Hi,
It would be good for me to clarify what I'm hoping to achieve with the series 'Spiritual Direction in a Postmodern Landscape'.
The Wilderness and the Desert of the Real focuses on the very personal and intimate calling of the artist and is an introduction to the series, offering a number of vistas on the journey. We all go through such times of attrition, when the only thing we seem to be doing is collecting the dust of the wilderness on our shoes. Does this invalidate our calling? Are we forever resigned to the curse of anonymity?
The Cultural Way of Being develops philosopher Herman Dooyeweerd's insight into this 'way of being'. It is not the personal grasping of cultural power, but the expression of community and it's power to transform culture. With this book we move from the personal to the communal as part of our creative journey.
Translating the Invisible Wind is a book of spiritual philosophy, underpinning my thoughts on the community's development of a spirituality of resistance. It shuns the idea that our life on planet earth is somehow to be understood as an experience of exile. I build on the notion that the birth of the 'Followers of the Way' was not in a time of exile, but an era of occupation. This warrants a different cultural response. My two resistance mentors here are Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Jacques Ellul.
Lastly in the series, The Artist's Autobiography is a book about artistic identity. Who are we? What are we here for? It helps us to focus on this aspect of our work. As Andrei Tarkovsky once wrote, if we don't know who we are, our work will lack coherence.
This then, in a nutshell is the series, all due to be published this year. Happy reading and please let's engage in a conversation. From conversation community can develop. What things have the books stirred in you?