In the introduction of The Divine Commodity, author Skye
Jethani introduces us to the famous post-impressionist painter Vincent van
Gogh. Van Gogh, most famous for his descent into insanity and for cutting off
his own ear surprisingly (at least to me) began his adult life in the formal
service of the church and it was his deep and sometimes disturbing faith in God
that fueled most of his most famous work – including his masterpiece “Starry
Night.” For van Gogh, Starry Night represented his own damning critique of the
institutional church of his day – the yellow light of divine love (van Gogh’s
favourite colour) persistent in the heavens and reflected in the windows of
every building in the village – except one; the church in Starry Night is
conspicuously dark.
But there is one building in van Gogh’s imaginary village with no light, no divine presence — the church. Its silent darkness speaks van Gogh’s judgment that the institutional church was full of “icy coldness.” Like many people today, van Gogh struggled to find God in the confines of institutional, programmatic religion. Instead, he found himself drawn outside the respectable piety of the church to commune with peasants and prostitutes. And his devotion to Christ was inspired by nature — the radiance of sunflowers, the knuckled contortion of olive trees, and the silent providence of the stars. (p. 10)
Jethani reflects on the significance of this critique in
light of a modern parody of van Gogh’s work by pop artist Ron English titled
Starry Night Urban Sprawl in which the antiquated French Village is replaced by
the symbols and brands of the western corporate globalized landscape. In
English’s version of the scene, in contrast to van Gogh, the church is not dark
but is instead ablaze with the same light as every other building – except it
is not the yellow light of divine love...
Instead, the church repeats the electric white light of the franchised stores and restaurants around it. It reflects the values of the earth, not the values of the heavens. This church is a corporation, its outreach is marketing, its worship is entertainment, and its god is a commodity. It is the church of Consumer Christianity. (p. 11)
This vision of the church becomes the central focus of
everything that follows in the book. Jethani will go on to explain in the
introduction that for this investigation of what is ailing the modern church he
will return again and again to the life of Vincent van Gogh who in effect
serves as a narrator and guide for Jethani’s rebuke of the church of Consumer Christianity.
Jethani is seeking to challenge the consumer mindset for what it really is – not a set of actions, or even lifestyle
choices (as if we could overcome it by living better lives) but as a worldview
that affects and distorts everything we see, hear, value and understand –
including the Church – including even God. In the end what Jethani is proposing
is that we are engaged in a deep and pervasive form of syncretism that has
ultimately turned even the Almighty into a commodity for our consumption and
exploitation – and the real danger is that we aren’t even aware of it. In fact
he will argue in chapter one, that due to a deficiency of imagination we have
lost the ability to be aware of it. But I’ll save that discussion for the post
on chapter one.
As we begin the work of the book club by pondering these
ideas together I would like to spark discussion with the following questions:
Which representation of the church in the two paintings
best describes your experience of church? Or do either of them fit your
experience?
What do you think of the author’s contention that we have
lost the ability to even recognize the grip that consumerism has on our
worldview (p.12)?
Using your imaginations, what would/could a church that
wasn’t in the grip of a consumeristic worldview look like? Is that sort of
church even a possibility anymore?
Please feel free to engage on Facebook in the group “Pastor
Chris’ Book Club” or on the comments section of this blog. I’m also open to
personal conversations but the idea of the book club is that we do our
discussion in the open for the whole group to see so please don’t be shy.
Until next time,
Chris
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