Creativity as a Spiritual Discipline

By Brian Nixon, Special to ASSIST News Service

SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO (ANS – Feb. 29, 2016) -- In Richard Foster and Gayle D. Beebe’s book, Longing For God: Seven Paths of Christian Devotion, the two authors take a historical look at how the spiritual disciplines have influenced people throughout the ages, gleaning from the people characteristics of a life that longs for God. The disciplines discussed range from “Right Ordering Of Our Love For God” to “Divine Ascent.”

Now I don’t mean to demean the disciplines, I’ve read many books—from Foster’s classic, Celebration of Discipline, to Dallas Willard’s many tomes—and can celebrate the disciplines like any disciple of Christ should, so long as they are Biblical. After all, the disciplines can be solid points of action in our relationship with God, offering amazing insight into our sojourn when applied regularly and purposefully. To a certain extent, I’m a believer in the participation and practice of the spiritual disciplines.

But as I peruse the many books that come out about spiritual disciplines, I can’t help but think one area is often absent: creativity as a spiritual discipline. The act of generating and producing—making, crafting, constructing works of art, be it a painting, a composition, a poem, or any aesthetic action—is largely missing.

As I flip through Foster and Beebe’s book I see names like St. Francis, Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther, John Wesley, and other “giants” of the faith; names that deservedly belong on the list. But missing are names like composer, Johann Sebastian Bach, artist, Georges Rouault, and novelist, Fyodor Dostoyevsky; names not usually associated with spiritual disciplines, but just as important as contributors to the spiritual life, largely through the creative process. True, Longing for God, did mention poet, George Herbert, but rather than placing him in a field of creativity, he was placed in the section, “Spiritual Life as a Journey” (which fits well, but, as history will reveal, poetry—creativity—was his means of communicating his relationship with God).

The fact of the absence of aesthetic influence in the spiritual disciplines hit me while I was at a symposium for Western Writers in Santa Fe, New Mexico. As I listened to environmentalist, Jack Loeffler, historian and novelist, Leslie Poling-Kempes (whose father, Dr. David Poling, was my pastor while I was growing up), and author, Anne Hillerman, speak about the influence of Western motifs in their work, they described an almost spiritual experience between the landscape and written word, the interplay and influence of creating as a form of authenticity that has spiritual ramifications (what Loeffler called, “common consciousness”). Now I may not have agreed with all the points made by the writers, but one thing did stand out: for these writers, creativity was a means of expression, of coming to terms with life and all that it entails; and this has “spiritual” overtones.

And from a Christian perspective, the creative process is a means of communicating sublime truths and developing a deeper walk with Christ; a way to order your life, cultivating a profound and meaningful relationship with the Creator. In a way, the creative process is a mimic of the Lord, giving back to Him what he has already bestowed upon us—the ability to produce and make things new.

As a person with a creative bent, I find that creativity is a spiritual discipline. As a writer, I look for ways to integrate my understanding of God with the culture at large. As a painter, I do the same—I paint for God’s glory; using painting as a means to pray and ponder the inter-relationship between the world and Word. As a musician, I seek to say what can’t be said with words [1]. And for me, all three are connected in a dance between myself and God, a way to enlist creativity as a means to better understand and love, learning more about God’s character and His incarnation in Christ.

In New Mexico there is a group of artists called santeros, “saint-makers.” Traditionally, santeros create Christian themed objects—paintings (called retablos), sculptures (called a bulto), and relief work. But just as important to the santero is the means of creating as a deed of devotion, a way to express love and adoration to God and His people. Traditionally, Santeros used their time of creation as an act of prayer, talking with God about things important to the artist, linking the divine to the daily.

For the santero, creativity acts as a spiritual discipline.

For many people, not just a santero, creativity is a way to listen to life and to God, learning to allow the creative process to guide us to His presence. As producers, the creative person acts as an ambassador of Christ, allowing the Holy Spirit to redeem, restore, reconcile, and remind us of our need and dependence on God—all through the creative process, seeking inspiration and insight from Him in flashes of imagination, imagery, and mental illumination.

Though often neglected by some writers of the spiritual life, the good news is that many other people are seeing the connection between creativity and the spiritual disciplines [2], and as more writing and research continues between the two, maybe we’ll find a section included in future books by writers and thinkers such as Foster and Beebe. Until then, we’ll need to turn to those who practice the spiritual discipline of creativity, finding that the process of creativity can produce a longing for God, seeking His presence and Person through the act of creativity [3 and 4].

1) http://www.crossmap.com/news/the-pastor-painter-controversy-and-beauty-in-the-artwork-of-brian-c-nixon-13870 

2) https://www.rabbitroom.com/2015/07/creativity-spiritual-battle-and-spiritual-discipline-part-two/ and http://www.christian-artist-resource.com/spiritual-disciplines.html as examples.

3) http://onlineathens.com/local-news/2012-06-09/priest-st-philothea-painting-icons-connecticut-church and http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/18/arts/music/at-heart-of-arvo-parts-works-eastern-orthodox-christianity.html?_r=0 

4) http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2013/january-february/god-between-lines.html 

Photo captions: 1) Western Writing Conference in Santa Fe with authors, Lesley Poling-Kempes, Jack Loeffler, and Anne Hillerman. 2) Painting of a Santero at work in his studio. 3) Dan Wooding with Brian Nixon at the KWVE studios in Santa Ana, Calfornia.

About the writer: Brian Nixon is a writer, musician, and minister. He's a graduate of California State University, Stanislaus (BA) and is a Fellow at Oxford Graduate School (D.Phil.). To learn more, click here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Nixon.

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