Many years ago, I suppose it must have been in the late 'sixties, I sat mesmerised listening to a lecture by Hans Rookmaaker. In fact I don't think anyone before or since, and I have lost count how many that would be, both theological and secular, has made such an impression. Such was the emotional, as well as intellectual impact, this young man was forced - literally forced - to take a long contemplative walk just to clear his head.
Why it should have been so, is hard to say. Some speakers and subject matter have the power to enthral, even hypnotise. In the face of a charismatic speaker and an impelling argument, one is faced with one of two choices: to submit and be seduced; or to resist and remain aloof. The strange power of rhetoric to, convince, inspire or unsettle the mind of the hearer is very real.
Hans Rookmaaker was a Dutch Christian convert and scholar. He was a prisoner of war in Ukraine and Germany when he met J.P.A. Mekkes who had a deep and lasting impact on him. When he returned to Holland he discovered his Jewish bride-to-be had disappeared. It was later learnt she had died in 1942 in Auschwitz. In 1948 (just before I came on the scene) he met the Swiss theologian Francis Shaeffer, remaining friends thereafter. Both were very trendy in the '60's and '70's arguing for a rapprochement between art and religion. Whether this had a profound or lasting impact on Christian theology or conversely contributed to its decline, is a moot point.
The nineteen sixties were undoubtedly an era of significant social change, impacting established religion and morals. It was a time of 'free love', dissolution of traditional hierarchy, a weakening of social barriers, at least in some art and pop circles. It was a time that Princess Margaret and Anthony Armstrong Jones rode a motor bike around hip London and threw wild parties where social rules and roles were thrown to the wind. A time when Prince Charles 'knocked around' with the obnoxious 'disc jockey' Jimmy Saville! It was a time when the political and social elite were satirised as never before, through the medium of television into almost every home.
The century that preceded 1960 was not kind to Christianity, at least in the West, or indeed to the British Empire. World wars had not only destroyed Europe but also the essentially Christian world view that underpinned it. It was an age of science and its power both for good and evil. The exoskeleton survived in both Church and Empire.
On the face of it, the Christian faith in an omnipotent, caring God could not be rationalised or reconciled with what humans had done to each other and the civilisation they professed. On a superficial level, whilst science could not disprove God, it did seem that it increasingly marginalised him (or her)!
If the theology no longer held water, all that was left was spectacle. What are all the buildings, the processions, the robes, the altars, the music, the liturgy, the paintings, the ritual, if the belief was irrational and scientifically implausible? What would or could fill the God-shaped void?
So what was Rookmaaker's take on the modern dilemma that other theologians had wrestled with, struggling to come to terms with ethics and morality if God was no more.
Rookmaaker utilised his knowledge of art, to literally illustrate, the changed and changing world view from the classical, through what are known as the dark ages and medieval when Christianity was knowledge, and knowledge was virtually owned by monastic religion, to both renaissance and reformation, the former codified by Vasari the later proselytised by Luther. Somewhere between sits the scientific revolution centred on the 17th Century British Royal Society membership.
Art, and by this I mean sculpture, painting and architecture, progresses from the primitive depiction of the human form and Bible events, to more realistic portrayal of religious topics, which then morph into the secular, extolling the virtues of powerful people in Italy and gradually all over Europe. Then with the Dutch School, art portrays the more commonplace of every day people. A nostalgic pre-Raphaelite revival, ushers in Expressionism, then Cubism, Surrealism, Modernism and the Theatre of the Absurd.
Art from being high minded, focused on the esoteric and divine, had ended up in David Starky's example, of green and red fluff. Art and architecture become functional, abstract, representative, vacuous, talentless, base. For many art has replaced religion, as selfish experience has replaced self effacement and denial.
Yet humans yearn for something deeper and more meaningful. The Beatles who epitomised the selfish sixties, turned to eastern religion and mysticism. We seem unable to do without God even when we do not believe he exists. Shaeffer wrote "The God who is there". Perhaps he never went away? Perhaps art will reinvent and rediscover the ineffable?
Rookmaaker didn't last many years after he caused me so much mental perturbation (he died in 1977 at the relatively early age of 55) a tension I have never really resolved. At the beginning of the 1970's the BBC broadcast seminal programmes by Dr Bronowski ('The Ascent of Man') and Kenneth Clark ('Civilization') different aspects of human progress. Jonathan Miller who said he "wasn't a practising Jew, just Jew-ish" died recently. He provided a sort of common thread through the period and the philosophical transformation.
The emphasis has now shifted to man as part of a much more complex ecological whole with the remarkable programmes narrated by David Attenburgh whilst the Catholic Church is mired in paedophilia and sexual abuse and Australia burns.
Where does Christianity go from here? Does it still have relevance and meaning? Can it survive in the modern, rationalistic age? Can Roomaaker's assessment that "Jesus didn't come to make us Christian. Jesus came to make us fully human," can be fulfilled through art or any other way?
Examples of life transformation:
SATANIC COVEN WANTED THE SOUL OF HIS FIRSTBORN. A POWERFUL TESTIMONY OF A CLOSE FRIEND TO CFM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLaDhJOYF30&feature=youtu.be
The rainforest hermit who stepped out of the wild | Australian Story
Modern Art & Death of a Culture
by
This disturbing but illuminating classic is a brilliant perspective on the cultural turmoil of the radical sixties and its impact on today's world, especially as reflected in the art of the time. Rookmaaker's enduring analysis looks at modern art in a broad historical, social, and philosophical context, laying bare the despair and nihilism that pervade our era. He also shows the role Christian artists can play in proclaiming truth through their work.
Rookmaaker's brilliant articulation of faith and scholarship is insightful and inspiring. The book moves freely and with a sense of urgency between the worlds of high culture, popular art and music, and Christian faith.
This reissue makes his foundational work available to a new generation.
"A landmark book in the story of contemporary Christians in the arts." --Os Guinness, author of The American Hour
Rookmaaker's brilliant articulation of faith and scholarship is insightful and inspiring. The book moves freely and with a sense of urgency between the worlds of high culture, popular art and music, and Christian faith.
This reissue makes his foundational work available to a new generation.
"A landmark book in the story of contemporary Christians in the arts." --Os Guinness, author of The American Hour
Paperback, 256 pages
Published July 7th 1994 by Crossway Books (first published January 1st 1970)
Original Title
Modern Art and the Death of a Culture
ISBN
0891077995 (ISBN13: 9780891077992)
Edition Language
English
The 'Woke' despotism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvhZAnTkzkw
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