besquared.org Blog

I remember as a kid visiting an Art Museum in Chicago with my Grandmother. I will freely admit that it was not my favorite place to go. I much preferred our trips to the dunes or to the shore of Lake Michigan or best of all, the Museum of Science and Industry. However my Grandmother knew what was best for us so occasionally she would take us to see some art.

I have only a few distinct memories of those trips, but I do remember one trip when we spent most of our time is a big room full of late Renaissance masterpieces. (I have no idea what they were.) In the room that day were Masters students from the University of Chicago Art School. They were all set-up with easels and paints copying the old paintings. Since my Grandmother never understood that you weren’t supposed to talk to strangers, she began to ask them questions. And since she was asking the questions for our benefit she made us stay by her side and listen.

I don’t remember any specific details but I remember the gist of what they were doing. They were attempting to exactly duplicate these old masterworks. They had studied painting techniques and brush types. They had researched old paints and colors and tried to understand the original methods of production. They had chosen a painting to duplicate and then had studied the painting. Some were still in the looking phase. One student I remember very clearly was doing nothing but sitting there all day looking at the painting and taking notes and drawing little sketches of how it appeared in different light. Another was reading an art book on the development of painting techniques.

This is something like what it means to read a gospel carefully. Christ is our model. We want to understand his culture and background and interests, because we want to know his life and pattern our lives on it. By knowing his culture we can see how he confirmed and confronted the world he lived in and we will find clarity about how we should both confirm and more often confront our culture. I suppose that in the world of art, there is a danger that someone could become so fascinated with the study of brush technique that they never actually painted. On the other hand, someone committed to painting will eventually study brush technique.

I hope that together we can bring one another balance. Let us not be too hasty to assume how we should live until we have studied how Christ lived. But let us also never forget that the reason we study the master is so that we can live as he lived.

That is how I hope to read the gospel.

-Ethan