Art is a form of worship that does not require talent, teams, or congregations. It requires openness, vulnerability, and readiness to listen and feel what the Holy spirit is placing on your heart to express. Makoto Fujimura is an artist that has bridged the gap between Christian theology and painting as a form of worship to assist people in the understanding of the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. In his essay, Visual Theology, Fujimura writes, “If we do live in a visual culture, then lack of beauty leads to a dehumanized state of our entire culture, and, I might add, poverty of our theology.”(Fujimura, 2012). Simply put, as noted in the video, we have a language to celebrate waywardness. We do not have a cultural language to bring people back home. Art is transgressive and we need to transgress in love.
Visual theology means incorporating images that illuminate the words that are spoken or written in the bible or devotionals. According to the essay, Visual theology is, “art in action being
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The first example Fujimura talks about is the tension between Jesus and the pharisees where he explains the law is the only way to righteousness, and Jesus will fulfill the law if the pharisees follow it. Fujimura depicts the law as a line, or a path to follow. The integration of various colors such as gold, and vermillion, are mixed in to indicate Jesus is divine and he is present in the following of said laws. Another example is seen in the gospel of Luke. Fujimura sees the example of the children trying to get to Jesus. As Fujimura mentioned in his essay, he dripped paint – a pure accident – and it led him to believe it was the holy spirit working through him revealing how “children know how to play well, to be messy; beauty intrudes in such simple, innocent ways”(Fujimura, 2012). An example such as this is one small revelation of beauty out of hundreds that often go unnoticed in our daily