With the tenacity of detectives, Simpson and Eatman have uncovered and present to us here a treasury of startlingly beautiful work.".

This book is the first ever written on the meaning and value of using art forms in the ministry of spiritual direction. The use of art by spiritual directors has the capacity to deepen understanding and enrich the full experience of spiritual direction. Included are the biblical, theological, and very practical aspects related to the use of art: how these truths are expressed in various genres of art and in ways that bring depth of knowledge, wisdom, and guidance in understanding one's relationship with God and others, as well as the possibilities for further growth and maturity in those relationships. The text is written for spiritual directors, their mentors, and supervisors, and for those receiving the ministry of direction. It provides encouragement and is instructive for all those desiring to increase their knowledge, understanding, and level of experience in the profound opportunities for individuals' spiritual formation, conformation, and transformation in the ministry of spiritual direction.

"The Oxford History of Christian Worship is a comprehensive and authoritative history, lavishly illustrated, of the origins and development of Christian worship up to the present day. Following contemporary methods in scholarship, it attends to social and cultural contexts and examines the worship traditions from both Eastern and Western Christianity, ancient and modern. It offers a chronological account, while encompassing spatial and confessional variations, from Baptists in Britain to Roman Catholics in Mexico, from Orthodox in Ethiopia to Pentecostals in the United States, from Lutheran and Reformed in Europe to united churches in India and Australia. The material details of Christian worship, such as music, architecture, and the visual arts, are considered within specific cultural contexts throughout the volume as well as studied thematically in individual chapters."--BOOK JACKET.

Partly in a desire to defend divine freedom and partly because it is seen as the only way of preserving a distinctive voice for theology, much contemporary theology has artificially restricted revelation and religious experience, effectively cutting off those who find God beyond the walls of the Church. Against this tendency, David Brown argues for divine generosity and a broader vision of reality that sees God deploying symbols (literary, visual and sacramental) as a means of mediating between the divine world and our own material existence. A sustained argument for divine interaction and more specifically the ways in which God speaks in the wider imaginative world, this volume calls for a careful listening exercise since symbols are richer and more open in their possibilities than their users often suppose. Not only is this true of the imagery of Scripture, even inanimate objects like buildings or hostile but creative artists can have important things to say to the believing Christian. An ideal introduction that also moves the conversation forward, this volume addresses foundations, the multivalent power of symbols, artists as theologians and meaning in religious architecture.

One of the four particular dimensions of the church's worship addressed in the ELCA's Principles for Worship (Renewing Worship, vol. 2) is worship space. Using the principles developed in this volume, Foy Christopherson shares with the reader what Lutherans care about when thinking about space for worship, and why they care about it. Centers of liturgical action (assembly, font, ambo, altar-table) and concepts of sacred, formational, and missional space are discussed, as well as architectural, environmental, historical, and local considerations when planning or renewing worship spaces.

For centuries, Westminster Abbey has inspired and challenged poets to try to capture and contain the spirit of its haunting beauty and worship-full reverence. This anthology includes poems written between 1413 to the present day, poems which contribute to the greatest epic imaginable in English, Westminster Abbey.

The metaphor of performance has been applied fruitfully by anthropologists and other social theorists to different aspects of human social existence, and furnishes a potentially helpful model in terms of which to think theologically about Christian life. After an introductory editorial chapter reflecting on the nature of artistic performance and its relationship to the notions of tradition and identity, Part One of this book attends specifically to the phenomenon of dramatic performance and possible theological applications of it. Part Two considers various aspects of the performance of Christian identity, looking at worship, the interpretation of the Bible, Christian response to elements in the contemporary media, the shape of Christian moral life, and ending with a theological reflection on the shape of personal identity, correlating it with the theatrical metaphors of 'character' and 'performing a part' in a scripted drama. Part Three demonstrates how art forms (including some technically non-performative ones - literature, poetry, painting) may constitute faithful Christian practices in which the tradition is authentically 'performed', producing works which break open its meaning in profound new ways for a constantly shifting context.

Eighteenth-century Europe witnessed monumental upheavals in both the Catholic and Protestant faiths and the repercussions rippled down to the churches’ religious art forms. Nigel Aston now chronicles here the intertwining of cultural and institutional turmoil during this pivotal century. The sustained popularity of religious art in the face of competition from increasingly prevalent secular artworks lies at the heart of this study. Religious art staked out new spaces of display in state institutions, palaces, and private collections, the book shows, as well as taking advantage of patronage from monarchs such as Louis XIV and George III, who funded religious art in an effort to enhance their monarchial prestige. Aston also explores the motivations and exhibition practices of private collectors and analyzes changing Catholic and Protestant attitudes toward art. The book also examines purchases made by corporate patrons such as charity hospitals and religious confraternities and considers what this reveals about the changing religiosity of the era as well. An in-depth historical study, Art and Religion in Eighteenth-Century Europe will be essential for art history and religious studies scholars alike.

Arranged round the Christian year, this is a book to enrich private devotion and public worship. Exquisite imagery and theological learning lightly-worn characterise these prayers and readings from the era of Augustine, Alcuin, Dunstan, Bede and Cuthbert.