The universe was created beginning with an idea in the divine Mind, followed by the expenditure of energy to make that idea a reality. Likewise, artists and scientists give all their heart and effort to create a new existence that manifests the images and thoughts in their mind. Artists, scientists and inventors take after the creativity of God.
This section focuses on the arts, and so includes scripture and selected passages from famous artists reflecting on the meaning of their art.
Yet, creativity is not the sole possession of these elite personages; we find creativity in the athlete who plays exuberantly for the love of sport, in the merchant who finds better ways to market his wares, and in children as they dance and sing.
Father Moon, which this posts uses his deep teachings of the bible, who has established ballet companies and art schools and who himself loves to sing duets with his wife, is cognizant of the role the arts can play in creating a God-centered culture.
Topics include: art as harmony of opposites, art’s emotional core and emotional power; the muse, or spirituality of art; and the problem of art and values.
A culture develops from words. It begins with speech; then the words are written down to become literature. Then they are expressed in paintings and other works of art. Art and culture are thus expressions of the invisible word. This is the principle of creation through the Word, emerging as visible form and substantial existence.
Humankind struggles in frustration, longing in the world of the heart, because they have defiled
the heart’s law. People strive to fill that longing through hobbies, art, knowledge, and love objects,but they are never fully satisfied. This is the sorrow and tragedy of the human condition since the human fall.
Human Fall
After World War II, the trend developed, especially among American women, to worship Lucifer-like
men. Who are they? Movie stars, singers and actors, etc. Lucifer seduced Eve away from God and Adam. When we study the bible as symbolic, we see that he seduced her away through the misuse of love - sex without God symbolized by the fruit. We see the terminology used today "to eat" of a woman the same way it was meant in the bible, "to eat of the fruit". Don't most men that are idolized in the media have this same quality? Wooing many women, accentuate outside beauty only, and have multiple sex partners outside of marriage. These people are actually last in line to enter heaven, yet women came to worship them.
Does any of this sound like the creation and culture that God wants us to have or does it stem from somewhere else? That someone else is the beautiful Lucifer who has the gift of God's beautiful creation as he is a creation of God. Lucifer used the gifts God granted him and uses it to sway every human being away from God's path by glorifying his ungodly way and making it desirable even though his type of behavior will place people at the bottom of hell.
Lucifer-like is any behavior outside of God path. Is wanting to be beautiful or worrying about fashion sinful?
No, but when beauty alone is placed as a measurement of one person's worth and value - they aren't beautiful, therefore let's trash their value - then it is far from God. It is a fine line. To see the opposite sex as beautiful and admiring God's handiwork with someone's external being is not sinful. To lust after it, go after that person to possess their divinity, their essence through sex, to want what is not ours outside of God's dominion is sinful. For instance, wanting to be with a person who is not our intended spouse whether we are single or married, plants a seed likened to the bible phrase satan is crouching at the door waiting for a way in.
Fallen Lucifer waits for us to open that door and when we plant seeds that are small it is only a matter of time. This is how Lucifer thinks. With even the hardcore religious, this is how he works, through the small ideas we keep to ourselves until they grow and it is hard to stop the temptation when Satan breaks his way through the door we left open for him.
Father Moon, who passed away this year at 92, had a vision for the arts far beyond secular art. He believed secular world’s art is rotten; especially the recording artists and Hollywood set who are immersed in free sex. Many have contracted HIV/AIDS. He promoted absolute sex, and advocated that members of my ballet company should not be involved in immoral love affairs. It is a wedge to protect American people from rotting away because of artists who promote ungodly behavior.
In America, you can watch movies on television 24 hours a day. You can watch any kind of movie: war movies, movies about love, even pornographic movies. Young people are readily attracted to them and influenced. Since they do not have a clear viewpoint of life or thought, they copy what they see in these movies.
Youth today live in a permissive environment and have abandoned traditional values that might restrain them from seeking out the stimulating positive activities that they see in the movies. Since their parents do not pay them much attention, family ties are not strong enough to sway them. Teachers and public officials avoid giving children proper education on these matters. Therefore, there is nothing to stop them from following the wrong paths that movies made for entertainment makes seductive.
God’s Creation and Human Creativity
What can stop young people from trying free sex, drugs, violence—copying everything they see in the movies?
If this continues, the family will disappear and the world will soon be doomed.
Therefore, we should quickly establish the standard of a new tradition for the building of a new culture. It is a most urgent matter.
God’s heart of true love—to give and give more, and forget and forget again, to give unconditionally and live for the sake of others—is the foundation of the world of heart.
God’s heart of true love—to give and give more, and forget and forget again, to give unconditionally and live for the sake of others—is the foundation of the world of heart.
God’s ideal out of which He created the world began from His heart. The arts, which spring from this Origin, should resemble this heart. Hence, in the world of art, there can be no barriers. Art cannot be used as propaganda or the instrument of a particular ideology. Harmony and unity are its basic principles. Divisions and conflicts are the fruits of fallen nature. Accordingly, in the world of art, East and West should understand and accept each other through art whose character is universal and inclusive.
When professionals in the art world seek for something profound and need inspiration, they fall back on their religious background. That is why the culture of art developed centered on religion. Take Christian culture, for example. If you have a chance to travel in Europe, you should visit the Vatican. You will see the essence of European culture in each work of art.
Art is worthless unless there is profound emotion in the background. A great work of art should be capable of arousing deep emotion, whether one views it today or a thousand years from now. A
painting that can stimulate such a feeling deep in our hearts is called a masterpiece.
To be an artist is to make one’s life a work of art. Children’s education should be imbued with art. A
wife should be an artist of the emotions in the way she honors and shows appreciation to her husband.I believe that it is a greater art than the paintings that hang in museums. The greatest value of art is to beautify and elevate love in the family. When God's love is the center of the family, this spreads to the society, to the nation and to a world of heart.
Return for Tomorrow's post: Why Children Rebel
Today's post was taken from the World Scripture II book chapter God Creation and Human Creativity section Creativity and Art
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