The Ars Vitalis Foundation
Founded and run by Hector and Lilli Ramirez.
The long process of secularization that has taken place in the Western society, presents such a challenge for the communication of the gospel message; that that process has to be taken into account, and needs to be understood if we want to connect with this society.
This secularization can be traced back to the Renaissance times, but the definite foundation for this new secular mentality is implemented during the Enlightenment movement in the 18th century. The time when thinkers and philosophers spoke openly about the need to break with the long tradition of restriction of people´s minds by the church. They proclaimed the freedom of the intellect and the emancipation of reason as the only possible guide for the progress and advancement of mankind. This new way of thinking is adopted by writers, musicians, and artists in the 19th and 20th. Century. And finally it permeates the whole Western society through the works of Nietzsche and the popular acceptance and acclamation of thinkers like J. P. Sartre, A. Camus, Herbert Marcuse, Michel Foucault and others in the middle of the 20th. Century. A feat that was efficiently accomplished with the help of the arts, the mass media and the powerful tool of television.
All these ideas shaped the course of Western history in such a way that they were responsible for bringing about the social and political transformations that produced the French Revolution in 1789, The First World War in 1914, The Communist Revolution in 1917 and the Second World War in 1939. Cataclysmic events that finally set the stage for the advent of the irrational post-modern mentality. This is an even newer way of thinking that rises against reason, which had previously been established as the leading force for the progress of humanity.
And since the belief in God had been dismantled by Nietzsche proclaiming “the death of God”; what the new mindset proposes and encourages is skepticism, unbelief, and irrationality. The new post-modern thinkers not only believe that God is dead but, like M. Foucault, now proclaim that man himself is dead. Nevertheless, our contemporary society tries to keep itself going in the midst of the debris of this collapsing world. And this is the situation in which we find ourselves as Christians; and the titanic challenge placed before us, to be able to present the relevance of the gospel message in the midst of these overwhelming problems.
The role of the Arts in missions:
How can we engage the new issues being raised and the new postmodern mindset? How to offer hope to a society which has lost the concept of sin, repentance or salvation; which has done away with the concept of absolutes, truth itself and the need for moral and spiritual values? As G. K. Chesterton said, the problem with modern Western man was not that they had lost their faith in God, but that by doing so they had lost their minds; and D. Bonhoeffer believed that modern European man had entered an era of insanity and that before we could offer them the gospel we would need to help them come to their senses.
And this is what The Ars Vitalis Foundation provides and tries to do. A platform for arts education in music, dance, and theatre that can help people discover the reality of God using the wonderful gift of creativity He has given to mankind. Through this, we also provide a place for dialogue, debate, reflection, and interaction, on all the fundamental structures of society that have been deconstructed and demolished: Art, authority, church, family, marriage, sexual identity, etc. A reflection process on their actual good and the urgent need for rebuilding them. Not because we think all we need to do is go back to the status quo that existed before this insanity began, but because by doing so we can contribute to open the doors for a dialogue on absolutes, moral and spiritual values and finally to the introduction of the relevance of the gospel message.
Thanks so much for helping us fulfill our mission.
To find out more visit: www.arsvitalis.es/the-christian-perspective/