Ichabod, The Glory Has Departed: The Voyage of Life, by Thomas Cole

Thursday, September 27, 2012

The Voyage of Life, by Thomas Cole

Detail from The Voyage of Life, Old Age, by Thomas Cole.
The apostate leaders of the SynCon are missing the boat.

This is my timeline cover, using the detail from the painting

One of my graduate students can see the four paintings of The Voyage of Life at the museum near her house. Although Thomas Cole died young, he left behind many large landscapes and thematic paintings. He is justifiably famous for The Voyage of Life series and The Course of Empire. Mrs. Ichabod and I saw The Course of Empire set about eight times before it went back to the NY Historical Institute.

Reducing a large landscape painting to a small graphic on a website is really a desecration. On the other hand, everyone can tour the museums of the world by viewing great art from the Internet. Not everyone can live in Northwest Arkansas, where one of the best American art museums has been built. Crystal Bridges just settled an estate deal with a university to share a large collection of art for two years at a time. The widow, Georgia O'Keefe, wanted the collection kept intact, which meant that the recipient school had no cash advantages from selling some works to pay for upkeep. CB gets the collection for 2013-2014.

I like to dazzle my education technology class with the virtual tour of the Sistine Chapel.

http://www.vatican.va/various/cappelle/sistina_vr/index.html

Art and philosophy convey the culture of the time. Those who identify with the Biblical message, after being converted by the Word, cannot agree with the philosophy of this age. One theologian, Stan Hauerwas, made a reference to Abraham in his memoir, adding, "We don't know if he even existed."

That aside was perfect example of the rationalism of Halle University, the direct result of its weak foundation of Pietism. Although many heirs of Walther realize this, they do not acknowledge that their own synod was founded as a Pietistic sex cult, which was fun until the syphilis spread to the single young women in the Perryville group.

Pietism's main tenet was love over doctrine, unionism over orthodoxy, cooperation in everything. Pietism won that battle a long time ago in American Lutheran groups. They are scandalized by Luther and the Book of Concord, but not by working with Unitarians and the Salvation Army, let alone the ELCA they pretend to despise.

Titles have great significance. Cole could have called his paintings The Stages of Life, but used the term Voyages instead. We are always moving, but not very aware until we look back.

Cole was explicitly Christian in many of his paintings. His last effort showed a sheep with a cross on its fleece being led to the flock in the distance by the Good Shepherd.

William Rehnquist, an ELCA Lutheran, said once, "You look around and suddenly you are old." I wonder about the Lutheran leaders who are so busy getting and spending.

THE world is too much with us; late and soon,

Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:

Little we see in Nature that is ours;

We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon! - Wordsworth

They are so intoxicated with their political agendas that they dare not name or quote Luther, except to wedge their little philosophies into words they cannot understand or teach. The extent of the apostasy continues to impress me, because the claims are directly opposed to the attitude.

When clergy devote their lives to eliminating Luther, the time has come to stop financing the destruction of the Christian faith.