The Big Picture Magazine 8 (2023) on Craft

The eighth issue of The Big Picture, a magazine produced by the Kirby Laing Centre, has recently been made available.

According to the blurb:

‘This latest edition explores the theme of Craft, and in it you will find, among others, articles on why art matters today; the ethics of craft; the beauty and power of photography; how paying attention and being handy can be transformative; on doing well whatever your hand finds to do; on the importance of resisting the global consumer machine and making things by hand; on traditional Japanese boat building; on books as sacred sites; on the biblical foundations of journalism; on crafting human hearts; on the craft of translation; on pursuing obscurity; and much more.’

More information is available here, and the issue can be downloaded as a pdf here.

Online versions of the previous issues of the magazine are available from here.

Mission Frontiers 45, 5 (September–October 2023)

The September–October 2023 issue of Mission Frontiers, published by Frontier Ventures, contains a number of articles devoted to the theme of ‘Arts, Worship, and Mission in Today’s Church’.

Here is the issue blurb, which sets the scene:

‘Western hymns and worship songs are not the only valid forms of worship. Not only does worship not have to be Western, it doesn't have to be in song! Jesus is worthy of worship expressed in every style and every form. The ethnodoxology movement seeks to enable Christ followers in every nation, tribe, and language (and culture!) to worship God through multiple culturally relevant art forms. Ethnodoxology encourages worship that helps connect the worshiper's heart to God, resulting in forms that seem natural rather than foreign and that catalyze Disciple Making Movements.’

The issue is available here, from where individual articles can be downloaded, and the entire issue can be downloaded as a pdf here.

The Big Picture 3 (March 2022)

Issue 3 of The Big Picture, published by the Kirby Laing Centre is now available, with several articles celebrating the legacy of Hans Rookmaaker.

The issue is available to read from here, with a double-spread pdf available for download here, and a single scroll pdf here.

Centre for Public Christianity (May 2021)

The Centre for Public Christianity has posted a ‘Life and Faith’ podcast (here) talking with CPX’s own Mark Stephens ‘about his brand-new book The End of Thinking? to figure out why we’re so bad at thinking, and why it matters’, and another (here) with ‘acclaimed artist Makoto Fujimura about the healing power of art, and how it resonates with his Christian faith’.

Centre for Public Christianity (May 2017)

The Centre for Public Christianity has posted the second part of an audio interview with Amy Orr-Ewing (Director of the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics), looking ‘at the life and career of the inimitable Dorothy L. Sayers – a celebrated copywriter who wrote jingles for the iconic Guinness “zoo” campaign, a novelist and contemporary of Agatha Christie, a “woman of letters”, and a public Christian’.

Centre for Public Christianity (May 2017)

Among other items of interest, the Centre for Public Christianity has posted an audio interview with Thomas Crow on ‘how artwork that seems devoid of religion – whether it’s a still life of a white tablecloth, or an Andy Warhol-inspired anti-war poster – can point towards something sacred’.

Centre for Public Christianity (September 2016)

This month, the Centre for Public Christianity has posted an audio interview with Elizabeth Oldfield on ‘the growing numbers of those who identify as “no religion” – and what that does (and doesn’t) mean’. Also posted is a video interview with Trevor Hart on ‘what it means to be both material and non-material creatures – and how art can help us negotiate that reality.’

Centre for Public Christianity (November 2015)

Among other items, the Centre for Public Christianity has posted a video interview with David Smith on ‘what it means to learn from – and even love – the stranger’, and an audio interview with Trevor Hart on art, theology, and imagination, exploring ‘the relationship between art and the Church, the idea of God as an artist, human creativity, and the way art points us to the divine’.

Centre for Public Christianity (August 2015)

Among other items, the Centre for Public Christianity has posted a video interview with Trevor Hart on ‘the role of art and the imagination in coming to terms with the human condition’, and an audio interview with Margaret Somerville who explains ‘why she believes euthanasia is a social and ethical disaster – and why we should trust our imaginations more’.

Cultural Highlight of the Year – Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs

I was invited by Third Way to write 100 words on a ‘cultural highlight of the year’. Whilst claiming absolutely no nous at all about art, my offer of writing something on the Matisse exhibition at Tate Modern was accepted, and I submitted the below 100 words.

Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs

Tate Modern: Exhibition

17 April – 7 September 2014

When ill-heath prevented Matisse from painting, he turned to paper and scissors, cutting painted sheets into varying shapes and sizes – ‘painting with scissors’, as he called it – inaugurating a fresh phase in his career. From dancers and clowns to snow flowers and stained-glass, to see so many in one place was a treat. For me, it was a combination of factors: simplicity coupled with sophistication, the involvement of others in his work, its accessibility to all ages. Above all, perhaps, it represented triumph over adversity, the strength of the human spirit to create beauty out of brokenness.

Knowing and Doing (Summer 2014)

The Summer 2014 edition of Knowing & Doing – ‘A Teaching Quarterly for Discipleship of Heart and Mind’ – from the C.S. Lewis Institute is now available online (here as a pdf), and contains the following articles:

Bill Hendricks

Thanks for the Memories Reminders

Bill Hendricks provides a beautiful tribute to his father, Howard Hendricks, who taught for sixty years at Dallas Theological Seminary, and challenges us with the question, “What are we living for?”

Interview with Colleen O’Malley

C.S. Lewis Institute: A Fellow’s Journey

Colleen O’Malley, answers questions about how God has prepared her for a more effective ministry through the Fellows Program and how God is opening new doors for her to mentor others.

Thomas A. Tarrants, III

Are You a Christian or a Disciple? Is There a Difference? Why It Matters!

Tom Tarrants, CSLI Vice President of Ministry, explores whether there is a difference between being a “Christian” and a “disciple,” and the implications for our personal life and the church.

Rebecca DeYoung

How We Got the Seven Deadly Sins

Rebecca DeYoung, Professor of Philosophy at Calvin College, describes how the concept of the “Seven Deadly Sins” originated and how understanding these root sins and their remedies can help us grow in our faith and obedience today.

Connally Gilliam

A Reformed Vision of the Visual Arts: A Conversation with Abraham Kuyper, Nicholas Wolterstorff, and the Word of God. Part 2 of a Two-Part Series on the Arts and Theology

Connally Gilliam returns with part two of her fascinating series on the arts and theology.

David B. Calhoun

In the Footsteps of John Knox: On the Five Hundredth Anniversary of His Birth

David Calhoun profiles John Knox, who faced tumultuous hurdles as one of the fathers of the reformation in Scotland.

Joseph A. Kohm, Jr.

C.S. Lewis and How Christians Should Think about Science

Joe Kohm addresses the controversial use of gender selection technology and the dangers of such an approach.

One of Us

I contributed this week’s ‘Connecting with Culture’, a weekly email service provided by the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity.

One of my memories from childhood, being born and brought up in northwest England, was the L.S. Lowry print hung in our home. It had a comfortable familiarity: the terraced houses looked like the ones in our street, as did the park railings and the carriage prams. It was easy to be drawn into the characters depicted, imagining where they were going and what they were doing. All this was confirmed with the 1978 hit by Brian and Michael – ‘Matchstalk Men and Matchstalk Cats and Dogs’ – which I proudly sang along to when it was shown on Top of the Pops. Lowry, it seemed, was one of us.

So it was with some sense of nostalgia that I joined a modest-sized crowd for the opening of the Lowry exhibition at Tate Britain earlier this week. I still find myself drawn into the paintings – though now with more awareness of the influence of 19th-century French art on Lowry and his significance for understanding English culture and social history.

Lowry (1887-1976) was middle class, but described how his eyes were opened to the terrain in which he worked – until his retirement – as a rent collector. He painted at night from memory, and the vast majority of the industrial landscapes for which he is most known are amalgamations of everyday life – street parties, factory gates, belching chimneys, protest marches, football matches. And lots of people – individually differentiated, each of them alive with movement.

Although his paintings depict a world away from us, it’s still possible to resonate with the ordinariness of what’s shown – people going to and from work, children playing in the park. Likewise with the darker moments – the fever van taking the sick child to isolation hospital, a woman’s suicide, the ejection of a house tenant, a pit tragedy.

It’s a moot point whether Lowry claimed comradeship with those whose lives he portrayed, but there is no dispute with God. Jesus’ parables painted God’s reign in the colours of everyday life. More than that, Jesus was with us and alongside us. But the incarnation is not an end in itself. In his death and resurrection, the one who is ‘one of us’ did for us what we could not do for ourselves. As such those everyday places are not just invested with creational significance, but can also be places where the redemptive scope of Jesus’ work is reflected and worked out.

The Artistic Theologian 1 (2012)

I’ve just come across The Artistic Theologian, which describes itself as ‘an evangelical theological journal published by the School of Church Music at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary’, which ‘focuses on issues of worship and culture for Christian musicians, pastors, church music students, and worship leaders’.

The essays and abstracts are below; I was particularly drawn to the final one on a biblical understanding of culture.

Individual essays are available from here; the whole volume is available as a pdf here.

John E. Simons

Introducing The Artistic Theologian

The Artistic Theologian is designed to provide a place for publication, research, discussion, and resources for those engaged in worship and artistic ministry. We hope it will create points of connection between worship leaders, pastors, church music scholars, theologians, and students preparing for ministry. The journal and its allied resources support the point of view that a church musician should be an artist and a theologian, and it addresses the need to increase dialogue between pastors and church musicians.

Kevin T. Bauder

Why Pastors Should Be Learned in Worship and Music

This essay addresses the following question: Should pastors be learned in worship and music? My answer offers a perspective arising from my experience and theological reflection upon ministry (over thirty years, about evenly divided between ministry as a pastor and as an academic theologian). My initial answer to the question is that a pastor certainly does not need to be a skilled musician in order to enjoy an effective ministry. Nevertheless, since right affection (including right worship) is at the heart of the Christian faith, and since right affection is both expressed through and evoked by the arts, and since the church is biblically required to employ certain arts in the execution of its ministry, then pastors should possess sufficient learning to lead the church wisely and knowledgably concerning the artistic productions that the church adopts in worship. I shall present my observations in a series of nine propositions.

T. David Gordon

Finding Beauty Where God Finds Beauty: A Biblical Foundation of Aesthetics

Philosophically, we are at a new moment in history. Today, most people are post-Realists, or Nominalists. Prior to Nominalism, the prevailing philosophies in the West were all variations on Realism. In those systems, Reality is a given, and perception is viewed as the ability to observe, in varying degrees, what is Real. Nominalism (from the Latin nomen, “name”), as a philosophy, suggests that there is no Reality, or that if there is Reality, it has no inherent meaning. To the contrary, what a realist calls “meaning” is his or her imputation of value onto an otherwise meaningless universe, somewhat analogous to how a critic might impute meaning to a canvas randomly covered with paint. As its own label suggests, “Nominalism” implies that words are mere “names” that humans give objects, but these names only reveal information about the “namers” and nothing about the objects so named.

Jonathan Blackmon

Scripture, Shekinah, and Sacred Song: How God’s Word and God’s Presence Should Shape the Song of God’s People

The song of God’s people plays a crucial role in the faith formation and doctrinal understanding of the church because the content of worship shapes the worshiper’s view of God. The content of congregational song must therefore be carefully scrutinized so that the songs on the lips of God’s people do not promote vain or even false worship. The words must be doctrinally sound, so they must reflect biblical truth in all that they teach. Christian worship proclaims, celebrates, and enacts the Gospel of Christ, so congregational songs must present the truth of God’s goodness in all that he says and does. The most outstanding feature of God’s people at worship actually has nothing to do with the worshipers themselves, but is instead the presence of God among them. Therefore, the words and music of corporate worship should reflect the truth of God’s beauty, for, as J.I. Packer so eloquently stated, “knowing God is a relationship calculated to thrill a person’s heart.”

Scott Aniol

Toward a Biblical Understanding of Culture

The missional church movement has significantly influenced evangelical churches in recent years, especially through its philosophy of evangelism and worship. Missional advocates argue that the church is part of the missio Dei – the mission of God – and thus it must see its ministries as fitting within that mission. Essential to the accomplishment of that mission is embedding the church in its target culture, which missional authors call “incarnation.” In order to evangelize a culture, they argue, churches must contextualize the message of the gospel in the culture. According to the grandfather of the missional movement, Lesslie Newbigin, contextualization is “the placing of the gospel in the total context of a culture at a particular moment, a moment that is shaped by the past and looks to the future.”

Book Reviews

Pro Rege

Some new issues of Pro Rege – the quarterly faculty publication of Dordt College, Sioux Center, Iowa – have been placed online:

• 40, 2 (December 2011) – one of their ‘fine arts’ issues.

• 40, 3 (March 2012) – contains an essay by David VanDrunen (‘The Two Kingdoms and Reformed Christianity: Why Recovering an Old Paradigm is Historically Sound, Biblically Grounded, and Practically Useful’), and a review of Christian Smith’s The Bible Made Impossible: Why Biblicism Is Not a Truly Evangelical Reading of Scripture.

• 40, 4 (June 2012) – contains an essay by Roger D. Henderson (‘Connotations of Worldview’) and a review of Craig Bartholomew’s Where Mortals Dwell: A Christian View of Place for Today.

More from Cardus on Abraham Kuyper

Cardus continues to post entries in its series on ‘Kuyper for Christians’:

Richard Mouw

Kuyper for Christians

Kyle Bennett

Taking the Game a Little More Seriously

Jeff Liou

Neither Salad Bowl, Nor Melting Pot

Edward Yang

Art: A Gift of God

William Whitney

‘Pray More’ is Not Counselling

Matthew Kaemingk

Faith, Work, and Beards: Why Abraham Kuyper Thinks We Need All Three

Bob Covolo

How Abraham Kuyper Saved My GPA (Or, Why College Ministries Need Kuyper)

Cory Willson

Learning Proper Manners for the Religious Roundtable: Kuyper and Convicted Civility

Clay Cooke

Evangelicalism and Neocalvinism: Friends or Enemies?

More on Abraham Kuyper

I’m still waiting for my copy of Richard Mouw’s new book on Abraham Kuyper (see here). Meanwhile, taking his cue from Mouw, Byron Borger has another lengthy set of semi-autobiographical reflections here on how Kuyperian themes have influenced their ministry at Hearts & Minds Books.

In addition, Cardus continues to post entries in its series on ‘Kuyper for Christians’:

Richard Mouw

Kuyper for Christians

Kyle Bennett

Taking the Game a Little More Seriously

Jeff Liou

Neither Salad Bowl, Nor Melting Pot

Edward Yang

Art: A Gift of God

William Whitney

‘Pray More’ is Not Counselling

Matthew Kaemingk

Faith, Work, and Beards: Why Abraham Kuyper Thinks We Need All Three

Anne Roberts on Postmodern Art

Anne Roberts, ‘Outside the Frame: Postmodern Art’, Cambridge Papers 20, 2 (June 2011).

The latest Cambridge Paper from the Jubilee Centre is available online, this one devoted to a Christian perspective on developments since the 1960s in how art (presumably in the west?) is viewed.

Here is the summary:

‘This paper focuses on the scope and characteristics of recent conceptual and installation art, looking first at the early development of this genre, and then examining four major aspects: the exploration of visual language and appropriation of images; art based on autobiography; work which deals with social and environmental issues; and finally art which appropriates religious imagery. The paper concludes with reflections on finding a Christian voice in response.’

Brian Dijkema on John Stackhouse and Gregory Wolfe on Culture

Brian Dijkema, ‘Beauty and the Best of It’, Cardus (6 June 2011).

This article briefly reviews one of my favourite books on ‘theology and culture’ of recent years...

John G. Stackhouse, Making the Best of It: Following Christ in the Real World (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008).

... as well as a new book I have not come across before now...

Gregory Wolfe, Beauty Will Save the World: Recovering the Human in an Ideological Age (ISI Books, 2011).

According to Dijkema, both offer ‘unique and surprisingly similar responses to the question of Christ and culture – responses worthy of engagement’.

He nicely captures the thrust of Stakchouse’s preference for ‘Christian realism’:

‘If we are indeed living in a good world which has been created good by God – a world where we are divinely commanded to live and work – and if that world has been tainted deeply by sin, we must write with the knowledge that evil is present and that we are implicated in that evil. We are not God, yet we are saved, and we must act.’

But it’s helpful, he says, to read Wolfe against Stackhouse for two reasons: ‘first, Wolfe’s book actually provides an example of how one community of Christians – Christian artists – are working out what it means to live and work faithfully; and second, because it fills in several gaps left by Stackhouse’.

Jeremy Begbie on Sentimentality

This is a slightly longer version of an article first published in London Institute for Contemporary Christianity’s Highlights (March 2008).

Jeremy Begbie sometimes lectures from the piano stool, but he’s just as comfortable behind the lectern, using slide presentation and recorded music to engage expert and novice alike in exploring the connections between theology and the arts, particularly music. Jeremy is the founder and director of the international research project, Theology Through the Arts. A professionally-trained musician, he also teaches theology at the University of Cambridge, and is the author of several books, including most recently Resounding Truth: Christian Wisdom in the World of Music (SPCK, 2008). It’s mid-December, and he’s presenting to a full house at LICC on the topic of ‘Sentimentality in Christian Art & Worship: What’s Gone Wrong?’ Something tells me this is not the time to offer my solo rendition of ‘Jesus wants me for a sunbeam’.

Three characteristics of sentimentality
He begins by identifying three characteristics of sentimentality. First, sentimentality misrepresents reality through evading or trivialising evil; it is selective in what it chooses to notice (the world is a great place, really), and projects innocence where there is no innocence (she’s not so bad, really). Second, sentimentality is emotionally self-indulgent; sentimental art encourages an emotional reaction to reality that is shallow or one-dimensional. Jeremy referred here to Milan Kundera’s characterisation of kitsch: ‘Kitsch causes two tears to flow in quick succession. The first tear says: How nice to see children running on the grass! The second tear says: How nice to be moved, together with all mankind, by children running on the grass! It is the second tear that makes kitsch kitsch.’ What really moves the sentimentalist is the fact that he’s being moved. Third, sentimentality fails to take appropriate costly action; the sentimentalist screens out darker dimensions, wants emotion without expense.

Insofar as Christian art and worship displaces honesty with niceness, wallows in self-indulgent emotions, refuses to face up to difficult issues, denies the reality of what is wrong with the world, deals only with what is comfortable, nice and builds self-esteem – to that extent, we have succumbed to sentimentality. Importantly, it’s not an issue of emotion per se, but whether emotion is theologically grounded, appropriately directed, expresses truth, and inspires us to engage with a damaged world.

Three days of Easter
In countering sentimentality, Jeremy encourages Christians to have ‘a three-days faith’. We need to experience the three days of Easter from an inside perspective: to feel the pain of Friday and the despair of Saturday before the joy of Sunday. Sentimentality skips over the tension of the story to the happiness of final resolution. But, by living inside the three days of Easter, pain is confirmed not erased, gratification is delayed, the tension is extended, and the true power of Easter morning is revealed.

Christian art and music must pause at Good Friday and not rush to Easter Sunday. In Rembrandt's ‘Crucifixion’, far from romanticising the scene, the light exposes the painful, ugly event. Jeremy related how works by the Scottish, Roman Catholic composer James MacMillan provide a Christian counter-sentimentality in combining two separate music ideas and layering them on top of each other to create a tension which is then resolved. Just as music moves from equilibrium to tension to rest, with the listener having to wait for resolution, so the biblical drama speaks of exile and return, of crucifixion and resurrection, of hope deferred and hope fulfilled.

The lecture was exemplary of the ‘Christian wisdom’ referred to in the subtitle of Jeremy’s latest book. Not only did it match LICC’s concerns that Christians be able to relate their faith to every aspect of their lives, it also provided a reminder of how theology nourishes the life of the church in its worship and mission to the world. A reminder that a Christian understanding of creation is significant if we are to celebrate as good all that comes from the hand of God, that a Christian understanding of sin is significant if we are to be realistic about the plight of the human condition, that a Christian understanding of church is significant if Jesus is not to become my personal possession, that a Christian understanding of hope is significant if we are to live with the tension between what is now and what will be. Theology which is embodied in life is inseparable from prayer and worship – thinking appropriately about God as well as engaging with God, as he has revealed himself in Scripture and through Jesus Christ.

An earlier version of Jeremy’s lecture was published as ‘Beauty, Sentimentality and the Arts’, in Daniel J. Treier, Mark Husbands, and Roger Lundin (eds.), The Beauty of God: Theology and the Arts (Downers Grove: IVP, 2007).