Twin Vocations

David Phelps wrote an article for the Acton Institute journal, Religion and Liberty, entitled The Twin Vocations of Art and Work. He proposes the following:

"The artist is a worker; the worker is an artist. Each can learn from the other, and perhaps find encouragement that the vocation to create and the vocation to serve are in many ways the same vocation."

In support of this point, he cites the Polish poet, Cyprian Norwich: “beauty is to enthuse us for work, and work is to raise us up.”

The connection is further established by Pope John Paul the Great in his Letter to Artists, wherein the "service of beauty" (art) and the service of work (business) are presented as two forms of one common vocation to "see and to serve." Phelps offers the following quote from Pope John Paul in support of his point that human creativity, whether expressed through the service of beauty or the service of work, are essentially "imperatives to serve:"

"Those who perceive in themselves this kind of divine spark which is the artistic vocation—as poet, writer, sculptor, architect, musician, actor and so on—feel at the same time the obligation not to waste this talent but to develop it, in order to put it at the service of their neighbour and of humanity as a whole."

Human creativity is not an end in itself. Phelps makes it clear: "Creativity finds its fulfillment when it is creativity for."

And this is how human creativity relates to divine creation; although the latter is ex nihilo, it is essentially creation for participation in the life of God. In other words, God created that we might share in his life, and therefore participate, as an act of love, in his creative work. This quality of selflessness and love in creativity is the essential attribute of true art, the beauty of which neither begins nor ends in the eye of the beholder.

"With loving regard, the divine Artist passes on to the human artist a spark of his own surpassing wisdom, calling him to share in his creative power." -- Letter of His Holiness Pope John Paul II to Artists

Paragraph 53 of a document, more popular for its pertinence to the ongoing controversies over creation and evolution, published by the International Theological Commission entitled Communion and Stewardship contains an excellent example of how deeply integrated this understanding of creativity is in Catholicism:

"The origins of man are to be found in Christ: for he is created 'through him and in him' (Col 1:16), 'the Word [who is] the life…and the light of every man who is coming into the world' (John 1:3-4, 9). While it is true that man is created ex nihilo, it can also be said that he is created from the fullness (ex plenitudine) of Christ himself who is at once the creator, the mediator and the end of man. The Father destined us to be his sons and daughters, and 'to be conformed to the image of his Son, who is the firstborn of many brothers' (Rom. 8:29). Thus, what it means to be created in the imago Dei is only fully revealed to us in the imago Christi. In him, we find the total receptivity to the Father which should characterize our own existence, the openness to the other in an attitude of service which should characterize our relations with our brothers and sisters in Christ, and the mercy and love for others which Christ, as the image of the Father, displays for us."

And so it is that the artist who aspires to create something beautiful must also aspire to beautifully create, and we who work must do the same.

Relevant Reading / Listening:

Letter to Artists from Pope John Paul II
The Twin Vocations of Art and Work
Lanuage and Beauty