Rev. Dennis McNally SJ: Non-Commisioned Altarpieces of the Seven Churches of the Apocalypse Revelation

Painting: Images of Deity: Encounters with Deity

Christos of the City	Desert Crucifixion	Ecce Homo, triptych	Pilate's Ecce Homo, left
Resurrection, middle	A Diamond is Forever	Abba	And the Angels Ministered to Him
Apsara, Buddhist Angel	Beach, detail	A Sketch for the Assumption	Body of Christ
A Sketch for the Resurrection	Creativity, and Idol	Creativity, an Idol	Crucifixion, detail
Deep is Calling to Deep	First Family	Forgiveness (end panels)	Forgiveness (right detail)
	From the Heart of the Church	Put Your Finger Here, Thomas	Holy Ghost
Holy Spirit	"I am but a Worm, Your Holiness" from Scorsese's "Kundun"	Jacob and the Angel	Jesus and Me in the Beach
Jesus and Me in the Sauna	Peace and Justice Shall Kiss (Psalm 40)	Leviathan	Magnificent Magnolia Madonna
Maranatha	Maranatha (detail)	Montserrat	Noli Me Tangere
Paris Virgin	Peaceable Kingdom	Pentecost	Quetzalcoatl as Reverend Mother
Rabbuni	Rabbuni (central panel)	Rabbuni (detail)	Rabbuni (right panel)
Rabbuni (right panel)	Rachel Weeping for Her Children	Rainbow Serpent and a Digerido	San Jose Expectation
Satan and the Trio	Second Sorrowful Mystery	Seraphim	Spirit Changing the Church
Spring Time for the Barberini	St. Denis of Monmartre	Thirteenth Station	Three Graces, detail
Twelfth Station	Vows at Montserrat, Three Graces	What To Do, The Church in Ruins

There are liberating experiences depicted in these paintings of spiritual realities. Keeping the abstraction mode and painting with unconscious vigor and applying the discipline of contemplation or meditation to them coaxes the images into aesthetic integrity. I have found in my "aesthetic problem solving" (Dewey) subconscious experiences into which the conscious expressions of others' religion can be injected. I can make spiritual sense out of my own inarticulate, "non-discursive reasoning" ( Suzanne Langer). Commentaries on the Aztec codices, explanations of Buddhism's central themes by Thich Nhat Hanh, or archaeological meanderings through sites and National Geographic accounts, all have profound treasures for me now. I am finding God in so many things...