W. David O. Taylor

Think of your local church. Without art--music, song, dance, etc.--it would be a much poorer place. But if protestants have any vision for the arts, it tends to be a thin one. This unique book is an attempt to contribute to a robust, expansive vision for the church and the arts. Its specific aim is to show how the many parts of the landscape of church and art hold together. You can think of it as a kind of helicopter flyover, but one with expert pilots. The guides include the likes of Eugene Peterson, Lauren Winner, Jeremy Begbie, Andy Crouch, and John Witvliet, helping to inspire readers and empower pastor-leaders with a vision of the church and the arts that is compelling, far-seeing, and profoundly transformative.

Casting a Vision for the Arts

For the Beauty of the Church

Taylor Worley

The church and the contemporary art world often find themselves in an uneasy relationship in which misunderstanding and mistrust abound. On one hand, the leaders of local congregations, seminaries, and other Christian ministries often don't know what to make of works by contemporary artists. Not only are these artists mostly unknown to church leaders, they and their work often lead them to regard the world of contemporary art with indifference, frustration, or even disdain. On the other hand, many artists lack any meaningful experience with the contemporary church and are mostly ignorant of its mission. Not infrequently, these artists regard religion as irrelevant to their work, are disinclined to trust the church and its leaders, and have experienced personal rejection from these communities. In response to this situation, the 2015 biennial conference of Christians in the Visual Arts (CIVA) facilitated a conversation between these two worlds. The present volume gathers together essays and reflections by artists, theologians, and church leaders as they sought to explore misperceptions, create a hospitable space to learn from each other, and imagine the possibility of a renewed and mutually fruitful relationship. Contemporary Art and the Church seeks common ground for the common good of both the church and the contemporary art world.

A Conversation Between Two Worlds

Contemporary Art and the Church

Do our physical bodies really matter in corporate worship? Isn't our soul the most important part of us? Aren't our bodies, at best, negligible to worship and, at worst, a hindrance? The answer to this last question is categorically no, as Christians have attested throughout history and across the global church. The purpose of the body instead is to offer to God in worship what only it can offer--and what must be offered to God. By drawing on the wisdom of the Bible, church history, and theology, and by taking advantage of the unique insights of the arts and sciences, ethics, and spiritual formation, a respected theologian and pastor argues in this book that there is something for our physical bodies to do that decisively forms Christlikeness in us within the context of corporate worship. What we do with our postures, gestures, and movements in worship matter. How our senses of sight, scent, sound, taste, and touch are involved in worship matter. How our spontaneous and prescriptive activities form us in worship matter. All of it matters to faithful and fulsome worship for the sake of a body that is fully alive in the praise of God.

Understanding the Role of Our Physical Bodies in Worship

A Body of Praise

Jeremy Begbie

How do the arts in worship form individuals and communities? Every choice of art in worship opens up and closes down possibilities for the formation of our humanity. Every practice of music, every decision about language, every use of our bodies, every approach to visual media or church buildings forms our desires, shapes our imaginations, habituates our emotional instincts, and reconfigures our identity as Christians in contextually meaningful ways, generating thereby a sense of the triune God and of our place in the world. Glimpses of the New Creation argues that the arts form us in worship by bringing us into intentional and intensive participation in the aesthetic aspect of our humanity—that is, our physical, emotional, imaginative, and metaphorical capacities. In so doing they invite the people of God to be conformed to Christ and to participate in the praise of Christ and in the praise of creation, which by the Spirit’s power raises its peculiar voice to the Father in heaven, for the sake of the world that God so loves.

Worship and the Formative Power of the Arts

Glimpses of the New Creation

The church and the contemporary art world often find themselves in an uneasy relationship in which misunderstanding and mistrust abound. Drawn from the 2015 biennial CIVA conference, these reflections from theologians, pastors, and practicing artists imagine the possibility of a renewed and mutually fruitful relationship between contemporary art and the church.

A theological framework for the liturgical arts rooted in John Calvin Both detractors and supporters of John Calvin have deemed him an enemy of the physical body, a pessimist toward creation, and a negative influence on the liturgical arts. But, says W. David O. Taylor, that only tells half of the story. Taylor delves deeply into Calvin's work and shows that his theology of the material creation actually offers itself as a rich resource for the use of art in Christian worship. As he pursues the implications of Calvin's trinitarian theology, Taylor illuminates the larger landscape of Calvin's views and argues that his work opens up a way to understand the purposes of the liturgical arts. Drawing on Calvin's Institutes, biblical commentaries, sermons, catechisms, treatises, and worship orders, this book represents one of the most thorough investigations available of John Calvin's theology of the physical creation--and the rich possibilities it opens up for the arts in worship.

Calvin, Creation, and the Liturgical Arts

The Theater of God's Glory

The creator of the groundbreaking film The Psalms, featuring Bono and Eugene Peterson, shows how the Psalms enable us to find a more transparent, resilient, and fearless life of faith. Featuring a foreword by Eugene Peterson and an afterword by Bono. In 2016, David Taylor released a film of Eugene Peterson and U2's Bono discussing how the Psalms had shaped their work, helping them make sense of life, art, metaphor, violence, suffering, and mortality. With more than one million views on YouTube, the film is a sensation and has helped people encounter God as he is presented in the Psalms: a God of justice, grace, goodness, healing, power and refuge. Open and Unafraid goes even further, showing us how the Psalms become a guide to living faithfully. The Psalms have been central to God's people for millennia, across all walks of life and cultural contexts. In reading them, we discover that we are never alone in our joys, sorrows, angers, doubts, praises, or thanksgivings. In them, we learn about prayer and poetry, honesty and community, justice and enemies, life and death, nations and creation. Open and Unafraid shows us how to read the Psalms in a fresh, life-giving way, and so access the bottomless resources for life that they provide.

The Psalms As a Guide to Life

Open and Unafraid

The creator of the groundbreaking film The Psalms, featuring Bono and Eugene Peterson, shows how the Psalms enable us to find a more transparent, resilient, and fearless life of faith. In 2016, David Taylor released a film of Eugene Peterson and U2's Bono discussing how the Psalms had shaped their work, helping them make sense of life, art, metaphor, violence, suffering, and mortality. With more than one million views on YouTube, the film is a sensation and has helped people encounter God as he is presented in the Psalms: a God of justice, grace, goodness, healing, power and refuge. Open and Unafraid goes even further, showing us how the Psalms become a guide to living faithfully. The Psalms have been central to God's people for millennia, across all walks of life and cultural contexts. In reading them, we discover that we are never alone in our joys, sorrows, angers, doubts, praises, or thanksgivings. In them, we learn about prayer and poetry, honesty and community, justice and enemies, life and death, nations and creation. Open and Unafraid shows us how to read the Psalms in a fresh, life-giving way, and so access the bottomless resources for life that they provide.

W. David O. Taylor

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