The Spirit of Creativity
November 15, 2023
In the wake of Anna’s wonderful reflection on the nature of "creative
minorities" last Wednesday, it was fitting that a group of us gathered
in Brisbane on Thursday, November 9 to hear Gary Furnell speak about the creative genius in a talk entitled, 'Jacques Maritain and the Spirit of
Creativity’.
Gary, who is the Secretary of the Australian Chesterton Society and a
frequent contributor to Quadrant and News Weekly, addressed how two
prominent figures of the 20th century – the French philosopher Jacques
Maritain and the Austrian psychiatrist Viktor Frankl – understood the
phenomena of poetic intuition and artistic inspiration.
According to both men, the primary source of artistic inspiration is what Maritain calls the “spiritual unconscious/preconscious”, an aspect of cognition in which men and women fleetingly intuit elements of deep reality – what we might call sparks of truth which transcend rationalistic examination.
These elements - being akin to embers rising from a hidden realm which an artist then catches, cradles and gently fans within his competent hands - are, says Maritain, what give great works of art their transcendent character.
“Poetic intuitions” arise within the mind, notes Maritain, because the artist possesses a sensitive and receptive disposition. This makes sense because it is, after all, impossible to catch a spark with one’s arms folded and one’s mind closed: “[P]oetic intuition … depends on a certain natural freedom of the soul and the imaginative faculties and on the natural strength of the intellect. … it demands only to be listened to.”
It is clear, however, that in the West we are lacking in such dispositions since we no longer produce – or produce very little – inspired art. Yet this is merely a symptom of a much more serious malady.
The poverty of our ‘art’, it was observed, is a clear sign of the poverty that we in the West are experiencing within ourselves. According to Frankl (but in Gary’s words), the reduction of man to a purely bio-chemical entity devoid of any transcendent spiritual relation and the consequent frustration of man’s “will to meaning” has created an “existential vacuum” – a vacuum that we give expression to in art which “does not honour the strange, dignifying depths of man’s being”. In other words, “a culture-wide tawdry view of man” has produced "tawdry art that matches the vision".
So, how are we to rise above “the degraded anthropology of a desacralised culture”? Just as a seed can only grow if the soil within which it is planted is at rest, so a truly creative spirit can only be fostered within a contemplative soul.
Habits of silence, sensitivity, and receptivity – what many would recognise as mental prayer – therefore need to be cultivated. There are no better creators than those who are one with the Creator.
While building “creative minorities” implies a cooperative enterprise, Gary pointed out that the overarching vision of the group should not trample the unique imaginations of the individuals within it: it’s the many facets of a diamond catching the light which gives the whole its brilliance.
The example he gave was that, unlike the Soviet Union’s agitprop artists who received the patronage of the state, the true artistic power was "with the many émigré artists and the dissident poets and novelists".
Being likewise dissidents from the prevailing culture, let us be encouraged. By nurturing within our minds and hearts the poetic intuitions we receive, and by joining these sparks of illumination to those given to others within our community of faith, it is to be hoped that the Holy Spirit will start a creative fire that will not only burn through the dross of mediocrity around us, but will eventually give rise to a culture radiating with divine light.
Mark Makowiecki
Queensland Organiser
Thomas More Centre
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