There's a post that Eve Tushnet linked to, from the Cigarette Smoking blogger. She includes this on a piece about Oscar Wilde:
The similarities between imitation of Christ as a moral figure and imitation of art as an aesthetic ideal can be recognized by any moralist, religious or secular, but to render Wilde’s praise of the critical temperament applicable to life requires a more distinctly Christian perspective. “People sometimes say that actors give us their own Hamlets, and not Shakespeare’s,” Gilbert says, but “there is no such thing as Shakespeare’s Hamlet” apart from an actor’s singular interpretation. “When Rubinstein plays to us the Sonata Appassionata of Beethoven, he gives us not merely Beethoven, but also himself, and so gives us Beethoven absolutely.” The similarity between this idea and Matthew 10:19 is partial but significant: “But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak.” Far more essential to a Christian interpretation of Intentions is the theology of God’s ownership of each human life. Man is not his own Creator, nor is he even the author of his own life story.Deep waters, for me anyway. But I wonder if this "Christ as art", or Christ as a model to imitate inadvertantly minimizes the action of the Holy Spirit. Someone interpreting Beethoven is bringing their experiences (mental, emotional), intellect and physicality (the technical playing, their sense of rhythm, etc..). These are God-given things but still completely natural. Whereas in our "playing Christ" we have not just our own resources.
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