Some recent suggestions on theology and art to consider voting for

Rosie Perera

Rembrandt Is in the Wind: Learning to Love Art through the Eyes of Faith

Art as Biblical Commentary: Visual Criticism from Hagar the Wife of Abraham to Mary the Mother of Jesus (The Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies Book 676)

Image as Insight: Visual Understanding in Western Christianity and Secular Culture

Painting the Text: The Artist as Biblical Interpreter

Art in Action: Toward a Christian Aesthetic

Transforming Christian Thought in the Visual Arts: Theology, Aesthetics, and Practice (Routledge Studies in Theology, Imagination and the Arts)

The Art of Visual Exegesis: Rhetoric, Texts, Images (Emory Studies in Early Christianity Book 19)

Expect more of these suggestions in the coming weeks. I'm auditing a class at Regent College this semester called "Visual Art as Theology" and there are some great book recommendations on the bibliography in the syllabus.

Find more posts tagged with

Comments

MJ. Smith

You've not included my personal favorite Handmade Midrash: Workshop in Visual Theology

And to encourage votes from members of the liturgical churches, this is simply via pulchritudinis.

Rosie Perera

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1270911#Comment_1270911

You've not included my personal favorite Handmade Midrash: Workshop in Visual Theology

Sorry, I'm not as altruistic as you are. When I post in the Suggestions forum, I'm usually plugging my own newest suggestions, not other people's older ones.

But thanks for pointing that one out. I had already voted for it, and it had already received a plug thread (by you) in the forums, and it's already doing better than my few new ones from the past day or two. However one can always continue to promote suggestions.

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1270917#Comment_1270917

Unfortunately for both of us, most art books have complicated copyright issues - much like the Moravian Daily Words or the Catholic Liturgy of the Hours (which lack hymn texts). The art and art photographs copyrights are not owned by the publisher, they merely have rights to use it in their publication and cannot resell them for an e-book. Actually, I was curious if your bibliography included Jo Milgrom's work as she certainly was a pioneer in the field.

Rosie Perera

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1270918#Comment_1270918

Actually, I was curious if your bibliography included Jo Milgrom's work as she certainly was a pioneer in the field.

Nope.

Bibliography

Required Reading

Berdini, Paolo. The Religious Art of Jacopo Bassano: Painting as Visual Exegesis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. 1–35 (introduction).
Bergmann, Sigurd. “God’s Here and Now in Built Environments: Introductory Remarks on Architecture as Theology,” and “Can Churches Fly? The Liturgy of Architecture: An Aesthetic and Theological Perspective.” In Theology in Built Environments: Exploring Religion, Architecture, and Design, edited by Sigurd Bergmann, 9–22, 281–309. New York: Routledge, 2017.
Calvin, John. Institutes of the Christian Religion (1536–59). Edited by John T. McNeill. Translated by Ford Lewis Battles. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2006. 99–112 (book 1, chap. 11).
Carnes, Natalie. Image and Presence: A Christological Reflection on Iconoclasm and Iconophilia. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2018. 86–119 (chap. 3).
Exum, J. Cheryl. Art as Biblical Commentary: Visual Criticism from Hagar the Wife of Abraham to Mary the Mother of Jesus. London: T&T Clark, 2019. 3–14 (chap. 1).
Evdokimov, Paul. The Art of the Icon: A Theology of Beauty (1972). Translated by Steven Bigham. Redondo Beach: Oakwood, 1990. 183–191, 329–344 (chaps. 17–18, 31–32).
Heath, Jane. “Mary’s Image as Theology.” In Image as Theology: The Power of Art in Shaping Christian Thought, Devotion, and Imagination, edited by C. A. Strine, Mark McInroy, and Alexis Torrance, 55–78. Turnhout: Brepols, 2021.
Jenkins, Philip. “The Storm of Images: The Image of God in Global Faith.” In The Image of God in an Image Driven Age: Explorations in Theological Anthropology, edited by Beth Felker Jones and Jeffrey W. Barbeau, 242–259. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2016.
O’Hear, Natasha F. H., and Anthony O’Hear. Picturing the Apocalypse: The Book of Revelation in the Arts over Two Millennia. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015. 212–234 (chap. 6). [*ebook available through the Allison Library]
Ouspensky, Leonid, and Vladimir Lossky. The Meaning of Icons (1952). Translated by G. E. H. Palmer and E. Kadloubovsky. 2nd edition. Crestwood: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1982. 194–200, 206–208.
Pinder, Kymberly N. “‘Our Father, God; our Brother, Christ; or Are We Bastard Kin?’: Images of Christ in African American Painting.” African American Review 31, no. 2 (Summer 1997): 223–233.
Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, “The Mystical Theology” (c. 500 CE). In Pseudo-Dionysius: The Complete Works. Translated by Colm Luibheid. Mahwah: Paulist Press, 1987. 133–42.
Rutledge, Fleming. The Crucifixion: Understanding the Death of Jesus Christ. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2015. 395–461 (chap. 10).

Recommended Reading

Alfeyev, Hilarion. Christ the Conqueror of Hell: The Descent into Hades from an Orthodox Perspective. Crestwood: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2009. Especially 9–74, 203–218 (intro, chaps. 1–2, epilogue).
Amaladass, Anand, and Gudrun Löwner. Christian Themes in Indian Art: From the Mogul Times Till Today. New Delhi: Manohar Publishers, 2012.
Athanasius of Alexandria. On the Incarnation (c. 335–337 CE). Translated by John Behr Yonkers: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2011.
Barth, Karl. Church Dogmatics (1932–38). Edited by G. W. Bromiley and T. F. Torrance. Translated by G. W. Bromiley, G. T. Thomson, and Harold Knight. Study edition. London: T & T Clark, 2009. I/1:111–120 (§4.3), I/2:122–132 (§15.1).
Bonaventure. The Tree of Life (c. 1263–67). In Bonaventure: The Soul’s Journey, The Tree of Life, The Life of St. Francis, 119–175. Translated by Ewert Cousins. New York: Paulist Press, 1978.
Brown, David. “Why the Ascension Matters.” In Divine Generosity and Human Creativity: Theology through Symbol, Painting and Architecture, edited by Christopher R. Brewer and Robert MacSwain, 113–129. New York: Routledge, 2017.
Carnes, Natalie. Image and Presence: A Christological Reflection on Iconoclasm and Iconophilia. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2018.
Chojnacki, Stanisław. Christ’s Resurrection in Ethiopian Painting. Rome: Pontificio Istituto Orientale, 2009.
Coakley, Sarah. God, Sexuality, and the Self: An Essay ‘On the Trinity’. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013. Especially 190–265, 308–344 (chaps. 5, 7, coda).
Costa Tribe, Tania. “Slavery to Hiroshima and Beyond: African-American Art and the Apocalypse.” Word & Image 29, no. 3 (2013): 354–384.
Council of Ephesus (431 CE): https://www.papalencyclicals.net/councils/ecum03.htm.
Council of Nicaea, Second (787 CE): https://www.papalencyclicals.net/councils/ecum07.htm.
Covington, Sarah, and Kathryn Reklis, eds. Protestant Aesthetics and the Arts. New York: Routledge, 2020.
Drpić, Ivan. “Art, Hesychasm, and Visual Exegesis: Parisinus Graecus 1242 Revisited.” Dumbarton Oaks Papers 62 (2008): 217–247.
Emmerson, Richard K. Apocalypse Illuminated: The Visual Exegesis of Revelation in Medieval Illustrated Manuscripts. University Park: Penn State University Press, 2018.
Florensky, Pavel. Iconostasis (1922). Translated by Donald Sheehan and Olga Andrejev. Crestwood: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2000. Especially 59–70.
Goodgal, Dana Ruth. “The Iconography of the Ghent Altarpiece.” PhD diss., University of Pennsylvania, 1981.
Green, Joel B. “What You See Depends on What You Are Looking for: Jesus’s Ascension as a Test Case for Thinking about Biblical Theology and Theological Interpretation of Scripture.” Interpretation 70, no. 4 (2016): 445–457.
Hamlin, Amy. “Toward an Aesthetics of Transcendence: William H. Johnson’s Jesus and the Three Marys.” In Beholding Christ and Christianity in African American Art, edited by James Romaine and Phoebe Wolfskill, 75–87. University Park: Penn State University Press, 2018.
Hayum, Andrée. “The Meaning and Function of the Isenheim Altarpiece: The Hospital Context Revisited.” The Art Bulletin 59, no. 4 (Dec 1977): 501–517.
Jensen, Robin M. The Cross: History, Art, and Controversy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2017. 123–149 (chap. 6).
John of Damascus, Treatise I (c. 726–730 CE) and Treatise III (early 740s CE). In Three Treatises on the Divine Images. Translated by Andrew Louth. Crestwood: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2003.
Kieckhefer, Richard. Theology in Stone: Church Architecture from Byzantium to Berkeley. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Koerner, Joseph Leo. The Reformation of the Image. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004.
Lidov, Alexei. Hierotopy: Spatial Icons and Image-Paradigms in Byzantine Culture. Moscow: Дизайн Информация Картография, 2009. Especially 304–309 (English translation of chap. 1).
Luther, Martin. Against the Heavenly Prophets in the Matter of Images and Sacraments (1525). In The Annotated Luther: Word and Faith, edited by Kirsi I. Stjerna, Hans J. Hillerbrand, Kirsi I. Stjerna, Timothy J. Wengert, 39–125. Translated by Bernard Erling and Conrad Bergendoff. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress Press, 2015.
Martin, Wayne M. “Bubbles and Skulls: The Phenomenology of Self-Consciousness in Dutch Still-Life Painting.” In A Companion to Phenomenology and Existentialism, edited by Hubert L. Dreyfus and Mark A. Wrathall, 559–584. Malden: Blackwell, 2006.
Mathews, Thomas F. The Clash of Gods: A Reinterpretation of Early Christian Art (1993). Rev. and exp. edition. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999.
McNamara, Denis R. How to Read Churches: A Crash Course in Ecclesiastical Architecture. New York: Rizzoli, 2011.
Miles, Margaret R. Image as Insight: Visual Understanding in Western Christianity and Secular Culture. Boston: Beacon Press, 1985. Especially 1–62 (chaps. 1–3).
O’Hear, Natasha F. H. Contrasting Images of the Book of Revelation in Late Medieval and Early Modern Art: A Case Study in Visual Exegesis. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011. Especially 1–9, 69–104, 199–236 (intro, chaps. 3, 6).
O’Kane, Martin. Painting the Text: The Artist as Biblical Interpreter. Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2007. Especially 1–33 (chap. 1).
Pelikan, Jaroslav. Jesus Through the Centuries: His Place in the History of Culture. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985. Especially 83–108, 122–132, 157–167 (chaps. 7–8, 10, 13).
Pitstick, Alyssa Lyra. Light in Darkness: Hans Urs von Balthasar and the Catholic Doctrine of Christ’s Descent into Hell. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007. 1–86 (intro, part 1).
Reddaway, Chloë. Transformations in Persons and Paint: Visual Theology, Historical Images, and the Modern Viewer. Turnhout: Brepols, 2015. Especially 15–41 (intro–chap 1).
Quash, Ben. “The Visual Commentary on Scripture: Principles and Possibilities,” in Transforming Christian Thought in the Visual Arts: Theology, Aesthetics and Practice. Edited by Sheona Beaumont and Madeleine Emerald Thiele. London: Routledge, 2021. 63–79 (chap. 3).
Steinberg, Leo. The Sexuality of Christ in Renaissance Art and in Modern Oblivion (1983). 2nd edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.
Viladesau, Richard. The Wisdom and Power of the Cross: The Passion of Christ in Theology and the Arts—Late Modernity and Postmodernity. Oxford University Press, 2020.

Unfortunately for both of us, most art books have complicated copyright issues - much like the Moravian Daily Words or the Catholic Liturgy of the Hours (which lack hymn texts). The art and art photographs copyrights are not owned by the publisher, they merely have rights to use it in their publication and cannot resell them for an e-book

Bummer. But a number of the books on this bibliography (the ones I've added links to) are available in e-book format (Kindle, or in the case of the one by Pitstick, in Logos Research format), including plenty with nice color reproductions of art in them.

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1270934#Comment_1270934

Looks like a fabulous bibliography. I promise to envy your auditing of the class ... and your classmates. [8-|]

Rosie Perera

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1270936#Comment_1270936

@MJ: BTW, The Visual Commentary on Scripture is a pretty cool online resource I learned about in class today.