Catholic Art, Revisited (ft. a new series!)

I was thinking recently--sparked by an artist who'll be discussed later--about Catholic art, again. (My previous post about Catholic art, which had some flaws, as one of my favorite anonymous commenters pointed out in the comments, so be warned--and read the comments for that context--is HERE.)

And both my focus (on writing, rather than visual art) and my conclusions were slightly different than the last time I talked about art. 

One of the things I was musing on was that a lot of Catholic artists--Evelyn Waugh, Flannery O'Connor, J. R. R. Tolkien--didn't write specifically about Catholics. Sure, for the first two, Catholics figure in a few of their stories, but it's not like they're writing for the "Catholic representation".

And for a long time, that irritated me. Because Catholic authors don't always, or even generally, write about Catholics, and pretty much no one else is going to do a good job doing so, we don't have that many books about Catholics. Whereas for other Protestant/generally Christian groups, when authors of that denomination/sect/whatever write, they will very often (though certainly not always!) write about characters of their own faith, or at least generically Christian characters, which is good enough for them, though not always for me. Better than atheist characters, though, to be fair. All of this leads to a dearth of Catholic characters, even if good Catholic authors are writing good books. 

(I wrote part of a blog post on my irritation about the lack of Catholic representation. Please click HERE for more Samantha rants. XD However, as you'll see in the post to come, not all of my irritation still applies.)

But what I realized is a twofold conclusion. 

1. Catholic authors write about human nature, and the foundation of their art is truth, beauty, and goodness

and the inverse of point #1,

2. Anything that portrays human nature and is founded in truth, beauty, and goodness is in some way Catholic art

To expand on point #1:

Catholic authors aren't necessarily interested in writing Catholic characters for the sake of writing Catholic characters. They're interested in portraying the truth of fallen humanity and how the Fall has affected human nature. Another way of saying that would be that Catholic artists are more interested in humanity and human nature than they are in Catholics, specifically. That obviously doesn't mean that they take the Faith less seriously--on the contrary, they take it seriously enough to see that it extends to everything, and encompasses all truth, including that of the intricacies of human nature. They're interested in people as people (human beings with immortal souls) first, and people as Catholics (or members of other religions) first.

In addition, Catholic authors interested in truth, and they're interested in beauty. That means that a lot of the time, Catholic artists are going to philosophically not set out to write a story that reflects Catholicism but set out to write a story that portrays truth and beauty [Flannery O'Connor]. Because truth and beauty are found in many places, including in flawed human nature, it ends up that these stories will not always be about Catholics, or will be about flawed Catholics (more on that in a mo). Because Catholic authors, though, are Catholic and have that background in their imagination, when they set out to write true, beautiful, and good stories, i.e., to make true, beautiful and good art, even if they're not writing about Catholic characters, they'll end up with Catholic themes. They'll be Catholic stories, even if they're not about Catholics.

That obviously doesn't mean that a Catholic author can't write a Catholic character. Many Catholic authors did/do. When having a Catholic character serves the goal of conveying truth, beauty, and goodness, as well as the truth of what it's like to live in a fallen world, by all means, a Catholic author will write a Catholic character. When a Catholic author writes a Catholic character, a lot of the time (unless it's a hagiography, but that's a whole different ballgame) that Catholic character is going to be super flawed and not live up to the ideals of the Faith. Because that's how real people are, it's a result of the fall, and that's why Christ came to redeem us, and further, it's only in people (souls) like these, that we can see the results of redemption as it happens. Not to say that souls such as these are always redeemed, because they aren't always (because not everyone is). But when a Catholic author can portray grace at work in flawed humanity, that is one of the most truly beautiful and good things they can portray (whether that humanity belongs to a Catholic or not). 

Onto point #2:

In some ways, any author who sets out to write a story which is good, true, and beautiful ends up writing a Catholic story.

The word "catholic" literally means "universal". The Catholic Church claims all beauty, truth, and goodness for Herself, since She claims to possess the fullness of (though not necessarily all) truth. Truth, beauty, and goodness are all attributes of God, and the Catholic Church claims to be the True Faith, and the true way of approaching God. So, anything that is good, true, and beautiful is something that she'll enthusiastically embrace. Thus, any story which ends up being good, true, and beautiful ends up being a Catholic story in essence, and often in themes, as well! 

(This probably would be considered a little galling for those artists who aren't Catholic, but who write things that are gt&b which are then "claimed" by the Church. XD)

Some further thoughts:

A small paradox for you: a Catholic artist must be a Catholic first. A Catholic artist must be an artist first. The Catholic, or "baptized" imagination, as C. S. Lewis would say, must be present in order for an artist to be, in the strictest sense, a Catholic artist. But in order to be a good artist, a Catholic must put their artistic inclinations at the fore of their minds, and not attempt to force their art into an artificial mold of what they think Catholic art "should" look like, or what Catholics "should" write. If they do this, their art will simply be bad art. As Flannery O'Connor says (buckle up, this is a long quote):

"It is generally supposed, and not least by Catholics, that the Catholic who writes fiction is out to use fiction to prove the truth of the Faith, or at the least, to prove the existence of the supernatural. He may be. No one certainly can be sure of his low motives...but when the finished work suggests that pertinent actions have been fraudulently manipulated or overlooked or smothered, whatever purposes the writer started out with have already been defeated. What the fiction writer will discover, if he discovers anything at all, is that he himself cannot move or mold reality in the interests of abstract truth. The writer learns, perhaps more quickly than the reader, to be humble in the face of what-is. What-is is all he has to do with; the concrete is his medium; and he will realize eventually that fiction can transcend its limitations only by staying within them."

(That quote is from Flannery's book on the creator/creativity, called Mystery and Manners, which devotes an entire chapter to being a Catholic fiction writer, which is remarkable enough that I'd like to just quote the whole thing, but instead, I'll recommend you read it for yourself.)

She says further:

"The Catholic who does not write for a limited circle of fellow Catholics will in all probability consider that...he is writing for a hostile audience, and he will be more than ever concerned to have his work strand on its own feet and be complete and self-sufficient and impregnable in its own right. When people have told me that because I am Catholic, I cannot be an artist, I have had to reply, ruefully, that because I am a Catholic, I cannot afford to be less than an artist."

And lastly:

"It is when an individual's faith is weak, not when it is strong, that he will be afraid of an honest fictional representation of life; and when there is a tendency to compartmentalize the spiritual...the supernatural is apt gradually to be lost. Fiction, made according to its own laws, is an antidote to such a tendency...The Catholic fiction writer, as fiction writer, will look for the will of God first in the laws and limitations of his art and will hope that if he obeys these, other blessings will be added to his work. [emphasis mine]"

(There was also a Chesterton quote that I wanted to include, something along the lines of "when an artist becomes aware of trying to be something (i.e. Catholic), it stops being that thing", but I can't for the life of me find it. If anyone knows where it might be found, lemme know.)

The way I'd summarize all of that is that the highest commendation I could give a Catholic artist is that they are an artist-who-is-Catholic, not a Catholic-who-makes-art.

So, to recap: Catholic artists don't always write Catholic characters or overly Catholic themes, because what they end up writing about is "what-is", as Flannery O'Connor would say. They write about what is true, good, and beautiful, and most of all what is real. If they try to force their art into an artificially "Catholic" mold, the art suffers. On the flip side, art that depicts "what-is", and is true, good, and beautiful is "catholic" art, and we can claim it as ours. :)

Now that we've covered all of that: I'm announcing a new series! Inspired by all of my thoughts here, I'm planning on taking one Catholic writer (or written artist of some kind--possibly poets, as well, and I maaaay have a musical group/songwriting team lined up!) per month and writing a post about their writings, their approach to art, and how that lines up with their Catholic Faith and the philosophical principles sketched in this post!  

I'm looking forward to this for four big reasons:

1. I love thinking about Catholic art
2. It'll give me an excuse to read more from Catholic artists who I've been wanting to explore further (y'all, I have SO much Evelyn Waugh on my TBR)
3. It'll give me a reason to share some of my favorite writers & books (or artists & art) with you, even more than I already have!
4. I would like to have a regularly scheduled Catholic post/topic each month, now that Megan Chappie and I (sadly!) are not doing our papal documents consideration/linkup each month

We'll see how that all ends up being structured and how it all shakes out, but for now, I'm excited for it--and I have artists lined up until March! XD I hope that y'all will enjoy it, too. :) So, look forward to the first Catholic Artists series post, coming in September!

So, given that this was a very philosophical post--tell me your thoughts!

Have you ever thought about what it means to be a Catholic/religious artist/author? Do you have a favorite Catholic author? Are you looking forward to this series??