March 2023 Ordained Servant

From the Editor. I remember the struggle, upon becoming a Christian, of reconciling the aspirations of the artistic, creative world in which I lived with my newfound faith. I had recently worked in the firm of Bauhaus architect Walter Gropius in Cambridge, Massachusetts—The Architects Collaborative. I had also worked for an architect who had done work for newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer III, with whom I once stayed. Eric Defty, an architect with whom I had briefly worked, had lived next to sculptor David Smith in Bolton Landing, New York, and was a pallbearer at the funeral of Jackson Pollock. This was a powerfully immersive environment that had little room for Christian faith.

The creative life of the family in which I was raised was at a much humbler level, but it inculcated a deep love of music, art, and architecture. My mother was a Japanese brush painter and architectural renderer, who designed two of the houses which we built and lived in. My sister and I spent much of our youth in art classes at the Currier Gallery of Art, now the Currier Museum of Art.

My mother became a Christian in a conservative Baptist congregation which ironically had little use for art, opera, or architecture. It was Francis and Edith Schaeffer who came to our rescue. Edith Schaeffer’s Hidden Art was a lifesaver for my mother. Reading the Schaeffers’ works and living at L’Abri was a lifesaver for me. So, reckoning on the place of creativity in the Christian life has been significant for me. The Reformed community, with its rich doctrinal and cultural heritage, has provided a wonderfully stimulating environment for my own creative endeavors.

People like Bill Edgar are a source of continual inspiration. His article on creativity introduces the topic of this month’s issue of Ordained Servant. In the spirit of Edith Schaeffer, he defines creativity beyond the limited realm of fine arts. In the spirit of Francis Schaeffer, he demonstrates from Scripture the origin of creativity, including fine art.

Jazz drummer Stephen Michaud reviews Bill Edgar’s A Supreme Love: The Music of Jazz and the Hope of the Gospel in his review article “Jazz and the Gospel,” integrating jazz and the gospel in a surprising and refreshing way.

I review God in the Modern Wing: Viewing Art with Eyes of Faith in my article “What Do We Do with Modern Art?” This is a fascinating and compelling apologia for modern art in its relationship to religion in general and Christianity in particular, written by ten different authors, each involved in the art world.

On the Book of Discipline, Alan Strange continues his detailed “Commentary on the Book of Discipline of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, Chapter 4A.” Stuart Jones, longtime expert on the Book of Discipline, offers a different perspective in “Ambiguities in Book of Discipline 9.1, Standing Revisited.”

An Older Elder offers a third letter of sagacious advice to a younger elder in “Letters to a Younger Ruling Elder: The Importance of the Devotional Life.”

I present the second chapter of my book (The Voice of the Good Shepherd) “Communicating in the Electronic World with a Christian Voice.” This is the second part of the introductory section of the book, “The Electronic World.” Next month I will present the first of two chapters on the history of preaching, “The Good Shepherd has Spoken in the Past.”

The poetry this month, “Beauty,” is by Alexander Pope (1688–1744) and fits our topic.

Finally, the cover is “Large Red Interior” by Henri Matisse (1869–1954), in the famous Red Studio in his house in Vence, France, where he painted from 1943–49.

Blessings in the Lamb,
Gregory Edward Reynolds

FROM THE ARCHIVES “BEAUTY, ART”

http://opc.org/OS/pdf/Subject_Index.pdf

• Review of The Good, the True, the Beautiful: A Multidisciplinary Tribute to Dr. David K. Naugle, by Boone et al. (William Edgar) 30 (2021): 104–6.
• “Beautiful Truth” (Gregory Edward Reynolds) 24 (2015): 6–7.
• “Meredith George Kline: Artist-Exegete” (Gregory Edward Reynolds) 16 (2007): 6–9.
• Review of River Grace and Refractions, by Makoto Fujimura (Gregory Edward Reynolds) 20 (2011): 165–67.