William Morris was a raised as a Christian during the height of the Victorian era in the United Kingdom, where the arts and religion exercised themselves in kindred spirit through atraditional freedom. The Enlightenment era had brought on a neo-Christian intellect that flourished during his time.

Historically, Christian Protestantism (with all of its facets) was at its peak in terms of a crisis of faith and liberty from strict orthodox dogmas. Similarly, the artistic movements of the era were characterized by opposition of religious and classical norms. “Conservative” philosophies of God-centered morality were being shunned in favor of popular nouveau scientific based reason and logic. This in turn motivated and accelerated the worldly emotional and imagintive spontaneous individuation in the mind of man. This evolving and nonconforming humanist psyche continually affected the Christian church—especially the authority—which was more divided than ever over such ecclessial intransigence. 

Fueled by the evolving theocracy, innovative machinery breakthroughs, and thriving commercialism, the Industrial Revolution inevitably devolved man into a cog within the growing consumer machine.

Empirical idealogy flourished in tandem, as the quest into the depths of the meaning of life amidst widespread nihilism created atheistic polar worlds of nominalism and solipsism. Philosophy was looking outside of rules of the Church and instead into a realm based on unscrupulous self-expression. This trend exposed the danger of a mode of being without a galvanized metaphysical theology or philosophy to cure the pangs of an increasingly technological and liberated society. And so, a world without God as supreme arbiter inevitably added to man’s sense of existensial dread and ultimately a sense of meaninglessness, as humanity found itself deeper in “sinful lusts” that lead to uninterrupted abuse. In the face of science’s ability to solve many of the world’s problems, it failed to adequately address man’s sense of placement in the cosmos. Post-Enlightenment Western spirituality was exemplifying and pivoting the popularized world in a new direction based on a relative materialism—devoid of a divine being—where man and nature exist alone as the source of knowledge.

Although the onset of a growing culture based on secular daydreaming was rampant, Morris was driven to pursue the trade through the medieval workshop ethos. Ironically, this craft was traditionally centered around Christian monastic mediums—in another perfect moment of historical duality.

William Morris responded to the increasing angst of the artist in the industrialized world by delivering the craftsman to his natural handmade state through art as a form of functional, yet beautiful commodity—affordable to the masses and not just the elites. Morris is known as the pioneer of the British Arts and Craft movement, who answered the call of the vanishing intrinsic mode within the artist.

To Morris’ credit, despite his lack of confidence in the historically widespread professed truths of Christianity, as a hero cynic of The Gospels, he participated in a Western art revival that any fairly judgemental Christian would applaud. His work is undeniably orantely divine.

The Mystical Language of Icons
by Solrunn Nes