Having lived in the South for the last 30 years, I have been affiliated with and exposed to all of the following denominations in addition to the Catholic Church I was raised within: Episcopalian, Southern Baptist, Assemblies of God, Pentecostal (Four-Square), Charismatic, Presbyterian and now I attend a non-denominational – or should I say – INTER-denominational church that attempts to blend some of the best that all of these traditions have to offer. They’re TRYING not to throw the baby out with the bath water… or the sprinkles if you’re Presbyterian (inside joke on the controversy about baptism). One of my pet peeves about the Protestant Reformation is that when they cast aside the legalism and corporate theocracy of the Vatican and Catholicism, they also banished the gorgeous visual images of the old cathedrals because they felt that somehow it encouraged idolatry, a worshiping of the images themselves (as well as extracurricular worship of saints, angels, Mary and the like) versus drawing attention to God and Jesus. As a result, we now have many of our protestant and non-denominational churches that are visually almost naked, architecturally void and bankrupt of any intrinsic beauty. Really?? Can’t we glorify God visually in our houses of worship without being gaudy and overwrought.
I’ve also begun to believe that many of these protestant denominations, while denouncing Catholicism for its idolatry of the Pope, saints and Mary — have their own forms of idolatry. The Charismatics and Pentecostals almost worship the outward displays of the Holy Spirit such as speaking in tongues, running the aisles and lively worship. Some churches, especially in Nashville, seem to worship the worship music and the musicians. The Church of Christ and Baptists almost worship the actual act of Baptism itself. Seventh-Day Adventists focus on the Sabbath laws and a few of the Old Testament dietary laws. Evangelicals seem to worship the Bible itself, rather than the God intended to be revealed through the Bible. And in worshiping the BOOK, each has chosen a particular verse or set of verses to emphasize, thereby causing church split after church split after church split … down through the centuries. We are left with hundreds if not thousands of fractured denominations and sub-sets of denominations (i.e. Presbyterian PCA versus Presbyterian USA) who each have chosen a different interpretation or emphasis on what they believe is the most important thing based on a particular scriptural passage. Is it any wonder our agnostic or atheist friends look at us and walk away in disgust?
So this image is my attempt to answer the question …. Who Wrote the Book of Love? Isn’t it really all about the HEART of GOD, revealed in the Bible and in other ways (personal revelation and experiences, through interactions with other people etc), & that the primary overriding theme of this book from start to finish is his LOVE for us, his desire for reconciliation & restoration of EVERYTHING, including our own broken hearts? Isn’t HE is the KING OF HEARTS? Not Christian leaders, denominational heads, theologians, writers, pastors, singers, or media personalities…
This book that I defaced through cutting, tearing, burning, gluing, etc. is really not an actual Bible, but was an old botany textbook that was actually quite interesting in how it compared the reproductive mechanism of plants and flowers to human sexual organs. Quite shocking for something published in the 1920’s!
This collaged drawing of the man writing in the book is a copy of an actual drawing I did for my mother and framed as a gift back when I was in art school. It was a pencil study of a minor figure from one of Raphael’s great paintings “The School of Athens”.
King of All Hearts
No matter our age or religion or color
No matter if wealthy or trapped in sad squalor
No matter if lovely or holy and sainted
No matter if broken or blackened and tainted
No matter our sin or our fleshly persuasion
No matter our era, our tribe or our nation
He’s creating a tapestry, woven with gold
Bringing beauty from ashes and warmth from the cold
Each one is a thread, yes each is a jewel
Each one brings a tone and a shade and a hue
As a symphony needs every instrument’s sound
Every note, every chord so that fullness abounds
Each one is a facet yet an integral part
of creation’s kaleidoscope mosaic heart
For He is our author and muse from above
His masterpiece story is “The Book of Love”
He sings us our melodies, He’s master of arts
He’s artist, He’s lover, the King of All Hearts