The contemplative way (pt. 1)

What do we need if we're trying to see the future of faith? Beauty. Which requires investing in imagination. -- James K.A. Smith. 

We had the pleasure of attending the conference, 'The Contemplative Way,' hosted by Canvas Community right here in Fort Wayne this past Saturday. Wow, it was so invigorating for me. It was held in the atrium of First Wayne Street UMC (where Canvas is currently meeting), and we actually knew a few people there.

The three speakers were James K.A. Smith, Jared Patrick Boyd, and Valerie Clark. I will focus today just on Smith's talk.

Man... I could listen to Jamie (apparently what he goes by) talk all day. Philosophy, art, theology... that's my language. Not that I can speak it all that well myself, but I like to listen in. Jamie is a master. It was beautiful.

I took some rough notes, and some of them no longer make sense to me. Still, here's what I got. Maybe someday it will spark a reminder...

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• I 'think' the title of the talk was "Difficult Beauty: The Future of Faith and the Art of Contemplation."
  
• "Christianity is a refugee spirituality."
• "What if what looks like an end is only a beginning?" (Virgil?)
• "To invest in your imagination is re-humanizing." "In Christ is how we find out how to be human." "Jesus shows us how to be human."
• Contemplation = Art = Imagination
• "Contemplation is a posture, and way of life. A contemplative mode of being in the world."
• Four Movements of the Contemplative Life (that we cycle through again and again):
• Solitude (requires withdrawal and retreat)
• Stillness (for listening and reception)
• Unknowing (your perception of the world is upended)
• Listening (new receptivity and attention)
• The goal of contemplation: to see God anew, and to see us as God sees us. To see with a different organ than the eye. Imagination is how we will see.
• **I had a book idea at this point: "The Contemplative Runner", or "Running to Contemplation"...
• "New Seeds of Contemplation" by Thomas Merton
• "The experience of disruption and de-centering is the portal to 'wonder.'
• "Silence = the fullness of quiet (rather than the absence of sound)"
• We need to look at more contemporary art. Don't ask "what does it mean?"... ask "what is happening?" It offers a discipline of humility.
• "Prayer Invites Chaos" - this was the name of a painting, but sounds like a good title too (I think).
• "Found Poetry" - I need to write him and ask who wrote the piece from the Texas death row inmates. (I also discovered from a poet friend Blackout Poetry or Scratch Out Poetry).
• Truth = goodness = beauty (beauty and justice feed one another. injustice is a ruining of the delight God has for the world)
• "Mystery is not unknowable; mystery is endlessly knowable."
• You don't know me, but I am centered in the fact I am known by God. (and don't need to be known by anyone else)
• Not "Q & A," but "Q & R." Responses, rather than answers. 

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I'd like to say more, but I really don't even have words for it. I want to say my soul felt like it returned home... but that's maybe being a bit over dramatic. I do think what Smith has to say is prophetic though. The way the church speaks and interacts with the world needs more beauty... and contemplation seems to be the way. At least to me.

Anyway, it was good. I will try to write more as I wonder/wander on...