Nicholas Wolterstorff: Art and Aesthetics

From the Uselessness of Art to the Use of Art and Part Way Back Again.
Nicholas Wolterstorff is the Noah Porter Professor Emeritus of Philosophical Theology at Yale University and a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia. He has held professorships at Calvin College and Yale University as well as visiting professorships at Harvard, Princeton, Oxford, and Notre Dame. He has been awarded several prestigious lectureships including the Gifford Lectures at the University of Aberdeen, The Wilde Lectures at Oxford University and the Stone Lectures at Princeton Seminary. His landmark book, Art in Action: Toward a Christian Aesthetic (1980), continues to be a primary text for artists of faith today.

[@riversong201]

Art has MANY functions. It more than ennobles, it also is inspirational, communal, therapeutic, decorative, expressive, communicative, propagandistic, celebratory, and commemorative.

[@fluffydog7082]

I think his point is that art can be inspirational, communal, therapeutic, decorative, expressive, communicative, propagandistic, celebratory, and commemorative, but humans do not necessarily need art to achieve these functions. Art simply ennobles these functions so we can better execute what we originally intended to achieve. This is the instrumentalist (for lack of a better word) perspective of art which converses and intertwines with its intrinsic value.

[@kaiserinkathy]

A very interesting lecture on the relationship between art and society.

[@eyesoflizzie7835]

“We live and act artistically”

[@mfunkbarley]

I think its one of the best lectures I have heard on art, even if i disagree on a few points.

[@billydyer2549]

Thank you for giving some good information on Christian product.

[@alwaysgreatusa223]

Art transcends rational analysis, for it speaks a language understood only by the spirit, which is incomprehensible to the mind.

[@BiolaUniversity]

@remise2: A downloadable MP3 is available from our open.biola.edu website. Search for this video, then click MP3 under "Media Options"

[@gailaroonie]

Can’t listen because of snorking

[@riversong201]

I hear ya. I think, given his age, it is a side effect of medication. People on heart meds can get nasal drip...

[@holgerkurtblache6442]

GREAT LECTURE*****WHAT YOU SAY IS TRUE>>>& as you say>>>art does simulate & inform memory>>>but more importantly> arts most instrumental function limits resistance to individual person/group present no longer as well as it's projected future... ... ...******although you can dispute>>>facts remain*****

[@peterjones6715]

greetings . if art opens the memory you would realise that religion is a control system . conscious awareness provides the individual with self evidence , before human beings , after life experience , but obviously the man made conception is removed and this becomes a frightening experience for those who can`t except what we really are . . automatic writing and art confirms this but of course this can only be understood by ourselves. basically what people call genius , enlightenment is actually quiet natural common sense .. few ever get to explain this because it is seen as being deluded by those who would have to reconsider that everything they`ve been taught is a false nurtured state of mind . with regards

[@susannunes6196]

If you can consider theater and film as art...I think "West Side Story" and "Cabaret" are excellent Philosophical Art....especially for educational uses....

[@redrose-zh4xu]

430

[@KingRetro96]

Why is the memorial of Dr. Martin Luther King such a "horror" ????

[@riversong201]

Because the Chinese artist who sculpted it crossed MLK's arms and gave him kind of a scowling face, when he was a man of peace, who was a Christian minister having preached non violence. The face and stance make him look as though he was just an angry black man in a suit. And the figure still is blocked in marble, which some people don't like...

[@KingRetro96]

@@riversong201 ah, thanks 👍🏿

[@TrueTaike]

FIRST!

[@FirstRisingSouI]

"Intrinsic value" is a contradictory phrase. By definition, something can have value only as much as it is valuable to someone. I agree with pretty much everything else you say on the topic-that working songs are fully experienced while working, and even that changing the word makes it a better poem . . . because it better conveys the emotion the author wanted it to. But you could easily imagine an alien species who evolved differently, who are physically unable to appreciate any of our art, and whose art we are physically unable to appreciate. Nonetheless both are art, because they have value _to the people who made them, and to whom they were meant to be appreciated_. To suggest that something has intrinsic value is pure hubris.

[@gabrielr4329]

FirstRisingSouI Your comment presupposes that truth is not absolute and universal. If truth and beauty are absolute and universal, then we could easily say that works of art are intrinsically valuable to the extent they reflect universal truths and sense of beauty.

[@sefermemisoglu3800]

The entire talk is a huge gas, with empty rhetoric and mad maker rhythm of all in between super boring unnecessarily "deep notes". The long long train passes with empty compartments by personal comments and the one with the content never arrives, it is not there.

[@duncanweller1]

Agreed. This talk is yet another example of so called experts on art who clearly shouldn't be talking or teaching art at all. It's almost subjective nonsense. He's barely able to discuss the social functions of art, naming two, but not fully understanding how they operate. I love your phrase, "long long train passes with empty compartments." What an awesome line; the only thing I got of benefit from checking out this video.

[@JHarder1000]

@@duncanweller1 You are both idiots.

[@duncanweller1]

@@JHarder1000 No! Way! I'm better than you! Cause... cause... I'm taller!

[@JHarder1000]

@@duncanweller1 Case closed.

[@anastasiarogich7839]

I cannot stand every time he snorts and you hear his mucous. It’s disgusting. Can’t stay.

[@artesvives3723]

he needs to have his nose checked...i'm outta here can't stand his nose sounds

[@riversong201]

Older people on heart meds get nasal drip. It is a side effect of the medication.

[@millanlopez7818]

this man doesnt know real Theology ...read Jacques Maritain or Etienne Gilson

[@tullinadaly]

your funny