A book well worth reading by anyone with an interest in the relationship of religion and theology to the arts

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	• Arts, Theology, And The Church: New Intersections Pilgrim Press, 2005 - 255 pages average customer review:based on 3 reviews view larger image
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Theology and the Arts meets the Church

An unprecedented collection of essays from preeminent scholars and artists in the emergent field of theology and the arts. This book is particular in how it reveals the intersections of theology and the arts with the church.

Organized to explore the three intersections, this book is composed in three parts: The Arts and Theology; The Arts and Interpretation; The Arts and the Practice of Ministry.

BACK COVER: "Why should the church be involved with the arts? What are the roles that the arts play in the religious life? How does art reveal the presence of God? What is the relationship between the spiritual and the aesthetic? What is the connection between Christian symbols and their artistic expression? How can the arts be used in the practice of ministry and worship?

A renewed interest in this fertile and provocative interplay between religion and the arts is causing these questions to be posed more persistently now in both academic and church settings. The essays ... provoke and ponder such questions and combine to create this foundational work that offers new understandings about the relationship of the arts to theology, history, and the practice of ministry in the church."

The book includes 35 photographs/line drawings and a selected bibliography.

CONTRIBUTORS: Doug Adams, Mary Farrell Bednarowski, Bruce Birch, Frank Burch Brown, Sid Fowler, Robin M. Jensen, Cindi Beth Johnson, Deborah Haynes, Don Saliers, Kimberly J. Vrundy, Jann Cather Weaver, Wilson Yates.

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Artfully done...

In one of the essays in this interesting and engaging collection, Frank Burch Brown admits that some of the topics discussed in this volume 'have a limited appeal to most of the world'. This same statement can be made of many things in academia, or indeed anywhere else. However, Brown then goes on to cite a litany of cases in which the topics under consideration have practical, and sometimes profound, impact on the worship and spiritual lives of people.

The essays in this volume come from a group of scholars throughout North America, with particular concentration around the United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities. In recognition that 'over the past twenty-five years, the exploration of the arts in relationship to theology has become a significant part of the landscape of theological education and the church,' these scholars and ministers came together to address the theological, spiritual, and practical aspects of the arts in ministry and religion. This deals with issues of theological theory, interpretation, and practices.

The arts discussed here are broadly drawn - they include the visual arts, musical arts, storytelling and liturgical arts. Some of these essays draw on issues from historical perspectives, and some are very personal. While each essay stands on its own merit and reads as a complete unit, together the essays complement each other drawing the same issues in different directions.

What is the importance of art for religion? Those who attend worship services are familiar with certain kinds of architecture, music (or the lack thereof), vestments (or the lack thereof), and a host of other elements that add in some way (even by the absence of certain elements) to an aesthetic experience meant to both deepen and broaden the understanding of what is being said and done in church. But what are the implications of rendering an invisible God accessible by visible, corporeal means (Robin Jensen addresses this in her essay)? For those whose experience of religious themes in primarily outside of the church (as the population of unchurched persons grows), what meaning will they attach to 'marketplace' art such as films with religious symbols and figures (Jann Cather Weaver discusses this in her essay)?

According to Don Saliers (the professor of my professor of liturgy), 'the history of Christian faith and theology is also a history of the eye, the ear, of bodily gesture and movement, the mind imagining, and the senses conjoining.' Holiness is, in our sensory perceptions, embodied and made incarnate best in beautiful ways. What constitutes this beauty can be a subject for debate. One can see this clearly in a church in which there is an effort to make a change - churches sometimes split over matters not overtly theological, such as a hymnal change. Brown states that this issue 'is at work in worshipping communities whenever they splinter or incinerate themselves over matters of musical style, one side accusing the other of religious infidelity while facing, itself, the accusation of bad taste or even irreverence.' Understanding the underpinnings of aesthetic and theological issues can help communities better understand themselves and why they do what they do.

However, this understanding is not simply for the congregations. It must first be for the academics and theologians. The connections between art and aesthetic considerations on the one hand and 'proper' theology on the other are often tenuous and ill-defined; sometimes artistic issues are ignored altogether. All of the authors, each in his or her own way, make an argument or case for the inclusion of the arts in theological consideration.

This is a book that should be read by ministers, Christian education directors, seminary professors and students, and others who hope to add to the fullness of their religious and spiritual experience, both within and outside of the church.

Truth in advertising is a must: Frank Burch Brown was a professor of mine at my seminary, who had the graciousness to give me high enough marks in his class on church and the arts that I might dare to offer an opinion on a text such as this. Thus, any insights I might have might also be traced to him; any faults will surely be my own.

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A book well worth reading by anyone with an interest in the relationship of religion and theology to the arts

Deftly edited by the team of Kimberly Vrudny and Wilson Yates, the provacative book Arts, Theology, and the Church: New Intersections is a book well worth reading by anyone with an interest in the relationship of religion and theology to the arts. Drawing from numerous contributors, Arts Theology, and the Church questions the relationship between the arts and church. This collective work is definitive in its study as it reaches considerable depths of insight and presents previously cautioned subjects generally not addressed in the past. Discover the world of the arts in theology for a pure and genuine, while retaining the interesting nature that encourages the reader to read on. To those in appreciation for art and theology of all sorts, Arts, Theology, and The Church is a recommended read.

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