From the Editor's Desk
by Kimberly Vrudny
The last issue of ARTS treated a theme that, in the aftermath of the Charleston shooting and the church burnings that followed, remains one of the most pressing issues of our day: persistent structural racism in America. Therefore, we are pleased to announce that the annual meeting of SARTS will continue the conversation begun in that issue.
SARTS, the Society for the Arts in Religious and Theological Studies, meets annually and concurrently with the AAR/SBL, and will be convening in Atlanta, November 21, 2015. The SARTS session, titled “The Arts, Race, and Activism: From the Classroom to the Streets,” will be held at a time and location to be announced.
This 90-minute session will feature a conversation about the ways in which the arts not only provide pedagogical avenues for engaging the challenging subject matter of movements across the country attempting to address issues of racial justice for communities of color, but also will spur creative student activism on our campuses and in the streets of our communities. Brief reflections by five “conversation starters,” who were selected for their work in the areas of visual culture and the arts, religion, and activism, will spark a free-flowing conversation about the role of imagery and creative expression in contemporary social justice movements.
The last issue of ARTS treated a theme that, in the aftermath of the Charleston shooting and the church burnings that followed, remains one of the most pressing issues of our day: persistent structural racism in America. Therefore, we are pleased to announce that the annual meeting of SARTS will continue the conversation begun in that issue.
SARTS, the Society for the Arts in Religious and Theological Studies, meets annually and concurrently with the AAR/SBL, and will be convening in Atlanta, November 21, 2015. The SARTS session, titled “The Arts, Race, and Activism: From the Classroom to the Streets,” will be held at a time and location to be announced.
This 90-minute session will feature a conversation about the ways in which the arts not only provide pedagogical avenues for engaging the challenging subject matter of movements across the country attempting to address issues of racial justice for communities of color, but also will spur creative student activism on our campuses and in the streets of our communities. Brief reflections by five “conversation starters,” who were selected for their work in the areas of visual culture and the arts, religion, and activism, will spark a free-flowing conversation about the role of imagery and creative expression in contemporary social justice movements.
Facilitators and participants will also share teaching tactics for channeling undergraduate creativity and interest in visual culture into concrete expressions of social engagement.
The session will be facilitated by Willie Jennings, and panelists/conversation partners will include: Claudio Carvalhaes, Stacey Floyd Thomas, Maureen O’Connell, Paul Myhre, and Ralph Watkins.
The new issue—ARTS vol. 26, no. 3—demonstrates our continued commitment to social justice with its feature article on the Stations of the Holocaust by Jean Lamb. The English artist reflects on the impact of the Second World War on her own family, and contemplates each Station in light of the impact of Jesus’ betrayal on the history of the Jewish people. While she admits the controversial dimension of her work, her intention is to foster peace and mutual understanding in the world today. This issue also looks intently, and in varying ways, at the end of life. Wilson Yates memorializes two giants in the field of theology and the arts whom we have lost: Tom Devonshire Jones, one of the founders of our sister organization in England (ACE: Art and Christianity Enquiry), and Jane Daggett Dillenberger, who taught at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. Peter L. Doebler offers reflections about the effect of aging on Rembrandt’s approach to the figures of Simeon and Anna in “The Art of Patience: Reading Late Life with Rembrandt.” We are also blessed with the poetic genius of Julie Cadwallader Staub in this issue, who gives us five poems on grief and loss. We are also publishing the keynote address from the SARTS meeting which met in San Diego in 2014. Wilson Yates, the former senior editor of this journal and professor emeritus of religion, society, and the arts at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities, implores theologians to recognize that “artworks are autonomous forms that have a presence of their own. They have an origin in the imagination and skill of an artist. The work of art and its artist, if invited to do so, will come to the table of conversation with a dynamic voice that manifests itself in both a receptivity and response in the act of interpretation.” He advocates for a dialogical methodology in “Theology and the Arts after Seventy Years: Toward a Dialogical Approach.” John Shorb interviews Kikuko Morimoto, whose work was recently exhibited at the Brooklyn Zen Center. And we round out the issue with a particularly robust set of book reviews and book notes, with longer reviews of Jane Dillenberger and John Handley’s The Religious Art of Pablo Picasso and James Romaine and Linda Stratford’s edited volume, ReVisioning: Critical Methods of Seeing Christianity in the History of Art. Mark McInroy also provides book notes for three recently published books: Kathryn B. Alexander’s Saving Beauty: A Theological Aesthetics of Nature; Roger Scruton’s The Soul of the World; and Brendan Thomas Sammon’s The God Who is Beauty: Beauty as a Divine Name in Thomas Aquinas and Dionysius the Areopagite.
As we conclude the second year of my editorship, I want to thank you for your ongoing support of our work. Together, we are continuing to examine the complex and fascinating interrelationships among theology, spirituality, and the arts. Admittedly, while the study of works of art is not as pervasive as examination of theological texts in graduate schools of theology and seminaries around the country, anecdotal evidence suggests that it is increasingly unthinkable to graduate in the theological fields without some exposure to the importance of the arts on the life of the church historically, and on the life of faith today. Even though ARTS is intentionally grounded in Christian theology and theological education as well as in the visual arts, we continue to devote a considerable number of pages to engage topics of interest in religious studies and other artistic media.
In the next year, all back issues of ARTS will be available on amazon.com. We are intending to make a greater number of our articles conveniently available on our website. And we are in the process of seeking grant funding to continue the fellowship program to promote high-quality research in theology and the arts. Know that your membership and subscription funds are put to good use to make all of this work behind the scenes possible. If you are particularly inspired by what we are doing, please consider becoming a friend of ARTS; donations in any amount are accepted. We are reliant upon your financial contributions, and we appreciate your support as much now as ever. —kv
The session will be facilitated by Willie Jennings, and panelists/conversation partners will include: Claudio Carvalhaes, Stacey Floyd Thomas, Maureen O’Connell, Paul Myhre, and Ralph Watkins.
The new issue—ARTS vol. 26, no. 3—demonstrates our continued commitment to social justice with its feature article on the Stations of the Holocaust by Jean Lamb. The English artist reflects on the impact of the Second World War on her own family, and contemplates each Station in light of the impact of Jesus’ betrayal on the history of the Jewish people. While she admits the controversial dimension of her work, her intention is to foster peace and mutual understanding in the world today. This issue also looks intently, and in varying ways, at the end of life. Wilson Yates memorializes two giants in the field of theology and the arts whom we have lost: Tom Devonshire Jones, one of the founders of our sister organization in England (ACE: Art and Christianity Enquiry), and Jane Daggett Dillenberger, who taught at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. Peter L. Doebler offers reflections about the effect of aging on Rembrandt’s approach to the figures of Simeon and Anna in “The Art of Patience: Reading Late Life with Rembrandt.” We are also blessed with the poetic genius of Julie Cadwallader Staub in this issue, who gives us five poems on grief and loss. We are also publishing the keynote address from the SARTS meeting which met in San Diego in 2014. Wilson Yates, the former senior editor of this journal and professor emeritus of religion, society, and the arts at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities, implores theologians to recognize that “artworks are autonomous forms that have a presence of their own. They have an origin in the imagination and skill of an artist. The work of art and its artist, if invited to do so, will come to the table of conversation with a dynamic voice that manifests itself in both a receptivity and response in the act of interpretation.” He advocates for a dialogical methodology in “Theology and the Arts after Seventy Years: Toward a Dialogical Approach.” John Shorb interviews Kikuko Morimoto, whose work was recently exhibited at the Brooklyn Zen Center. And we round out the issue with a particularly robust set of book reviews and book notes, with longer reviews of Jane Dillenberger and John Handley’s The Religious Art of Pablo Picasso and James Romaine and Linda Stratford’s edited volume, ReVisioning: Critical Methods of Seeing Christianity in the History of Art. Mark McInroy also provides book notes for three recently published books: Kathryn B. Alexander’s Saving Beauty: A Theological Aesthetics of Nature; Roger Scruton’s The Soul of the World; and Brendan Thomas Sammon’s The God Who is Beauty: Beauty as a Divine Name in Thomas Aquinas and Dionysius the Areopagite.
As we conclude the second year of my editorship, I want to thank you for your ongoing support of our work. Together, we are continuing to examine the complex and fascinating interrelationships among theology, spirituality, and the arts. Admittedly, while the study of works of art is not as pervasive as examination of theological texts in graduate schools of theology and seminaries around the country, anecdotal evidence suggests that it is increasingly unthinkable to graduate in the theological fields without some exposure to the importance of the arts on the life of the church historically, and on the life of faith today. Even though ARTS is intentionally grounded in Christian theology and theological education as well as in the visual arts, we continue to devote a considerable number of pages to engage topics of interest in religious studies and other artistic media.
In the next year, all back issues of ARTS will be available on amazon.com. We are intending to make a greater number of our articles conveniently available on our website. And we are in the process of seeking grant funding to continue the fellowship program to promote high-quality research in theology and the arts. Know that your membership and subscription funds are put to good use to make all of this work behind the scenes possible. If you are particularly inspired by what we are doing, please consider becoming a friend of ARTS; donations in any amount are accepted. We are reliant upon your financial contributions, and we appreciate your support as much now as ever. —kv