Abstract
Steven Guthrie has set himself an ambitious project in attempting to determine the correlation between the work of the Holy Spirit and artistic creativity, particularly given the strongly eschatological emphasis within his work. It is a well written, engaging treatment of this issue, however, and reflects the author’s sustained scholarly attention to the relationship between Christianity and the Arts. Throughout, he purposefully draws on a range of traditions and areas of knowledge, giving, with plentiful scriptural references, particular attention to the writing of Athanasius and other early Church Fathers. It is a refreshing and comprehensive approach, for rather than limiting himself to ‘high art’ from much earlier periods, he also draws on a vast array of artistic output from contemporary culture. His section on the work of John Coltrane, the celebrated jazz saxophonist, for example, is interesting, insightful, and a serious analysis of one form of personal expression. Literature, music and the visual arts all receive attention in Guthrie’s wide ranging treatment of this topic.
In order to establish a cogent argument regarding the renewing, re-humanising work of the Holy Spirit in and through the aesthetic domain, Guthrie has to fend off some enduring objections. He carefully and thoughtfully repudiates challenges to the potential for individual creativity posed by a postmodern stance. He also addresses the problematic nature of contemporary attitudes to beauty, giving a soundly theological basis to all serious creative enterprise. In addition, he balances the argument that creativity is either ‘from above’ (divinely given) or ‘from below’ (a social construct). In confronting all these issues he draws on the work of many scholars and artists, as diverse as Plato, Thomas Aquinas, Schleiermacher, Karl Barth, Roland Barthes, Milan Kundera, Calvin Seerveld, and Colin Gunton, to name but a few. Guthrie has woven together a rich tapestry of supporting commentary in his particular approach to the role of the Holy Spirit in this realm of human activity.
Moving between the modes of discourse pertinent to theology, philosophy, literary studies, musicology and a study of the visual arts is a challenging task, and occasionally such transitions are somewhat awkward in Guthrie’s work. But, he should be commended for attempting to realise an integrated, inclusive approach to the irrepressible desire that abounds for creative expression and for relating that desire to a renewed interest in pneumatology. Focusing on the realisation of all human aspirations in Jesus Christ, the eschatos, gives the work a strongly positive, Christological foundation. It is important that the Christian church continues to engage with and embrace the creative prompting of the Holy Spirit within the lives of gifted individuals. How to understand and appreciate such promptings is what Guthrie does so well. This is a very valuable, satisfying and enriching contribution to that area of scholarship.