By Fr. Soroj Mullick, SDB –
Shrines are places of pilgrimage. All holy shrines with its sacred art exhibited, attract people. A sense of the sacred along with its expressive beauty emanates from these places. People have faith in the holy shrines and faith in God. Therefore, shrines have various functions. People search for spiritual awakening in such places of artistic and symbolic importance, experiencing peace, solace and serenity and expecting miracles to happen. Mostly they are known for physical and faith healing.
The sacred Church-art is meant to offer opportunities for educating the faithful in holistic healing and authentic faith. These sacred places of worship, specially are dedicated, and recognized by the local ordinary people. These places are important for their historical reasons, architectural structures, or of special veneration. Shrines with their history, structures and art depiction are places of worship and an integral part of religion.
In contrast, a split three-judge bench of the Supreme Court on 27th September 2018, refused to refer to a larger bench the “questionable observation” of a five-judge bench that shrines are not an “integral” or “essential” part of a religion unless special significance is attached to the place. The only significance is that they are primarily places of worship with religious sentiments that evoke faith in God.
They are places of “lived religion” and live catechesis, of popular devotions. Christians, Hindus, Muslims and others from all over India flock to Christian shrines in India. Pilgrims from diverse communities create a liminal space that transcends socio-cultural and religious distinctions. It combines century-old ritual practices in hybrid form but rooted in traditions.
Art is meant for growth through aesthetic, sensory and social experience. It is not about right or wrong. Art opens the mind and engages the senses. More than meaning and learning it is about inner growth not measured by knowledge. The Church places each artist “in the center of human experience itself, as the one who is able to reflect the great movements of man’s development,” contributing to making the culture “see artistic production in another way.”
Due to the lack of basic education in Christian faith and the progressive secularized society and culture the relationship between Church and contemporary artists has been tense since the 20th century, on which Paul VI confirmed: “The split between the Gospel and culture is without a doubt the drama of our time.” The art is an aesthetic and spiritual challenge. John Paul II urged the artists to be responsible for the truth and insisted that “the synthesis between culture and faith is a necessity not only for culture, but also for faith.”
The Church, the art promoter for centuries, saved the dying arts, rescued artists and their works and offered them chance to rise above their status of craftsmen and become ‘artists’. It encouraged and exhorted artists to “cultivate their gifts, to learn and experiment and grow in their talents.” Thus the Church as the Patronage, channeled man’s creative instinct and challenged it to the highest goals.
The Renaissance saw these masters of fresco, stone carving, painting become thinkers and peers among the theologians, philosophers and mathematicians. In order to keep their social status, they found the Church patronage as a constraint. Called by nature, politics and pleasure, these artists used their finely honed talents to explore unconditionally the world around them, devoting fuller attention to their own feelings and perceptions. In the name of freedom they began to provoke, titillate and rage without reason.
The dialogue between art and the Church, therefore, has its moments of agony and ecstasy. Art today has an interdisciplinary field: literature, music and space. Sacred and modern abstract art, emphasizing tradition and transcendence, becomes ‘shock art’ that opens afresh the heart and mind to the Beyond – to the sublime of the supernatural.
As Benedict XVI warned of “seductive but hypocritical beauty” that leads to dominate and possess power. We need to abhor arts that are in the guise of indecency, transgression and provoking. The tired old mantra is still on, “art must be free.” And within this freedom that artists have to look outside of their own experience and think in terms of universality in order to reconcile art with the Church, that is, see faith through cultures.
To be continued…
This article is an extract from book on Art and Faith Perceptions in the Shrines: An integration of Church-Art in Pluri-Cultural Context by Fr. Soroj Mullick, SDB, a Salesian priest from the Kolkata Province. He has a Licentiate in Catechetics and a Doctorate (Christian Education) from UPS, Italy. He has number of years of teaching experience in college and in the formation of future priests. Besides, he has written number of research papers and articles, and has 25 years of Ministry in India and abroad as Educator, Formator, Retreat Preacher, Editor and engaged in School, Parish Catechetical & Youth Ministry. He is now an assistant priest in Bandel Basilica, rendering pastoral and catechetical ministry to the parishioners and to the pilgrims. He can be contacted at [email protected].