Creativity & The Kingdom of God (pt. 2)
The Root of Creativity
The history of this idea of “Creativity” is more of a recent thing.
Prior to the Enlightenment, the Western church was afraid to use it because “creating” had a kind of God-like status associated with it.
But over these last few hundreds years in the West, an elite cultural status formed around the realm of the arts.
Artists became a new social class—no longer just “craftsmen” with an artisan trade. I believe that the result of this new distinct artist role has done more harm than good. I made this idea of creativity messy for those who wouldn’t fit the idea of “artist.” Let me explain.
“Creative Expression"
If we consider the root of the words “creative expression” I think we see something interesting though:
“CREATIVE" — To bring into existence, cause something to come forth.
“EXPRESSION” — To make known, reveal.
To creatively expression then means, something like, to intentionally reveal something into existence. It is the taking of a think created in our minds and imaginations made manifest into real space and time.
There are two struggles with this combination of words though.
First, these two words seem to be almost saying the same thing, don’t they?
Second, don’t we create + express all the time?
Starting With Love
As a base line starting point, as this series is called “Creativity and the Kingdom,” we must consider whose kingdom we are talking about.
In God’s kingdom, the most basic ethic is love for God and neighbor (Mark 12:30-31). To follow Jesus is to love him with our entirety: our emotions, thoughts, and actions. And this is displayed, most purely, in how we treat others.
Very simply, to be creative means to express love to God and neighbor. To help us understand a way forward, I think Japanese painter, Makoto Fujimura, has a helpful idea.
The Three G’s
In his book, Culture Care, Fujimura outlines what he calls “generative thinking.” This is the effort we must all put into the expressions of our lives in three ways:
Genesis moments
Generosity
Generational thinking
By “Genesis moments,” he means those moments of need or failure (either in us or others). He says, “Creativity applied in a moment of weakness and vulnerability can turn failure into enduring conversation, open new visits of inspiration and incarnation” (3). What this means is there are multitudes of opportunities (“genesis moments”) every day which could open the door for us to be generous with our words and actions.
“Generosity” then is our responses to these genesis moments. While artists tend to have a keen sense of the worlds aches, this is something each and every one of us know well. Artists more often would prefer to create something as a response. They transmit their feelings into some sort of artistic communication (write a song, a poem, etc.). This is the intentional step for all of us to choose to be generous with these genesis moments rather than narcissistic.
Fujimura’s third G then is “Generational Thinking.” By this, he means that to be generative in our thinking, we must think long term—beyond the moment. It did not take long for the curse in Genesis 3 to impact Adam and Eve’s next generation. Likewise, the numerous moments of blessings we show to others are what create a long-term culture of care. It is to ask of every action throughout the day: “what will this action or thought become in 200 years?”
Culture Care
Fujimura’s driving point is that our creative acts of love and service (whether we are artists or not) create what he calls, “Culture Care.” He says, “A well-nurtured culture becomes an environment in which people and creativity thrive” (7).
So, how do we go about this in our lives? Fujimura’s final suggest is to fill in the blank to as many “What if _______?” Questions we can. Here are some of his examples:
What if each of us endeavored to bring beauty into someone’s life today in some small way?
What if we saw each moment as a genesis moment, and even saw the current problems we are facing as genesis opportunities?
What if we considered our actions, decisions, and creative products in light of five hundreds years and multiple generations?
What if we saw art as a gift, and not just as commodity?
What if we became custodians of culture, willing to be demoted for standing up for what is right, but taking copious notes so we can challenge the status quo?
So, what are your What Ifs?
Write them down. Share them with a friend. Make a plan to create!
Notes
Fujirmura, Makoto. 2014. Culture Care: Reconnecting with Beauty for our Common Life.
Check out Rainbows for a Fallen World (Calvin Seerveld) for more related to the ideas in this post.
Thanks to Byron Spradlin for some of these ideas as well!
