Christology and the arts 'keep hope alive.' - Katrinka Vanderbauwhede and her class in the arts of the Western Civilization at NYC's Covenant of the Sacred Heart school - Catholic Education

National Catholic Reporter, March 28, 1997 by Patricia LeFevere

Judge, who sat in on 95 percent of last year's orals, found that students have "internalized" what they learned. Through studying art and how artists perceive Christ in their work, students have discovered that"their quest is not original. They begin to touch it. It's their experience of religion, whether they call it `religious' or not."

Judge said she has seen a maturing of students after they complete the arduous course and a new awareness in them of the spiritual dimension of their peers. She said Art and Christology accomplishes what religious courses should do -- "pass on the fire, keep hope alive.... You have to taste it or it's just verbiage," Judge said.

Art and Christology has challenged Sacred Heart's staff and resources as well as its 11th graders. Librarian Mary Anne Heaphy had to improve the school's collections in art and theology, as well as in ethics and philosophy.

"The course is an interdisciplinary challenge," she said. "There's not an obvious connection between art and Christology.... How art influences Christian doctrine, what Christ said and did, what his theology was -- these are the hardest concepts to convey as a teacher."

Heaphy is surprised at the results. As one who overhears conversations in the library, she has sensed "a spiritual excitement" among the girls as they reminisce about a daunting project.

Mary Ferrer, an 11th grader, said the class helps each girl learn about herself. "It affects our personality, whether as a listener or a participant. I learn so much, and I get to see things from many other girls' points of view. ...

"As Catholics we say `God is in everything.' In the class we see different phases of God in art, in symbols, in literature. When we put it all together, we can really see God in everything," Ferrer said.

Diana Miller, a 12th grader, who analyzed how Michelangelo reflected the Renaissance in his life and his religion, said her faith deepened in seeing the artist's image of the suffering Christ. "I saw who Christ was and what he did. He associated with outcasts and sinners. I see him treating everyone equally and I know I shouldn't discriminate."

Miller noted that while beauty and love are not tangible, "when I see something so beautiful in art, I can't help thinking of the creator."

While some students have chosen to write on controversial artists, among them film directors Luis Bunuel and Federico Fellini and dancers Isadora Duncan and Martha Graham, Vanderbauwhede said she avoids their most controversial works and tries to find a balance for her classes, which consist of progressive and conservative students, rich ones and poor ones, Asians, African Americans, Hispanics and white students.

She acknowledges a "great contradiction" between a strict doctrinal position and the need for personal freedom. Exposing students to art at a Catholic school that is across the street from the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, less than a half mile from the Metropolitan Museum and two blocks from the Guggenheim and the Jewish Museum seems natural.