InREVIEW: Book Look
By Michael J. Breznau | November 2021
Makoto Fujimura, Culture Care: Reconnecting with Beauty for our Common Life (IVP, 2017)
The thermometer of hope appears to be at an all-time low – especially among the younger generation of Millennials and Xennials (aka “Gen Z”). When my artistic, poetry-writing cousin committed suicide, many people remarked, “He just lost hope.” Despair, despondency, and depression are at an all-time high across North America.[1] Our culture appears to be sliding into degenerative rifts, conflicts, and chaos.
The machinery of modernism and pragmatic utilitarianism offer widgets of every kind to increase our productivity, help with “stress relief,” or keep us entertained by a thousand distractions. But our souls are void of meaning. Across the western world, we are wealthier and more comfortable than ever before yet emptier than we ever imagined.
Is there a way to care for our culture, to curate it in such way that we might be agents for “reconnecting with beauty for our common life”?[2] Artist Makoto Fujimura believes so. As both a world-renowned artist as well as a thoughtful Christian, he persuasively writes that artists – in multivalent forms – can be “a witness to hope” (p. 10ff). This vision of hope transcends humanistic approaches if centered in “the God who holds all reality in the love of Jesus Christ” (p. 10). He believes the answer can be found in “our culture [being] given the hope of restoration and the new creation to come” (p. 12).
Artists are largely ignored at the fringes of society or merchandized as cogs in the gears of a profiteering industry. In both circumstances, the garden of the culture, in which all of us reside, suffers great detriment and loss. Therefore, Culture Care was written “to inspire individuals and to inform the wider movement in providing care, for us to become co-makers with the divine Artist into the new creation” (p. 13).
Do we need beauty – even long for beauty (p. 15-16, 136)? Must we feed our souls? Isn’t information and production enough? In the pale, death-like soil of a degenerative world, Jesus is the source of beauty. He can produce through us generative acts – new life, growth, and human flourishing (p. 22, 26). So, we need both this beauty and this nourishment of our souls. Fujimura contends not for a war on the culture but a care for our shared culture, as a garden is to be lovingly cultivated (p. 39-40). He builds his thesis of “generative thinking” with three movements: “genesis moments, generosity, and generational thinking” (p. 17). He describes genesis moments as epiphanies – fresh realization – of new life, hope, or creativity, which are often birthed from “failure, tragedy, and disappointment” (p. 18). Artistic renderings can lead people into these experiences. Generosity leads artists and their art beyond mere transactional production and into their work being a gift to every facet of culture. Generational thinking opens our vision to the reality that our artistic messages to the culture may likely impact people for years to come. We may not see tremendous fruit in our lifetime. But one can never know the full ripple effect of our work in the river of culture. We can move beyond the here and now, i.e. the bottom-line or widget production impact, for something far greater and long-lasting. The need for culture care has never been more apparent (p. 127ff). In the dark despondency of our era, Fujimura’s vision of Christ-rooted culture care may even save lives – indeed, it already has (p. 128)
Strong Points
Culture Care provides a much-needed critique of the western modernistic Church, particular our Protestant programs and facilities still largely reminiscent of pale, stale Puritan congregation houses that are tell-tale of a non-artistic male (p. 87ff). Yet Fujimura presents his case with sincere humility and readiness to point out his own flaws and mishaps along the way (e.g. his early ignorance to the necessity of feeding his soul per his wife’s flower bouquet; see p. 14, see also p. 54ff). Interested pastors and church leaders will find this book winsome and convincing.
The author develops a careful through-story of “Judy’s bouquet” and the message of gospel-wrought beauty in Isaiah 61 (e.g. 55). He wonderfully captures the brushstrokes of divine beauty sourced in the good news of Christ (p. 27). His use of scripture is careful and persuasive (e.g. p. 86-94). Fujimura also provides surprising vignettes from history. For example, we discover that Vincent Van Gogh first aspired be a clergyman in the Dutch Reformed Church. After being refused for ordination by church leaders he worked as an evangelist among coal miners, only to face further rejection by his superiors for the squalid conditions in which he lived and ministered (p. 71, 74-77). He uncovers details about poet Emily Dickinson’s Calvinistic upbringing during the Second Great Awakening and the cold-fisted rejection she received at a Christian boarding school (p. 72-74). Yet the author also expertly describes the biblical themes and spiritual longings found within the works of both Van Gogh and Dickinson.
Fujimura is without parallel in defining and critiquing the myopic, reductionistic approach to art and beauty (p. 34-37). “Human beings are not ‘human doings’” he reminds us (p. 34). Yet all-too-often, this is just how churches treat people – especially artists.
Via beautiful analogies and stories, the highly educated artist, as well as the intellectually curious layperson will enjoy this book – even when the language occasionally stretches beyond common vernacular (cf. p. 70-71).
Weaker Points
Culture Care is a unique – even landmark – book. Little can be found lacking or worthy of critique. I have only two minor points to consider as weaknesses.
First, each chapter is engaging and well-written. But, at times, the subject organization lacks structure (perhaps only for those of us who tend to be more linear in our thinking). It’s artsy! Fujimura provides a clear through-story, plot, and thesis. Yet perhaps like watching an artist paint, the reader is not always sure where the next chapter will take them.
Second, in his argument for and against applying the imagery of a greenhouse and a garden to artist-cultivation, some church leaders, in particular may be left wondering how to step toward implementation. The author indicates he likes both analogies, but prefers a garden approach to “create ideal conditions for artists” (p. 100). Yet out of concern for the possibility of “Christian art” [rather] than “art from Christians” he mildly discourages both approaches (p. 100-101). However, as a pastor of a church with a very utilitarian past, the rest of his argument convinces me that cultivating “garden soil” for artists may be the best first step. The gate must begin to swing open for artists to “go in and out and find pasture” (to borrow his use of Jn. 10:9).
Reflection and Interaction
Fujimura’s work provides pastors, thought leaders, and artists will much food for thought. I will frame the following reflections in two categories: (1) Personal Implications and Ecclesial Implementation.
Personal Implications
None of us enjoy failure. I want to succeed, avoid mistakes, and (rather sinfully) impress my friends and family. Fujimura’s gracious writing once again reminds me that genesis moments flow from failure (p. 18). Tragedy and disappointment are often the very tools God uses to make paradigm shifts in my life. Volcanic soil and forest fires are moments of death to plant and animal life, through which fertility of soil will again lead to new life (cf. p. 43). Therefore, when failure comes, I must lean into the beauty of Christ’s generative power – in gospel grace – instead of pounding my fists with frustration or despair.
Second, as an artist of music and words (written, spoken, and sung), Culture Care gave me a needed exhortation to “defend my time for creativity in a culture that does not nurture creative growth” but only productivity (p.19). Yes, “We are more than what we produce.” (p. 33) With a penchant for high achievement, I all-too-often sense my soul growing cold and empty. Have a paused to behold the beauty of natural revelation, a painting, a sculpture, a song? So, I am reminded, “Our souls need food as well as our bodies” (p. 29).
Third, in-between the lines of Culture Care is a fresh vision for a pastor as a “mearcstapa” – a “border-walker” as Fujimura defines the artist (p. 58-60). All the Old Testament prophets and John the Baptist were “border-walkers” outside the religious and political norms of the day. Jesus Himself was the ultimate mearcstapa. My soul longs to be a pastor-artist: creating verbal brushstrokes each Sunday to draw people into the beauty of Christ.
Ecclesial Implementation
Churches are often the most severe and short-sighted in their approach to art. The stark utilitarian design of our church facilities and programs (p. 31, 34), is a Christian vision stripped of transcendence (p. 79). Fujimura writes, “Utilitarian pragmatism and commercialism so thoroughly pervade culture that without some shift in worldview and expectations, what we do as artists – the activities of the arts – will be neither sustainable nor generative” (p. 38). As followers-of-Jesus, we must heed his strong critique of the modernistic Church (p. 87ff).
The author continues, “Our current culture, often called a ‘culture of death,’ is full of pointers toward the first two gospel elements (creation and fall) but only rarely reflects, even in churches, the full story of God’s love and his ongoing work toward our full thriving.” (p. 95)
But, we the Church, can again lead the way! This could be our genesis moment. Church buildings can facilitate a sense of beauty, imagination, and discovery, instead of drudgery or industrial machinery (cf. p. 79). Why go through this trouble? Because our souls must be fed truth and grace – the beauty of Christ and His creation. Beauty feeds the soul because Jesus is the source of beauty (p. 48, 51). What a bouquet of flowers does for the bereaved or depressed, the church sanctuary can be as a healing, hope-giving entrance for all of us as fellow-sufferers. Art speaks what utility does not. Our communication need not only be verbal or textual, but visual and musical. Soul care may occur simply by entering into a church or Christ-rooted community center and experiencing beauty via the story of God: creation, fall, rescue, and restoration (p. 46).
What is beauty? Fujimura quotes Dallas Willard, “beauty is goodness made manifest to the senses” (p. 49; cf. p. 50) And what does beauty do? “Beauty may not be ‘practical,’ but . . . when people neglect beauty, they produce, ultimately, useless things” (p. 52). Beauty is what makes things last. As one pastor said, “beauty leads to wonder and wonder leads to worship.”
If Jesus is the source of beauty then we must desire all to encounter beauty. We need to encounter Christ. Furthermore, Christ-rooted art leads to the beauty of diversity. Art paves the way for beauty and beauty leads to diversity in the multi-ethnic vision of God for His people (cf. p. 89). Within God’s gift of artistic impulse within humanity there is a unifying effect. Do we long to see ethnic and personality diversity in our churches? Cultivation of beauty in art can lead the way.
Therefore, we as pastors and Christian leaders must welcome artists, instead of pushing them out like those who encountered Van Gogh and Dickinson (p. 73, 82). We must ask ourselves: is the soil of our church conducive to flourishing and raising up artists (see p. 98)? Are we providing for and protecting their creativity space or just opting for utilitarian and production needs? There may likely be adverse consequences and opposition to leading toward a fresh vision of art in the Church. But we must not lose sight of the goal and incredible possibilities (p. 110). Jesus is the fount of beauty and He commissions us to manifest the beauty of His gospel to all the senses. As a result of reading this book, I am looking forward to forming a discussion and implementation group with artists in our church.[3]
FOOTNOTES
[1] As reported on October 20, 2020 by Mental Health America: https://www.mhanational.org/number-people-reporting-anxiety-and-depression-nationwide-start-pandemic-hits-all-time-high
[2] This phrase, of course, is the subtitle of the book.
[3] See the guide on p. 142-154, as well as the plan and diagram on p. 118. We will be considering ways to develop our community center building for art displays, art workshops, and an art show.
