About the Book
This volume presents the theology-arts conversation from a distinctly Christian perspective, as a witness of the Gospel of Christ to the world. A widespread interest in the historical, socio-cultural and political embeddedness of theology and the arts permeates it.
This theme of embeddedness tracks through several overarching and interlocking concerns: the relationship between form and content (in both art and theology), the intensification of the metaphysical and the theological (contra materialist and positivist reductionisms), the expansion of the epistemological possibilities of the theology-art conversation, and a robust understanding of the world as the theatre of God's glory. Several chapters have been co-written by theologians and artists as part of demonstrating the kind of conversation that this book commends. A thorough-going commitment to Scripture is also woven into the many different habits of thought represented in this volume.
Part I surveys different approaches to the theology-arts conversation. Part II focuses on how particular art forms bring theological issues to the surface and how theological and denominational traditions shape the making and receiving of the arts. Part III delves into key topics in the current theology-arts scene and asks how artistic and theological performance can both speak to theological and artistic knowing, and help to celebrate and interrogate embodied, lived reality.
Table of Contents:
List of Figures
Notes on Contributors
Foreword by Mako Fujimara
Preface
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
Editors’ Introduction - Sketching the contours of the contemporary theology-arts conversation
Part I: Different Approaches to the Theology-Arts Conversation
1. Theologies of Art – Trevor Hart (St Andrews Scottish Episcopal Church, UK)
2. Theology Through the Arts - Jeremy Begbie (Duke Divinity School, USA)
3. Art as Theology - David Brown (Fellow of British Academy, UK)
4. The Correlation of Theology and Art - Wessel Stoker (Vrije Universiteit, The Netherlands)
5. Theopoetics of the Broken Form – Heather Walton (Glasgow University, UK)
Part II: Form and Mutual Formation of Theology and the Arts
Theology and Artistic Forms
6. A soul beautifully disposed’ Embodied participation and the re-forming work of music – Jeffery Ames (Belmont University, USA) and Steven R. Guthrie (Belmont University, USA)
7. ‘In the beginning was…’ How poetry breaks open the theological Word – Rachel Mann (Manchester Met University & Sarum College, UK)
8. Why Lyric? A Theological Perspective – Elizabeth S. Dodd (Sarum College, UK)
9. The Novel - Alison Milbank (University of Nottingham, UK)
10. Drama, theatre and theology – Shannon Craigo-Snell (Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, USA) and Todd E. Johnson (Senior Pastor of First Covenant Church, USA)
11. Dancing as creatures do – Ellen F. Davis (Duke Divinity School, USA), Elisa Schroth (Ekklesia Contemporary Ballet, USA) and Morley van Yperen (Ekklesia Contemporary Ballet)
12. Visual art as practical theology: learning from Theaster Gates – William Dyrness (Fuller Theological Seminary, USA) and Maria Fee (Independent Theologian and Artist, USA)
13. How film can foster theological insight – Robert Johnston (Fuller Theological Seminary, USA)
14. The theological importance of play: engaging with popular culture – Clive Marsh (Queen's Foundation, UK) and Adam Sanders ( Birmingham District of the Methodist Church, UK)
15. Theology in location: architecture as a medium of theological exploration – Murray Rae (University of Otago, New Zealand, New Zealand)
Art and Theological Traditions
16. A Thomistic perspective on the conversation between theology and the arts – Lawrence Feingold (Kenrick-Glennon Seminary, USA)
17. The theophanic image: theology and art in the Orthodox icon – C.A. Tsakiridou (La Salle University, USA)
18. Theology, the arts and the Reformed tradition – Adrienne Dengerink Chaplin (King's College, London) and Peter S. Smith (Independent Artist, UK)
19. Re-engaged imagination: Evangelicals in theology and the arts – Taylor Worley (Wheaton College, USA)
20. Give me that old-time religion! Towards a Black Pentecostal aesthetics – Dulcie Dixon McKenzie (The Queen's Foundation, UK)
Part III: Prevalent Themes in the Theology-Arts Conversation
Theological performance
21. Trinity, incarnation and the creative act – Katherine Sonderegger (Virginia Theological Seminary, USA) and Margaret Adams Parker (Independent Artist, USA)
22. Art, creation and grace – Thomas Gardner (Virginia Tech, USA)
23. Beauty and revelation: this great absence. A conversation between theology and sculpture – Carol Harrison (University of Oxford, UK) and Charles Hewlings (Independent Artist, UK)
24. ‘My name is Legion!’ Biblical exegesis, embodiment and the visual arts – Christine E. Joynes (University of Oxford, UK)
25. ‘Monotonous rhythm on the heart of God?’ Drumming, theological aesthetics and Christianity in the Caribbean – Anna Kasafi Perkins (St Michael's Theological College, Jamaica) and Carlton Turner (The Queen's Foundation, UK)
26. Christianity and tragedy – Richard Harries (King's College London, UK)
27. Sin and redemption: an exploration of the musical fragment – Férdia J. Stone-Davis (Margaret Beaufort Institute, UK)
28. Imagining the end: eschatology in art and literature – Judith Wolfe (University of St Andrews, UK)
29. Liturgy and the arts – W. David O. Taylor (Fuller Theological Seminary, USA)
30. Sacrament, the arts and the performance of the Christian theological imagination – R. David Nelson (Baylor University Press, USA)
31. Flagships of the imagination, hope and freedom: cathedrals and visual art – Julie Gittoes (Area Dean of Barnet, UK)
Artistic performance
32. Creativity, freedom and the artist’s vocation – George Corbett (University of St Andrews, UK)
33. Imagination as a means of freedom and healing – Carlene J. Brown (Seattle Pacific University, USA) and Kerry Dearborn (Seattle Pacific University)
34. Space and time through the built environment – Timothy J. Gorringe (University of Exeter, UK)
35. The primacy of the gendered body: praxis, method and meaning-making in liberation theology and choreographic research – Christopher-Rasheem McMillan (The University of Iowa, USA)
36. Art, theology, race – Brian Bantum (Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, USA)
37. Political theology and the arts – Richard Bourne (York St John University, UK)
38. Postscript: Theology~Art seeking (re)creative understanding: on seeing and knowing in the context of visual art research – Stephen M. Garrett (Rivendell Institute at Yale University / Global Scholars, USA)
Index
About the Author :
Stephen M.Garrett is Senior Fellow with the Rivendell Institute at Yale University, USA, and Curriculum Vice-President for Global Scholars. He was formerly Associate Professor of Philosophy and Religion at the Vilnius Academy of Arts in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Imogen Adkins is trained in theology and music and teaches Philosophy and Religion at Stowe School, UK. She has previously supervised undergraduates in the Divinity and Music faculties at the University of Cambridge, UK.
Review :
This brilliantly structured volume considers theology and the arts across a remarkably capacious range of topics. It introduces to the theology-and-art conversation a number of artistic forms that do not often receive theological analysis. As broadly as the volume treats its subject matter, however, an equally striking feature is its depth, as engagement with theological topics is rigorously executed by a first-rate set of authors—some of them widely renowned theologians who have not previously published reflections on art. Readers will emerge with the firm conviction that art is not ancillary to theology, but a vital medium for its expression that holds out enormous, multifaceted promise in our contemporary world.
Filled with voices from forerunners in the field alongside contributions from a diverse range of newer scholars, this volume is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in the conversation between Christian theology and the arts. From methodologies to forms, traditions, and important themes, this book covers it all! Students, scholars, and practitioners in both theology and the arts will find something here to expand their imagination.
