From Death to Life

Abstract Modern art has been a battleground for Protestant theological aesthetics. In Modern Art and the Death of a Culture (1970), H.R. Rookmaaker argued that modern art signified the expiration of the culture; he lamented that modern art is devoid of any spiritual truth. Jonathan A. Anderson and William A. Dyrness, in their book Modern Art and the Life of a Culture (2016, a response to Rookmaaker), have shown that modern artists were in fact deeply motivated by spiritual and religious concerns. This article introduces a third perspective into this discussion: Paul Tillich. In a brief address that he made to the Museum of Modern Art in 1964, Tillich sketches a Christological approach to modern art. In his paradigm, modern art does not statically rest in either death or life. Rather, it dynamically moves from death to life as Christ did. This article frames Tillich’s approach as a subversive aesthetic, which will be shown to harmonize better with the nature and defining characteristics of modern art. Though Tillich’s thoughts are brief and incomplete, he provides the appropriate starting point in the conversation, one that was unfortunately glossed over when he offered it in the 60s and deserves renewed attention as we continue to theologically parse modern art.