Part I: The Artist, Image of God the Creator
1. None can sense more deeply than you artists, ingenious creators of beauty
that you are, something of the pathos with which God at the dawn of creation
looked upon the work of his hands. A glimmer of that feeling has shone so often
in your eyes when—like the artists of every age—captivated by the hidden power
of sounds and words, colours and shapes, you have admired the work of your
inspiration, sensing in it some echo of the mystery of creation with which God,
the sole creator of all things, has wished in some way to associate you.
That is why it seems to me that there are no better words than the text of
Genesis with which to begin my Letter to you, to whom I feel closely linked by
experiences reaching far back in time and which have indelibly marked my life.
In writing this Letter, I intend to follow the path of the fruitful dialogue
between the Church and artists which has gone on unbroken through two thousand
years of history, and which still, at the threshold of the Third Millennium,
offers rich promise for the future.
In fact, this dialogue is not dictated merely by historical accident or
practical need, but is rooted in the very essence of both religious experience
and artistic creativity. The opening page of the Bible presents God as a kind of
exemplar of everyone who produces a work: the human craftsman mirrors the image
of God as Creator. This relationship is particularly clear in the Polish
language because of the lexical link between the words stwórca (creator) and
What is the difference between "creator" and "craftsman"?
The one who creates bestows being itself, he brings something out of nothing—ex
nihilo sui et subiecti, as the Latin puts it—and this, in the strict sense, is a
mode of operation which belongs to the Almighty alone. The craftsman, by
contrast, uses something that already exists, to which he gives form and
meaning. This is the mode of operation peculiar to man as made in the image of
God. In fact, after saying that God created man and woman "in his
image" (cf. Gn 1:27), the Bible adds that he entrusted to them the task of
dominating the earth (cf. Gn 1:28). This was the last day of creation
(cf. Gn 1:28-31). On the previous days, marking as it were the rhythm of the
birth of the cosmos, Yahweh had created the universe. Finally he created the
human being, the noblest fruit of his design, to whom he subjected the visible
world as a vast field in which human inventiveness might assert itself.
God therefore called man into existence, committing to him the craftsman's
task. Through his "artistic creativity" man appears more than ever
"in the image of God", and he accomplishes this task above all in
shaping the wondrous "material" of his own humanity and then
exercising creative dominion over the universe which surrounds him. With loving
regard, the divine Artist passes on to the human artist a spark of his own
surpassing wisdom, calling him to share in his creative power. Obviously, this
is a sharing which leaves intact the infinite distance between the Creator and
the creature, as Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa made clear: "Creative art, which
it is the soul's good fortune to entertain, is not to be identified with that
essential art which is God himself, but is only a communication of it and a
share in it".
That is why artists, the more conscious they are of their "gift",
are led all the more to see themselves and the whole of creation with eyes able
to contemplate and give thanks, and to raise to God a hymn of praise. This is
the only way for them to come to a full understanding of themselves, their
vocation and their mission.