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But if "high art" is art defined against purpose and direction with words like "mystery," "indirection," "ambiguity," and "the numinous," how does Wolfe explain the high art of Paradise Lost, an epic filled with at least as much direction and didacticism as mystery and ambiguity? In the opening of the poem, Milton tells you precisely why he's writing it: "That … I may assert Eternal Providence, / And justify the ways of God to men." Milton writes with a purpose, but that purpose does not limit his imagination.
Indeed, the notion that that doctrine, dogma, and, in general, instruction of any kind are antithetical to art is a peculiarly modern one. Philip Sidney, after all, proclaimed that all good poesy "teaches, delights, and moves." Only since the era of Romanticism, it seems, have we stripped imagination of reason, abandoned teaching and direction, and reveled in whatever mystery remained.
Which raises a final and important question: Should that be the Christian stance? In fleeing the generally bad art of the cba, must we also flee any attempt to teach, to instruct, to present a message to the reader? Certainly, stories cannot be essays masked by a cast of faceless characters. But can mystery and message ever walk hand-in-hand? Too often, Wolfe sounds indistinguishable from the atheist poet Stephen Dunn, who calls spirituality in poetry "a journey through travail toward an understanding that leads back to mystery." Intruding Upon the Timeless seems to silence orthodoxy with its strident calls for "mystery"—a word repeated so often its weight lightens like a fading echo.
What is needed from Wolfe is a single book-length argument in which he takes on the specific relationships of message and mystery, reason and imagination, artist and community. Intruding Upon the Timeless, by the nature of its form, unfortunately achieves a fragmentation Wolfe repeatedly condemns, reflecting various thoughts at various times like shattered glass. The thoughts are often valuable—some are so penetrating they cut as deep as broken glass—but ultimately these essays need a sustained argument in which to cohere. That single piece of glass might offer better reflections on the meaning of mystery in art. Let's hope that Wolfe is at work on such a book right now.
Abram Van Engen will begin doctoral studies in English at Northwestern University in the fall.
Copyright © 2004 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.
Related Elsewhere:Intruding Upon the Timeless: Meditations on Art, Faith, and Mystery is available from Amazon.com and other book retailers.
Wolfe was featured in a recent Dick Staub Interview.
Image journal has more information about Wolfe as well as content from the journal and its activities.
Books & Culture Corner appears every Monday. Earlier editions of Books & Culture Corner and Book of the Week include:
Celebrating Faith in Writing | A dispatch from Calvin College's biennial event. (April 26, 2004)
Shabbos, Sheitels, and Yarmulkes | A novel set in the world of Orthodox Judaism. (April 19, 2004)
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