Book picks similar to
Saving Beauty: A Theological Aesthetics of Nature by Kathryn B. Alexander
aesthetics
art
divinity
ecology
Remember Me: A Novella about Finding Our Way to the Cross
Sharon Garlough Brown - 2020
It's a bold declaration for us to make too. What does it mean to say 'It is finished' when so much is unfinished? It means we are people who live hope in two directions, both backward and forward. We long for the kingdom to come in fullness, even as it has already come. And we trust that the One who has begun the good work in us and for us will indeed complete it." In this sequel to Shades of Light, Katherine Rhodes, the beloved director of the New Hope Retreat Center, finds her own grief tapped by Wren Crawford's struggles with depression and loss. Through a series of letters to Wren, Katherine reflects on the meaning of Christ's suffering and shares her own story of finding hope. How does one begin to live again under the crushing weight of grief? And how can healing come when there's so much left unresolved? With Katherine as a companion in sorrow, Wren moves forward in her commitment to paint the stations of the cross for a prayer journey at New Hope, discovering along the way a deeper communion with the Man of Sorrows, acquainted with grief. Readers are invited into a similar journey of reflection through Katherine's words and Wren's paintings. At the back of the book, a devotional guide with Scripture readings, prayer prompts, and full-color art provides the opportunity to ponder the depths of God's love by meditating on Jesus' journey to the cross
A Blossom in the Desert
Miriam Huffman Rockness - 2007
But Lilias never abandoned her artistic talent, and now you can enjoy page after page of inspiring artwork, with all the vivid colors and characer of the Algerian landscape, complete with her own thoughts and spiritual wisdom. A Blossom in the Desert is truly a book that belongs on your coffee table, to give you encouragement time and again as you ponder Lilias's challenges and how she persevered to inspire the song, "Turn Your Eyes upon Jesus." This hardcover gift book is 240 pages of full color, inspirational art, and meditations, with a satin bookmark.
Beauty: The Invisible Embrace
John O'Donohue - 2003
Rather than “covering” this theme, he uncovers it, exposing the infinity and mystery of its breadth. His words return us home to the dignity of silence, the profundity of stillness, the power of thought and perception, and the eternal grace and generosity of beauty’s presence. In this masterful and revelatory work, O’Donohue encourages our greater intimacy with beauty, and celebrates it for what it really is: a homecoming of the human spirit.
Gig Posters Volume I: Rock Show Art of the 21st Century
Clay Hayes - 2009
With the rising popularity of MP3 files and streaming digital music--and the near-extinction of traditional album art--concert posters have become the most important visual representation of contemporary music.Gig Posters Volume I celebrates this dynamic medium with contributions from 101 top designers--including Rob Jones of Animal Rummy, Steve Walters, Jay Ryan, Gary Houston, Aesthetic Apparatus, Patent Pending Industries, and many more. Throughout the book, their voices offer fascinating commentary and behind-the-scenes information about the creation of gig posters.Readers will also discover 101 perforated and ready-to-frame posters promoting today's most innovative and original bands--including Radiohead, the White Stripes, Modest Mouse, Girl Talk, Queens of the Stone Age, Wilco, and many, many more.Complete with an introduction by founder and curator Clay Hayes, Gig Posters Volume I celebrates the most talented designers, artists, bands, and performers of the twenty-first century.
How to Read a Church: A Guide to Symbols and Images in Churches and Cathedrals
Richard Taylor - 2003
They are alive with images and symbols--all of which are packed with meaning. But today few people, from regular visitors to tourists, truly understand the wealth of meaning in what they find there. How to Read a Church is must reading for anybody who wants to know more about what they see in a church or cathedral. It explores the principal features of churches and what each represents. It also explains: "the significance of church layout "the importance of such details as the use of colors or letters "the identity and significance of people and scenes "the symbolism of animals, plants, colors, numbers, and letters "the meaning of it all In addition to exploring these brick-and-mortar motifs, the author also reveals fascinating and unexpected details such as how to 'read' the priest and the congregation, and he shows the varied ways that church architecture and appointments reflect the Christian year. From major themes to small but vital details, How to Read a Church will serve as a fascinating guide to the history, meanings, and messages of these beautiful buildings and the treasures they contain.
What Happened to Art Criticism?
James Elkins - 2003
And while art criticism is ubiquitous in newspapers, magazines, and exhibition brochures, it is also virtually absent from academic writing. How is it that even as criticism drifts away from academia, it becomes more academic? How is it that sifting through a countless array of colorful periodicals and catalogs makes criticism seem to slip even further from our grasp? In this pamphlet, James Elkins surveys the last fifty years of art criticism, proposing some interesting explanations for these startling changes."In What Happened to Art Criticism?, art historian James Elkins sounds the alarm about the perilous state of that craft, which he believes is 'In worldwide crisis . . . dissolving into the background clutter of ephemeral cultural criticism' even as more and more people are doing it. 'It's dying, but it's everywhere . . . massively produced, and massively ignored.' Those who pay attention to other sorts of criticism may recognize the problems Elkins describes: 'Local judgments are preferred to wider ones, and recently judgments themselves have even come to seem inappropriate. In their place critics proffer informal opinions or transitory thoughts, and they shy from strong commitments.' What he'd like to see more of: ambitious judgment, reflection about judgment itself, and 'criticism important enough to count as history, and vice versa.' Amen to that."—Jennifer Howard, Washington Post Book World
Jesus and the Undoing of Adam
C. Baxter Kruger - 2007
Athanasius and the early Church. In this short but powerful book, Dr. Baxter Kruger takes us back behind the back of Augustine to rethink the work of Jesus Christ in the light of the blessed doctrine of the Trinity. Dr. Kruger sets forward a stunning vision of the Triune God and articulates a view of Christ's incarnation, life,death, resurrection and ascension that is rigorously consistent with the truth that the Triune God eternally purposed our adoption in Jesus Christ. C. BAXTER KRUGER is the Director of Perichoresis, an international ministry sharing the good news of our adoption in Christ with the world.He and his wife Beth have been married for 25 years and have four children.He earned his Doctor of Philosophy degree under Professor James B. Torrance in Aberdeen, Scotland. Baxter is the author of seven books,including The Great Dance and Across All Worlds, and teaches across the United States, Canada and Australia. He is an avid outdoorsman and holds two United States patents for his fishing lure designs. He is the founder and President of Mediator Lures.
Art in Theory, 1648–1815: An Anthology of Changing Ideas
Charles Harrison - 1991
Like its highly successful companion volumes, Art in Theory, 1815–1900 and Art in Theory, 1900–1990, its primary aim is to provide students and teachers with the documentary material for informed and up-to-date study. Its 240 texts, clear principles of organization and considerable editorial content offer a vivid and indispensable introduction to the art of the early modern period.Harrison, Wood, and Gaiger have collected writing by artists, critics, philosophers, literary figures, and administrators of the arts, some reprinted in their entirety, others excerpted from longer works. A wealth of material from French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, and Latin sources is also provided, including many new translations.Among the major themes treated are early arguments over the relative merits of ancient and modern art, debates between the advocates of form and color, the beginnings of modern art criticism in reviews of the Salon, art and politics during the French Revolution, the rise of landscape painting, and the artistic theories of Romanticism and Neo-classicism.Each section is prefaced by an essay that situates the ideas of the period in their historical context, while relating theoretical concerns and debates to developments in the practice of art. Each individual text is also accompanied by a short introduction. An extensive bibliography and full index are provided.
Confessions of a Heretic
Roger Scruton - 2016
Scruton explores the conflict between the Christian-inspired Enlightenment and Islam, and attempts to find a remedy for the void at the heart of our civilisation. Why do we capitulate before everyone more ignorant than ourselves? Why do we turn immediately on all those who wish to defend our rooted values against whatever invading force has appeared over the horizon? These hard-hitting essays from a profound intellect threaten the bedrock of conventional opinion.
The Christian Imagination: The Practice of Faith in Literature and Writing
Leland Ryken - 1981
This anthology covers all of the major topics that fall within this subject and includes essays and excerpts from fifty authors, including C.S. Lewis, Flannery O’Connor, Dorothy Sayers, and Frederick Buechner.
The Blessing of Christmas: Meditations for the Season
Benedict XVI - 2005
Taken from his sermons as well as his writings, these beautiful meditations by the acclaimed spiritual teacher, writer and now Pontiff, give his usual fresh insights into the deeper meaning of this most wondrous event, and show the Pope to be a man who knows how to address both the mind and the heart. Includes many Illustrations. "Christmas is the most profoundly human feast of faith, because it allows us to feel most deeply the humanity of God. The cirb has a unique power to show us what it means to say that God wished to be "Immanuel" - a "God with us," a God we may address in intimate language, because he encounters us as a child. This makes Christmas a feast that invites us in a special way to meditation, to an internal act of looking at the Word. It awakens in us a deeper perception of the truth of the words from Scripture, "The goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior has appeared.'"
The Classic Works of A. W. Tozer
A.W. Tozer - 2012
W. Tozer include two of Tozer most loved books; The Pursuit of God and Man, the Dwelling Place of God. Each has a linked table of contents.
In the House of Tom Bombadil
C.R. Wiley - 2021
Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings? His bright blue coat and yellow boots seem out-of-place with the grandeur of the rest of the narrative. In this book, C.R. Wiley shows that Tom is not an afterthought but Tolkien's way of making a profoundly important point. Tolkien once wrote, "[Tom Bombadil] represents something that I feel important, though I would not be prepared to analyze the feeling precisely. I would not, however, have left him in, if he did not have some kind of function." Tom Bombadil and his wife Goldberry are a small glimpse of the perfect beauty, harmony, and happy ending that we all yearn for in our hearts. To understand Tom Bombadil is to understand more of Tolkien and his deeply Christian vision of the world."
Junkspace / Running Room
Rem Koolhaas - 2016
The architect Rem Koolhaas itemized in delirious detail how our cities are being overwhelmed. His celebrated jeremiad is updated here and twinned with Running Room, a fresh response from the cultural critic Hal Foster. Junkspace describes the bleak and featureless world of capitalism, while Running Room seeks to find a space within the junk in which the individual might still exist.
Winogrand: Figments from the Real World
Garry Winogrand - 1988
Grouped under the following titles-- Eisenhower Years, The Street, Women, The Zoo, On the Road, The Sixties, Etc, The Fort Worth Fat Stock Show and Rodeo, Airport and Unfinished Work-- many of the 179 plates are works that had never before been published. The last section includes 25 pictures chosen from the enormous body of work that Winogrand left unedited at the time of his death in 1984. In his essay, Szarkowski, who knew the photographer well during most of his career, describes the development of Winogrand's pictorial strategies during his years as a photojournalist, the increasing complexity of his motifs as he pursued more personal goals, and the challenge posed for other photographers by the powerful and distinctive authority of Winogrand's best work, "with its manic sense of a life balanced somewhere between animal high spirits and an apprehension of moral disaster."