Art and Faith

Art and Faith PDF Author: Makoto Fujimura
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300255934
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 184

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Book Description
From a world-renowned painter, an exploration of creativity’s quintessential—and often overlooked—role in the spiritual life “Makoto Fujimura’s art and writings have been a true inspiration to me. In this luminous book, he addresses the question of art and faith and their reconciliation with a quiet and moving eloquence.”—Martin Scorsese “[An] elegant treatise . . . Fujimura’s sensitive, evocative theology will appeal to believers interested in the role religion can play in the creation of art.”—Publishers Weekly Conceived over thirty years of painting and creating in his studio, this book is Makoto Fujimura’s broad and deep exploration of creativity and the spiritual aspects of “making.” What he does in the studio is theological work as much as it is aesthetic work. In between pouring precious, pulverized minerals onto handmade paper to create the prismatic, refractive surfaces of his art, he comes into the quiet space in the studio, in a discipline of awareness, waiting, prayer, and praise. Ranging from the Bible to T. S. Eliot, and from Mark Rothko to Japanese Kintsugi technique, he shows how unless we are making something, we cannot know the depth of God’s being and God’s grace permeating our lives. This poignant and beautiful book offers the perspective of, in Christian Wiman’s words, “an accidental theologian,” one who comes to spiritual questions always through the prism of art.

Art and Faith

Art and Faith PDF Author: Makoto Fujimura
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300255934
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 184

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Book Description
From a world-renowned painter, an exploration of creativity’s quintessential—and often overlooked—role in the spiritual life “Makoto Fujimura’s art and writings have been a true inspiration to me. In this luminous book, he addresses the question of art and faith and their reconciliation with a quiet and moving eloquence.”—Martin Scorsese “[An] elegant treatise . . . Fujimura’s sensitive, evocative theology will appeal to believers interested in the role religion can play in the creation of art.”—Publishers Weekly Conceived over thirty years of painting and creating in his studio, this book is Makoto Fujimura’s broad and deep exploration of creativity and the spiritual aspects of “making.” What he does in the studio is theological work as much as it is aesthetic work. In between pouring precious, pulverized minerals onto handmade paper to create the prismatic, refractive surfaces of his art, he comes into the quiet space in the studio, in a discipline of awareness, waiting, prayer, and praise. Ranging from the Bible to T. S. Eliot, and from Mark Rothko to Japanese Kintsugi technique, he shows how unless we are making something, we cannot know the depth of God’s being and God’s grace permeating our lives. This poignant and beautiful book offers the perspective of, in Christian Wiman’s words, “an accidental theologian,” one who comes to spiritual questions always through the prism of art.

The Arts and the Christian Imagination

The Arts and the Christian Imagination PDF Author: Clyde Kilby
Publisher: Paraclete Press
ISBN: 161261888X
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
Dr. Clyde Kilby was known to many as an early, long and effective champion of C. S. Lewis, and the founder of the Marion E. Wade Center at Wheaton College, IL, for the study of the works of Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien and other members of the Inklings. Less known is that Dr. Kilby was also an apologist in his time for arts, aesthetics and beauty, particularly among Evangelicals. This collection offers a sampler of the work of Dr. Clyde Kilby on these themes. He writes reflections under four headings: "Christianity, Art, and Aesthetics"; "The Vocation of the Artist"; "Faith and the Role of the Imagination"; and "Poetry, Literature and the Imagination." With a unique voice, Kilby writes from a specific literary and philosophical context that relates art and aesthetics with beauty, and all that is embodied in the classics. His work is particularly relevant today as these topics are being embraced by Protestants, Evangelicals, and indeed people of faith from many different traditions. A deeply engaging book for readers who want to look more closely at themes of art, aesthetics, beauty and literature in the context of faith. "What a great gift to read the collected writings of this gentle, brilliant visionary, teacher and friend! I can say, like so many others, it was Clyde Kilby who set my course in life. Like the dandelions he tended all winter, we flourished under his wisdom and care. Now his remarkable words on the page act as a kind of resurrection. We can hear his voice again and bless his memory." —Luci Shaw, Poet, Writer in Residence, Regent College Author of Thumbprint in the Clay "The Arts and the Christian Imagination is a landmark book. Its scope is breathtaking, bringing together in one place well-known "signature" essays by Clyde Kilby and unknown but equally excellent ones. The essays in this book, masterfully edited, sum up what a whole era wanted to say about literature and art in themselves and in relation to the Christian Faith." —Leland Ryken, Professor Emeritus English, Wheaton College, Author of The Christian Imagination "It was my great privilege to take several classes with Clyde Kilby when I was a student at Wheaton. Now a new generation, and readers far from the Chicago suburbs, have the chance to experience the sparkle, wit, aesthetic insight, and deep Christian commitment that made Kilby such an unusually captivating teacher. Even without his hobbit-like presence, his words remain a true inspiration." —Mark A. Noll, Author of Jesus Christ and the Life of the Mind, Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History, University of Notre Dame "Thousands owe to this giant of Wheaton their ability to hear literary voices with Gospel-tuned ears. This sampler of his hugely influential writing will make the reader profoundly grateful for a man whose legacy is beyond measure." —Jeremy Begbie, Thomas A. Langford Research Professor of Theology — Duke Divinity School, Director of Duke Initiatives in Theology and the Arts "Samuel Johnson said people need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed. Dr. Kilby reminds us of what it means to be made in the image of God and how art, in our creation and reception of it, illuminates, articulates and glorifies that original great mimesis. With wisdom and relevance, this collection provides a touchstone for the spiritual thinker in its reconciliation of art's true and beautiful purpose with the unspeakable, inimitable mystery of God." —Dr. Carolyn Weber, Professor and speaker, Award-winning author of Surprised by Oxford; Holy is the Day "To read the reflections of C.S. Kilby on art and the Christian imagination is to engage one of the most pertinently constructive interior critiques of American evangelical culture in the 1960's. His biblically formed imagination saw good and truth in what seemed to many of his generation astonishing places—French Catholic philosophers, agnostic novelists, psychic experimentalists, off-beat artists, mathematicians, mentally disturbed poets--and he asked fellow evangelicals, comfortably certain of the categories of their own perception, to examine whether or not some alien accounts did not square better with a biblical view of the human person than their own rigidities. To read these essays is to hear again his distinctively gentle voice in the classroom, and once again to gather many pearls of wisdom." —David Lyle Jeffrey, Distinguished Professor of Literature and the Humanities Honors Program, Senior Fellow, Baylor Institute for Studies in Religion, Baylor University "As I read Dr. Kilby's words in this book, "Love, not duty, sends the artist forth," I recalled my class with him fifty years ago. I can still almost hear his voice as he read from Wordsworth: "what we have loved others will love, and we will show them how." That line perfectly describes Clyde Kilby's life and work. As his student, I love what my dear Professor of English literature loved. I treasure this collection of his essays on Arts and Christian Imagination." —G. Walter Hansen, Professor Emeritus Fuller Seminary, Co-author of Through Your Eyes: Dialogues on the Paintings of Bruce Herman

Christianity and Culture

Christianity and Culture PDF Author: Thomas Stearns Eliot
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 9780156177351
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 220

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Book Description
Two long essays: "The Idea of a Christian Society" on the direction of religious thought toward criticism of political and economic systems; and "Notes towards the Definition of Culture" on culture, its meaning, and the dangers threatening the legacy of the Western world.

Christian Reflections

Christian Reflections PDF Author: C. S. Lewis
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN: 0802871844
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 233

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Book Description
This collection contains fourteen of Lewis's theological papers on subjects such as Christianity and literature, Christianity and culture, ethics, futility, church music, modern theology and biblical criticism, the Psalms, and petitionary prayer. Common to all of these varied essays are Lewis's uniquely effective style and his tireless concern to relate basic Christianity to all of life.

Why God Makes Sense in a World That Doesn't

Why God Makes Sense in a World That Doesn't PDF Author: Gavin Ortlund
Publisher: Baker Academic
ISBN: 1493432451
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 266

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Book Description
It has never been more important to articulate the wonder and enchantment of the Christian message. Yet the traditional approaches of apologetics are often outmoded in an age of profound disenchantment and distraction, unable to meet this pressing need. This winsome apologetics book for a new generation makes the case that Christianity offers a compelling explanatory framework for making sense of our world. Pastor and writer Gavin Ortlund believes it is essential to appeal not only to the mind but also to the heart and the imagination as we articulate the beauty of the gospel. Why God Makes Sense in a World That Doesn't reimagines four classical theistic arguments--cosmological, teleological, moral, and Christological--making a cumulative case for God as the best framework for understanding the storied nature of reality. The book suggests that Christian theism can explain such things as the elegance of math, the beauty of music, and the value of love. It is suitable for use in classes yet accessibly written, making it a perfect resource for churches and small groups.

Food and Faith in Christian Culture

Food and Faith in Christian Culture PDF Author: Ken Albala
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231520794
Category : Cooking
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
Without a uniform dietary code, Christians around the world used food in strikingly different ways, developing widely divergent practices that spread, nurtured, and strengthened their religious beliefs and communities. Featuring never-before published essays, this anthology follows the intersection of food and faith from the fourteenth to the twenty-first century, charting the complex relationship among religious eating habits and politics, culture, and social structure. Theoretically rich and full of engaging portraits, essays consider the rise of food buying and consumerism in the fourteenth century, the Reformation ideology of fasting and its resulting sanctions against sumptuous eating, the gender and racial politics of sacramental food production in colonial America, and the struggle to define "enlightened" Lenten dietary restrictions in early modern France. Essays on the nineteenth century explore the religious implications of wheat growing and breadmaking among New Zealand's Maori population and the revival of the Agape meal, or love feast, among American brethren in Christ Church. Twentieth-century topics include the metaphysical significance of vegetarianism, the function of diet in Greek Orthodoxy, American Christian weight loss programs, and the practice of silent eating rituals among English Benedictine monks. Two introductory essays detail the key themes tying these essays together and survey food's role in developing and disseminating the teachings of Christianity, not to mention providing a tangible experience of faith.

Christian Language and its Mutations

Christian Language and its Mutations PDF Author: David Martin
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351951823
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 235

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Book Description
Christian Language and its Mutations explores how Christian language alters in various social, cultural, historical and religious contexts. Having delineated the core language of Christianity, David Martin analyses how it mutates in different historical and social contexts, notably: peace and war; the arts - particularly painting and music; the sacred space (the city) and the sacred text (the liturgy); education; and the global situation of Christianity and contemporary secular society - evangelicalism, rational religion, Pentecostalism and Base Communities. Presenting a unique perspective to show how and why Christianity alters according to context, this book will prove insightful and accessible to students, clergy and general readers alike. David Martin is Honorary Professor in the Department of Religious Studies, Lancaster University, and Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics, UK. He is the author of some two dozen books, including many landmark titles in the sociology of religion.

Jesus Christ in Christian Art and Culture 14th to 20th Centuries

Jesus Christ in Christian Art and Culture 14th to 20th Centuries PDF Author: Gosudarstvennyĭ russkiĭ muzeĭ (Saint Petersburg, Russia)
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 538

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Book Description
Includes brief yet comprehensive biographies of the artists featured, such as Kazimir Malevich, David Buliuk, Grigory Gagarin, Pavel Filonov and Alexei Yegorov Despite its later acceptance of Christianity in 988, and the many decades of religious repression under the Communist Regime, Russian artists have over the centuries produced images of Christ renowned for their spiritual clarity and beauty. Gorgeously and abundantly illustrated, this book presents paintings, iconography and liturgical objects as well as biographies of the artists and informative essays that trace Christian art and culture in Russia over the past six hundred years.

Vale of Tears

Vale of Tears PDF Author: Edward J. Blum
Publisher: Mercer University Press
ISBN: 9780865549623
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 286

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Book Description
Vale of Tears: New Essays in Religion and Reconstruction offers a window into the exciting work being done by historians, social scientists, and scholars of religious studies on the epoch of Reconstruction. A time of both peril and promise, Reconstruction in America became a cauldron of transformation and change. This collection argues that religion provided the idiom and symbol, as often the very substance, of those changes. The authors of this collection examine how African Americans and white Southerners, New England Abolitionists and former Confederate soldiers, Catholics and Protestants on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line brought their sense of the sacred into collaboration and conflict. Together, these essays mark an important new departure in a still-contested period of American history. Interdisciplinary in scope and content, it promises to challenge many of the traditional parameters of Reconstruction historiography. The range of contributors to the project, including Gaines Foster and Paul Harvey, will draw a great deal of attention from Southern historians, literary scholars, and scholars of American religion.

How Now Shall We Live?

How Now Shall We Live? PDF Author: Charles Colson
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
ISBN: 1414322429
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 660

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Book Description
2000 Gold Medallion Award winner! Christianity is more than a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. It is also a worldview that not only answers life's basic questions—Where did we come from, and who are we? What has gone wrong with the world? What can we do to fix it?—but also shows us how we should live as a result of those answers. How Now Shall We Live? gives Christians the understanding, the confidence, and the tools to confront the world's bankrupt worldviews and to restore and redeem every aspect of contemporary culture: family, education, ethics, work, law, politics, science, art, music. This book will change every Christian who reads it. It will change the church in the new millennium.