Scripture is related to the facts of history as Dostoevsky's BROTHERS KARAMAZOV is related to the facts of history, more than the way a New York Times article is related to the facts of history. That does not make it any less true. Niebuhr said it brilliantly:
"Before analysing the deceptive symbols which the
Christian faith uses to express this dimension of eternity in time, it
might be clarifying to recall that artists are forced to use deceptive
symbols when they seek to portray two dimensions of space upon the
single dimension of a flat canvas. Every picture which suggests depth
and perspective draws angles not as they are but as they appear to the
eye when it looks into depth. Parallel lines are not drawn as parallel
lines but are made to appear as if they converged on the horizon; for so
they appear to the eye when it envisages a total perspective. Only the
most primitive art and the drawings made by very small children reveal
the mistake of portraying things in their true proportions rather than
as they are seen. The necessity of picturing things as they seem rather
than as they are, in order to record on one dimension what they are in
two dimensions, is a striking analogy, in the field of space, of the
problem of religion in the sphere of time.
Time is a succession of events. Yet mere succession is not time. Time
has reality only through a meaningful relationship of its successions.
Therefore time is real only as it gives successive expressions of
principles and powers which lie outside of it. Yet every suggestion of
the principle of a process must be expressed in terms of the temporal
process, and every idea of the God who is the ground of the world must
be expressed in some term taken from the world. The temporal process is
like the painter's flat canvas. It is one dimension upon which two
dimensions must be recorded. This can be done only by symbols which
deceive for the sake of truth.
Great art faces the problem of the two dimensions of time as well as
the two dimensions of space. The portrait artist, for instance, is
confronted with the necessity of picturing a character. Human
personality is more than a succession of moods. The moods of a moment
are held together in a unity of thought and feeling, which gives them,
however seemingly capricious, a considerable degree of consistency. The
problem of the artist is to portray the inner consistency of a character
which is never fully expressed in any one particular mood or facial
expression. This can be done only by falsifying physiognomic details.
Portraiture is an art which can never be sharply distinguished from
caricature. A moment of time in a personality can be made to express
what transcends the moment of time only if the moment is not recorded
accurately. It must be made into a symbol of something beyond itself.
This technique of art explains why art is more closely related to
religion than science. Art describes the world not in terms of its exact
relationships. It constantly falsifies these relationships, as analysed
by science, in order to express their total meaning."
This is part of his reflection upon Paul's words that Christians are 'as deceivers, yet true' (II Corinthians 6:4-10)
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