In a world that often considers Christians mad, the label of "insanity" may be a badge of honor. Jesus himself was accused of "having a demon" (ancient-speak for "bonkers") and it hasn't gotten much better in many places for His followers. Sharing that stigma, and an unmerited mental-health image, are practitioners of the arts, at least to an extent. So what happens when zealous Christians are also artists? It depends on the culture they are born into and its tolerance level.
Christians in the arts were and are fettered by their government, social strictures and even by pious church members. Vincent Van Gogh was crushingly rejected as pastor for not fitting into Dutch social norms, although the ministry was his first love. Later, European artists bloomed into a deliberate, fashionable (and usually feigned) madness – Les Fauves and Surrealists.
Salvador Dali was the epitome of a polished art lunacy, and today Russian papers and police records cover the latest self-mutilations of performance artist Pyotr Pavlensky. Excepting Van Gogh's ear episode, all the above were planned and carefully intentional. But why were so many of our most renown artists, including Christians, considered anywhere from peculiar to psychotic against their will?
Poets and writers received the lion's share of this unwelcome diagnosis, until very recent times. There's a long list: John Keats, Lord Byron, Ezra pound, Dylan Thomas, Theodore Roethke and many more. Particularly unjust and sad is the tale of the great English poet Christopher Smart (1722-1771).
Smart was somewhat celebrated in his time, writing in Latin and English, but suffered what appears to be a totally unjustified label of "madness" which he never overcame. A budding young poet, he was hailed with awards and scholarships, and life seemed promising. Suddenly at age 35, a "Commission of Lunacy" was signed against Smart. He was sent to St. Luke's Hospital for lunatics in 1757.
The reason? His recent conversion and deep enthusiasm for God, considered a "mild religious mania." Possibly professional rivalry had something to do with it as well.
Writer and friend Samuel Johnson summed it up thusly: "My poor friend Smart shewed the disturbance of his mind, by falling upon his knees, and saying his prayers in the street, or in any other unusual place. ... His infirmities were not noxious to society. He insisted on people praying with him."
Interesting to note that his wife's stepfather, who had committed Smart, was also his publisher. There were powerful financial and literary conflicts between the two. Acquaintances described the poet before his conversion as "the most debauched journalist they had ever had," but it caused him no professional problems. After Smart's socially unacceptable "extreme" salvation, it all went south.
In 1757, family members or any authority could cast men into a madhouse for life. Smart's charge of "routing the company" (similar to our "disturbing the peace") through loud calls for prayer brought him isolation and rejection for the remainder of his life. He left the asylum in 1763 but never recovered his life, family or reputation. Smart died in a debtor's prison seven years later.
Christopher Smart's works suffered the same fate, languishing in obscurity until an unfinished manuscript was found and published in 1939. This was his magnificent "Jubilate Agno" ("Rejoice in the Lamb"), a spiritual masterpiece created during his confinement for insanity at St. Luke's. A poem of creation praising God, it is epic in size (over 1200 lines) and remains unfinished.
Smart received prizes for formal-style poetry in his youth, but this was a departure from anything written in his time. It's delightfully free and almost experimental in form – perhaps enough to be deemed "mad" at a time when poetry was very serious business. Subjects cover science, a sprinkling of writers and political figures, and especially nature and animals. All these are juxtaposed to a type of praise or quality of their Creator.
"Jubilate Agno" is reminiscent of St. Francis' "Canticle of the Sun," but amplified ambitiously. Found in sections, the first fragment of "Jubilate Agno" has been likened to a poetic "ark" pairing Biblical characters with animals so that all creation is blessed and honored by men:
Let Samuel, the Minister from a child, without ceasing praise with the Porcupine, which is the creature of defence and stands upon his arms continually. ...
Let Lud bless with the Elk, the strenuous asserter of his liberty, and the maintainer of his ground.
Smart combines deep theology with light, detailed, even whimsical observations of the few visitors and the six books allowed him. Rhapsodizing over his sole companion, he wrote this (and more) of Jeoffry, his cat:
For I will consider my Cat Jeoffry.
For he is the servant of the Living God duly and daily serving him.
For at the first glance of the glory of God in the East he worships in his way.
For is this done by wreathing his body seven times round with elegant quickness.
For then he leaps up to catch the musk, which is the blessing of God upon his prayer.
For he rolls upon prank to work it in.
For having done duty and received blessing he begins to consider himself . . .For when his day's work is done his business more properly begins.
For he keeps the Lord's watch in the night against the adversary.
For he counteracts the powers of darkness by his electrical skin and glaring eyes.
For he counteracts the Devil, who is death, by brisking about the life
For in his morning orisons he loves the sun and the sun loves him.
For he is of the tribe of Tiger.
For the Cherub Cat is a term of the Angel Tiger. . .
All lines in "Jubilate Agno" fragments begin with either "Let" or "For." He matched human names or creatures of nature with an associated aphorism or praise verse. This is a practice of antiphonal Hebrew poetry and somewhat like the call and response in many liturgies. Smart's lofty vision was to create a type of English scripture similar to David's psalms.
British writer and broadcaster Frank Key claimed Smart's poetry can best be described "as a vast hymn of praise to God and all His works, and also as the ravings of a madman." Yet he recorded the entire three-hour long text of "Jubilate Agno" (here). Many of the Bible's original authors were judged just as harshly, so once again nothing is new under the sun.
Academics assume Smart's isolation led to "writing religious poetry" and leaving traditional genres of verse. It may have given him the time, but his incentive was spiritual and also the reason he landed in the madhouse. Smart's poetry is clearly evangelical, although it isn't known if he ever encountered any of the fiery circuit riders from the Great Awakening of that time.
U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky (1997-2009) was moved by "Jubilate Agno" and its fervor, devotion and conviction. "Smart combines the forms of litany with indecorous content, confidently associating biblical language and allusions with the personal hygiene of his cat," Pinsky observes. "He advocates a spiritual respect for everything he sees, not just for what looks or sounds sanctified."
We know few details of Christopher Smart's bleak life, but his joy at his salvation and knowledge of God shines through. There is not a touch of self-pity or bitterness in his poetry at this time. We can know for certain, though, when his cataclysmic conversion occurred. He writes in the "Jubilate Agno":
For I bless the thirteenth of August, in which I had the grace to obey the voice of Christ in my conscience.
For I bless the thirteenth of August, in which I was willing to run all hazards for the sake of the name of the Lord.
For I bless the thirteenth of August, in which I was willing to be called a fool for the sake of Christ.
Sources
Paul Bommer & Christopher Smart & His Cat Jeoffry
Christopher Smart's Jubilate Agno
In Nomine Patris et Felis: Christopher Smart's extremely spiritual poem about his cat