Bernard Mason: What is Van Gogh’s faith connection?

True artists often transform the ways we see and view the events of our lives and the world around us. They enable us to “reframe” our experiences and our own faith journeys as they share their own faith quests. Perhaps no other painter more powerfully exemplifies this than Vincent Van Gogh. We now have the opportunity to see the world around us afresh through Vincent’s eyes with the fascinating “Beyond Van Gogh” multimedia experience featuring 300 of his works at James Brown Arena here in Augusta.

Inspired by this unique experience, Woodlawn United Methodist Church will host a worship series “Through Vincent’s Eyes …” beginning this Sunday, June 12, at 11 a.m. and continuing through Sunday, June 26, in the sanctuary.

But what is Van Gogh’s faith connection?

Those of us of a certain age might deem a popular song of 1972 as a touchstone of our youth and the nativity of our fascination with all things “Vincent.” Don McLean’s paean to the artist Van Gogh is also known by its opening line, “Starry, Starry Night,” referencing the artist’s 1889 masterpiece “The Starry Night.” Van Gogh’s paintings inspire a devotion that is unmatchable and his life story is so mirrored in his art that one is inseparable from the other.

His work is so rife with the ebbs and flows of the artist’s spirituality, that as one stands before one of his paintings the observer becomes rapt and transformed. Van Gogh’s spirituality was rooted in the Dutch Reform theology of his childhood faith. Judgment and condemnation took a back seat to consolation and solace.

How to go: A sneak peek at the pixels that will take visitors Beyond Van Gogh in Augusta

Behind the scenes: Immersive Van Gogh experience is way to expose world to art 4 trillion pixels at a time

For the artist, Christ is the ultimate comforter whose gaze is directed to the broken in body and spirit. So compelled was Van Gogh to share this message that he felt called to follow in his father’s footsteps as a preacher. Finding himself delivering his first sermon in a Methodist pulpit in the English village of Richmond, he spoke with great passion regarding the Christian life even as his sermon may have overwhelmed his hearers as he spoke in broken English. His struggle to live out a Christian vocation was marked by rejection and disappointment. The solace he found in the hymnody and music of the faith sustained him in the face of these trials.

Dr. Cliff Edwards, in his pioneering book “Van Gogh and God,” reminds us that after Vincent’s disappointment of his failure in the pulpit, he broke away from “the narrow path of religious exclusivity and his work exploded “in a new confidence, a faith in love, work, and the wisdom of the ordinary” with a “unification of nature art, literature, religion, and practical service among the poor.”

He stated that Van Gogh desired for his art, “to say something comforting as music is comforting … something of the eternal.”

The Museum of Modern Art in New York houses his masterpiece “The Starry Night.” To see the painting there is unforgettable at every level. It is not only the painting itself that moves one but bearing witness to those who have made the pilgrimage there to see it. Painted in June 1889, the mystical qualities of the painting reflect the revolutionary hermeneutic that ultimately was so unique in Van Gogh’s vision.

While the church may have rejected him, the Creator not only embraced him but enabled him to transcend his own suffering and redeem it on canvas. As Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith remind us in their majestic and enthralling biography of Van Gogh, “In his reading, in his thinking, in his seeing, Vincent had long looked past the “real” night sky — the tiny, static specks and sallow light of the night paintings he detested — in something truer to the vision of limitless possibilities and inextinguishable light — the ultimate serenity…” Naifeh and White’s pioneering treatment of Van Gogh sheds new light on his tragic death and enables us to see the artist in remarkable new ways.

As we see through Vincent’s eyes may our lives be transformed and imbued with eternity’s light.

The Rev. Bernard Mason is pastor of Woodlawn United Methodist Church and chaplain for Heartland Hospice. 

More on Van Gogh

Beyond Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience allows visitors to step into projections of Vincent Van Gogh's works and learn about the artist through music and history. The exhibit presented by Paquin Entertainment Group is open to the public from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays through June 26 at James Brown Arena in Augusta. Tickets are available online at vangoghaugusta.com.

“Through Vincent’s Eyes …” — a worship series inspired by Van Gogh's life and art — is being presented by Woodlawn United Methodist Church at 11 a.m. Sundays through June 26, in the sanctuary. The church is located at 2220 Walton Way.

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Bernard Mason: What is Van Gogh’s faith connection?