The Arts and the Bible

By STANLEY E PORTER

Throughout its history, the Christian church has had a troubled relationship with the arts, whether literature, poetry, music, visual arts, or other forms of artistic expression. This volume is not designed to resolve the issues, but it is designed to present a number of different statements about various dimensions of the arts in their relationship to the Bible. The Bible is the document that stands behind the Christian church as an inspiration to it and to its arts. As a result, we have divided this volume into six parts: perspectives on the arts, culture and art, visual enactments, contemporary interpretations, music, and the Bible and literature. Many of the issues that the history of the interaction of the arts and the Bible within the Christian church has uncovered are insightfully and artfully addressed by this book. The wide range of contributors runs the gamut from practicing artists of various media to scholars within varied academic fields.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pickwick Publications
• Release date: Jan 4, 2024
• ISBN: 9781725279773

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The Arts and the Bible

Edited by Stanley E. Porter and Wendy J. Porter

The Arts and the Bible

McMaster New Testament Studies Series, Volume

10

McMaster Divinity College Press

ISSN

2564-4424

(Print)

ISSN

2564-4432

(Ebook)

Copyright ©

2024

Wipf and Stock Publishers. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers,

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paperback isbn: 978-1-7252-7976-6

hardcover isbn: 978-1-7252-7975-9

ebook isbn: 978-1-7252-7977-3

Cataloguing-in-Publication data:

Names: Porter, Stanley E., editor. | Porter, Wendy J., editor.

Title: The Arts and the Bible / edited by Stanley E. Porter and Wendy J. Porter.

Description: Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications,

2024.

| McMaster New Testament Studies Series

10. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers:

isbn 978-1-7252-7976-6 (

paperback

) | isbn 978-1-7252-7975-9 (

hardcover

) | isbn 978-1-7252-7977-3 (

ebook

)

Subjects: LCSH: Bible—In art. | Arts—

21

st Century.

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NX661 P67 2024 (

paperback

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ebook

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version number 11/07/23

Table of Contents

Title Page

Preface

Lists of Contributors

Abbreviations

The Arts and the Bible

Part One: Perspectives on the Arts

The Fine Arts and the Study of Theology

The Art of the New Testament

Hildegard of Bingen, the Breath of God, and a Musical Prophetic Voice

Sight Unseen

Beyond Appearances

Prophetic Beauty

Part Two: Culture and Art

She Lifted Up her Voice

The Testimony of the Beautiful

Immortal, Invisible

Part Three: Visual Enactments

Heaven in Earth

Portals of a Pilgrimage

The Shadows That Offend

Part Four: Contemporary Interpretations

The Right Words at the Right Time in the Right Place

Hold Up

Harry Potter and the Gospel of Mark

Part Five: Music

The Artist as Pastor

The Role of Theory in the Theodrama

Repeat after Me

Is Contemporary Worship Music Void of Theology?

Part Six: The Bible and Literature

Lin Yutang’s Understanding of Spirituality and Aesthetics

Bilingualism in Perspective

Story Worlds and the Truth

Preface

The 2017 H. H. Bingham Colloquium at McMaster Divinity College in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, held on May 26, was entitled The Arts and the Bible. This Colloquium was the twenty-first in a continuing series held here at MDC , and the first entirely devoted to the arts broadly defined in relation to the Bible. We at MDC have long valued the arts—whether they are the musical arts, the visual arts, or the dramatic arts, among others—and this conference was long overdue in that regard. We expanded our organizational scope to involve a wide range of members of various arts communities. As a result, we were fortunate to have musicians and actors and painters and sculptors and poets in our midst. This conference also expanded our traditional format for the conference by providing several parallel sessions besides our list of plenary speakers. This outline is reflected in the organization of this volume. We featured six plenary speakers. These included inviting three guests to participate in the conference, one an active artist, another an art critic, and the third an art historian. They were complemented by three plenary speakers from MDC, an Old Testament scholar, a New Testament scholar , and a music historian. They provided a range of helpful perspectives on our admittedly expansive topic. We invited many other accomplished artists to participate as well and welcomed an array of talented people. We also welcomed some of our own graduate students to propose papers for presentation in the parallel sessions, and these were then refereed for inclusion in this volume. The entire conference was complemented by transforming MDC into an art gallery, with contributions by several of our conference participants, including James Tughan, Elizabeth Brooks, and Heidi Brannan, and many other artists within the wider Christian artistic community. The halls were literally full of incredible art that we could enjoy in the time leading up to and during and after the conference. We wish to thank all the artists who graciously allowed their pieces to be displayed during this time.

We are once again thankful for this conference being supported by the Bingham Colloquium. The Bingham Colloquium is named after Dr. Herbert Henry Bingham, who was a noted Baptist leader in Ontario, Canada. His leadership abilities were recognized by Baptists across Canada and around the world. His qualities included his genuine friendship, dedicated leadership, unswerving Christian faith, tireless devotion to duty, insightful service as a preacher and pastor, and visionary direction for congregation and denomination alike. These qualities endeared him both to his own church members and to believers in other denominations. The Colloquium has been endowed by his daughter as an act of appreciation for her father. We are pleased to be able to continue this tradition.

The first volumes of the Bingham Colloquium were published by Eerdmans Publishing, but since 2010 all the volumes in this series have been published by McMaster Divinity College Press, in conjunction with Wipf and Stock Publishers of Eugene, Oregon, in the McMaster New Testament Studies Series. We appreciate this active and continuing publishing relationship.

I finally would like to thank the individual contributors for their efforts in the preparation and presentation of papers that make a significant contribution to our topic of the arts and the Bible. We were pleased to welcome outside scholars and artists to present their art and scholarship as part of the Colloquium, and we look forward to welcoming them back in the future. I am particularly gratified that several of our students have had their work accepted for publication in this volume. I would especially like to thank Wendy J. Porter, James Tughan, and Elizabeth Brooks for their tireless work in organizing the conference out of which this volume emerges, and to thank Wendy for working together with me to edit this volume for publication. We would also like to thank the staff and student helpers and volunteers at MDC, all of whom were integral in creating a welcoming environment and a supportive atmosphere for the colloquium. We apologize that the publication of this volume has taken longer than we expected. As one can see from the volume itself, this is a complex book that brings together a wide range of contributions and required extra attention to coordinate the various chapters. And then there was COVID, from which we are all still recovering in various ways. We offer no excuses, but there were necessary reasons for the delay. We appreciate the patience shown by all our contributors and hope that the final volume rewards the wait. We believe that the volume makes a substantial contribution to an area that has recently been under-explored within Christian circles and it invites further examination.

Stanley E. Porter

McMaster Divinity College

Lists of Contributors

Lee Beach, McMaster Divinity College, Hamilton, ON, Canada

Mark J. Boda, McMaster Divinity College, Hamilton, ON, Canada

Heidi Brannan, Etherworks Sculpture and Illuminations, Alma, ON, Canada

Bradley K. Broadhead, Oyen Evangelical Missionary Church, Oyen, AB, Canada

Elizabeth Brooks, McMaster Divinity College, Hamilton, ON, Canada

Esther G. Cen, Seattle Pacific University, Seattle, WA, USA

Caroline Schleier Cutler, McMaster Divinity College, Hamilton, ON, Canada

Zachary K. Dawson, Regent University, Virginia Beach, VA, USA

Natasha Duquette, Our Lady Seat of Wisdom College, Barry’s Bay, ON, Canada

John Franklin, Imago Arts, Toronto, ON, Canada

Michael P. Knowles, McMaster Divinity College, Hamilton, ON, Canada

Stanley E. Porter, McMaster Divinity College, Hamilton, ON, Canada

Wendy J. Porter, McMaster Divinity College, Hamilton, ON, Canada

Gwendolyn Starks, The FeatherBreath Imaginarium, Waterdown, ON, Canada

Sid D. Sudiacal, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada

John Terpstra, Hamilton, ON, Canada

Peter Tigchelaar, Hamilton, ON, Canada

James Tughan, Semaphore Fellowship, Hamilton, ON, Canada

Kimberly Vrudny, University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN, USA

Hallam J. Willis, University of Oxford, UK

Ryder A. Wishart, McMaster Divinity College, Hamilton, ON, Canada, and Biblica Inc., Palmer Lake, CO, USA

David I. Yoon, Emmanuel Bible College, Kitchener, ON, Canada, and McMaster Divinity College, Hamilton, ON, Canada

Abbreviations

AB Anchor Bible

AC Arts Canada

ACCUTE Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English

ACCS Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture

AD Ars Disputandi

AER African Ecclesial Review

AH Art History

ARTS Arts in Religious and Theological Studies

BCT Bible and Critical Theory

BEEC Brepol Essays in European Culture

BETL Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium

BHL Blackwell Handbooks in Linguistics

BI Biblical Interpretation

BJA British Journal of Aesthetics

BJHP British Journal for the History of Philosophy

BLS Bible and Literature Series

BOSS The Biannual Online-Journal of Springsteen Studies

BPCS Biblical Performance Criticism Series

BS Bibliotheca Sacra

BTB Biblical Theology Bulletin

BTCB Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible

BTL Blackwell Textbooks in Linguistics

CBQ Catholic Biblical Quarterly

CBQMS Catholic Biblical Quarterly Monograph Series

CI Critical Inquiry

CLSG Christianity and Literature Study Group

CSCD Cambridge Studies in Christian Doctrine

CSR Cambridge Studies in Romanticism

CTHP Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy

CTM Currents in Theology and Mission

EC Engaging Culture

ELS English Language Series

ES Emerging Scholars

ETL Ephemerides theologicae lovanienses

EUS23T European University Studies (Series 23: Theology)

FAT Forschungen zum Alten Testament

FCI Foundations of Contemporary Interpretation

GCT Gender, Culture, Theory

GT Great Theologians

HAR Hebrew Annual Review

HR The Hedgehog Review: Critical Reflections on Contemporary Culture

HTSTS Historical Thought and Source Interpretation Theological Studies

HUCA Hebrew Union College Annual

ICC The International Critical Commentary

ILBS Indiana Literary Biblical Series

ISPR Indiana Series in the Philosophy of Religion

JAAR Journal of the American Academy of Religion

JAEAR Journal of American-East Asian Relations

JGRChJ Journal of Greco-Roman Christianity and Judaism

JNES Journal of Near Eastern Studies

JNSL Journal of Northwest Semitic Languages

JRAS Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland

JRH Journal of Religion and Health

JRS Journal of Religion and Society

JSOT Journal for the Study of the Old Testament

JSNT Journal for the Study of the New Testament

JSNTSup Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplements

JSOTSup Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplements

JSSR Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion

JTS Journal of Theological Studies

KAT Kommentar zum Alten Testament

KJV King James Version

LBS Linguistic Biblical Studies

LN Louw and Nida

MBSS McMaster Biblical Studies Series

MDCGS McMaster Divinity College General Series

MFLH Mary Flexner Lectures on the Humanities

NASV New American Standard Version

NIV New International Version

NJPS New Jewish Publication Society

NRSV New Revised Standard Version

OBO Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis

OBS Oxford Bible Series

OPT Oxford Philosophical Texts

PNTC The Pillar New Testament Commentary

PP Pastoral Psychology

RBS Resources for Biblical Study

RC Religion Compass

RSV Revised Standard Version

SBEC Studies in the Bible and Early Christianity

SBLSS Society of Biblical Literature Semeia Studies

SBS Stuttgarter Bibelstudien

SEAug Studia Ephemeridis Augustinianum

SH Scripture and Hermeneutics

SJT Southwestern Journal of Theology

SNTSMS Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series

SSN Studia Semitica Neerlandica

SST Studies in Systematic Theology

STR Studies in Theology and Religion

SWBA Social World of Biblical Antiquity

TBS Tools for Biblical Study

TDNT Kittel, Gerhard, and Gerhard Friedrich, eds. Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament. Translated by Geoffrey W. Bromiley. 10 vols. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1964–76.

TJ Trinity Journal

TLL Topics in Language and Linguistics

TS Theological Studies

TSJTSA Texts and Studies of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America

TT Theology Today

VoxEv Vox Evangelica

VT Vetus Testamentum

VRA V&R Academic

WBBHR Wiley Blackwell Brief Histories of Religion

WBC Word Biblical Commentary

WMANT Wissenschaftliche Monographien zum Alten und Neuen Testament

WUNT Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament

McMaster Divinity College Press

McMaster New Testament Studies Series, Volume 10

Christian Mission: Old Testament Foundations and New Testament Developments (2010)

Empire in the New Testament (2011)

The Church, Then and Now (2012)

Rejection: God’s Refugees in Biblical and Contemporary Perspective (2015)

Rediscovering Worship: Past, Present, and Future (2015)

The Bible and Social Justice: Old Testament and New Testament Foundations for the Church’s Urgent Call (2015)

The Letter to the Romans: Exegesis and Application (2018)

Is the Gospel Good News? (2019)

Linguistics and the Bible: Retrospects and Prospects (2019)

The Arts and the Bible

An Introduction

Stanley E. Porter and Wendy J. Porter

The arts and the Bible have had a difficult time co-existing, primarily because the major place that they have been called upon to exist together is within the Christian church. The Christian church has had times when it has strongly embraced and endorsed the arts as a full and complete member of the Christian community and welcomed its contribution, while at other times the church has shunned the arts and characterized them in ways that make them seem like a cultural pariah. The relationship that they have—if it can be identified as a relationship—could be described as up and down or off and on or hot and cold, or any number of other ways that attempt to portray the shifting vicissitudes over the course of the centuries. If we were to characterize how the arts are viewed within the contemporary church—we realize that this involves a lot of generalizing—we would have to say that some of the arts are selectively yet tentatively embraced, while most of them are not really at home within the Christian community. The majority of churches today would still recognize a role for music, but even this acceptance is influenced by deep lines of division. Some wish to retain what is characterized as a traditional or classical approach to Christian music while others embrace contemporary expressions, but surprisingly few find it possible to welcome and embrace both equally well—much less understand how it is that we got to this situation within the church at all. Apart from music, there are very few areas where the contemporary Christian church finds it easy and opportune to support the arts. This volume is designed, at least in part, to question this situation and to try to address some of the ways in which the arts are and have been viewed within Christian and in particular biblical contexts.

The Bible itself says very little that either supports or alienates the arts. There are, of course, passages within the Old Testament that speak of not making graven images, but these are graven images of gods that are used as a substitute for worship of the one true God. This can hardly be an excuse for shunning a wide variety of forms of the visual arts, even though it has been used in that way. The Bible itself is arguably one of the great representatives of literary art. There have been many debates over the years regarding the literary value of the Bible as a whole or in its individual parts, yet few books have been studied as deeply or consistently over the years for their emotive and affective, and certainly didactic, content as the Bible. In particular, such sections as the creation story of Genesis or the story of Job (which has often been considered a literary account of the suffering, patient person) or the psalms with all of their varied lyric beauty or the aphoristic wisdom literature, among many possible other examples, continue to fascinate not just biblical scholars but some literary scholars as well. In the New Testament, there are similar passages of literary note, such as small sections like 1 Cor 13 or a variety of parables that capture the wisdom of Jesus or the Sermon on the Mount, or larger sections such as John’s account of the coming of the Logos in bodily form and his walking and living among us or the awesome account of the Apocalypse. Courses in the Bible as literature continue to be taught at major, even secular, universities throughout North America. The Bible is literally full of characters who are memorable and every bit as interesting as many of those in Shakespeare and Dickens (who both used the Bible quite a bit in their own writings, so it happens).

If the problem with the arts is not with the Bible, then perhaps the problem with the arts and the Bible is with the arts. This seems equally unlikely. It is true that the arts may be defined in a variety of ways, and there are a wide number of questions to be asked whenever one uses the term art. We may be speaking of the visual or plastic arts, such as painting or sculpture or other forms of expressive art, or we may be speaking of the literary arts, such as literature, or we may be speaking of musical arts, whether by Bach, Beethoven, or Baloche, or the dramatic arts, whether early mystery plays or contemporary representations. There is nothing inherent in any of these forms of art that is contrary to the Bible. There is always, of course, the question of what art is and whether any given instance of it is worthy of the label art. But then that is not a question regarding its relationship to the Bible but more about how we know that we have experienced good or genuine or true art, rather than something else. If the medium of art is not the problem, then perhaps it is the subject matter of art that is at odds with the Bible. There have no doubt been many issues raised about the subject matter of art, and whether particular depictions—such as the human body—should be accepted within a Christian context or whether the depictions of certain scenes or language—including Shakespeare, ’swounds—should be acceptable reading for Christians. There is probably little doubt that some artists have taken advantage of artistic privilege and intentionally attempted to antagonize and alienate, and even desecrate Christian beliefs by their artistic representations. This has occurred to the point that some Christian institutions have gone to the extent of banning particular expressions of art. However, is this inherently at odds with the Bible, or is this because of particular cultural norms and expressions that have become antagonistic within contemporary society? The Bible is a very candid and often pointed book that does very little, at times, to temper a straightforward and direct representation of human reality, often with all of its dark side exposed. It does not appear, therefore, that it is art that in and of itself is the problem. Then perhaps it is the artists themselves who put art at odds with the Bible and Christianity. If this is the case—and no doubt there may be artists who have, again, used their artistic or personal licence to intentionally antagonize or alienate Christians—then the problem is with neither art nor the Bible, but with certain individuals who, in their (ironically) limited imaginations, have thought that living lives in particular ways or expressing their artistic abilities in particular avenues are appropriate ways of sharing their talents with the wider world.

Even if this is the case that neither art nor the Bible is at fault for the tension between the two, then where does this resistance of warm embrace of the arts originate? If we were to trace the history of the arts in the Christian church—as an expression of its biblical foundations in the worship and other expressions of the church—we would certainly find a variety of responses to the arts. On the one hand, the church, as an evidence of its call to biblical witness and testimony, has often been the primary supporter and promoter of the arts. The examples of such displays of the arts are numerous and hence difficult to enumerate fully. They would include the integral nature of music within the worshiping community, whether in the Old or New Testaments. The psalms may have begun as literary creations, but they soon became both literary and musical art, still used in Christian worship to the present. The early Christian church was given to singing psalms, hymns, and other spiritual songs (Col 3:16; Eph 5:19) from its earliest times, a tradition that has continued as well. We know that Christians were songwriters who followed the conventions of musical expression of their time (P.Oxy. 1386, the first Christian hymn with notation), and we have records of many other Christian hymns and songs written by a variety of composers within the ancient world. One of the best known of these is Romanos Melodus, the sixth-century Christian preacher, who wrote his sermons as metrical/musical songs that were intoned to his congregations (we dare preachers today to attempt to do such a thing!). The early Christian musical tradition was based upon a single musical line (chant) but then developed from monophony to polyphony, one of the great developments of the western intellectual tradition (when humans juxtaposed various lines of music, rather than simply imitating each other), which then further developed into various types of part songs with varying levels of complexity and musical and verbal correspondence.¹ This development in the vocal musical tradition was supported by the development of musical accompaniment of various types, besides just the pipe organ that so many associate with traditional Christian music. Many of the great composers of the western tradition were church composers, such as Bach, a tradition that continues to the present. One of the features of the development of Christian music is its constant contextual adaptation, based upon the context and the requirements of the contemporary church.

Similar observations could be made about other forms of artistic expression within the Christian church. The visual arts within the Christian church at first were hesitant to engage in visual representation, but when they did, they tended to follow the kind of representation found within the wider culture of the time that emphasized a muted realism found in two dimensions. This muted realism was developed further, especially within eastern Christianity, into the iconographic tradition, which gave the two-dimensional figures high symbolic value as embodied theological expression of the great traditions of the church as represented in God, Jesus, Mary, and the saints. The western tradition went through a variety of stages of increased visual complexity, often accompanied by the growth of the architectural tradition of the church. Church buildings came to be major houses of art, but not art simply for its own sake but as a representation of the beliefs of those within. The art was used to tell the story of the Bible, as well as the story of those who believed in the Bible, such as the saints and other followers of the biblical narrative. Their depictions came to be found within churches of various shapes and sizes. The major figures for representation were Jesus Christ and Mary, but along with them were depictions of God and the apostles and then others of the Christian saints. These artistic depictions—in all of their earthly reality and/or heavenly glory—became the focal points of churches, including cathedrals, where worship tended to focus upon the crucified Christ and his mother. Even with the Reformation, which eliminated much of the visual depiction of the Christian church, artistic symbolism was still used, such as the empty cross and the elevated pulpit, as a means of artistically depicting the Christian message. Many of the great artists of the western tradition were artists of the church, including such well-known figures as Michelangelo, whose depictions of judgment or creation in the Sistine Chapel are more than simply good frescoes in an old building, but consummate expressions of two of the most telling moments of Christian theology, the first and the last. The buildings themselves are an expression of visual art. Not only did Christian churches in pre-literate ages depict the Christian story graphically so that those who were unable to read the Scriptures were able to partake of the Christian narrative, but the buildings themselves, with their increasing grandeur and architectural magnificence, became emblems of the awe and wonder of Christian experience. With a cathedral towering around the surrounding landscape, a poor, illiterate peasant—and no doubt others not so poor and not so illiterate—had every reason to believe that this building was the one in which God lived and made himself known, and for those who worshipped him there, he in fact did. One also finds that the literary arts have been an important part of the exemplification of the Christian message. The medieval mystery and miracle plays were not just early forms of drama, but they were encapsulations of elements of the Christian story visually enacted for those who perhaps were unable to read the accounts for themselves. Even for those who could read them, the artistic interpretations brought the stories of Christian miracles and the various moments of the Christian story from the Bible to life in ways that remained poignant and graphic. In that sense, the Christian church is the origin of the dramatic arts themselves, at least within the western intellectual tradition.

We could continue in much greater depth and length regarding the fact that there has been a history of the arts within the Christian tradition, based upon and inspired by the Bible. However, one notices that the contemporary situation—and it has been this way for some time, we might add—is not nearly so robust or prolific for the arts as it once was. Christian artists are not as widely heralded or brought into Christian contexts as they once were to adorn places of Christian worship or provide moving renditions of biblical accounts for others to gaze upon or experience as forms of worship. In fact, with some exceptions of course, most Christian churches, even those of liturgical traditions that were once far more overt, Christian artistic expression has been muted, until in some churches a lone body-less cross may stand at the front, with bare walls and nothing much else to call to mind the Christian story.

This volume is not designed to remedy the major problem of how the arts and the Bible have come to a parting of the ways, even if we hope that it is a temporary one and one that we may have a part in remedying. This volume is designed to present a number of different statements about various dimensions of the arts in their relationship to the Bible, as that document that stands behind the Christian church as an inspiration to it and to its arts. As a result, we have divided this volume into six parts: perspectives on the arts, culture and art, visual enactments, contemporary interpretations, music, and the Bible and literature. One sees that many of the issues that we have raised above in our brief traversal of the history of art and the Bible and the Christian church are addressed by these various sections.

In the first section on perspectives on the arts, we include the plenary papers that were delivered at the conference. Each one is presented by a major scholar who has established him or herself as a major figure within their academic discipline. As a result, we have both biblical scholars and a variety of musical and visual artists. We begin with a paper by the Old Testament scholar Mark Boda. Protestant hermeneutics has traditionally focused upon the scriptural as opposed to the cultural horizon. However, recent hermeneutical methodologies show the importance of both horizons. Boda concludes that the fine arts need to be positioned as one of the theological disciplines in the theological encyclopedia. We continue with a paper by the New Testament scholar Stanley Porter on the New Testament and aesthetics. Apart from a few select passages, most readers are inclined to find more literature in the Old Testament than in the New. Stanley challenges the notion of what it means to say that the New Testament is or is not artistic and draws upon aesthetics to offer a more nuanced way of examining the art of the New Testament. The third paper is by Wendy Porter, a musician and musical historian. Wendy discusses one of the great figures of the medieval church, Hildegard of Bingen, a polymath who excelled in music among other things. She explores Hildegard’s contribution in terms of not just her own times, but her enduring musical prophetic voice, one that merits being heard in our contemporary musical and artistic context. James Tughan is a major visual artist, who brings his artistic eye to examination of what it means to see and to see the unseen. Tughan draws upon poetry and a number of different artistic works, done in different styles, to bring attention to the importance of what it means to see, something that artists do all of the time and that they can help those of us who are not visual artists to do as well. A major part of the artistic experience is to learn to see and hence to experience and understand. The next paper is by John Franklin, an art historian. Franklin has spent much of his career helping others to appreciate the arts by teaching and supporting artistic endeavours. In this paper, Franklin invites us to go beyond the simple appearances of what presents itself in various biblical accounts and use our imaginations to understand the imaginations of the biblical writers. The sixth and final paper of this section, by Kimberly Vrudny, also an art historian, presents a timely paper that brings the arts into dialogue with our contemporary situation. She examines the work of the Argentinian artists Ricardo Cinalli and León Ferrari, who respond to political violence in that country with their own Christian art, in which they place Christ with the victims of the political violence in their homeland.

The second section is on culture and art. In this section, we have three papers. The first, by Natasha Duquette, discusses depictions of Hagar, the slave of Sara, in nineteenth-century visual art and poetry. Hagar is a controversial figure, both in the Bible and in later depictions, and the nineteenth century proved to be a particularly interesting time because of varying depictions in relationship to Sara and the question of slavery. Hallam Willis examines the premise that the Evangelical church, as a product of modernity, has lost a sense of the beautiful, and that this sense of the beautiful must be recaptured to regain a usable theology. In the final essay of this section, Michael Knowles explores the question of depiction within the Judeo-Christian artistic tradition and argues not just that one must acknowledge that there are limitations to what we can do as artists in depicting God, but also that we as artists must ourselves be transfigured by the process of artistic creation.

In the next section, on visual enactments, we have three practising artists discussing their work. The first is Elizabeth Brooks, a visual artist who has specialized in sculpture. One of her major works has been her depiction of the Beatitudes, found in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5:3–11). In this essay, she describes how she conceives of these individual depictions as stations, using a longstanding term, for prayer. Heidi Brannan, also a sculptor, offers us a glimpse into her creative process as an artist. She is especially aware of the fundamental problem of depicting in human dimensions the nature of God. Brannan has created a number of large-scale works that require much physical manipulation, and she addresses the very personal way that these works have come about as a process of human, spiritual creation. The final essay is by the actor and writer Gwendolyn Starks. Starks has written and acted in several depictions of major Christian figures, and in this chapter, she talks about her coming to terms with Dorothy Sayers and how that relates to her craft as an actor.

The fourth section is on contemporary interpretation. The first essay is by the poet John Terpstra. As a poet, Terpstra is very sensitive to the issue of words and their selection. In this chapter, he offers a personal glimpse into the process of what it means for him to be a reluctant resident church poet. Not only is his poetry for the church, but it is poetry that ministers in the church. As examples, he includes three of his poems so that we may experience his verbal art that moves beyond the confines of the church. Sid Sudiacal looks to the unlikely figure of Beyoncé as a way to discuss images of God in traditional Yoruban religion, Christianity, and what he calls the prosperity gospel. Sudiacal finds that Yoruban religion and Christianity have more in common than does Christianity and the prosperity gospel. The final chapter, by Caroline Schleier Cutler, addresses an area that is usually on the outer fringes of literary discussion, young adult literature. She confesses that she, although not within the demographics of the genre, is a fan. She is part of a revival in this kind of literature, and she thinks that some examples of it, such as the Harry Potter stories, help us to understand some elements of the Christian story, especially as they are found in Mark’s Gospel.

In the fifth section on music, we have four papers. Lee Beach examines the music of Bruce Springsteen and finds within his music a serious and considered theology that brings together the imagination of the artist with an exploration of Christian themes that are meaningful in a post-modern and even post-Christian world. The next paper is by Bradley Broadhead, himself an accomplished jazz musician. Broadhead uses some of the idioms of jazz music as a way of depicting what he calls the theodrama, finding in the dramatization of theology various rhythms and figures that are made sensical by the medium of jazz. Peter Tigchelaar, a well-known contemporary musician, has written a wide range of music for the contemporary Christian church within especially the contemplative tradition. In this chapter, which is not so much a paper as a contemplative demonstration of how repetition in the contemplative style reinforces the experience, he invites us into his musical, theological form of expression. The final chapter of this section, by David Yoon, provides a linguistic analysis of some examples of contemporary Christian music, with the goal of determining their depth and nature of theological expression. He finds that they are appropriate for the contemporary culture, due to their relational nature.

In the sixth and final section, we have three papers on the topic of the Bible and literature. The first, by Esther Cen, examines a Chinese author, Lin Yutang, and his interpretations of the Bible as seen through his experience of life. Lin was the product of the missionary movement to China, but because of a variety of experiences that went beyond the ordinary, he himself moved in various directions regarding his own beliefs. He provides an excellent example of some of the challenges and dangers of contextualization of the gospel. The next chapter, by Zachary Dawson, examines the language shifts in the book of Daniel from the viewpoint of perspective criticism. Dawson finds that the bilingual shifts within the book correspond to changes in the point of view of the book and hence are consistent with the perspective of the book itself. In the final chapter, Ryder Wishart shows how social constructivism can be used to examine a number of different fictional works—by Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Lewis, and Tolkien—in support of the notion that storytelling is the means by which traditions are exemplified.

One glance at this summary of the essays within this volume—some by practising artists and some by scholars of the Bible, but all by those interested in both—illustrates that there is still much to be said about the relationship between the arts and the Bible within the Christian tradition. The essays admittedly range far and wide over the topic, but that is as we expected and as we hoped for when we invited those from within both camps—admittedly large and diverse camps—to come together to confer on the topic. Far from the arts and the Bible forming an unbridgeable chasm, these essays show that there is plenty of opportunity and scope for exploration of old pathways and carving out of new trails to lead to their intersection and collaboration. We believe that the essays in this volume provide abundant evidence that the arts and the Bible within the Christian tradition represent a still fertile and productive field for continuing exploration.

Bibliography

Popper, Karl. Unended Quest: An Intellectual Biography. London: Fontana/Collins,

1974

.

1

. See Popper, Unended Quest,

56

.

Part One

Perspectives on the Arts

The Fine Arts and the Study of Theology

Mark J. Boda

Every field of research has its array of subfields which are in constant flux due to the hermeneutical character of the fields themselves. These subfields are identified not because of intrinsic qualities but rather values adopted by scholars and their related communities. The array of fields or subfields is often referred to as the encyclopedia, what Muller defined for theology as the complete circle of theological knowing, organized not alphabetically but in terms of the interrelationships of the several subject areas of theology. ² The history of the development of the theological encyclopedia throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries reveals competing views on the subdivision of the discipline. ³ Jacob Paul von Gundling identified a twofold pattern, distinguishing between sciences of theory and practice, that is, between doctrines of faith and rules for living. Friedrich Schleiermacher adopted a threefold pattern, including practical, historical, and philosophical theology. Christoph Pfaff outlined a fivefold pattern which included exegetical, dogmatic, polemical, church historical, and pastoral theology. But it was the fourfold pattern that dominated the period and ultimately captured the imagination of most theological institutions. ⁴ These four core subfields of theology identified by the early nineteenth-century Halle faculty in Germany were exemplary, dividing theology into the disciplines of exegetical, dogmatic, historical, and practical theology.

Within theology these disciplines could be plotted on a continuum between the two horizons of protestant hermeneutics, with its emphasis on Sola Scriptura. On the one side lies the horizon of Scripture and on the other the horizon of culture.⁵ Thus exegetical theology with its program of explicating the meaning of the biblical text in its original contexts (historical, literary, linguistic) is placed closest to the horizon of Scripture, while practical theology with its agenda of exploring the implications of the faith for ministry and life within contemporary contexts is placed closest to the horizon of culture. The discipline of systematic theology is placed to the right of centre between these two horizons since it answers key questions raised about Christian faith and practice within the present moment and cultural context. These answers are arranged in an orderly way to express the faith in accurate and relevant ways for a contemporary audience. The discipline of biblical theology could be placed to the left of centre since it represents a synthetic level of connecting individual exegetical analyses. The discipline of historical theology traces the history of all of these other theological disciplines and so in some ways serves as a meta-discipline, even though it too is obviously influenced by the cultural and scriptural horizons.⁶

Since the Reformation at least the priority and direction of order among these disciplines has been clear within the Protestant church. The concern for Sola Scriptura placed emphasis on the scriptural horizon. The direction of influence and authority was to proceed from the scriptural horizon even if the issues of focus were obviously arising from the cultural horizon. In this environment exegetical theology was given priority and there arose a sense that the biblical text gave rise to theology. In reality though while Scripture was indeed the key authority for the Protestant church, the interpretation of the text was still driven by the concerns of exegetical theologians and the faith communities in which they lived. Greater attention to the presuppositions of those engaged in exegetical theology has become increasingly important and is often noted at the outset of any serious academic work, often reflected in the articulation of one’s methodology for studying the Bible. Tracing the history of exegetical methodology (using this adjective loosely) is instructive for it makes clear the cultural lens through which scholars are reading the text. Post-Enlightenment exegesis prioritized historical and linguistic study of the Scriptures, captured in the grammatico-historical method that dominated much of the modern era. The control of historical and linguistic approaches to exegesis, however, was loosened in the second half of the twentieth century, first with the shift from historical to literary and sociological approaches, and then from literary and sociological approaches to ideological approaches. Methodologies for reading the biblical text have increased considerably in the past few decades, showing the interdisciplinary nature of biblical studies. It may be questioned whether all these forms of biblical studies should still be considered exegetical theology, since the theological enterprise does not always appear to be the goal of such methods, but in general those using these methods have found ways to connect the results to theological reflection or at least to the cultural horizon. This shift in biblical studies reveals that the direction of influence is not merely from the horizon of Scripture to that of culture, but that the cultural horizon has played a role in shaping the methods and perspectives of those studying Scripture.

In the month prior to the Bingham Colloquium captured in this volume, the walls of McMaster Divinity College were taken over by a cadre of friendly artists. It began quiet and subtle enough, but soon the art dominated our space. And in the midst of this artistic environment we continued to carry on our theological study within our academic disciplines. In this context I have been prompted to ask: what does this artistic expression have to do with theology? Or what does Marc Chagall have to do with Brevard Childs?

In the traditional approach to the theological encyclopedia, the cultural horizon has largely been dominated by the discipline of practical theology, with its sub disciplines of missiology, ethics, pastoral studies, homiletics, liturgics, etc. But the present conference which showcases the fine arts and their contribution to faith reveals the need for space within the theological encyclopedia for the fine arts as a reflection of and on the horizon of culture.

The fine arts have traditionally been incorporated into theological studies as part of worldview studies which provides opportunities to reflect Christianly upon all of culture and creation.⁷ In this approach theology creates a framework for how to engage the fine arts, and the hermeneutical movement is from Christian theology to the fine arts.⁸ However, the hermeneutical admission that the cultural horizon has always played a major role in the practice of not only practical and systematic theology, but also exegetical theology has opened the way for considering further impact from cultural enterprises. Our experiment during the period surrounding the Bingham Colloquium is an important reminder of the ways in which the fine arts have provided new strategies for doing theology and especially reading the biblical text, and this work seeks to trace some of the key contributions of the fine arts and provide reflection on the enduring legacy of these contributions.

Just as theology, so the fine arts as an academic discipline has its own encyclopedia. It appears that the sub-fields of literary, visual, musical, and dramatic arts have had the most impact on the discipline of theology and so these sub-fields will be our focus as a way to showcase the impact of the fine arts on disciplines of theology.

Literary Arts

The literary arts have impacted the field of theology most likely due to the dominance of textual forms (Bible, theological treatises) in the theological disciplines. The narrative approach to systematic theology was fostered especially through the work of the Yale School, including George Lindbeck, Hans Frei, and David Kelsey and extended further by Hauerwas, among others.⁹ But this narrative impact can also be discerned within the field of practical theology, often sub-divided into three main streams. The first uses narrative forms in practical ministry and religious communication (like preaching and pastoral care). The second involves empirical analysis and deconstruction of religious subjectivity that is inherent to narrative. The third empowers marginalized voices by creating an audience for their stories.¹⁰

This narrative approach is part of a broader trend of poetics within practical theology. Poetics not only includes narrative elements (narrative structure, genre, plot, and characterization), but also the dynamics of image, metaphor, and symbols in the creation of art.¹¹ Donald Capps’s intriguing volume The Poet’s Gift: Toward the Renewal of Pastoral Care, highlights the resources available in poetry that move the theological discipline from abstract discourse to immediate experience.¹² Our own poetic practical theologian at McMaster Divinity College, Phil Zylla, a disciple of Capps, showcases how poetry offers new ways to engage the discipline of practical theology.¹³ So also narrative has influenced the field of homiletics, leading to the narrative style of preaching.¹⁴

Methods related to the literary arts have exerted considerable influence upon the study of the Bible, as the appropriation of methods used to study narratives and poetry within modern literary departments are now well established as methods for studying both the Old Testament and New Testament narratives.¹⁵ In Old Testament study, this was fostered especially by Jewish scholars such as Meir Sternberg, Robert Alter, Shimon Bar-Efrat, and Adele Berlin, but also many others including J. P. Fokkelman, David Gunn and Danna Fewell, and Jerome Walsh.¹⁶ In recent years there has been considerable interest in Russian formalists like Mikhail Bakhtin,¹⁷ and other streams influenced by narrative study such as Autobiographical and Perspective Criticism.¹⁸ The study of poetry has also impacted research on the Bible, especially as seen in the work of Robert Alter, Adele Berlin, James Kugel, Wilfred Watson, as well as the more recent work of F. W. Dobbs-Allsopp.¹⁹

Influence from the literary arts on the field of theology was natural due to the emphasis within theology on text, whether the biblical text or the rich tradition of written theological treatises throughout the two millennia of the church. But other forms of art have also contributed to the study of theology and increasingly so in recent decades.

Visual Arts

A relationship between theology and the visual arts is not difficult to trace since the visual arts during the Christian era have drawn much inspiration from biblical and theological witnesses.²⁰ However, the direction of influence has not been strictly from theology to visual art as theories related to visual art have been leveraged to explain the theological enterprise.²¹

Again, Donald Capps highlights the way visual arts informs practical theology as he draws on theories of art and artistic creativity.²² Capps, for instance, draws on Rudolf Arnheim’s approach to the compositional structure of paintings as a way to understand the relationship between theology and psychology.

Visual art has influenced systematic theology as well. Edward Farley speaks of theological portraiture when seeking to describe theological reflection in ways other than abstract doctrine and instead in terms of a picture, less a photograph than an impressionistic painting. Furthermore:

Portraiture is itself a constantly changing enterprise. It resembles an artist constantly redoing a portrait and even offering new portraits of a child who is growing up. We need not conclude from this metaphor, however, that the process of change in the history of Christianity is necessarily one of maturation. Further, the focus of the portrait is not on essence, a kernel in a husk. Yet the portrait does try to capture the unity, the interrelation of features. The result, if successful—the face staring out of the portrait—is ecclesiality.²³

Citing the address of Langdon Gilkey to the Art Institute of Chicago, John Dillenberger reminds us that art’s contribution to theology lies not merely in illustration of attained knowledge, but in their approach to their craft since art makes us see in new and different ways, below the surface and beyond the obvious.²⁴ Dillenberger continues by highlighting the key role that visual arts have played in the prolegomena and analysis of systematic theologians ranging from Hans Urs von Balthasar and Paul Tillich to John Cobb and Mark C. Taylor.

Exegetical theology has also been influenced by the visual arts. Fiona Black and Cheryl Exum’s Semiotics in Stained Glass highlights the role that a visual art tradition can play in tracing the reception history of a text like Song of Songs.²⁵ In recent years iconographic analysis has arisen from the discipline of art history where it was championed by Erwin Panofsky.²⁶ It is increasingly used by biblical scholars and scholars of the ancient Near East to read biblical texts against the backdrops of visual art in antiquity.²⁷

Musical Arts

Wendy Porter has provided a helpful overview of the close relationship between music and theology, highlighting particularly composers in the role of interpreter of the Bible, since the composer, in writing sacred music, has had the unique opportunity of engaging intellectually with the text at a theological level by composing a musical work that recreates the text in some new form. In this new form, the composer sets out for performance and for evaluation a personal or collective interpretation of the biblical text.²⁸ Jeremy Begbie notes the role that music can play in the formation of one’s theology, asking how can the world of music enrich Christian thinking? How can it help us explore, discover, and understand more deeply the great drama of the Christian faith?²⁹ In light of this tradition of theological interpretation in artistic form, musical arts have provided insight into how theologians have approached their discipline.

Particularly helpful have been insights from the dynamics of performance within music to shape approaches to practical theology,³⁰ whether that is reflection on the Eucharist by Nicholas Lash or on homiletics by Frances Young.³¹ Young in particular leverages insights from music improvisation as well as the use of cadenzas in concertos to illuminate dynamics within preaching and interpretation.³² This trend of drawing on musical performance for theological prolegomena is also evident in systematic theology as exemplified in the works of individuals like Philip Stoltzfus who notes the role of music in the hermeneutical framework of Schleiermacher, Karl Barth, and Ludwig Wittgenstein, and one can see a similar trend in von Balthasar who draws on Mozart and the image of the symphony to describe theology.³³ For Stoltzfus musical performance is akin to theology in that it resists satisfactory expression in propositional form.³⁴ Maeve Louise Heaney has leveraged the aesthetic within the epistemological framework of Bernard Lonergan as the basis for drawing on insights in music studies for theological method.³⁵ The musical arts have also impacted the sub discipline of exegetical theology. This impact is seen in the use of musical compositions when tracing the reception history of biblical texts, for instance, the use of biblical texts and themes in Handel’s Messiah.³⁶ It is also seen in the rise of the field of archaeomusicology which explores music cultures and uses this information to shape interpretation of biblical texts, alongside other texts in antiquity.³⁷

Dramatic Arts

As seen in the previous section on musical arts, the dynamics of performance have played a role in shaping theological method and discovery and this extends as well to the dramatic arts.³⁸ The impact of dramatic performance is exemplified within practical and systematic theology in von Balthasar’s five volume Theo-drama: Theological Drama Theory.³⁹ In drama he finds the dynamics that help capture the relationship within the Trinity as well as between God and creation, using plot, characters, and dialogue. Interestingly, von Balthasar traces his interest in the intersection between the arts and theology to his Jesuit training which he considered the desert of neo-scholasticism.⁴⁰ Kevin Vanhoozer is another who has employed a dramatic model for understanding the role of doctrine within the church which invites individuals and communities to participate in the drama of God’s renewal through Jesus Christ.⁴¹

The impact of the dramatic arts, however, is also evident in exegetical theologians both on the synthetic level of biblical theology and on the analytical level of biblical exegesis. N. T. Wright uses the image of a Shakespearean drama to set the agenda for theological application of the Scriptures. For Wright the Scriptures are the initial acts of a play lacking its final scenes. The absent scenes comprise the post-biblical experience of the