The dread of criticism is the death of genius.

–William Gilmore Simms

I have been thinking a great deal about criticism, specifically, how a certain understanding of criticism, such as that found to be held by various people in the field of visual arts, could potentially carry over to other areas of life. Being a creative professional I have come to form (by pure necessity) a generous and sophisticated view of criticism. If you are a creative professional you know what I mean. A creative person working in the visual arts is required to form a thick skin, because as we know all to well, everyone is a critic.

The Critique
In most of my classes at college we didn’t take tests, we had critiques. One of the first things we were taught about in design school was how to critique and how to be critiqued. Critiques are essentially how we learned to become better designers. They are instrumental to the design process and serve as a way to refine and develop ideas. A critique is an oral or written discussion strategy used to analyze, describe, and interpret various works. In my case works of art or design. Critiques are intended to help students hone their persuasive oral and writing, information-gathering, and justification skills.

Critiques can be good, bad, tough, challenging, pleasant, uplifting, depressing, scary, joyful, disheartening, edifying, audacious, reserved, and in many cases, all of these things put together and then some! I have experienced critiques that could certainly be described this way.

When I think back to some of the earliest critiques in which I participated, I remember experiencing anxiety unparalleled to that felt before even my most important academic exams. That should say a lot. As a first year design student, I feared critiques. I pumped my heart and soul into my projects only to have them picked apart, degraded and insulted by professors and students during a critique. This work, as far as I was concerned, was part of me. And try as I might, it was immensely difficult to not take negative criticism personally.

But gradually as I progressed and matured as a designer, my view of the critique changed–It had to. Eventually I began to see critiques not so much as a destructive, hostile activity that should be feared, but as a constructive, positive activity that should be welcomed. I began to understand that the goal of a critique was not to destroy the work but to improve upon it. I started to appreciate constructive comments more and more. I noticed during the times when I critiqued other peoples work that I was able to spot things they had missed (and vice versa). I began to understand that my close connection to the work served as a blinder. Other people could view my work and see things that I could not, no matter how hard I looked.

Critiques become fun and enjoyable, but still challenging. Ideas were improved upon, revised, re-imagined, inspired and sometimes scrapped. I really began to see why the creative process is just that, a creative process.

Detachment
As I gradually fell into this new understanding, it became easier for me to accept negative criticism. I no longer took comments quite so personally. Accordingly, the way I viewed my work changed as well. I became less attached to my work because I understood that in order for it to improve it had to change, sometimes only slightly, but it had to change. This was one of the most important lessons I learned in school.

You may ask ‘what about those times when people are intentionally mean?’ This, believe it or not, does happen on occasion and it is why the lesson I learned is so important. Because I learned to develop a healthy detachment from my work, negative criticism (intentionally hurtful or not) is no longer as painful to endure. This is not to say that I am completely unattached or insincere about my work, but rather I am so sincere that I endeavor to maintain a healthy distinction between the design and the designer. Although the work I produce contains parts of me (e.g. my effort, my time, my passion), it is not in fact me. So when people attack my work, even if they are indirectly attempting to attack my person, I am able to take the negative feedback, sort through it, and apply it in a positive way.

Maintaining this detachment is critical in my profession. And as I’ve continued to develop as a designer I have found that sometimes the best compliment someone can pay you is to give you some honest, constructive criticism. Likewise, sometimes the worst thing you can do to a person is to not let them know what you think or to patronize and lie to them.

Learning To Take Criticism
I think it would do everyone some good (especially ecclesiastics),  to learn how to take criticism. Interestingly enough, and perhaps not surprisingly, my understanding of art/design criticism has carried over to other areas of my life. Critiques have naturally helped me develop a critical eye and helped me to be a better critical thinker. As I mentioned above, the most important thing I’ve learned is to not become stubbornly attached to ideas. This has become extremely important when it comes to my personal faith. I feel a major problem that many people run into in life is that they don’t know how to take criticism.

I have really begun to see most things in life as a work in progress. This includes ideas, worldviews and of course doctrines of faith. When I’m faced with adversity, conflict or an opposing view or opinion, my goal is similar to my goal when creating a beautiful design: to sort through the junk, take what’s good, and use it to improve. Trust me, this tiny perspective change has a huge impact.

If one were to look back over Church history, it’s fairly plain to see an overall resistant and hostile attitude toward critique and change. The prophets of the OT were always critiquing Israel and their infidelity to God. Needless to say they weren’t the most popular characters. Of course Jesus’ criticism of religion fell on deaf ears, for the most part.

Skipping ahead we begin to see not a willingness and openness to critique held by the Church but a hardening and entrenched attitude being formed. It’s during the Reformation where we start to see what happens when you intentionally try to halt change. Change, it seems, happens one way or the other. The question that needs to be asked is this: Do you want to do it the hard way or the easy way? To me, it seems the Church likes to do things the hard way.

Today the Church faces a whole new set of critiques both from within and from the outside. Coming off the back of famous 20th century atheistic critiques from the likes of Frued, Nietzsche and Marx, folks like Dawkins, Dennett and Hitchens pose a new set of challenges to religious people. Accordingly, the Emerging Church Movement is a fine example of an extensive theological critique originating from within the Church. One thing we can all count on is that there will be no shortages of religious critiques in our lifetime.

The thing I hope people in the Church can keep in mind is that good critiques are not bad. They have the real potential to make us better, and they should be welcomed not feared. For me, applying what I have learned about the creative process is crucial. I am fully aware that people who critique religious ideas are doing just that, critiquing religious ideas. The necessity to maintain a healthy detachment from the idea and  the thinker (or the creation and the creator) is mandatory. In order for ideas to get better they must undergo change. It’s true that not everything in a critique is good or helpful, but being able to sort through the junk and apply the good stuff is how the critique helps us to improve our thinking and hopefully become better people. Seriously, Isn’t this the goal? I mean after all, I have heard it said that to become more Christlike is to become more fully human. Perhaps having a different perspective on criticism can be a divine blessing for us all.

Painting by Ward Schumaker

Tags:art criticismchruch crtiquescreative processcrtiicismdesign criticismnew atheists