Chapter 2: Icons of the True
1. L’Engle argues that being an artist is a religious activity, regardless of whether the artist believes in God personally, because “all true art is incarnational, and therefore ‘religious.’ ” What does she mean by this statement? Do you agree that art—true art—is a religious act, no matter the artist’s personal beliefs or intent? Does art transcend the artist in this way? Or do you think art is defined by the artist’s intentions?
2. L’Engle argues that all artists want to be noticed and have their art recognized. “Art is communication,” she says, “and if there is no communication it is as though the work has been stillborn.” Is this true for you? Do you desire your art to be seen and heard and understood, or are you ultimately content to create without recognition? Why is recognition important? What do you hope is being communicated through your art?
3. Do you agree with L’Engle when she says, “When language becomes exhausted, our freedom dwindles—we cannot think; we do not recognize danger; injustice strikes us as no more than ‘the way things are.’ ”? In what ways do you see this happening in the world today, if at all? Is language being diminished with current trends and influences, or do you think the changes are natural or even progressive?
4. Do you think that “what makes us human,” as L’Engle argues, is that “terrible gift of free will”? Is there anything else that defines humanity aside from free will? What does she mean by “terrible gift”? How is humanity’s ability to choose, to “help write our own story,” important to an artist and to a Christian? How is it important to you?
5. Do you find this statement challenging: “Christ has always worked in ways which have seemed peculiar to many men, even his closest followers. Frequently the disciples failed to understand him. So we need not feel that we have to understand how he works through artists who do not consciously recognize him. Neither should our lack of understanding cause us to assume that he cannot be present in their work”? Do you agree with this? Is an artist’s personal faith, or lack thereof, relevant to the message of Christ in his or her work? Why or why not?
Chapter 3: Healed, Whole, and Holy
1. The opening line of chapter 3 claims that “all children are artists.” A few sentences later, the author asks, “Why do we lose our wonderful, rackety creativity? What corrupts us?” Take some time to discuss this question in a group or reflect on it personally. Do you feel you’ve lost your “wonderful, rackety creativity,” either in general or during specific times in your life? If so, what do you think has caused this? Were you able to get it back? How? If not, what do you think is preventing you from it? Do you agree with the author that a loss of creativity is the result of corruption?
2. The vessel of L’Engle’s creativity—story—is what helped her “to learn to live.” She says that story enabled her to make some sense of the difficulties of life. What helps you to learn to live? Think back to when you were a child. How did you express your creativity then? Is it similar to what you do now? Do you feel you’ve lost something, or that your creativity has grown with you? How does an act of creation help you to make sense of the difficulties of life?
3. “The artist who is a Christian, like any other Christian, is required to be in this world, but not of it. We are to be in this world as healers, as listeners, and as servants. In art we are once again able to do all the things we have forgotten; we are able to walk on water; we speak to the angels who call us; we move, unfettered, among the stars.” Discuss this quote as a group, or reflect on it personally. Do you agree with it? Have you experienced the freedom to “do all the things we have forgotten” in your own art? What does the author mean by this?
4. L’Engle offers what may be read as a harsh criticism of modern Christians when she says, “Christians have given Christianity a bad name. They have let their lights flicker and grow dim. They have confused piosity with piety, smugness with joy.” Do you think this is true? Why or why not?
5. She moves on from her critique of Christians when she says she came back to her faith because “through God’s loving grace, I did meet enough people who showed me that light of love which the darkness cannot extinguish.” Do you feel you’ve had a similar experience? Share an example of someone who showed you the “light of love which the darkness cannot extinguish.” Have you ever experienced it through an unlikely source?
6. Pain is a reality we must all face, and L’Engle does not deny this. In fact, she asserts that without pain, we do not grow. Is this true? How has your relationship with God been grown through times of pain? Has pain changed your approach to your art? Do you feel closer to or farther from God during difficult seasons? Have you ever been tempted to draw back from suffering? Do you agree with L’Engle when she says, “The artist cannot hold back; it is impossible, because writing or any other discipline of art, involves participation in suffering”?
Chapter 4: A Coal in the Hand
1. Do you think writing—or creating art in general—is dangerous? Do you think it takes courage to create? Is it the act of creation that takes courage, or the sharing of your creation?
2. Consider L’Engle’s claim: “When I was a child my parents loved me not because I was good but because I was Madeleine, their child.” Now think about people in your life who love you simply because you are you, whether it is your parents, your spouse, your children, or someone else. Is there some part of you that thinks you have to earn their love? Or do you truly feel freedom in their love, trusting that they love you because you are?
3. What is “wholeness” to you? Multiple times, L’Engle connects the idea of creation and wholeness. She says, “The discipline of creation, be it to paint, compose, write, is an effort toward wholeness.” Do you agree? How has your creative life helped you toward wholeness?
4. “Creative scientists and saints expect revelation and do not fear it. Neither do children. But as we grow up and we are hurt, we learn not to trust, and that lack of trust is a wound as grievous as whatever caused it.” Is this true for you? How has your trust been shaken in your relationships with other? Your relationship with God? Your relationship with yourself? Have these wounds been healed or are they still fresh?
5. What do you think L’Engle means when she says, “I am not an isolated, chronological numerical statistic. I am sixty-one, and I am also four, and twelve, and fifteen, and twenty-three, and thirty-one, and forty-five, and…and…and…”? Is this true for you? What role does four-year-old you have in your life today? Is there a certain age you’ve been that influences you more than others? What is it and why?
Chapter 5: Probable Impossibles
1. What does L’Engle mean when she says, “the imaginary work must have such an effect on us that it enlarges our own sense of reality”? Have you experienced this? Discuss some works of imagination that have enlarged your sense of reality. Why do you think this is important?
2. L’Engle, whose most famous work (A Wrinkle in Time) explores the fluidity of time and space, challenges the artist and the Christian to be unfettered from the limitations of time. She discusses the Transfiguration, noting that when she was a child hearing the story, she never thought it odd that Jesus was able to talk with Moses and Elijah, despite the fact that centuries separated their earthly timelines. “Time is no longer a barrier,” she says, citing this fact as a “tremendous Christian mystery.” What do you think about L’Engle’s ideas on time in this chapter?
3. L’Engle discusses the theologians and mystics to whom she turns when her faith and creativity need to be stimulated. To what or whom do you turn when you need a jolt of inspiration? Would you ever consider turning to what might be considered an unlikely source, such as the cellular biologists and astrophysicists to whom L’Engle turned, for spiritual enlightenment? Should you?
4. Chapter 5 is bursting with bold statements on creative living, including the following:
“But unless we are creators, we are not fully alive.”
“Creativ
ity is a way of living life, no matter what our vocation or how we earn our living.”
“Our freedom to be creators is far less limited than some people would think.”
Discuss these quotes, and any others that strike you from the text. What do they mean to you? Can you think of an example of someone who is living creatively, regardless of their vocation?
5. L’Engle frequently discusses the etymology of common vocabulary in our culture and faith. Review her thoughts on the two words for “power” that are found in “so-called primitive societies.” Do you find it interesting, as the author does, that our modern society retains the word for dangerous power but not the word for benign power? Why do you think this is? Discuss some examples of power, aside from the ones in the text, that can transition from mana power to taboo power. Now consider your own power, both creatively and spiritually. In what ways can or has your power crossed from mana to taboo?
Chapter 6: Keeping the Clock Wound
1. Review the definitions of chronos and kairos time at the beginning of the chapter. Have you ever had a kairos experience? What was it? Why did it feel like kairos and not chronos? L’Engle states that, though we live by a moderately consistent chronology, we each have our own interior clock that governs us. For example, she asks, “How long is a toothache? How long is a wonderful time?” Think about this interior clock for a moment and how it affects your art. When you are in a time of deep creativity, how does your chronological time compete with or complement your interior clock? When were you last surprised by the passing of time, be it slowly or quickly? What were you doing, and why do you think time’s passage seemed to change?
2. What is the difference between wasting time and being time? How do you take time to be? How does being help your creativity?
3. What do you think the author means when she says, “If we are close to our angels, the dream world and the waking world will not be far apart”? Do you take your dreams seriously to some degree? Why or why not?
4. Have you ever been ridiculed for your creative work? Discuss a time when you were faced with ridicule to some degree and how you dealt with it. Do you agree with L’Engle that “ridicule is a terrible witherer of the flower of imagination. It binds us where we should be free”?
5. When the author is asked how her faith affects her art, she replies that “surely it is the other way around; my stories affect my Christianity.” Is this true for you? Why or why not? How does your art draw you closer to God? How does God draw you closer to your art?
Chapter 7: Names and Labels
1. In chapter 7, L’Engle often talks about the importance of retaining the “quality which the world would limit to children.” She argues that the artist must be like a child in his or her openness to mystery, to story, and to truth. Yet, she also claims that art for children is the “most looked-down-on of all.” How do you personally feel about art that is intended for children? As a group, list some popular children’s art—television, books, music, even toys—and consider the value of these things. Do you instinctively think less of these works of art because they are for children? Do you think these things are examples of good art or, as L’Engle might call it, art that is true? Why or why not?
2. When you think of how Christians are viewed by society today—either in popular media or by people you know personally—do you think the church is living out the following statement of L’Engle’s? “We draw people to Christ not by loudly discrediting what they believe, by telling them how wrong they are and how right we are, but by showing them a light that is so lovely that they want with all their hearts to know the source of it.” Do you know anyone who tries to argue others into believing in Christ? Can you think of anyone who, instead, shows “a light that is so lovely” that others are drawn to their faith? Can this light L’Engle mentions be seen in works of art? What examples come to mind?
3. Of faith and doubt, L’Engle says, “I had yet to learn the faithfulness of doubt. This is often assumed by the judgmental to be faithlessness, but it is not; it is a prerequisite for a living faith.” What do you think she means by “faithfulness of doubt”? How is doubt an act of faith? Reflect on a time when you have had doubts in your faith. Do you think you’ve grown from these experiences? Do you feel your doubt was faithful? Why or why not?
4. L’Engle asserts that it is “love, not answers” that bolsters our faith and enables us to cling to God. Do you agree with her? Have you ever asked questions of God, even if you were afraid of the answers? Do you feel that questioning brings you closer to your Creator or builds barriers?
5. Take some time to follow L’Engle’s writing advice from this chapter. Think of an event that happened in your childhood or adolescence. In the words of the instructor: “Write in the first person. Nothing cosmic, just an incident. And do not write this for children. Repeat: Do not write this for children. Write it for yourselves.” After you have completed this, move on to the second half of the assignment and tell the story in third person from the point of view of someone else in it. (Remember, if you were alone, you can tell the story from the view of an inanimate object, an animal, or some other creative option.) As a group, share your writing, as you’re comfortable. Do you think your story is a children’s story? Do you see any themes or lessons or angles you’ve never considered in regard to the incident before, now that you’ve written it from another point of view?
Chapter 8: The Bottom of the Iceberg
1. L’Engle says “sometimes God chooses the most peculiar people to be vessels of genius.” Can you think of some examples? Consider the great artists in history—Da Vinci, Van Gogh, Jane Austen, and many others. Would you consider these vessels of genius to be peculiar? Do you see God in their work? How does one separate the art from the artist? Is it possible?
2. Think of a moment in your life when you felt true communion with God. Was that moment filled with words or silence? The author says, “We need the prayers of words, yes; the words are the path to contemplation; but the deepest communion with God is beyond words, on the other side of silence.” Have you experienced this? Is silence—in prayer or in general—comfortable for you, or do you find silence unnerving? Why do you think silence is (or is not) important?
3. The author laments that people are often taught to equate truth with fact. What is the difference between truth and fact? Are they the same? Why or why not? How do you determine the difference, if there is one?
4. Read the passage in the chapter discussing destructive versus constructive rebellion. Do you understand the difference? Have you ever experienced a time of destructive rebellion in your own life? How did that experience change you? Conversely, have you experienced constructive rebellion? What does that look like?
5. Is calling something by name important? Specifically, do you think calling an enemy by name is important? In the words of Shakespeare, “What’s in a name?” L’Engle claims that “the enemy has a name in church, too, but we’ve forgotten it.” Do you agree with her? In what ways do you think the church has forgotten the name of the enemy? In what ways does society seem to avoid naming enemies? Is this a destructive practice, or do you think it is beneficial not to label someone or something as “the enemy”?
Chapter 9: Do We Want the Children to See It?
1. Do you think there is a difference in the creative process for the Christian and the non-Christian? Do you have any colleagues, partners, or friends who share a similar creative passion with you, but who are not Christian? Have you ever discussed your creative process with them?
2. Consider the role of discipline in your life. Do you have it? To what do you apply the most discipline—your faith? your job? your art? your family? Why do you think you have better discipline in some areas than others? In what areas do you need to increase your discipline? Are there parts of your life that could benefit from less discipline?
3. When faced with choices that are all wrong, how do you decide? Think of a time when this has happened to you, when all o
ptions were bad, but you had to choose. What did you do? Do you think you made the right decision?
4. The author’s criterion for making a choice in her work is “Do we want the children to see it?” What is your criterion, if you have one, for making difficult decisions about your life and work?
5. This chapter reveals a painful and frightening ordeal in the life of the author and her family—an accident suffered by her young granddaughter. At the onset of the tragedy, L’Engle says, “I knew that I had to make that act of thanksgiving.” Why is thanksgiving important, both in times of trouble and times of joy? What role has thanksgiving played in your life? Do you feel more aware of all there is to be grateful for when you are going through trials, or is gratitude a regular part of your life? Share a time when thanksgiving has been especially difficult for you, but when you’ve chosen to give praise to God anyway. How did this experience change you?
Chapter 10: The Journey Homeward
1. “Artists have always been drawn to the wild, wide elements they cannot control or understand—the sea, mountains, fire. To be an artist means to approach the light, and that means to let go our control, to allow our whole selves to be placed with absolute faith in that which is greater than we are.” Are you drawn to things you cannot control or understand in your own art? How do you feel about this? Is it easy for you to trust your art, to have faith that something greater than you is in control, or do you find this challenging?
2. What do you think L’Engle means when she says “the Jesus we grasp and the Jesus who grasps us may…differ.” How can this be? Is there a time in your life when you’ve encountered the reality of this statement? How did you react?
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