Recreating Acts 2:38

If you ever visit Italy, you'll return intoxicated by art. It's everywhere in every variation, but mostly visual: sculpture, fountains, mosaics, paintings of every type, statues, and students made up like interactive statues.

We recently returned from an 11-day holiday throughout central Italy, mostly in Roma and Firenze, and I returning burning with a couple of observations that apply:

Beauty will always elicit an unconscious response from the soul--Michelangelo's David is breathtaking. Neither pictures nor reproductions do it proper justice. We spent about an hour circling it from every angle, largely in awe. A few days later we were craning our necks to inhale the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Again, there's nothing like the original.

In both cases, despite my fatigue (we walked 5ish miles daily) and jet lag, different praise choruses (another art form) start circling through my mind in response to both. Nothing was in my mind, then I was suddenly singing. My soul yearned to praise the One who invented beauty just as my dazzled mind appreciated the artist's creation of beauty.

No matter our artistic abilities, they should always strive to form something beautiful so that the reader/viewer/listener's soul will respond anew to the original Creator.

Acts 2 Opportunities
The Catholics know how to reach believers and unbelievers through art. We could learn a lot from them.

The Galleria della Accademia in Florence is a small, second-rate museum with the world's most famous sculpture (David). As we were wandering through a room of unimpressive altar pieces, I spied one with flames. A large Mary sat in the middle with 6 tiny disciples on either side. It was the Day of Pentecost. The explanation below the altar piece explained that even though Pentecost was a major moment in church history, it was rarely translated into art.


I later saw a lovely bronze sculpture in the Vatican by Lello Scorzelli entitled "Pentecostale" (1967-1973 if I read it correctly). I was enraptured by the explosion over Mary and the disciples. My heart quickened. We were anxious to get to the Sistine, but this sculpture . . . it stopped me.


That night, I saw a rather unimpressive painting of Pentecost at the Guerrieri Chapel atop Roma's Spanish Steps (see top photo), but nothing else recreating Acts 2 in these two major cities of art.


Despite 1700+ years of artistic endeavors by the Catholic Church (and other religions), art has yet to create definitive moments of Pentecost. This is our opportunity. Acts 1-2 are our touchstone scriptures. We should be all over this.

Beauty Makes Believers
Art gives us the opportunity to make Christians and non-believers see Christ as we do--and be changed by the experience. It is through these cracks of artistic experience that we can touch unbelievers and help make them believers.

It's like the true story of the English professor who said (paraphrase), "I am an atheist, but when I read Flannery O'Conner, I beieve."

My writing must unveil interesting situations with real people of all stripes, including Pentecostals who are living the difference of Acts 2. It must surprise and entertain and provoke response while still attempting to create a beauty I'm not even sure I'm capable of producing. My artistic vision has a better opportunity to shine through because of art history's oversight. So does yours.

"There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in." -Leonard Cohen