The beauty of the world is almost the only way by which we can allow God to penetrate us. A sense of beauty, although mutilated, distorted and soiled, remains rooted in the heart of man as a powerful incentive. It is present in all the preoccupations of secular life. If it were made true and pure, it would sweep all secular life in a body to the feet of God; it would make the total incarnation of the faith possible.
from Waiting for God
The problem of creativity occupies a central place in my world-outlook. Man was created for this, that he in his own turn should become a creator. He is called to creative work in the world—he continues the creation of the world. In the fount of his creativity there is a soaring upwards, a victory over the heaviness of the world.
But in the results, in the products of creativity, there is discovered a downwards tugging and pull. In place of new being they create books, articles, pictures, social institutes, machines, cultural values. The tragedy of creativity consists in the non-correspondence of the creative intended design with its realization.
Creativity however is freedom, a primordial act. The world has not ceased to be created, it is not finished, the creation is continuing.
from “My Philosophic World Outlook”
Back of every creation, supporting it like an arch, is faith. If one believes, miracles occur. Faith has nothing to do with money and profits; it has to do with prophets, in the biblical sense. The world isn’t kept running because it’s a paying proposition (God doesn’t make a cent on the deal). The world goes on because a few men and women in every generation underwrite it with their lives. In the struggle which they have to make themselves understood, the make music; taking the discordant elements of life, they weave a pattern of harmony and significance. If it weren’t for this constant struggle on the part of a few creative types, the world would literally die out. We are not kept alive by teachers and preachers or the government or the church. We are kept alive by men and women of faith and of vision. They are like vital germs in the endless process of becoming all that God had in mind when he said, “Let us make Man in our own image.” Make room, then, for the life-giving ones.
