Art and Faith

I’ve long appreciated the work of the painter and author Makoto Fujimura. In his new book, Art and Faith: A Theology of Making (Yale Press), Mako suggests that artists, by attending to the overlooked aspects of the earth we share, are vital in helping the rest of us to see more clearly and feel more deeply what’s going on around us. “To know an artist is to know both the depth of sorrows and the heights of joy,” he writes. “Therefore, we need to consider the arts as a way to value life’s mysterious details and as a way to train our senses to pay attention to the world. The discipline of the arts allows for this luxurious communing to take place in the deeper soils of all our lives. Artists are the conduits of life, articulating what all of us are sensing but may not have the capacity to express” (italics mine).