Dear Renee,
I found this moving and thought provoking, thank you.
I also thought about it as I was going around the Siena exhibition at the national gallery. The intricate “works of art” which were made as objects for contemplation and prayer. And making them was an act of devotion, in and of themselves.
Whilst I am not a practicing Christian, I am, and have been, close to many people of faith. As well as people who have moved away, and people of different faith backgrounds. How to do justice to all these perspectives I have known is a challenge, but I have always valued opportunities for conversation, and feel there are central truths (and I do believe in truth) that can be drawn from the morality and rationality in most faiths. “Love thy neighbour”, means something, to me.
I do recognise some of the abiding “default” feeling at university/art school about talking about faith. Whether this stems entirely from “criticism,” I am not sure. Indeed, returning to take a look at Greenberg, for example, I was struck that by reading which did not seem, actually, as anti-religion/anti-faith in some ways as one might expect (in his reflections on T.S. Eliot, he says he thinks Four Quartets is not as good as his poem Ash Wednesday, but he is genuinely favourable towards the latter (I like bits of Four Quartets too.. But there we go!). And in his critique of some aspects of Eliot’s own criticism, it is not a rejection of Eliot’s perspective, but rather he appears to seek to show how Eliot’s perspective might point beyond itself.
Greenberg brings his own knowledge and experience (as Jewish) to bear in his appreciations of Franz Kafka, where Kafka’s exploration of the concept of time is connected, in Judaism, with ideas of Messianism, redemption. It has also been speculated (Platt, 2012) that Greenberg may have chosen to focus on formal considerations of art work out of an (understandable) fear, after the Second World War and the Holocaust, of drawing too much attention to his, or other Jewish, identities. I suppose I am raising all this to say that there are conversations there, even in the canon of art history, even if we don’t really talk about them.
Having said all this, I *do* know what you mean, and the (other) tradition that Greenberg is working within, Marxism, does have its more vulgar (what I would call “Stalinist”) perspectives, which do fall into simplistic “anti-religion” positions. This might otherwise be called a kind of “philistinism”. (Although perhaps that word is too loaded, in origin).
In parts of the 20th Century, “Official Communism” has dealt very cruelly to believers. And in my opinion, as someone interested in Marxism, has given Marxism a bad name. But is Socialism/Marxism also a faith? Some of its detractors argue it is… it is a commitment, at least, I think.
What does it mean to be “cultured”? Surely, appreciation of the importance of faith comes into that. Faith is such an important wellspring for creativity, and joy for so many. I know this from people in my own life. It’s also certainly a problem, given so much of art history, and indeed, present art *is* inflected by faith practice, that if we can’t talk about it.
(Catholic) Marxist Terry Eagleton also points out that culture is something that means so much to people, they are prepared to die for it. (And indeed, kill, for it). This chilling aspect may have something to do with the ambivalence we may have, about culture, about faith, and about talking about it. (It does for me, sometimes).
Faith does also take us beyond ‘criticism’ in some ways, as it can deal with the ineffable. And yet words, too, (The Word) are also with God, are God (John:1).
The act of naming that God bestowed to man, tasks us with naming not only the animals and trees but our experiences. And through naming, we reflect on them… is this the origin of critique? (Benjamin, 1916).
This blog also resonated with your previous, for me, as I also recognise some of the tensions you have experienced in your background, around stigma to do with mental health, which might also run alongside practice of faith. Perhaps these have a particularly difficult aspect to them, for minoritised/racialised groups, but they can apply to many. For example, I think members of my (predominantly white) family have wrestled with their own mental health alongside faith, and whilst often faith brings them strength, it can present a challenge: are they not practicing their faith hard enough, if/when mental health problems occur? Does the ‘front’ that you might have to put on for a church community, match the reality of home/personal life? For my mum, at least, in relation to her parents, a certain kind of dissonance she experienced between the community and home life, may well have contributed to her moving away from her faith… But for others it can reinscribe a commitment to faith… It’s complicated!
University is also a time where students want to, and should be, encouraged, I think, to encounter different perspectives. But if there is a ubiquitous lack of conversation about religion, if lack of faith is the norm, then students (and teachers) are not being challenged. So, thank you! Keep doing your (God’s?) work!
Lucy x
p.s. I once had a late night conversation with two Marxist friends of mine, once Christian, one Jewish, about what life might look like after overcoming capitalism… We joked (but seriously!): we would have more time to have sex, more time to make art, and more time to pray.
–
Benjamin, W. (1916, 1978) ‘Language as Such, and the Language of Man’ in Reflections: essays, aphorisms, autobiographical writings, New York : Harcourt Brace Jovanovich
Bible (Old Testament), Genesis 2:19 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%202&version=NIV (Accessed 13/07/2025)
Bible (New Testament), John 1:1 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%201&version=NIV (Accessed 13/07/2025)
Greenberg, C. (1961), Art and Culture: Critical Essays. Boston: Beacon Press
Eagleton, T. (2024), ‘Where does Culture Come From?’ London Review of Books, https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/n08/terry-eagleton/where-does-culture-come-from Accessed 14 July 2025
Eliot, T.S. (1930) Ash Wednesday, https://englishverse.com/poems/ash_wednesday Accessed, 14/07/2027
Odjidja, R, (2025) ‘The invisibility of Religion in Fine Art’ https://reneeislearning.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2025/06/08/invisibility-of-religion-in-fine-art/ Accessed 12/07/2025
Platt, S.N. (2012) ‘Clement Greenberg in the 1930s: A New Perspective on His Criticism’, Art and Politics Now, https://www.artandpoliticsnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Greenberg-1930s.pdf Accessed 14/07/2025