological spectrum. But this takes many different forms and proceeds in some rather divergent directions, some of which may turn out to be more promising and fruitful than others. Therefore, discernment must certainly be exercised.
This module will begin to open up some of the issues at stake in a distinctly theological approach to artistry and the arts. We will explore some common reasons for theological suspicion of the arts, consider some different ways in which an engagement between the two spheres may be approached, and enquire whether or not Christian theology properly affords a generous environment for the flourishing of artistry. Through engagement with texts, lecture materials and the views of others in the class, students will be encouraged to form their own distinct perspective on these questions.
- What are ‘the arts’? – a conversation with modernity
Some things are so familiar to us that it never occurs to us to stop and ask questions about them. Because it is likely that most members of the class will already have an informed grasp of the nature of theology and its peculiar concerns, our opening session will concentrate primarily on our habitual (but possibly unconsidered) uses of the terms ‘art’ and ‘the arts’. Philosopher Nicholas Wolterstorff (drawing on works by Oskar Kristeller and André Malraux) draws attention helpfully to some ways in which much popular talk about ‘the arts’ today is bound up with peculiarly modern (Western) conceptions about what the arts are and are for. We shall reckon with these conceptions, evaluate their appropriateness, and take stock of the risks involved in reading them into other historical and cultural contexts where they do not belong.
Why do we seem to want to attach the label ‘art’ to some things while insisting that others are ‘not-art’? There’s little doubt that we draw this distinction in one way or another on a regular basis; but is there any basis for drawing it in reality, or are we simply expressing judgements of value based on personal or communal taste? In answering this question, it has been common for appeal to be made to some sort of ‘power’ which works of art are held to possess, a power which equally commonly attracts language of a pseudo- or semi-religious sort. The arts, we may be told, put us directly in touch with the deeper reality of things, transport us into a transcendent realm, generate a sense of the spiritual, and so on. Theologians have sometimes been uncertain what to make of such claims. Sometimes they have been hostile and dismissive in their approach to them. There are certainly important questions of discernment to be asked and answered here, for it seems that for many in the ‘Godless’ and ‘disenchanted’ eras of modernity and post-modernity, the arts are to be acclaimed as a worthy heir to faith’s erstwhile role as the furnisher of a vision and values in accordance with which human life may be lived. What should Christian theology make of this, and how might it respond? . Critic John Carey provides a probing and often humorous challenge to confident talk about the ‘power’ of the arts, as well as posing an interesting question about the need for a properly theological basis for human talk about art and aesthetic values.
- Is there a need for a distinctly Christian aesthetic?
In her essay ‘Towards a Christian Aesthetic’ (1944), Dorothy L. Sayers (author of the Lord Peter Wimsey murder mysteries, as well as a critic and a commentator on religious themes and current affairs) complained that despite Christian theology’s careful and sustained engagement with such intellectual disciplines as philosophy, economics, history and the natural sciences, no consistent attempt had ever been made to relate an aesthetic to ‘the central Christian dogmas’. So far as a reasoned account of human artistry and the arts was concerned, she suggested, ‘one feels that it would probably have developed along precisely the same lines had there never been an Incarnation to reveal the nature of God – that is to say, the nature of all truth’. Sayers herself had a stab at the task, with mixed results as we shall see. But why should there be a distinctly Christian aesthetic at all? And if there is, what shape might such an aesthetic take?
As we have already noted, people will often insist that the arts have some close and perhaps essential link to things ‘spiritual’. This term and its cognates are generally used in a fairly vague way in this connection, but the basic idea is that through participation in the arts (whether as artists or those who receive what artists have made) we are in touch with something more than merely fleshly; some sphere of values or meanings or truths that elevate us above the materiality of daily life. Thus, some artists speak of a ‘spirituality’ or ‘sacrality’ attendant upon what they do. And consumers of art regularly refer to some communication of ‘transcendence’ or ‘presence’. Art, some have claimed, has finally to do with the same realities as religious faith. Exposure to or participation in the arts, therefore, might even be held to be a route to encounter with God. The arts are, of course, thoroughly earthed in the senses, the world of the ‘flesh’. This ‘amphibious’ quality of the arts has led some to apply to them the theological category of ‘sacrament’, albeit now in a revised and generalised version. Nonetheless, the claim is made that through our bodily engagement with the arts, we may reasonably expect to find ourselves in a place where God may be encountered. In this session we shall consider this claim as it arises in the recent work of David Brown and Frank Burch Brown, and explore its relationship to the classic Christian doctrines of creation, the incarnation and redemption.
If the arts do indeed have some particular capacity or quality which lends itself to God’s engagement with us, then it should not surprise us to find art of one sort or another at the centre of acts of worship, and prominent in the spaces we set aside for worship. That we need to tread very carefully indeed at this point, though, is indicated by the furore which erupted at the Reformation, resulting in some excessive and aesthetically regrettable acts of vandalism to be sure, but rooted in serious theological concerns about particular artistic practices and uses of art in the late Medieval church. In this session we shall begin to get to grips with what it was that drove this broad Protestant drift in the direction of ‘iconoclasm’, and ask whether it went too far. What justification, if any, might there be for restoring the arts at the heart of worship? And how might the arts be involved more broadly in providing part of the ‘habitus’ within which Christian faith and discipleship are nurtured?
- Works of art as texts of theology
In this session we shall be reckoning with some claims that may be unfamiliar. First, we shall consider Richard Viladesau’s claim that works of art may themselves be ‘texts of’ theology; viz, that certain works might be considered to ‘do’ theology in some identifiable sense. This doesn’t fit with our habitual use of the term ‘theology’, perhaps, but it is an important claim and we must take it seriously. It may help us to think differently about what counts as ‘theology’. We shall certainly want to discuss what it is, if anything, that the arts may have to offer theologically which may not be available in other ways. In that context we shall approach the arts as furnishing one important stream of a living Christian tradition, a form of life in which the Gospel is interpreted, represented and ‘performed’ in practices of one sort or another. Central to this tradition, of course, is the interpretation of Scripture, and we shall be thinking in particular about the ways in which the arts might be shaped by and in turn duly shape readings of biblical texts.
Great artists always do more than reflect the spirit of their age, but they never do less. Despite its aspirations to transcend the merely mundane and the given in one way or another, art cannot escape the ties that bind it to history. Like the rest of us, it remains earthed solidly in the particularities and contingencies of time and space, and the modifications of human sensibility that correspond to those. According to Richard Viladesau, works of art can serve not only as ‘texts of’ theology, but equally as ‘texts for’ theology, precisely inasmuch as they furnish concrete ‘expressions of the human situation’ in different times and places. In this session we shall link this claim to Erwin Panofsky’s notion of an ‘iconological’ approach to art, and – considering some examples together – ask just what Christian theology may have to gain from such an approach.
- Modelling Christian doctrine – examples from the arts
According to Jeremy Begbie, careful engagement with the arts (in his own case, chiefly music) can ‘serve to enrich and advance theology, extending our wisdom about God, God’s relation to us and to the world at large’. The way in which Begbie himself does this invites the reader, in his own words, ‘to engage with music in such a way that central doctrinal loci are explored, interpreted, re-conceived and articulated. … (U)nfamiliar themes are opened up, familiar topics exposed and negotiated in fresh and telling ways, obscure matters – resistant to some modes of understanding – are clarified, and distortions of theological truths avoided and even corrected’ (Theology, Music and Time, 5). In this session we shall look at some ways in which Begbie uses musicological material to benefit constructive theology in this way, and consider a parallel in the recent work of Kevin Vanhoozer, appealing to models from drama.
In this session we shall reflect on three ways of thinking about art’s relation to the world: as mimetic, as symbolic, and as creative. We shall reckon in particular with ‘strong’ readings of the notion of art as creativity, where the parallel is traced in some manner with God’s own creative relation to the world. J. R. R. Tolkien, for instance, developed an account of artistry as ‘sub-creation’, a category designed both to differentiate artistic creativity from God’s, but equally to insist on ‘creation’ as an appropriate metaphor for what the artist does. Others have been less sanguine, wanting to avoid any suggestion that the divine copyright on the cosmos might be breached by acts of human ‘counter-creativity’, a description coined by George Steiner to refer to the Promethean spirit of many of modernism’s artistic engagements with the given world. Again, we shall ask what the theologian might have to say in this conversation. What is ‘creation’ in theological terms, and can an account of art as ‘creativity’ be accommodated within a Christian account of our place as creatures in God’s world?
- Putting the arts in their place
There’s no doubt that many people get a lot of enjoyment from participation in the arts. But is there anything more to artistry than the provision of pleasure for those fortunate enough to have access to it, whether as practitioners or as consumers? Just how important are the arts when set in the context of the Gospel? Could art be a matter of indulgent fiddling while Rome burns, or should it be viewed as part and parcel of God’s redemptive engagement with the world through human action? Do the arts matter to God, and if so how? In this session we shall consider three distinct views of the matter (those of Abraham Kuyper, C. S. Lewis and Rowan Williams) and attempt to sketch the broad contours of a Christian ‘theological aesthetic’ – viz, one which not only takes fully into account but is itself an outworking of core Christian doctrines about trinity, creation, incarnation and redemption.
Module 2: Christian Doctrine and the Arts
In this module various Christian doctrines will be explored both in their own right and in relation to their presentation by one or more of the arts. Partly because of ease of study individual paintings and poetry will be most often used, but some attention will also be given to cinema, music and novels. Although some background knowledge would be an advantage, no formal training or qualifications in either theology or the arts will be assumed, not least because it is unlikely that entrants will be qualified in both disciplines. In considering each topic, some background material to the various ways in which the issue has been, and is being, explored in theology will be provided and evaluated, before attention turns to various alternative presentations in the history of the arts. Art will be taken seriously as a theological exercise in its own right, rather than merely illustrative of what has been resolved elsewhere. Attention will also be given to the various ways in which artists seek to engage the viewer. Teaching will be in small seminar classes, and there will be ample opportunity for lively debate and discussion. By the end of the module students should have a good outline understanding of the history of Christianity and the arst in certain key areas.
Indication of the type of issues to be explored each week is provided by the list below. But note that not all topics will necessarily be on offer each year.
Part A: The Wider Setting
In this first part of the module some more general issues will be addressed with Christological examples used by way of illustration, while in Part B the process will be reversed with the theology of specific Christological doctrines treated first before their treatment in art is explored.
- Image, Metaphor, Symbol
What is the relation between enacted symbol, verbal metaphor and visual image on the one hand and on the other the original on which any one of these may be based? Is it illustrative, explorative, or even epistemological? How weak or strong are the parallels between sacraments, poetry and art? Can similar techniques be identified in Scripture?
Some general theories of symbol and sacrament will be explored to see which are likely to be most fruitful in casting light upon the nature of metaphor in poetry and image in art. In addition to examples from specific paintings and poems, some biblical writing will also be considered such as the Wedding at Cana and Jesus’ Baptism.
Given that a novel, film or painting are seldom literally true, is there any other sense in which they can be held to be true? If there is such a thing as imaginative truth, is it necessarily always subordinate to, and dependent upon, more literal versions? Is something lost in the process of translation and, if so, what?
Here treatments of the Nativity in film, poetry and art will be used to explore the issues, in particular changing treatments of the way in which the shepherds and wise men are treated across the centuries.
- Imagination and Engagement
What techniques are employed to encourage the interest of reader or viewer in the Christian story? How are we to assess the rival merits of identifying directly with Christ and using another of the characters in the drama as an intermediary? Do such considerations help to explain the development of Mary Magdalene’s persona to include other female figures in the gospels?
Largely thanks to Pope Gregory the Great (d. 604), a composite figure was made out of various women in the New Testament narrative. The result was that she became the most popular saint after the Virgin Mary. Modern feminist critics often see the result as fundamentally derogatory of women, with the fallen woman now the typical penitent sinner. In some paintings this is clearly so, but predominantly a number of more positive roles are given her: disciple, preacher, contemplative, and confidante. These will be explored not just through art but also in story and film.
Inevitably with a religion as old as Christianity there have been huge changes in approach over its two thousand year history. However, in understanding the way the arts have approached Christian doctrine, it is important to be aware not just of the fact of change but also of some of the reasons for it. So the differences between first and second millennium Christianity will be investigated and in particular how this played out in the treatment of the Christ Child and of the crucifixion.
Given the very different reality that is the divine, all religions have to varying degrees experienced tensions over what can and what cannot be represented. Islam has mostly dealt with the problem by refusing all imagery, while Hinduism has in the main produced a surfeit instead (thereby relativising any specific image). In the case of Christianity twice in its history there have been major iconoclastic movements (in the 8th and 9th centuries and again in the 16th and 17th), while in the contemporary world it is often argued that only allusive or abstract imagery can now succeed in evoking a sense of the divine.
But it is possible to turn such objections to imagery on their head: first, by observing that the literalism said to be found in the visual can also be lodged against some approaches to the verbal within Scripture itself; secondly, while no doubt some have read images over-literally, it can scarcely be claimed that this is inherent to the image as such rather than how it is treated. So might the fault lie in lack of understanding of how art images work rather than in the artistic works themselves? It is within this context that Orthodoxy’s defence of icons of Christ will be set in dialogue with its refusal to depict the Father in art.
Part B: Christology Interpreted through the Arts
Here the intention is not merely to explore various Christological and related doctrines as they have been interpreted through the arts but also rival approaches to those doctrines within the history of Christianity. The doctrine of the Trinity is included because of its setting of the life of Christ in the life of God as whole, while attention is given to the Virgin Mary because of reasons both negative and positive: negative in the way that she has sometimes usurped roles that belong properly to Christ; positive in accounts that treat her as a model for the salvation of all humanity.
The so-called Chalcedonian Definition of 451 that is enshrined in the two classical creeds requires the belief of Christians in the fact that Christ was both perfectly divine and perfectly human. In practice, it is very easy to treat Christ as though he were merely appearing to be human (the Docetic heresy), and that is because vulnerability in Christ has often been thought to impugn his divinity. The traditional approach has therefore been to assume an infused knowledge that exempted Christ’s childhood from any uncertainties, and that this then continued into adulthood. The markedly different treatments of the Christ Child across the history of art have already been noted earlier from the point of view of cultural change. Here, however, their implications for how the incarnation is understood will be explored further. But most attention will be devoted to how the divinity of Christ has been portrayed in twenty century art. Here Christ’s humanity has in effect been almost universally given central stage, with his divinity allowed to emerge only very indirectly. The rival merits of the two types of approach will be considered, as well as their potential implications for the arts.
- Crucifixion and Atonement
Various theories of the significance of Christ’s death have assumed prominence at different periods over the course of the Church’s history. This has resulted in different emphases in the way in which his death has been portrayed in art, as well as in poetry and music. One question, however, that raises itself is the extent to which such different emphases should be seen as in competition (competing theories) or as complementary analogies or insights. So is Romanesque and Renaissance stress on triumph necessarily in conflict with Gothic focus on Christ’s agony? And what are we to make of the fact that some approaches are much more difficult to represent or image than others? Sacrifice, for instance, cannot be fully represented in visual art except by somehow including the Father, as in Trinitarian images of the Gnadenstuhl (‘Mercy Seat’) or through drawing a parallel (typology) with the sacrifice of Isaac. Penal theories are even more difficult, and are most commonly seen where the fact of the two thieves being punished for crimes is somehow underlined.
In Christian theology sometimes a sharp distinction has been drawn between resurrection and ascension, and sometimes not. After exploring what might be at stake theologically, we shall look at the sharp contrast drawn in most Christian art but also at the tendency towards fusion in much Renaissance art. More pedestrian artistic representations will introduce consideration of how mystery might best be preserved in different media (the literary and the visual). Is modern neglect of the Ascension in part attributable to the way in which it is described by St Luke in his Gospel and Acts?
For most of the history of western Christian theology the unity of God has taken priority over the three persons, whereas in much twentieth century theology a more social understanding found favour. This dispute is also reflected in the history of artistic representations. One area artists have found especially difficult is the order of the persons. To preserve the dignity of the Holy Spirit, they have sometimes found it necessary to place the Spirit centrally rather than ‘proceeding from the Father and the Son.’ Is anything significant at stake here? To what extent can any image of the Trinity be called representational? Might the answer to that question help determine how deep the potential conflict is between different types of images or analogies for the doctrine?
- The Virgin Mary
If Catholics and Protestants are ever to reach a better understanding of one another, the status of the Virgin Mary needs to be explored. The Immaculate Conception and the Assumption both appeared in art long before they were formally made dogmas of the Roman Catholic Church (in 1854 and 1950), and so raise interesting questions about the relation between popular piety and the Church’s official theology. Numerous titles, however, had already accrued to Mary long before this. Many (such as Seat of Wisdom or Burning Bush) reflect a symbolic reading of Scripture that is now largely lost. The cult of Joseph and of Anne her mother also raise interesting issues about changing attitudes to family life. Two different types of mediation will be noted, those where Mary’s love for her son is intended to enable our own, as in Nativity scenes and Pietàs and, more controversially, where she is seen as softening the harshness of her Son, as in many Last Judgements.
Module 3: Religious Experience and Aesthetic Theory
Unsurprisingly, in the long history of Christianity different ways of facilitating human experience of God have assumed prominence at different times, and with these different ways has gone stress on different aspects of the same underlying divine reality. The object of this module is to understand better the wider historical context that makes now one, now another, feature come to prominence in various historical epochs, and in particular the kind of rationale given by the aesthetic theory under-girding particular types of approach. The consideration of numerous specific examples alongside the general theories should make the latter considerably easier to comprehend than might otherwise have been the case. Class seminars will also provide plenty of opportunity for exchange of views and discussion.
The topics indicated below are intended only to provide a general idea of the type of material covered. Not all topics will be covered in any one year, the choice being in part determined by preferences expressed by members of the class.
A. Through Architecture
- Gothic architecture
It makes sense to give a central place to Gothic because in the nineteenth century this became the dominant form of architecture for churches of whatever denomination, even where it seemed least suited – among those whose worship was most orientated towards preaching. Why this was so needs to be examined, as well as the foundational justifications offered by Pugin and in the medieval period by Abbot Suger and others. Its applications to secular buildings such as railway stations will also be explored.
There is, however, no shortage of texts justifying alternative approaches. These need to be set against wider intellectual currents of the time, as well as aspirations elsewhere in the arts e.g. in painting and/or music. Of the three listed at most two will be explored, unless topic 3 is dropped.
- In dialogue with Hindu and Muslim architecture
It makes sense to give a central place to Gothic because in the nineteenth century this became the dominant form of architecture for churches of whatever denomination, even where it seemed least suited – among those whose worship was most orientated towards preaching. Why this was so needs to be examined, as well as the foundational justifications offered by Pugin and in the medieval period by Abbot Suger and others. Its applications to secular buildings such as railway stations will also be explored.
B. Through Painting
Many landscape painters have seen their role as helping to bring out more effectively features of the landscape that speak of God. Sometimes, their work has witnessed to God’s presence within nature (Samuel Palmer, Van Gogh), sometimes to a transcendence of that world (e.g. Caspar David Friedrich, the Hudson River School). The relative merits of the two types of approach need to be considered, as well as various other possibilities, such as the attempt to convey an ordered world.
- Abstract painting
European and American Abstract Art saw their rationale somewhat differently, but artists in both camps often sought justification in spiritual if not explicitly religious terms e.g. Mondrian and Kandinsky in Europe, Barnett Newman in the USA. The reasons for the retreat from representative art need to be explored both in their own writings and in that of their advocates.
- In dialogue with contemporary art
It is quite untrue that there is no interest in religion in contemporary art, though it is true that very little of such interest comes from the conventionally religious. Some examples from video, relational and environmental art will be considered, as well as as the sort of art currently making its way into churches.
C. Through Action
From a sociological perspective ritual is not just something that goes on in Catholic churches, it is also an inescapable feature of daily life. That claim can be used to throw interesting light on how everything in daily life from fashion to food could be used to mediate certain values, including those that might under appropriate circumstances be interpreted as religious.
The stage has had a long association with religion. Even in the modern world some theorists have sought to revive that connection. There is much talk in theology of the ‘drama’ or ‘narrative’ of salvation, but little discussion of what light might be thrown on such talk from the source of the metaphor itself.
- Ballet and Dance
The explicit connections between religion and dance were historically once strong, but are now at most nominal. Nonetheless, quite a few twentieth century dancers and choreographers saw themselves as building on such connections and so their own role as being, at least in part, to bring to consciousness important religious or spiritual themes. Some video extracts will be used to highlight some of the issues.
D. Through Music
The classical corpus is too wide to admit of easy selection. So the choice here is confined to contemporary popular music and arguments over forms of worship. Opportunities, however, will be available to pursue issues arising from classical music in more detail in the dissertation.
Mainly in the nineteenth century (but also in the sixteenth) claims were made that only certain types of music were appropriate for worship, in essence simple plainsong and Gregorian chant. The grounds for such claims and their relative plausibility will be explored, not only in their own right but also in relation to what was condemned, the elaborate polyphony of the later middle ages and the masses of composers such as Haydn and Schubert.
While among Roman Catholics arguments focused on questions of style, especially the most appropriate form of musical setting for the mass, much Protestant discussion revolved round the interpretation of Scripture, and in particular two issues: a) whether musical accompaniment shold in itself be viewed with suspicion and b) whether non-biblical words were at all permissible. To assess such objections close attention needs to be gven not only to the relevant biblical texts but also to the history of psalmody and hymnody.
- In dialogue with the world of pop
Following on in some ways from 1), certain forms of popular music have always been treated as dangerously seductive. Although the objection is as old as Plato, in the modern world jazz and certain forms of rock have been the most common targets. Nonetheless, some have defended at length the possibility of a religious dimension to works in such genres, and so the case needs to be heard.
Further information
For further information regarding the Master of Letters in Theology, Imagination and the Arts, please contact Prof Trevor Hart, Director of ITIA: tah@st-andrews.ac.uk
Apply now to secure your place for September 2013!
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