rediscovering orthodoxy and iconography

Last semester at Houghton (spring 2005), we were visited by 2 people of Eastern Orthodox background or leaning, Priest Ugolnik and Christine Simoneau-Hales, iconographer, one complimentary to the other. Ugolnik urged us, as part of the church, to empower our artists: "The people who reach the outside world with the gospel are those who interact with it - who reach out to it - not those who separate themselves from it. We must enter every chink, every crack. Artists do this - so empower them to do this! They are your "warriors" in this "culture war"... We need to empower Christian artists to awaken the imagination, to release it... [Unlocking the imagination necessitates] mixing with the culture in which you live, encountering it and grappling with the people and beliefs and ideas that you find....
Protestantism established itself out of existence by identifying itself - establishing itself - with the nations. We blended and diluted its doctines, and they have slowly but progressively faded and fallen and corrupted. It was made "normative" and thus blended with the existing culture. this is not the rightful role of Christianity - to be normative - but to challenge the powers that be, challenge culturally accepted norms. Christianity's relationship with culture is a refining relationship. As we are brought through the refining fire to be purified and made more into the image of Christ, so Christianity is to refine culture so that it can be made more into the image of the Kingdom of God.
And so now we come to expressing Christian imagination and longing... transitioning from soul to oral to visual...
Hales says: "Icons are windows into the spiritual realm. As such, they are an aid in prayer which can inspire our connection to God. They, of course, are not meant to be worshiped in themselves but are a bridge leading the worshipper to greater understanding of God's power and glory in its many dimensions."
It's late, and so I apologize if the connections I'm making in my head aren't being very well expressed in writing... but by the grace of God may they encourage you in a way I never can of my own mind. I included Hales' website in my list of links. Check it out.

"St. John is shown here as a man of the wilderness. His gaze is piercing but loving. He shows that God often chooses as His messenger the lowly and uncivilized."

"Hildegard was an eleventh century abbess in Germany to whom God gave a vision while in her forties. God told her to get up and write, and create to glorify Him. From that time on she composed music, wrote poetry, and illuminated spiritual truths while also founding and directing Monasteries." I'm drawn to this woman... she lived from 1098 to 1179. She was a visionary, prophetess, musical composer, and wrote much on nature, spirituality, and Creation.