Book Review: Saving Leonardo by Nancy Pearcey

Nancy Pearcey’s  Saving Leonardo is a book about how ideas are cultivated in our culture. Taking a historical perspective, Nancy demonstrates how the secularist wordview has evolved in areas such as science, philosophy, ethics, and particularly the arts and humanities.

The motif that Nancy uses throughout is the fact/value split that is the foundational premise of secular thought. Basically, the concept of truth is divided into two realms, placing the values such as preferences and opinions (relativism) in the upper realm; and the facts of science and reason (objectivism) in the lower realm. Real truth, says the secularist, can only be known in the objective sense, but stuff like morality, religion, God, etc… Falls in the upper realm of subjectivism… Simply a preference.

This understanding of truth comes to us not necessarily through philosophy books… but through the art of the day:

“Today’s most influential worldviews are born in the univerities, but they touch all of us through the books we read, the music we listen to, and the movies we watch. Ideas penetrate our minds most deeply when communicated through the imaginative language of image, story, and symbol” — Pearcey

The best part of the book, is when Nancy delves through the history of art and shows how reality is interpreted through the artistic expressions of the day (a fun way to study worldviews). After reading this section of the book, it’s hard not to look at a historical painting and not wonder about the ideas behind it. I can’t say I agree with all of Nancy’s interpretations, but it’s a fun exercise and really makes the art come to life.

You don’t have to be in the creative field to enjoy this book… in fact, the book teaches you about ‘thinking through’ the different art forms that you experience. Reading the cultural language is as important as writing it.

“The common stereotype is that art is merely a matter of personal expression. But the truth is that artists interact deeply with the thought of their day. They translate worldviews into stories and images, creating a picture language that people often absorb without even thinking about it. Learning to ‘read’ that language is a crucial skill for understanding the forces that are diametrically altering our world” — Pearcey

Nancy shows how secularism evolved via two separate streams of thought, each encapsulating the lower and upper realms. Originating in the clash between the Enlightenment (the fact realm)  and the Romantic movement (the values realm). The problem of course, is that this dualism is very much alive today and manifests in all aspects of our society. Today’s Christian worldview has also absorbed a two-story dualism, namely the sacred/secular split. “The sacred/secular dualism isolates God’s truth in the upstairs, away from the ordinary world – which implicitly denies God;s power to redeem the world”

The common perception is that God is in the business of saving souls out of the world… but the Biblical perspective is that God is all about redeeming the world… both physical and spiritual, both rationally and emotionally. There should be no dualism in the Christian worldview.

In conclusion, I found Pearcey’s book to be a refreshing look at the power of worldviews through the arts. It’s a book I couldn’t put down and will probably read it again several more times.

When we think about Van Gogh, we often refer to him as a crazy painter who cut off his ear and ended up in an insane asylum. But there is more about Van Gogh that is really interesting.

For example, did you know that Van Gogh was a devout Christian and a missionary to the coal miners in Belgium, having sold all of his possessions to live with them in poverty. He was a student of Biblical theology and deeply moved by the poverty around him. Then something happened which is still a bit unclear, Although van Gogh was successful in his ministry, the Dutch Reformed Church rejected him and he was no longer supported by the Church. The rejection was not doctrinal (heretical) but what the inspector defined as ‘excess de zele” — too much zeal? whatever that happens to mean, Van Gogh remained in the Borinage after the church withdrew its support, and he began his artistic career by making drawings of the simple life of the Belgian peasants.

Unfortunately, many art historians seem to categorize what happened next as Van Gogh having rejected religion and finding Art. But rather, it seems that Van Gogh discovered Art as his calling (rather than preaching) to be his form of expression and communication — or in a sense, his act of worship towards God.

“One cannot do better than hold onto the thought of God through everything, under all circumstances, at all places, at all times, and try to acquire more knowledge about Him, which one can do from the Bible as well as from all other things. It is good to continue believing that everything is more miraculous than one can comprehend, for this is truth; it is good to remain sensitive and humble and tender of heart . . . . For what can one learn that is better than what God has given by nature to every human soul—which is living and loving, hoping, and believing, in the depth of every soul, unless it is wantonly destroyed?”
Van Gogh – (Letter 121)

Van Gogh defined Jesus as “the supreme artist, more of an artist than all others, disdaining marble and clay and color, working in the living flesh.”

Now I am not a Van Gogh historian/expert nor is the point here to defend Van Gogh’s God beliefs. I don’t know what was going on in his mind or his true affirmation to God for that matter. My point however, is that we must not make the mistake of defining ‘art for God’ as something in the traditional sense like simply illustrating Biblical scenes or painting images of Christ or saints. “I prefer painting people’s eyes to cathedrals,” he wrote, “for there is something in the eyes that is not in the cathedral, however solemn and imposing the latter may be — a human soul, be it that of a poor beggar or of a street walker, is more interesting to me.”

Van Gogh’s great masterpeice “The Starry Night” which is one of my favorite all-time paintings, is a beautiful representation of the life of creation. When you look at that painting, you see beauty in motion, a capture of an organic nature. As Van Gogh describes…

“This [revealing God in nature] is far from theology, simply the fact that the poorest little woodcutter or peasant on the hearth or miner can have moments of emotion and inspiration which give him a feeling of an eternal home and of being close to it. . . . At times there is something indescribable in those aspects—all nature seems to speak. . . . As for me, I cannot understand why everybody does not see it and feel it; nature or God does it for everyone who has eyes and ears and a heart to understand.” – (Letter 248)

It is also interesting that Van Gogh painted this incredible picture in St. Remy’s Asylum at the end of his life. He was referred to as having ‘mental illness’ and had bouts of depression and anxiety. Eventually Van Gogh committed suicide by shooting himself.

Another tragic aspect of his life is that he was never recognized as a great artist, and only ever sold one painting in his life. His vocation of being a preacher, and then an artist, was unrecognized, and along with his physical ailment left him in a life of suffering.

Yet, it was after his life that his artwork became recognized as truly masterful, enough so, that he is sometimes referred to as the father of modern painting. I wonder if we had an opportunity to ask Van Gogh today, what he would want to be recognized for, he might say ‘as God’s painter,’ as a divine gift to the world around him. Something the culture has no category for.

There are elements of truth in all worldviews, simply because we all come from the same Creator and have been bestowed with common values. In our cultural stories, there are sometimes a glimpse of the Gospel narrative… this is often evident in so-called secular movies or art forms. The idea is to extract the Gospel principle like an acorn in a forest, which is sometimes subconsciously buried within.

Take for example some of our fairy tales. Beauty and the Beast is the story of a man’s curse that is finally broken, when love has reached out to save him. He discovers that he can truly love… having been loved first. Sleeping Beauty is the awakening of death from a lovers kiss. Even Frankenstein (the original tale), depicts a creature reaching out for his creator for acceptance… Here is the monster speaking to Victor, who is Dr. Frankenstein:

“Remember that I am thy creature; I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel, whom thou drivest from joy for no misdeed. Everywhere I see bliss, from which I alone am irrevocably excluded. I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend. Make me happy, and I shall again be virtuous.”

But apart from virtuous or interesting elements of truth, sometimes the Gospel is more prominent. Consider the 1999 cartoon animation ‘The Iron Giant’ which is an excellent resource to describe the Gospel to your kids. Of course it’s not a perfect analogy to compare the Giant to Christ, as it is to compare Aslan the Lion of Narnia to Christ. The fictional characters are not meant to be perfect representatives, only to provide a glimpse.

The Iron Giant story is one of a being (Giant) from another world who friends a young boy on Earth. The townspeople are misguided to see the alien as a threat, but when they find themselves in a situation of peril, the Giant gives his life (substitutionary sacrifice) to save the boy and the townspeople. In the end, there is even a hint of a resurrection theme.

The Iron Giant is a great secular movie that gives us a glimpse of the Gospel.

The concept of Middle Knowledge is a powerful theory that pertains to God’s perfect knowledge (omniscience) and how that knowledge relates to issues like providence, predestination, and the consolidation of divine foreknowledge and human freedom. The following article is a primer on Middle Knowledge.

The term “Middle Knowledge” also synonymous with “Molinism,” was first introduced by a 16nth Century Spanish Jesuit named Luis de Molina (1535-1600), in response to what he believed, was heretical doctrine advanced by the reformation movement. The theory was also controversial in Catholicism, creating feuds between Domenican and Jesuit circles, but was eventually accepted in 1607 as doctrinally sound. Because the theory originated in the context of refuting reformation doctrine, the concept had not been widely accepted in protestantism until lately. Today, many great Christian philosophers and apologists have embraced Middle Knowledge as a viable and powerful concept, including William Lane Craig, J.P. Moreland, Alvin Plantinga, and Thomas Flint.

Before grasping a good understanding of how Middle Knowledge operates, there are two concepts discussed in philosophy that need attention — “counterfactuals” and “possible worlds.”

Counterfactuals
Counterfactuals are conditional statements that we use in our common language all the time, particularly in our decision making. Statements like: If the sun comes out today, I will go to the beach; If I drive my car to the parking lot, I will stop in and shop at the nearby grocery store; If I had gotten an A in that exam, I would have made the honor society, etc… We may also use counterfactuals to contemplate bigger life decisions like: If she accepts my marriage proposal, we will have a wonderful life together; if I had only gone to college, my career would have been more successful, etc… Essentially understanding counterfactuals is to think in terms of possibilities contrary to what “has” or “may” actually happen.

Possible Worlds
In the movie “It’s a wonderful life,” James Stewart plays a frustrated businessman named George Baily who contemplates suicide and wishes that he had never been born. He is visited by an angel named Clarence who grants him that very wish. The Angel shows George Baily what life in his hometown would have been like had he never existed. The Angel was showing George Baily what philosophers call, a possible world.

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