Contextualized Australian Aboriginal Art

In my 10/10/10 post, I mentioned the theology in the book Rainbow Spirit Theology: Toward an Australian Aboriginal Theology, and the artwork in The Rainbow Spirit in Creation.  In today's post, I'd like to explore Australian Aboriginal art further and one example of contextualizing it. The concept of art in traditional Australian Aboriginal society is very different to the concept of art in European society. In traditional Aboriginal societies, activities like dancing, singing, body decorations, sand drawings, making implements or weaving baskets were not considered to be separate activities called art and design. All of these activities were a part of the Dreaming (or Dreamtime) and a part of normal daily life. There was no concept of a special type of person, artists, because, in a sense, everyone was an artist. This is changing as tradition-oriented communities adapt to aspects of western culture although the number of ‘artists’ in any Aboriginal group would generally be far greater than in non-Aboriginal communities (for more info see http://aboriginalart.com.au/gallery/gallery_intro.html).

Islamic Calligraphy Exhibition

Just a quick note (forgot to mention it on my 9/28/10 post) about a current exhibition at Emory University in Atlanta: Islamic Calligraphy and the Qur'an | Michael C. Carlos Museum. If you're in the area and interested in Arabic calligraphy as an art form, check it out (I'm going to try).

Christian Identity vs Ethnic Identity | The Lausanne Global Conversation

I recently came across this post at the Lausanne Cape Town 2010 website.  The author (a Christian from India) laments how ethnic conflict is rampant among various groups in northeast India.  He struggles with how to personally respond, and even questions whether he is more motivated by his ethnic identity or by his Christian identity.

Blog Link: Artists and the Global Church

I would encourage you to check out this blog post by W. David O. Taylor about nonwestern artists and the upcoming issue of  Connections, the missions journal of the  World Evangelical Alliance.  It is a 100 page double issue dedicated to arts in missions.  Anyone who is interested in missions and the arts should check it out!

Arabic Calligraphy

Arabic calligraphy is one of the most highly regarded arts forms in the Islamic world, because it is the language of the Qur'an, the sacred book of Islam. Muslims believe it was dictated to Muhammad by the angel Gabriel between 610-632 A.D. Since then, Arabic calligraphy has become a highly developed art form due to the prohibition of images within most branches of Islam.

Native American Contextualization

Although not dealing specifically with the visual arts, I invite you to check out the newest issue of Mission Frontiers magazine, "Making Jesus Known."  It has articles by several native Christian leaders about contextualization, and each article (or the entire issue) can be downloaded in pdf format.  I'm still reading through it, but so far have really enjoyed the article on contextualized sweat lodges!

Early Examples of Contextualized Christian Art

I'm currently reading Our Sacred Signs by Ori Z. Soltes, and in Chapter Three he discusses the origins and development of (western) Christian art. It's interesting to read how these early Christ-followers in Europe combined their new understanding of Jesus with imagery from their pagan background in ways that were either complementary with their faith, and/or by infusing pagan motifs with new Christian meanings.