BawdryBeautyBelief


from "A Catechism of Aesthetics for a Time of Religious War"

by Teresa Carmody

1. What do you believe?

We believe in Art, creation’s grand creation, succor of human sorrow, accuser of human error; in literature as liturgy and testament: conceived in necessity, born in humility; bred of ambition; and suffering the weight of its forebears. We believe the artist descends into her work; for which she must examine her self and her sentences with honest ferocity, so she may, through some grace, make something true and transcendent rise from the dead sleep of dailyness and diversion. We believe the best art ascends more brilliant than its creator, to be held in the infinite, a model to be judged by the living and the dead. We believe in the Muse (we call her Passion), the Canon, the communion of the Saints, the solidness of Sin, the redemption of a Life, and hope—always Hope— everlasting.

2. What are the number of Articles in your Creed?

The numbers depend upon form and function.

  1. We are naked.
  2. We are thirteen which indicate nouns; eleven in the definitive and two indefinetely.
  3. Twelve persist as tenets of faith; twelve is a good number, divisible by one, two, three, four, six, and itself.