The Art Of New Creation

The biblical themes of creation and new creation are inextricably bound to each other. For the God who created the world is the same God who recreates humanity in Jesus Christ and the same God who promises a new heaven and a new earth. How might the relationship between creation and new creation be informed by and reflected in the arts? This volume, based on the DITA10 conference at Duke Divinity School, brings together reflections from theologians, biblical scholars, and artists to offer insights on God's first work, God's future work, and the future of the field of theology and the arts. The Studies in Theology and the Arts series encourages Christians to thoughtfully engage with the relationship between their faith and artistic expression, with contributions from both theologians and artists on a range of artistic media including visual art, music, poetry, literature, film, and more.

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.

From a world-renowned painter, an exploration of creativity’s quintessential—and often overlooked—role in the spiritual life “Makoto Fujimura’s art and writings have been a true inspiration to me. In this luminous book, he addresses the question of art and faith and their reconciliation with a quiet and moving eloquence.”—Martin Scorsese “[An] elegant treatise . . . Fujimura’s sensitive, evocative theology will appeal to believers interested in the role religion can play in the creation of art.”—Publishers Weekly Conceived over thirty years of painting and creating in his studio, this book is Makoto Fujimura’s broad and deep exploration of creativity and the spiritual aspects of “making.” What he does in the studio is theological work as much as it is aesthetic work. In between pouring precious, pulverized minerals onto handmade paper to create the prismatic, refractive surfaces of his art, he comes into the quiet space in the studio, in a discipline of awareness, waiting, prayer, and praise. Ranging from the Bible to T. S. Eliot, and from Mark Rothko to Japanese Kintsugi technique, he shows how unless we are making something, we cannot know the depth of God’s being and God’s grace permeating our lives. This poignant and beautiful book offers the perspective of, in Christian Wiman’s words, “an accidental theologian,” one who comes to spiritual questions always through the prism of art.

Christianity has revealed the secret that psychologists have long sought--the "inward soul," the re-created spirit, the focus of God's great redemptive work on earth. The four Gospels give us a wonderful picture of the lonely man of Galilee, the humble Messiah who ends His earthly walk on Calvary. But Paul's Epistles give us the risen triumphant One, the conqueror of death, sin, and Satan. He provides the revelation of what happened on the cross and in the tomb, and how that affects who and what we are in Christ today. Legendary Bible teacher E. W. Kenyon delves deeply into Paul's teaching to give us a living picture of the entire substitutionary work of Christ, which made possible the new creation, a new race of men and women who can stand in God's presence without a sense of guilt, condemnation, or inferiority.

Learning in and through the visual arts can develop complex and subtle aspects of the mind. Reviews in: Journal of aesthetic education. 38(2004)4(Winter. 71-98), available M05-194.

"Truly this was the Son of God!" Matthew 27:54 The theme of divine sonship stretches across the pages of the Bible: from Adam in the garden of Eden, through the nation of Israel and King David, and ultimately to Jesus Christ in the New Jerusalem—the Son of God par excellence. In this volume, renowned biblical scholar Graeme Goldsworthy shows what Christ's fulfillment of the divine sonship motif means for all who are sons and daughters of God. Part of the Short Studies in Biblical Theology series.

The Living Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:17 "When someone becomes a Christian he becomes a brand new person on the inside" This is part of the wonderful saving work of God in the New Testament dispensation. To live in the power of this new life and walk in victory however, we need to clearly know the difference between the truth's of "Us in Christ" and "Christ in Us." These truth's are clearly set out in this book and when they are applied in our life, we gain the vistory over our two enemies, the flesh and the devil. My prayer is that everyone who reads this book may experience the abundant life that Jesus speaks of in John 10:10.

This monograph documents Louis Vuitton's highly visible collaborations with an elite group of artists, architects and photographers, including Takashi Murakami, Julie Verhoven and Anne Leibovitz.