Picturing The New Testament

How do visual images from the ancient world shed light on New Testament texts? In a methodologically multifaceted manner, the contributions in this volume examine early Christian images with regard to their ancient context. Various New Testament texts (the synoptic gospels, the Johannine and Pauline corpora) are linked to ancient visual images. Various approaches in iconography are summarized and applied to the interpretation of texts, taking account of the strengths and limitations of these images, as well as possible future applications. These essays incorporate current viewpoints from archaeology and the history of art. The topics range from studies of the depictions of Christ and the disciples to the images of humans and the world. This volume provides an innovative basis for the discussion of the iconographic method and the New Testament.

Published on the occasion of the exhibition organized by the Kimbell Art Museum and shown there November 18, 2007 - March 30, 2008.

Christian mission in previous centuries often drew on images of imperial expansion and war. While few today would describe the gospel task in such imperialistic terms, have we developed appropriate alternate images to associate with the good news of Jesus Christ? In "Picturing Christian Witness" missiologist Stanley Skreslet searches for new, more holistic images of mission from Scripture. Undertaking a novel exegetical study of mission in the New Testament, he highlights five actions that depict the witness of Jesus' first followers: announcing good news, sharing Christ with friends, interpreting the gospel, shepherding, and building/planting. After carefully examining key biblical passages, Skreslet draws out the implications of these five images for the theology of mission and lets each image take shape visually through an array of Western and non-Western art. "Picturing Christian Witness" will provoke readers to imagine what mission will look like when actively embodied by contemporary disciples of Jesus.

This book fills these gaps in a striking and original way by means of ten concise thematic chapters which explain the origins of these concepts from the book of Revelation in an accessible way. These explanations are augmented and developed via a carefully selected sample of the ways in which the concepts have been treated by artists through the centuries. The 120 visual examples are drawn from a wide range of time periods and media including the ninth-century Trier Apocalypse, thirteenth-century Anglo-Norman Apocalypse Manuscripts such as the Lambeth and Trinity Apocalypses, the fourteenth-century Angers Apocalypse Tapestry, fifteenth-century Apocalypse altarpieces by Van Eyck and Memling, Dürer and Cranach's sixteenth-century Apocalypse woodcuts, and more recently a range of works by William Blake, J.M.W. Turner, Max Beckmann, as well as film posters and film stills, cartoons, and children's book illustrations.

For many who identify themselves as Christians, Jesus has never become experientially personal or real. Countless others who have faithfully followed Christ confess to a spiritual dryness and lack of joy. These individuals are weary and unmoved by the plethora of information about Jesus. What they long for is an experience with Jesus. Picturing the Face of Jesus is an invitation to experience Christ more deeply. Through a rich palette of experiential media—art contemplation, gospel story-telling, and imaginative prayer—the reader is invited to picture the face of Jesus, his expressive, one-of-a-kind, human face. As a result, Jesus will become a real person with whom they candidly relate, instead of a hero they merely admire. Through this encounter, their own hearts will be transformed as they begin to reflect the face of Christ to others.

In our image-based culture, people need to visualize something to understand it. This has never been more true about our communication of the gospel. But sometimes our understanding of the gospel gets stuck in a rut, and all we know is a particular outline or one-size-fits-all formula. While we hold to only one gospel, the New Testament uses a wealth of dynamic, compelling images for explaining the good news of Jesus, each of which connects with different people at different points of need. Neil Livingstone provides a guided tour of biblical images of the gospel and shows how each offers fresh insight into God's saving work. Walking through Scripture's gallery of pictures of salvation from new life to deliverance, from justification to adoption, Livingstone invites us to deepen our understanding of the gospel. By letting the truth and power of each permeate our lives, we will be better able to articluate the life-changing gospel of Christ to a world that needs to taste--and see--that the Lord is good.

How and when, Herbert L. Kessler asks, was the Jewish prohibition against graven images transformed into a Christian imperative to picture God's invisibility once God had taken human form in the body of Jesus Christ?

A richly illustrated examination of food in the Bible, concentrating on the social aspects of eating.