Perspective Digest Volume 13 Article 6 Issue 3 Summer

2008 Faith, , and Art (Work Station Two) Gary B. Swanson

Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/pd Part of the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons

Recommended Citation Swanson, Gary B. (2008) "Faith, Science, and Art (Work Station Two)," Perspective Digest: Vol. 13 : Iss. 3 , Article 6. Available at: http://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/pd/vol13/iss3/6

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Adventist Theological Society at Digital Commons @ Andrews University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Perspective Digest by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ Andrews University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Swanson: Faith, Science, and Art (Work Station Two) WORKSTATION TWO IF YOU LIKE PERSPECTIVE DIGEST, YOU'LL LOVE THE “To be known and read” by all. . . . ADVENTIST THEOLOGICAL SOCIETY A dynamic organization dedicated to advancing the fundamental beliefs of Gary B. Swanson Seventh-day Adventists and strengthening the heart of Adventist theology. n the dust jacket of science has verified the ATS encourages bibli- prayer, fellowship, and re- a recent book by FAITH, SCIENCE, artist’s observations. cal, theological, and histor- sponsible discussion. Jonah Lehrer: “Sci- In doing so, Lehrer ical studies that will help ATS sponsors conven- ence is not the only AND ART demonstrates one of the bring about spiritual re viv - tions, scholarly presenta- O path to knowledge. In fact, significant limitations of science. “It al and reformation within tions, Bible conferences, and when it comes to understanding the is ironic,” he says, “but true: the one the church. It provides a publications all grounded brain, art got there first.”1 reality science cannot reduce is the place for its current mem- on two great interests: The Only in his late 20s, Lehrer has only reality we will ever know.”2 bership of nearly 2,000 church admin- authority of Scripture and the respon- written for , , What he is saying, of course, per- istrators, scholars, pastors, and lay sible principles of biblical interpreta- NPR, and NOVA. He’s a graduate of tains to the abstract and sometimes people to address vital questions of the tion that uphold, rather than compro- and a Rhodes ineffable qualities of life that cannot Adventist faith in the context of mise, biblical authority. Scholar. And he has worked in the be quantified. They cannot be mea- Your annual membership entitles you to: lab of Nobel Prize-winning neuro- sured. They cannot be duplicated in scientist and in the the science lab. • A one-year subscription to the Journal of the Adventist Theological Society, or Perspective Digest. kitchens of Le Cirque 2000 and Le And here is where religion and art • A subscription to the ATS newsletter, carrying announcements and information Bernardin. have something elemental in com- about ATS conventions, publications, and other activities. His first book, Proust Was a Neu- mon: each constitutes a search for • Voting rights at the society's business sessions held at the spring and fall meetings. roscientist, posits that gifted artists truth utilizing tools that materialist • Satisfaction that you are helping to affirm and advance solid, centrist have often anticipated truths that science rejects. And when the two are Adventist belief in a church that is rapidly becoming theologically diverse. science has sometimes taken more utilized together—as God intended than a century to confirm. Each them to be—they convey profound chapter of the book describes an in- truths that science simply does not Member dues are $25 for an individual; sight that a painter, a musician, an care to investigate. Yes, send me $35 for husband/wife; and $10 for retirees and students. author—even a chef—described or Consider, for example, the taber- application materials to join the Adventist represented in his or her work: e.g., nacle that God commanded the Is- Theological Society. Name______Walt Whitman, the substance of feel- raelites to build during their 40-year Mail to: ing; Paul Cezanne, the sense of sight; detour in the wilderness. He was Address______ATS, P.O. Box 86, , the source of music. seeking to provide a way in which Berrien Springs, MI 49103 City______State_____Zip______Then the chapter explains how brain His people—an obstinate, “show-

Published by Digital Commons @ Andrews University,61 2008 1 Perspective Digest, Vol. 13 [2008], Iss. 3, Art. 6 me” bunch with no patience for ab- arts. Browsing through Exodus sional stage in the round. It was “the Interestingly, Ellen White de- straction—could come to under- 25–28, the reader glimpses the ex- example and shadow of heavenly scribes in aesthetic terms the role of stand the nature of His love for them quisite workmanship that went into things” (Heb. 8:5, KJV). Every physi- God’s church throughout history. and respond in kind. What do you the appointments of the sanctuary. cal property on this stage of about a Especially in the darkest of times, do when you’re trying to convey Basic raw materials included gold, thousand square feet had a meaning she says, it has been “the theater of spiritual concepts like justice and silver, and brass. From these were beyond itself. The laver, the table of His grace.”5 sacrifice to an estimated rabble of fashioned cherubim, flowers, loops, showbread, the candlesticks, the “Good writing,” says author John more than two million souls who are clasps, sockets, and rings. There were altar of incense, the ark of the Ciardi, “is as positive a search for seemingly fixated on a literal golden 11 curtains of goatskins, ram skins, covenant—each fulfilled a specific truth as is any part of science, and it calf and the “flesh- and badger skins function in the service, but it also deals with kinds of truth that must pots of Egypt”? and a veil of blue, represented something that tran- forever be beyond science.”6 The same In today’s par- purple, and scarlet scended mere gold and acacia wood. assertion could be made for any of lance, God could thread. And all this And the tabernacle also involved the arts, and especially of those that have used “shock was supported by a performance, theme, and story. In a are searching for spiritual truth. and awe.” But He structure of acacia sense, the sanctuary service was the- It could be observed, of course, knew that you wood. ater. The daily service was Act 1; the that this was written by an artist— don’t truly win And God knew yearly service, Act 2. What the priests not a scientist. What other view- hearts and minds exactly who He did—every movement, every act— point could you expect from a in this way. wanted to oversee each demonstrated a profound writer, after all? But in the search for He could have the creation of all truth. Each of the details that God truth, as Jonah Lehrer clearly asks, also deployed His this beauty: Beza- prescribed in the constructing of the where should we be looking for “the priests in a compre- lel, of the tribe of tabernacle and the conducting of its only reality we will ever know”? hensive and sys - Judah; and Aho- services had meaning beyond itself. tematic program of liab, of the tribe of “In the ministration of the taber- REFERENCES religious instruc- Dan. He said he nacle, and of the temple that after- 1 Proust Was a Neuroscientist (Boston: tion. But this was not a topic of defi- had filled these artisans with “wis- ward took its place, the people were Houghton Mifflin, 2007). 2 Ibid., p. xii. nitions and diagrams, of facts and dom, in understanding, in knowl- taught each day the great truths rel- 3 Luci Shaw, “Beauty and the Creative Im- formulas. It was far more than A + B edge, and in all manner of work- ative to Christ’s death and ministra- pulse,” in Leland Ryken, ed., The Christian = C. manship, to design artistic works, to tion, and once each year their minds Imagination (Colorado Springs, Colo.: Shaw With all the possible approaches work in gold, in silver, in bronze, in were carried forward to the closing Books, 2002), p. 96. at His disposal, God chose to repre- cutting jewels for setting, in carving events of the great controversy be- 4 Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 358. 5 The Acts of the Apostles, p. 12. sent His love to His people through wood, and to work in all manner of tween Christ and Satan, the final pu- 6 John Ciardi, “What Every Writer Must the utilization of the arts. “The mak- workmanship” (Ex. 31:3-5, NKJV). rification of the universe from sin Learn,” The Saturday Review (Dec. 15, 1956), ing of the Tabernacle,” observes These capabilities were a divine gift. and sinners.”4 in Leland Ryken, ed., op cit., p. 314. Francis Schaeffer, “involved almost These artisans were ordained for every form of representational art their holy work. known to humanity.”3 Taking about half a year to build, The most immediate and obvious in its completeness, the tabernacle of these would have been the visual was, in a real sense, a three-dimen- http://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/pd/vol13/iss3/662 2 63 Swanson: Faith, Science, and Art (Work Station Two) me” bunch with no patience for ab- arts. Browsing through Exodus sional stage in the round. It was “the Interestingly, Ellen White de- straction—could come to under- 25–28, the reader glimpses the ex- example and shadow of heavenly scribes in aesthetic terms the role of stand the nature of His love for them quisite workmanship that went into things” (Heb. 8:5, KJV). Every physi- God’s church throughout history. and respond in kind. What do you the appointments of the sanctuary. cal property on this stage of about a Especially in the darkest of times, do when you’re trying to convey Basic raw materials included gold, thousand square feet had a meaning she says, it has been “the theater of spiritual concepts like justice and silver, and brass. From these were beyond itself. The laver, the table of His grace.”5 sacrifice to an estimated rabble of fashioned cherubim, flowers, loops, showbread, the candlesticks, the “Good writing,” says author John more than two million souls who are clasps, sockets, and rings. There were altar of incense, the ark of the Ciardi, “is as positive a search for seemingly fixated on a literal golden 11 curtains of goatskins, ram skins, covenant—each fulfilled a specific truth as is any part of science, and it calf and the “flesh- and badger skins function in the service, but it also deals with kinds of truth that must pots of Egypt”? and a veil of blue, represented something that tran- forever be beyond science.”6 The same In today’s par- purple, and scarlet scended mere gold and acacia wood. assertion could be made for any of lance, God could thread. And all this And the tabernacle also involved the arts, and especially of those that have used “shock was supported by a performance, theme, and story. In a are searching for spiritual truth. and awe.” But He structure of acacia sense, the sanctuary service was the- It could be observed, of course, knew that you wood. ater. The daily service was Act 1; the that this was written by an artist— don’t truly win And God knew yearly service, Act 2. What the priests not a scientist. What other view- hearts and minds exactly who He did—every movement, every act— point could you expect from a in this way. wanted to oversee each demonstrated a profound writer, after all? But in the search for He could have the creation of all truth. Each of the details that God truth, as Jonah Lehrer clearly asks, also deployed His this beauty: Beza- prescribed in the constructing of the where should we be looking for “the priests in a compre- lel, of the tribe of tabernacle and the conducting of its only reality we will ever know”? hensive and sys - Judah; and Aho- services had meaning beyond itself. tematic program of liab, of the tribe of “In the ministration of the taber- REFERENCES religious instruc- Dan. He said he nacle, and of the temple that after- 1 Proust Was a Neuroscientist (Boston: tion. But this was not a topic of defi- had filled these artisans with “wis- ward took its place, the people were Houghton Mifflin, 2007). 2 Ibid., p. xii. nitions and diagrams, of facts and dom, in understanding, in knowl- taught each day the great truths rel- 3 Luci Shaw, “Beauty and the Creative Im- formulas. It was far more than A + B edge, and in all manner of work- ative to Christ’s death and ministra- pulse,” in Leland Ryken, ed., The Christian = C. manship, to design artistic works, to tion, and once each year their minds Imagination (Colorado Springs, Colo.: Shaw With all the possible approaches work in gold, in silver, in bronze, in were carried forward to the closing Books, 2002), p. 96. at His disposal, God chose to repre- cutting jewels for setting, in carving events of the great controversy be- 4 Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 358. 5 The Acts of the Apostles, p. 12. sent His love to His people through wood, and to work in all manner of tween Christ and Satan, the final pu- 6 John Ciardi, “What Every Writer Must the utilization of the arts. “The mak- workmanship” (Ex. 31:3-5, NKJV). rification of the universe from sin Learn,” The Saturday Review (Dec. 15, 1956), ing of the Tabernacle,” observes These capabilities were a divine gift. and sinners.”4 in Leland Ryken, ed., op cit., p. 314. Francis Schaeffer, “involved almost These artisans were ordained for every form of representational art their holy work. known to humanity.”3 Taking about half a year to build, The most immediate and obvious in its completeness, the tabernacle of these would have been the visual was, in a real sense, a three-dimen-

62 Published by Digital Commons @ Andrews University,63 2008 3