Ritual and Risk

Ritual and Risk Commentary by Rebecca Dean Cite Share Show Bible Passage Norman Lewis was a twentieth-century American artist and political activist. A contributor to the movement known as Abstract Expressionism, Lewis pushed the boundaries of its style, adding discernible human figures into otherwise abstract works, and drawing his political concerns into an artistic movement that aspired to locate itself above such matters (Fine 2015: 80). While at times Lewis explicitly denied the political nature of his work, many of the paintings that he produced would seem to suggest otherwise. Their depictions of hooded figures and religious processions are redolent both of the meetings of the Ku Klux Klan and of the freedom marches of the American Civil Rights movement. It is the ambiguity in the depiction of these gatherings that characterizes much of Lewis’s work, and Ritual is no exception to this. The group of small human figures form a crescent or bowl shape, which reviewer Daniel Gauss has likened to cupped hands (2016). There are hints of movement and flashes of bright colour, yet much is hidden in the inviting layers of deep blue. What lies at the heart of this gathering? What is its purpose? The intentions of the group are uncomfortably difficult to discern. This painting captures something of the power, the allure, and the risk of human engagement in religious activity, and this is an important thread within the narrative of Acts. In chapter 19, we are presented with two dangers in particular: the use of the name of Jesus in an attempted exorcism—a ritual that goes wrong and leaves the exorcists wounded and humiliated (vv.13–16)—and the vulnerability of the Christian missionaries at the hands of the crowd in Ephesus. They drag Paul’s companions to the theatre, shouting and chanting in anger at the perceived slight on their goddess and their way of life (vv.28–29). It is within this risky context that the Holy Spirit moves in Acts. References Gauss, Daniel. 2016. ‘Norman Lewis Retrospective, 20 December 2016’, www.meer.com [accessed 8 April 2024] Fine, Ruth. 2015. ‘The Spiritual in the Material’, in Procession: The Art of Norman Lewis ed. by Ruth Fine (Philadelphia: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts), pp.19–104