The Bible in Art

The Bible in America, 2020

Writing in 1983, in the precursor to the present volume, the esteemed theologian John W. Dixon Jr. set some parameters for his inquiry: The problem of "The Bible in American Art" must be distinguished carefully from the larger problem of "religion in American art. " They are not the same thing nor is the smaller question rightly understood as a special case of the larger; they are in some degree different problems, however much the areas overlap. 1 While visual art, and the way we study it, has changed dramatically in the intervening decades, Dixon's intuition remains helpful. Given the multiplicity of ways in which religious themes and questions surface in contemporary art-even just within America-exploring religion writ large would quickly exceed the constraints of this chapter. For those interested in exploring such wider concerns, ranging from the experience of the sublime to civic rituals, my volume Art and Religion in the Twenty-First Century might prove a helpful point of entry. 2 For its part, this essay will restrict itself to identifying some primary, hopefully illuminating, ways in which the Bible appears in recent American art. While it is helpful to set similar boundaries to Dixon's, within these guideposts the terrain looks dramatically different thirty-five years 1. John W.

2008

The dissertation that follows pushes the boundaries of biblical interpretation by formulating relationships between passages of the Hebrew Bible and unrelated works of Modern art. While a growing field of criticism addresses the representation of scriptural stories in painting, sculpture and film, the artwork in this study does not look to the Bible for its subject matter. The intertextual/intermedia comparisons instead address five different genres of biblical literature and read them according to various dynamics found in Modern images. In forming these relationships I challenge traditional perceptions of characters and literary style by allowing an artistic representation or pictorial method to highlight issues of selfhood, gender and power and by revaluing narrative and poetry in nuanced aesthetic terms.

Art Criticism, 2009

“Toward a Genuine Dialogue between the Bible and Art,” in Congress Volume Helsinki 2010 (ed. Martti Nissinen; VTSup, 148; Leiden: Brill, 2012), pp. 473-503.

The Bible has played an inspirational role in art for centuries, and art has, in turn, influenced the way the Bible is read. By ‘genuine’ I refer to a dialogue between the biblical text and biblical art in which each plays a critical role in the process of interpreting the other. This involves not only looking at the biblical text and asking how the artist has interpreted it (e.g. what the artist has left out or added or emphasized or downplayed) but also studying the work of art and asking what it can show us about the biblical text (e.g. what the biblical writer has left out, emphasized, or downplayed). The article argues for making visual criticism part of the exegetical process and uses the expulsion of Hagar and Ishmael (Genesis 21), Sarah Presenting Hagar to Abraham (Genesis 16) and a scene from the Song of Songs (Song 5.7) to illustrate the interpretative gains to be had from such a dialogue.

Society of Biblical Literature (SBL), 2022

I presented my paper, "The Artistic Reception of Luke 16:19–31: Medieval, Modern, and Contemporary," for the Bible and Visual Arts Program Unit at the 2022 SBL Annual Meeting in Denver CO on Nov. 19, 2022. I am grateful to the chairs (Drs. Ian Boxall [CUA], Heidi J. Hornik [Baylor], and Meredith Massar Munson [GTU]) for affording me the opportunity to present my research, which is an abridged chapter in my forthcoming monograph with Lexington/Fortress Academic Press. From the Program Unit CFP: Description: The purpose of the section is to provide a forum at the national SBL to explore historical, hermeneutical, theological, iconographic, and/or theoretical aspects related to the interpretation of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures in visual art through the centuries. Call for papers: The Bible and Visual Art section welcomes submissions for the following two sessions at the Annual Meeting in 2022: (1) We invite proposals on the Bible and art of Indigenous North American and Latin American cultures, and especially encourage proposals related to biblical art in public spaces in the Denver area; (2) For our open session, we invite proposals that fall within our broad purpose: to explore historical, hermeneutical, theological, iconographic and/or theoretical aspects related to the interpretation of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures in visual art through the centuries. There will also be a third session, joint with the Gospel of Luke section, postponed from 2021 (papers already approved).

To popularize my rhetorical analysis of the New Testament Books, which is summarized in New Testament: New Testimony to the Skills of the Writers and First Readers, Ceridwen Press, Church Gresley, 2013, I have produced artworks for an exhibition that will tour the UK for two years. It launched in Leicester in February, visited Oxford in March, Cambridge in April, Cliff College in May and South Derbyshire for the whole of June. My artworks at A0 and Double A0 size challenge the continuing use of chapters and verses which are an imposition of subdivisions on texts which already have their own significant subdivisions - as laid down by the rhetors. It's just that they've never been seen before! And this is where the artworks come in: they usefully summarize whole texts for an all-in viewing.

Caa.reviews, 2008

ReVisioning: Critical Methods of Seeing Christianity in the History of Art, eds. James Romaine and Linda Stratford , 2013

In r9ro, the Furniture Gallery at fohn wanamakert philaderphia department store featured contemporary facsimiles of seventeenth-century English thrones chairs, objects dhrt, and three prominent works of academic art: the massive painting Behold! The Bridegroom cometh (The wise and Foolish virgins) (r9o7-s) by the African-American artist Henry ossawa Tanner (1859-1937) as well as his more intimate (although still large) piece, christ and His Mother studying the sqiptures (Christ Learning to Read) (r9rc); andChrist on Calvary (r88S), perhaps, at the time, the most well-known work in the American northeast, by the Hungarian artist Mihaly Munk6csy (1844 rgoo). The commercial photograph documenting this gallery ) is exceptional only in the quality and popurarity of the artworks' display. The intermingling of art, commerce, and christianity animated nearly all aspects of late-nineteenth and early-twentiethcentury American life. This gallery presents a series of challenges to twenty-first century scholars well-versed in modern art criticism's emphasis on an "art for artt sake" viewing posture and the sociologist Max 1. This essay is clcvckrpt.tl lirrrrr 1 papcr, "Civilizing Vision: The protestant patrons of Hcnry c)ssawa 'lirrrrrcrls ltilrlit ll l'irirrlings" (Association of Scholars of christian ity in the History o1'Ar-r syrrrP.sirrrrr, "lililh, klcnlity, and History: Reprcsentations of Ohristianity in Motlt.rrr ;urtl ( .orrtcrrlPlrr';try Al'rican American Artl, March 4-24, zor z). l'rt'lintittitry rcst.lrt lr w.rs t orrrIlr.tr.tl irr lrrrrr. z oo9 with thc kincl support of an Attrltt w W Mt'lkrrr lirrurtllliolr lr.ll,,rv,,lrr1, ,rl tlrt. l.ilrlrry O6prpaqy of l)hiladelphia lrrrrl llr, l lrrlolir;rl Sot it.ly ol l)r.rrrr\.lr',rnr,r i I