Kintsukuroi is a Japenese word for “Golden Repair.” It is related to another Japanese term,Kintsugi (“Golden joinery”).  It refers to pottery repair. The repair has two purposes:

a.  To restore something that is both physically and functionally broken.

b.  To increase beauty by enhancing the break lines rather than seeking to hid them.

Before applying this concept to faith, salvation, and theology… here are a couple of quotes and a webpage to consider:

Quote #1

“Imperfection is in some way sort of essential to all that we know of life. It is the sign of life in a mortal body, that is to say, of a state of progress and change. Nothing that lives is, or can be, rigidly perfect; part of it is decaying, part nascent… And in all things that live there are certain irregularities and deficiencies which are not only signs of life, but sources of beauty… To banish imperfection is to destroy expression, to check exertion, to paralyze vitality. All things are literally better, lovelier, and more beloved for the imperfections which have been divinely appointed, that the law of human life may be effort, and the law of human judgment, mercy.”   -John Rushkin (quoted in the webpage listed below.)

Quote #2

Not only is there no attempt to hide the damage, but the repair is literally illuminated… a kind of physical expression of the spirit of mushkin….Mushin is often literally translated as “no mind,” but carries connotations of fully existing within the moment, of non-attachment, of equanimity amid changing conditions. …The vicissitudes of existence over time, to which all humans are susceptible, could not be clearer than in the breaks, the knocks, and the shattering to which ceramic ware too is subject. This poignancy or aesthetic of existence has been known in Japan as mono no aware, a compassionate sensitivity, or perhaps identification with, [things] outside oneself.   -Christy Bartlett (quoted in Wikipedia article “Kintsugi”)

Webpost #1

Kintsukuroi – The gentle art of soul restoration, by Audrey Meyer

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Continue on to Part 2