Back in December I connected with Sam Mahlstadt over Twitter and email where he shared with me his new book entitled Creative Theology. I read it as an e-book, but it is also available on his blog for pre-order as a book.
My first response when I opened the PDF file? This is no ordinary book. This is because the design of the book is an artform in and of itself. Each page crafted to convey the message of the words with added visual touches.
I read the book in one setting.
The book reminds me a bit of Frederick Buechner’s Telling the Truth: The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy, and Fairy Tale and John Eldredge and Brent Curtis’ The Sacred Romance. It is certainly a Christian book, but it also zeroes in on creativity as central to who we all are, ingrained in our humanity. And of course this rings true to me because I believe we are all artists.
Last weekend when I met Laura, she mentioned to me that she was teaching a knitting class. She said,”I feel like if I can just get people to re-connect in one small way with the potential of their creative self, then that will open up doors for them to see God.”
I think this is what Sam is doing with his book. I think Creative Theology is a way for us to brush up against God through the avenue of beauty. I went on a solitude retreat at a monastery with Benedictine Sisters last winter. The nun I felt the most kindred towards left me to myself to wander the grounds with this comment, ““Look for God. You’ll find Him. He’s in everything.”
Am I looking for God or is God finding me?
Yes.
And I think it is this sort of paradoxical creative theology that is the only thing that has helped me personally to maintain any sort of belief in a God at all.
I know there are artists that feel no connection to God, that don’t believe in a Divine Being’s existence. I’m friends with some of them. But I do believe when we hold onto beauty (even beauty in the ugly) we are holding onto a piece of what matters, and sometimes in the darkness, the beauty is all any of us have.
My favorite line from the whole book is this:
“When you begin to live as one who ushers in the future, there is a beautiful transition that takes place. You stop waiting for things to happen to you and begin to actively create a new reality.”
-Sam Mahlstadt, Creative Theology
This is Sabrina Ward Harrison’s, “Create what you most need to find.”
And this is the reason I believe in #secretmessages.
And this is the reason my artist commune(ity) feels other-wordly. Like my 5-year-old told his 3-year-old brother recently, “We live in a different dimension. A dimension is a world we make up because we can make up any world we want.”
This is my faith lately. It is about what I give myself permission to create just as much as it is about what God has and is creating. It’s both/and movement. Check out Sam’s book. See if it moves you too.
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seriously comment issues…
other comments were better…i’ve left tons that aren’t showing up. does wordpress not like my name dots? rain :: <<— there i did it in a comment box.
oh weird. i’m sorry. i have no idea why that happened!
for the record, my other comments were more creative. but now i know why they weren’t showing up! i guess they are lost in the ether…thank you for these links. <3
I’m not sure if this was meant to be funny, but “Preoder Creative Theology Now” really takes the micky!
Is that the creative part? Preoder” My brain read it as “Pre odour” – like a smell! Can you imagine an introductory bad smell to an already terrible smell – urgh!
Totally off topic there, looks like a rad book
thanks for sharing!
Ha! That’s funny. I didn’t notice that when I pulled the graphic from his blog. Oopsy.
“We live in a different dimension. A dimension is a world we make up because we can make up any world we want.”
i have thought about these words since i read them yesterday morning. can i follow your children around with my notebook? i promise it will be in the least stalkerish way possible.
i can’t wait to read the post you linked about your solitude retreat…that’s been a silent (no pun intended) yearning for me. “But I do believe when we hold onto beauty (even beauty in the ugly) we are holding onto a piece of what matters, and sometimes in the darkness, the beauty is all any of us have.” <<<—- this. as a child i would desperately collect anything that spelled beauty to me ~ a pretty rock, a dried rosebud, a torn-out magazine page of a woman in a pretty dress. and i hoarded them like they were bread-crumbs and i was starving.
this book sounds amazing.
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you can delete my other comments if you want? i apologize that they weren't very positive.
let’s keep collecting things like you did when you were a child. promise? then we’ll play show and tell and well up with hope enough to face tomorrow.
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