tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10641870.post144819262090224054..comments2024-02-13T23:05:30.411+00:00Comments on An accidental blog: Modern Art and the Life of a Culture by Jonathan Anderson and William Dyrness - a reviewstevebishophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01485378930192829175noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10641870.post-36686673481810111972016-06-10T06:37:00.437+01:002016-06-10T06:37:00.437+01:00Yes I tend to agree with Paola/Rudi comment. I won...Yes I tend to agree with Paola/Rudi comment. I wonder what Bookmaker would say about being dubbed a theologian. The suggestion that to talk about one's dependence upon God in everyday life makes one a "theologian" is I think a serious misconstrual of everyday life.<br /><br />I haven't examined the book but I find some of the publishers comments and the comment made on the web about it strange to say the least<br /><br />"A response to the classic work Modern Art and the Death of a Culture by H. R. Rookmaker, arguing that Rookmaaker was unnecessarily pessimistic in his assessment of modern art, overlooking the religious impulses that shaped much of modern art."<br /><br />The phrase: "Rookmaaker was unnecessarily pessimistic in his assessment of modern art, overlooking the religious impulses that shaped much of modern art" seems to juxtapose pessimism.and religious impulses in an all too uncritical manner. <br /><br />Of course Rookmaaker's historiography of art is not beyond criticism. My son, a graduate in Fine Art, found Rookmaker a pertinent starting point but had to concede it didn't get him very far when a rejigged post-structuralist historiography of art became dominant in his course. The above statement seems, at least on the surface, to ignore HRR's post-POW WWI experience of Nazism, and the fact that he gave himself the task of making a full-frontal historiographical confrontation with the "pessimism" that was implicit in "modern art", modern music ... . And that is not at all to deny that modern art expresses "strong religious impulses" - HRR was quite aware of Kandinsky's 1912 "On the Spiritual in Art". <br /><br />Nevertheless, I sometimes wondered whether in his critique the converted post-colonial Dutch Christian who was introduced to reformational philosophy by Mekkes was "too theological" in his account.<br /><br />But he certainly insisted that ART needed no (theological or other) justification. <br /><br />One wonders whether the authors are facing squarely the extended crisis in which humanism is plunging - yes its synthesis with Christianity has been shrugged off. Western culture is in deep trouble, and many now consider Sartre's "atheistic nothingness" as a deeply religious orientation.<br /><br />This reminds me of the all-too-American (booster) critique of Max Weber by Talcott Parsons in which the latter's critique was that Weber was too pessimistic - in other words Weber just wasn't American enough in his failure to adequately embrace the American ideal of what an ideal society should be.Bruce C Wearnehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16163816087453812994noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10641870.post-81125852430665624022016-06-08T09:20:07.740+01:002016-06-08T09:20:07.740+01:00We also need to consider how Rookmaaker's &quo...We also need to consider how Rookmaaker's "worldview"-ish approach is contrasted with a more theological approach by Dyrness and Anderson. We need to be cautious about any attempt to provide a theological analysis of non-theological material. That is, what they may have produced is a "theology" of art but not an art-historical analysis of art. And there does seem to be a strong element of synthesis still at play - given all I have read is the publisher's blurb, one review and the comments here. The fact that some artists had a Christian profession of some kind does not mean that their art was "Christian" in Rookmaaker's sense. <br /><br />Hopefully we will see a good critique of both books which point out the features of both which will advance the Kingdom.Chris Gousmetthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01695776254644272494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10641870.post-90954057825904861482016-05-29T08:14:09.257+01:002016-05-29T08:14:09.257+01:00Hi Rudi
Thanks for the comments. You make a very ...Hi Rudi<br /><br />Thanks for the comments. You make a very good point. I've not read Rookmaaker MA&DoC recently - so my comments may well have been inadvertently influenced by Anderson and Dryness' commentary on him. You are right Rookmaaker's approach is far more nuanced than their critique suggests.<br /><br />Thanks<br /><br />Stevestevebishophttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01485378930192829175noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10641870.post-69471803322966408132016-05-28T21:56:01.678+01:002016-05-28T21:56:01.678+01:00Apologies Steve, and my wife, the preceding commen...Apologies Steve, and my wife, the preceding comment was from RudiRudihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06363041222797819421noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10641870.post-78758631202025557322016-05-28T21:54:32.109+01:002016-05-28T21:54:32.109+01:00Rookmaaker's book is certainly worth a reasses...Rookmaaker's book is certainly worth a reassessment. Have you read it recently? I wonder if it can be read as a basically negative critique of modern art. It is about the "death of a culture" and not the death of culture per se. I seem to recall it being about the death of the grand synthesis between Christianity and Humanism. To the extent that this is achieved in an anti-Christian direction Rookmaaker would have been critical. But perhaps more so towards the paucity of an integral Christian response. Is there not genuine appreciation, in Rookmaaker, for the ending of an unsustainable synthesis, and genuine compassion for the despair he perceived in modern art? I am speculating now, but might it be that the main point of Anderson and Dyrness' book is that the synthesis culture still has its power and is not fully lost? In which case might they have missed the reformational seriousness of Rookmaaker's book?Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10532340339036442161noreply@blogger.com