The Centripetal Art of Junko Chodos, Matrix of Spiritual Growth

over whole cities and terrify the residents—or so it seemed to me when I first looked at it. But still, my words troubled Junko for a couple of reasons. First of all it was because she realized that I had expressed, involuntarily, a prejudice shared by all westerners: the notion that monotheism is some kind of an advance over polytheism, and that “nature religions” are “lower” in the Great Hierarchy than the religions which revolve around a personal God.3 This prejudice, which has supported Western missionaries and colonists in their global enterprise, has far-reaching ramifications. For the Japanese, to the contrary, the notion of a personal God seems unrefined: the higher one’s spiritual state, the closer he comes to nature and to the impersonal forces which govern it. The idea that one might talk to God, that God might have any interest in such conversation—that idea provokes only polite smiles in Japan: for them, it is the idea of a child who is not yet ready to perceive the higher truths. Every tree has its spirit, its kami; yet to argue over monotheism versus polytheism is itself a childish kind of rigidity, for nature cannot be counted. While for us, the history of religion is bound up with the biographies of great personalities—of Moses, Jesus, Muhammad—such matters have no counterpart in the eastern religions. Buddha taught that we should follow the universal order and that his own life was of little importance. One points at the moon to draw our attention toward the moon—not toward the index finger he raises toward the moon. The spirit should move from the personal toward the Impersonal. My remark had brought this difference in our backgrounds to the fore. But there was another reason: the remark was a little bit of a betrayal, because it cast Junko and me in the roles of representatives of different religious backgrounds when in fact we are both very western in our religious feelings. Western monotheism fosters a certain personality type, which is quite different from the eastern personality type; and Junko herself has that western type of personality and she finds it attractive in me - and that shared personality type is an important part part two // Afterword p. 291

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of The Centripetal Art of Junko Chodos, Matrix of Spiritual Growth

PREFACE

-Definition of Centripetal Art -Its Place In Art History: After the Postmodern Period -Introducing the Subject Matter: One Centripetal Artist's Journey -The Relationship With Multiculturalism -After the Death of God and of Art

FOREWORD

-How the Author's Connection With His Wife's Art Grew More Intimate Over the Years -Learning In Marriage -"Why Does God Need To Paint?" [Section One] Individual Visitants -Dead Flowers and Root -Lungs and Rib Cage

CHAPTER FOUR - A Vital Spirituality

-Why This Art Could Not Have Been Created Earlier -Echoes of the Spiritual Arts of the Early 20th Century -The Impact of the Atomic Bomb; Ecological Concerns -Markers for Spirituality -Centripetal Art Overflows the Studio: Therapy

CHAPTER SIX - A Complex Spirituality

-Spirituality of the 21st Century

AFTERWORD - THE FURNACE

-Polytheism and Monotheism in Art -Goethe’s Aphorism -Marriage and the Alchemist’s Furnace Themes In Series

PREFACE

(Page I) The Centripetal Art of Junko Chodos, Matrix of Spiritual Growth - -Definition of Centripetal Art (Page II) The Centripetal Art of Junko Chodos, Matrix of Spiritual Growth - -The Relationship With Multiculturalism (Page III) The Centripetal Art of Junko Chodos, Matrix of Spiritual Growth - -After the Death of God and of Art (Page IV) The Centripetal Art of Junko Chodos, Matrix of Spiritual Growth -

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