Mimesis
Mimesis is a Greek word which is used to explain the transformation of experiences, feelings imagination, and thoughts in to images, poetry, sculpture, creative writing and art. It is the "geist", or effort of apprehension that results in something new, that no longer belongs to the artists sculptor, poet, writer, or designer. What is created, belongs to the reader, the viewer, and those that are able to both see and touch a sculpture. I shall call this our response to art, to every form of art. Music should be included. Even a cooking recipe, or an architect's design of a new building or a cooks new recipe is art. Those that experience art are free to assign it meaning, and thus bring the art into existence. Without an audience to experience the art, it has no meaning. Authentic art is always created for an audience, a reader, an observer, and most of all, a person willing to fully experience the artist's creation.
In that sense, all of the literary critics, art critics, theologians, cinema reviewers, "expertise" is nothing more than the meaning that exists in their experience of the the art.
Though they say, "This is what it means," and add one of their many labels to the art, every artist's creation takes on its own meaning once the artist has finished his/her creation. The purpose of art is not to establish a correct interpretation, but rather it is the pursuit of new meaning. Only the audience has the power to establish the new meanings for a work of art.
In my search for new meaning I discovered sixteen interpretations of the famous Moma Lisa. One was a sketch by my son, Tom, two of them were photographs, and thirteen of them were paintings. I found two punk Mona's, a Starbucks Mona, an Elizabethan Mona, a robot Mona, a Mac Donald's Mona, a van Gogh starry night Mona, a Gothic Mona, a heavy metal Mona, a native amercican Mona ans so on. They helped me to understand what happens when we fully experience an artist's creation through our humanity, our imagination and intellect, our life experiences, our souls, and our intimate realtionship with our creator.
The artist may be a master of the elements, emotions, shared human experiences, and feelings that invite new meanings, and may understand how to blend them skillfully, but art always goes beyond its creators finest effort. Art is a creation that continues to give birth to new meaning.
Helmut Rheder would call this significant form. All creations are significant forms, as unique as the finger prints of their creators. Every experience of an artist's creation is signicant form, because it bears the fingerprints of each person who experiences it and gives it life.
Calvin wrote that the Holy Spirit is the pair of glasses which allows us to read and understand the scriptures. New Christian denominations and independent churches were born out of a the meaning a preacher, theologian, or bible student assigned to one or many scriptures.
God is a master artist and his Word continues to create new meaning which a very diverse group of people are able to relate to. It is not heretical to say that Christians continue to discover new meaning in God's art. Perhaps that is why God assigned a diverse group of people to receive his Word and offer it to all of us as God's art. God's Word relates to both shared human experiennces and unique human circumstances. Our intimate relationship with Jesus Christ allows us to discover God as we enter into the fullness our experiences with God's Word. The results of the new meanings that we discover include faith, healing, joy, love, forgiveness, mercy, compassion, and Wisdom beyond the depth of our comprehension.
Those who believe that God's purpose was to create a legalistic document confined to the interpretaion of bible scholars aand thelogians have missed the whole point. They would have us experience their experiences of God's art. rather than allowing each of us have an intimate experience with God's Word.
Lomg ago, when I was a young preacher, I discovered that my sunday sermon should allow the people to experience a variety of new meanings. Of course I held myself accountable to God as I created my sermons. I also prayed that the Holy Spirit and the souls of my congregation would join together in a unique opportunity to discover many meanings. I was determined not to reject the meaning that any person found in my sermon. A true sermon is God's art and a creation that belongs to each person who experiences it. It can never be a text which must be read because God, the listener, and the preacher all participate in the experience. It is not just words, but rather a union of our humanity, our faith, our souls, and God. In truth, the experience is not a creation of the preacher. He or she may provide the opportunity for new meanings, but he or she does not create them.
Heresy does exists. I will explain why in my next blog.