{"id":37587,"date":"2018-10-26T06:00:17","date_gmt":"2018-10-26T10:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=37587"},"modified":"2018-10-21T22:05:08","modified_gmt":"2018-10-22T02:05:08","slug":"the-chapel-of-abstraction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2018\/10\/the-chapel-of-abstraction\/","title":{"rendered":"The Chapel of Contemporary Spirituality"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

When I was in Houston last week, my brother and I also visited the Rothko Chapel. We found it very emblematic of contemporary spirituality.<\/p>\n

Mark Rothko<\/a>\u00a0(1903-1970) was an abstract artist who was commissioned by Houston art collectors John and Dominique de Menil\u00a0to create a \u201cmeditative space\u201d employing his paintings.\u00a0 The\u00a0Rothko Chapel<\/a>\u00a0was completed in 1971, a year after the artist committed suicide.<\/p>\n

Described by its website<\/a> as \u201ca sacred space\u201d open to all, for all faiths and all religions, the chapel is made of rather nondescript masonry and concrete.\u00a0 Inside are eight walls surrounding benches.\u00a0 On each wall are black panels, the artwork painted by Rothko.<\/p>\n

\n

You meditate by contemplating the black paintings.\u00a0 There is no color.\u00a0 Nothing organic or alive.\u00a0 No windows to the outside.\u00a0 No symbols or representations or anything that references anything in the world.\u00a0 No meaning.\u00a0 Nothing aesthetic.<\/p>\n

Of course there wouldn\u2019t be.\u00a0 Rothko was an abstract artist.\u00a0 But his chapel is a monument to religious abstraction.\u00a0 This is \u201cspirituality\u201d:\u00a0 disembodied, oblivious to anything physical or human.\u00a0 Staring in the grey, empty space at the black panels is like shutting your eyes.<\/p>\n

I do get it.\u00a0 This expresses the Zen quality of Nirvana as \u201cnothingness.\u201d\u00a0 In meditation, you empty your mind of all transitory content, all sense impressions, all distinctions.\u00a0 This calms the spirit and enables you to contemplate the Void, perhaps to attain enlightenment so as to transcend the illusions of life and to cease existing.\u00a0 This is Gnosticism, the spirituality that rejects the material world, including its Creator.\u00a0 This is the spirituality without religion that believes the objective world is void of meaning, so that we must look for meaning only within ourselves.<\/p>\n

The chapel includes in side hallways the great \u201csacred texts\u201d of the world\u2019s religion:\u00a0 a Bible, a Quran, the Baghavad Gita of Hinduism, the Mahayana Sutras of Buddhism<\/a>, a collection of Native American myths, a Book of Mormon.\u00a0 The idea is that this chapel is for all religions, all of which are fundamentally, \u201cspiritually\u201d the same.\u00a0 But what it really expresses is how different the religions are!<\/p>\n

A Christian chapel is full of \u201cthings.\u201d\u00a0 Crosses.\u00a0 Depending on the church tradition icons and crucifixes.\u00a0 But even churches that draw back from those will have flowers.\u00a0 Stained glass windows, letting in gloriously covered light.\u00a0 Or at least regular windows letting in regular light.\u00a0 There are musical instruments and song books.\u00a0 A pulpit where an actual human being will preach.\u00a0 The Rothko chapel, signs and brochures admonish us, is to be a place of \u201csilence,\u201d but Christian chapels are places of singing, reading, preaching, speaking, and praying.\u00a0 (Not silently meditating, but praying, with language, one person addressing Another Person.)<\/p>\n

Today even Christians and their churches can succumb to abstraction.\u00a0 God becomes just the solution to a philosophical problem, an intellectual abstraction, rather than the living, active, Holy One of Israel.\u00a0 Our doctrines too can be reduced to abstractions, a set of correct answers to check off, rather than the key to reality.\u00a0 Christians, unlike many religions, believe in the Creation.\u00a0 They believe that God became flesh<\/em> in Jesus Christ.\u00a0 Who died on a Cross and rose from the dead.\u00a0 God communicates Himself by means of the water of Baptism, the bread and wine of Holy Communion, the paper and ink of a book, sound waves in the air.\u00a0 And Christians live out their faith in the world, in their vocations of family and the workplace and the state, and in those vocations in which we love and serve our neighbors God Himself is working as He governs not just His spiritual kingdom but also His temporal kingdom.<\/p>\n

The Rothko Chapel, though, is a fine expression of what contemporary spirituality so often amounts to.\u00a0 But it should remind us of the radical difference of Christianity.\u00a0 And it encourages us to bring the fullness and the light of Christianity to those whose spirituality is empty and full of darkness.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Photo:\u00a0 Houston-Rothko Chapel by Stefan Klocek via Flickr, Creative Commons License<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I was in Houston last week, my brother and I also visited the Rothko Chapel. We found it very emblematic of contemporary spirituality. Mark Rothko\u00a0(1903-1970) was an abstract artist who was commissioned by Houston art collectors John and Dominique de Menil\u00a0to create a \u201cmeditative space\u201d employing his paintings.\u00a0 The\u00a0Rothko Chapel\u00a0was completed in 1971, a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":37698,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,11,39,47],"tags":[481,7689,929,7076,7680,7686,7683],"class_list":["post-37587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art","category-church","category-religions","category-theology","tag-church-buildings","tag-contemporary-spirituality","tag-gnosticism","tag-interfaith-ecumenism","tag-mark-rothko","tag-religious-architecture","tag-rothko-chapel"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Chapel of Contemporary Spirituality<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Rothko Chapel in Houston is emblematic of contemporary spirituality with its black, empty panels. Its abstraction is in stark contrast to the physicality of Christianity--with its doctrines of creation, incarnation, the Cross, sacraments, and vocation--and the design of Christian churches.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2018\/10\/the-chapel-of-abstraction\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Chapel of Contemporary Spirituality\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Rothko Chapel in Houston is emblematic of contemporary spirituality with its black, empty panels. Its abstraction is in stark contrast to the physicality of Christianity--with its doctrines of creation, incarnation, the Cross, sacraments, and vocation--and the design of Christian churches.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2018\/10\/the-chapel-of-abstraction\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cranach\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cranachblog\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-10-26T10:00:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-10-22T02:05:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/305\/2018\/10\/3364640890_59b9780022_b.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"431\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2018\/10\/the-chapel-of-abstraction\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2018\/10\/the-chapel-of-abstraction\/\",\"name\":\"The Chapel of Contemporary Spirituality\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-10-26T10:00:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-10-22T02:05:08+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\"},\"description\":\"The Rothko Chapel in Houston is emblematic of contemporary spirituality with its black, empty panels. Its abstraction is in stark contrast to the physicality of Christianity--with its doctrines of creation, incarnation, the Cross, sacraments, and vocation--and the design of Christian churches.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2018\/10\/the-chapel-of-abstraction\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2018\/10\/the-chapel-of-abstraction\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2018\/10\/the-chapel-of-abstraction\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Chapel of Contemporary Spirituality\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\",\"name\":\"Cranach\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\",\"name\":\"Gene Veith\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Gene Veith\"},\"description\":\"Gene Edward Veith, Jr. is a writer and retired literature professor, serving as Provost Emeritus at Patrick Henry College. He has authored over 25 books on Christianity and culture, literature, classical education, and theology. Dr. Veith previously held academic and editorial roles at Concordia University Wisconsin and WORLD Magazine. A respected voice in Lutheran and classical education circles, he holds a Ph.D. in English and several honorary doctorates. He and his wife, Jackquelyn, live in St. Louis and have three children and twelve grandchildren.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cranachblog\/\",\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Gene_Edward_Veith\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/author\/geneveith\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Chapel of Contemporary Spirituality","description":"The Rothko Chapel in Houston is emblematic of contemporary spirituality with its black, empty panels. Its abstraction is in stark contrast to the physicality of Christianity--with its doctrines of creation, incarnation, the Cross, sacraments, and vocation--and the design of Christian churches.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2018\/10\/the-chapel-of-abstraction\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Chapel of Contemporary Spirituality","og_description":"The Rothko Chapel in Houston is emblematic of contemporary spirituality with its black, empty panels. Its abstraction is in stark contrast to the physicality of Christianity--with its doctrines of creation, incarnation, the Cross, sacraments, and vocation--and the design of Christian churches.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2018\/10\/the-chapel-of-abstraction\/","og_site_name":"Cranach","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cranachblog\/","article_published_time":"2018-10-26T10:00:17+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-10-22T02:05:08+00:00","og_image":[{"width":768,"height":431,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/305\/2018\/10\/3364640890_59b9780022_b.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Gene Veith","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Gene Veith","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2018\/10\/the-chapel-of-abstraction\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2018\/10\/the-chapel-of-abstraction\/","name":"The Chapel of Contemporary Spirituality","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website"},"datePublished":"2018-10-26T10:00:17+00:00","dateModified":"2018-10-22T02:05:08+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1"},"description":"The Rothko Chapel in Houston is emblematic of contemporary spirituality with its black, empty panels. Its abstraction is in stark contrast to the physicality of Christianity--with its doctrines of creation, incarnation, the Cross, sacraments, and vocation--and the design of Christian churches.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2018\/10\/the-chapel-of-abstraction\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2018\/10\/the-chapel-of-abstraction\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2018\/10\/the-chapel-of-abstraction\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Chapel of Contemporary Spirituality"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/","name":"Cranach","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1","name":"Gene Veith","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Gene Veith"},"description":"Gene Edward Veith, Jr. is a writer and retired literature professor, serving as Provost Emeritus at Patrick Henry College. He has authored over 25 books on Christianity and culture, literature, classical education, and theology. Dr. Veith previously held academic and editorial roles at Concordia University Wisconsin and WORLD Magazine. A respected voice in Lutheran and classical education circles, he holds a Ph.D. in English and several honorary doctorates. He and his wife, Jackquelyn, live in St. Louis and have three children and twelve grandchildren.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cranachblog\/","https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Gene_Edward_Veith"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/author\/geneveith\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1281"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}