Middle Tint

I think a lot about our culture. Not just the immediate political and religious morass but on a broader scale. I believe our immediate cultural crisis (cultural crisis may be the only point on which there is agreement), is a symptom of a cataclysmic shift in human history. I know that sounds melodramatic. However, in the absence of some understanding of where we have come from and how we got here, any hope of progress, much less resolution, is dim. Admittedly, my understanding is mostly gained from a cursory engagement with the thoughts and writings of Charles Taylor and others on what is being described as a secular age. Accordingly, I’m open to a course correction.

Until I get redirected, I will continue In my assertion: Living in a disenchanted age is the most significant challenge we face in seeking a relationship with God.

The following citation from a previous blog post can help give context to my assertion and clarify my concern.

The default mode for the disenchanted age is reliance on human ability/reason and scientific laws as an ultimate source for answers to the problems of modernity. Utility, efficiency and production are our preimemmant tools to achieve full potential as human beings. Inherently, disenchantment rejects the transcendent. Mystery, fantasy, spirituality, faith, divinity, magic, art, namely, enchantment, is rendered irrelevant. our existence in a disenchanted age is reduced to one dimension, removing depth and meaning and distorting the purpose of our lives. As Beck describes, “When creation is stripped of its holy, sacred and enchanted character …it becomes–material. Raw, disenchanted material. Inert stuff. Piles of particles.”

The challenge of a secular age is so massive and complex it is overwhelming. For that reason, I am constantly looking for insights that can help me, and hopefully others, navigate the perils of our secular age. Last year, I found echo chambers to be a highly relevant factor in the continuing implosion of our society. For those who have not had the opportunity (or declined) to read my essay on echo chambers, you can download it HERE

Recently I came across an article that introduced a metaphor which I believe can be helpful and is the subject of this post, Middle Tint. I highly recommend the full article which you can read HERE. Please note I am unable to provide attribution for the article. Should anyone know its source, please let me know.

Commenting on a well know landscape painting, distinguished by its middle tint, the author writes, in part:

…middle tint—that is, the grays, the browns and blues and dull brick reds, not bright; the colors that do not sing out for your attention; the colors you might not notice if you are not looking for them.

..the truly skilled painter devoted most of his canvas to middle tint. In a great landscape, there is “excessively small quantity, both of extreme light and extreme shade, all the mass of the picture being graduated and delicate middle tint. . . . The middle tint is laid before the dark colors, and before the lights

Perhaps middle tint is the palette of faithfulness. Middle tint is going to church each week, opening the prayer book each day. This is rote, unshowy behavior, and you would not notice it if you weren’t looking for it, but it is necessary; it is most of the canvas; it is the palette that makes possible the gashes of white, the outlines of black; it is indeed that by which the painting will succeed or fail..

As is the case for metaphors, there can be many interpretations and applications. I thought about how middle tint could apply to our society, churches, families and organizations, all worthy of consideration. But, I was drawn in my imagination to consider what a realistic landscape painting of my life might look like.

Would it be largely absent middle tint and dominated by bold light, color and extreme shade, reflecting life in a disenchanted age, reduced to one dimension, absent depth and meaning and purpose?

I want to think it would it be a great landscape, built on the gradations of middle tint; bringing bold light, color and extreme shade into proper perspective.

Of course my life’s landscape painting is not complete, its composition is on-going . Clearly, today it is not a great painting, lacking essential qualities which would make it a masterpiece. Deficiencies of my landscape come from a failure to lay down middle tint, that puts bright light and color in its proper perspective.

As opportunity to complete my landscape wanes, priority and purpose become clearer… work on in the middle tint. I suffer no illusion about producing a masterpiece, but there is hope for a better painting.