Imaging the Story

Rediscovering the Visual and Poetic Contours of Salvation

Case-Green, Sakakini

• Publisher: Cascade Books
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9781498217347
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Literature & the Arts in Christianity

"Tell all the Truth but tell it slant."(Emily Dickinson)This course follows the contours of the salvation story through the lens of the arts. Putting visual art and poetry in conversation with the Bible, it seeks to engage the imagination. Rather than analyzing the narrative, the reader is invited to behold it and respond to it through "making"--either verbally or visually.At times, the church has treated the imagination like an embarrassing relative. Yet the Bible is image-rich, drawing widely on the imagination, and we are each made in the image of the creator God. It is time to bring the imagination out of the corner! "For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." (Eph 2:10 NIV)Whether following it as a group or reading it alone, this course book will appeal to anyone with an interest in the salvation story and the arts. It is particularly for those who feel permission is needed to pick up a paintbrush--or any other creative medium--just for the love of it.

chapter 1

Creation

Creator and Craftsman

The story starts here. In Genesis 1, the writer soars up high to give us a cosmic overview of creation. Little detail is given as to how or when creation occurs; what is important to the writer is who is behind it. As the story opens, God is depicted as the divine protagonist.1

In this grand choreography, ’Elohim (the generic Hebrew term for God) is seen at a lofty distance, summoning life through the “mere agency of divine speech.”2 He creates ex nihilo (creating things out of nothing), simply by speaking things into being. The Hebrew verb bara’ in Genesis 1 is used to describe the way in which God creates and, occurring fifty times in the Old Testament, God is the only subject of this verb. Human beings cannot create like this; it is sole territory of the divine.

Simple though the first creation account may seem, it is tightly crafted. Enclosed within an envelope structure, strong word patterns emerge.3 For instance, we read that, after God creates each thing, he declares that, “it was good.” This phrase acts like a refrain throughout Genesis 1. The English translation “good” fails to capture the richness of this word. The Hebrew term, tov, is highly nuanced and suggests “beautiful,” “delightful,” “prosperous,” and “working the way it was created to,” as well as meaning “morally good.” So land, plants, trees, sun, moon, and every kind of creature on and above the earth are all declared tov and are blessed by God. Everything works the way it was created to work and is a good thing to behold.

In Genesis 2, the focus changes. From the grand choreography of Genesis 1, we swoop down suddenly to earth and see God working as a craftsman, forming and shaping out of the superabundance of creation. The verb yatsar (fashioning) replaces bara’ (creating) to describe the Creator at work, forming the human (’adam) from the soil (’adamah), blowing life into his nostrils (Gen 2:7), building woman from his rib (Gen 2:22), and planting a garden (Gen 2:8).4 In short, we are plunged into the nitty-gritty of “making.”

Read

Read the passage below slowly. 5

In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no one to till the ground, but a stream would rise from the earth, and water the whole face of the ground—then the Lord formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living thing. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. Out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

A river flows out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it divides and becomes four branches. The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one that flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; and the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one that flows around the whole land of Cush. The name of the third river is Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. . . . Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.” So out of the ground the Lord God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field . . . . (Gen 2:4–20)

Respond

• What do you notice about the nitty-gritty of making in the text above?

• How are Adam and Eve invited to be co-makers with God in the garden?

Figure 03: The Awakening Slave by Michelangelo, c. 1520–23, Galleria dell’Accademia, Florence

Figure 04: The Hand of God by Auguste Rodin, 1896, Rodin Museum, Paris

Reflect

• Compare these two sculptures. How does each artist seem to work with the material?

• Which creation account (Genesis 1 or 2) does each artist seem to reflect?

• Which way of working do you identify with most?

Michelangelo’s work is one of four unfinished sculptures of captives. In this one, a figure emerges from a huge marble block. It evokes the idea that making art is about d...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Foreword
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Creation
• Chapter 2: Crisis
• Chapter 3: Calling
• Chapter 4: Conception
• Chapter 5: Coming
• Chapter 6: Cross and Comeback
• Chapter 7: Charisma
• Chapter 8: Community
• Chapter 9: Church
• Chapter 10: Consummation
• Appendix 1
• Appendix 2: The Project
• Appendix 3
• Appendix 4
• Bibliography