No comments about Intruding upon the Timeless: Meditations on Art, Faith, and Mystery.

1 comments about Living Images: Japanese Buddhist Icons in Context (Asian Religions and Cultures).

1. I've been waiting a long time for a book like this. Back when I lived in Japan I regularly visited temples, and was especially fascinated with the many statues and paintings of Buddhist deities there. And while many of them had incredible artistic value purely from an aesthetic angle, it was also clear that these weren't merely art objects but something a lot more. What exactly was hard to determine. Any books I found in English or Japanese only discussed them from the art historical angle. "Living Images" here is different. It discusses their real religious significance; their role in ritual, their function in religious practice, how they were conceived of, what they are doing there besides providing interior decor.
   
   In the introduction, Robert Sharf discusses the reasons why art historians overlook the religious dimension of these Buddhist icons and why Buddhologists and scholars of Japanese Religion tend to ignore them entirely. Then he takes on the aggressive Christian missionary rhetoric of "idolatry" and outlines some of the Buddhist doctrinal formulations relevant to Buddhist iconography. After this of course come the four essays of which the book chiefly consists. "Portraits of Shinran in Medieval Pure Land Buddhism" by James Dobbins, "'My Reflection Should Be Your Keepsake': Myoe's Vision of the Kasuga Deity" by Karen Brock, "Icons and Relics in Eison's Religious Activities" by Paul Groner--which focuses especially on icons of Shakamuni, Aizen Myoo, and Monju Bosatsu at Saidaiji Temple, and "Visualization and Mandala in Shingon Buddhism" by Robert Sharf again. These articles are all uniformly well-written and scholarly.
   
   And it IS a book about icons after all, so thank goodness it is profusely illustrated with eight color plates and 47 black & white pictures.

1 comments about Art and the Christian Mind: The Life and Work of H. R. Rookmaaker.

1. This is one of the few places one can get info on Rookmaker, but you will have to wade through the poor writing style of Ms. Gasque to get at the nuggets buried there. Ironic, given the work of Rookmaker.

1 comments about Drawing Closer: The Paintings and Personal Reflections of Carolyn Blish.

1. I inherited my appreciation for Carolyn Blish artwork from my father. When I came upon this book in a local bookstore, I immediately purchased it for his birthday which was a couple of months away. When I took the book home, I couldn't put it down. I discovered that Carolyn Blish paints so much more than just the beach scenes that I had become so fond of over the years. The paintings in "Drawing Closer" all struck me as being very calm and peaceful. In addition to reflections and stories shared by Carolyn Blish, the book is sprinkled with quotes from various individuals that beautifully match the spiritual feelings reflected in her work. As difficult as it was, I did indeed give the book to my father for his birthday. He was just as delighted with the book as I was. We have an added interest in this book. In the book, Ms. Blish talks about learning to fly a plane. My father may be the flight instructor mentioned in her book! This book is a feast for the eyes, the heart, and the soul. It is a must have for anyone who enjoys the work of Carolyn Blish.

2 comments about Good Taste, Bad Taste, and Christian Taste: Aesthetics in Religious Life.

1. Frank Burch Brown is one of the star professors of my seminary. One of the things that made me select the seminary was their interest in aesthetics, the arts and theology, and by the arts, we mean a wide variety of arts -- architecture, visual arts, music, drama, and more. Frank Burch Brown does credit to this range of the arts in his text.

   First, perhaps a word on the title is fitting. By 'taste', Brown does not mean necessarily to imply preference or status in an elitism way, although well aware that this particular meaning will likely be the first one perceived. Rather, think of 'taste' as an action, something one does, like taking a bite of an apple -- art is too often a passive construct in modern society; Brown calls upon the individual or community experiencing art to participate with it. This is particularly important in church communities, whose ideas of art and the relative value of the same vary widely.

   Taste, Brown states, is something intimately connected to morality and to religious feeling and belief. One can see this demonstrated both in reactions to museum displays that are controversial as well as the critique Christians give to each other about church architecture, hymnody, or vestment and design styles.

   Brown shares in-depth theological analysis well supported and supplemented with historical information, talking about the good and the bad throughout the experience of Christendom as it relates back to modern experience. However, this is not a history text either in form or function. Perhaps the strongest section Brown presents is on music; music has become a vital piece of worship for many, sometimes the sine qua non of worship. Also, Brown's artistic background in strong in music, as he is a composer in addition to professor and writer. Music is one of the most community-building and the most divisive of elements in modern worship practice -- anyone who has dared suggest a different style of hymn in church can attest to this! In music as a case study one can see the different pieces that go into determining taste across age, culture and social lines.

   Perhaps the most novel and entertaining section is chapter five, dealing with Kitsch, Sacred and Profane -- the question of quality. In amusing but instructive fashion, Brown compares the Hagia Sophia and the early Russians' experience of it with the Precious Moments Chapel in Missouri, and how both have value but both can also be suspect in different frameworks. The difficulty of dealing with kitsch, to a large extent determined by the mass-marketability and commodity-nature of the offerings, is an instructive one; kitsch is designed to easily produce a response, often in a base or 'cheap' manner, as often occurs with the million-plus visitors to the chapel of tear-drop eyed children.

   In the final chapters, Brown offers a critique of the current situation, from which Christians of all backgrounds may draw inspiration and none escape the occasional tweak. Brown also offers a few suggestions and alternative ways of thinking about things through his observations. While this book is primarily for a Christian audience, Brown does bring in examples from other faith traditions.

   This is not a book for scholars exclusively, but those of an academic bent will appreciate the generous notes and the extensive index. However, the text is accessible and the writing style engaging such that any reader of undergraduate training or higher should have little problem with understanding. My one real disappointment with the text is that there are relatively few illustrations and figures, which in a text dealing with art and aesthetics is a bit surprising. The illustrations included fit the text perfectly, and one wonders what more could have been included to good effect.

   Take a bite.




2. Good Taste, Bad Taste, and Christian Taste, by Frank Burch Brown, a slow read at first, evolves into a very reasoned and interesting look at how the church regards the arts, and how the arts regards the church. Do not be put off by the elitist sounding title of the book. Brown uses the word "taste" as "to savor" and "to experience" much as the psalmist does in Psalm 34:8. The title is intentionally deceptive.

   Interestingly, the author utilizes the terms religious and sacred somewhat ambiguously, without clearly defining a distinction between the reality of the institutional church and the "holy". As a composer of church music himself, Brown is clearly more pragmatic in his discussion of the musical art, but resolute in an absolute consideration of other arts. His chapter on "kitsch" is especially refreshing and enjoyable to read, and his analysis of today's worship wars is well thought out and objective. One caveat concerns Brown's approach to the subject of worship itself, which is here treated as a passive event in which the worshipper is a bystander. For Brown's purposes, this may make sense, as this puts music, as an art, on the same plain as the other arts (also considered here) in which performance is not an opportunity. Worship, however, is an act of the church in which all present participate. The unique aesthetics of the participant and performer of worship and the lively arts is perhaps a subject for another book. I recommend this book highly for all church leaders: clergy and laity alike. Tragedy is, those who really need to hear the wisdom of this book, will never read it.

No comments about Reminders of Invisible Light: The Art of Beth Ames Swartz, 1960-2000.

No comments about The Treasury of Saint Francis of Assisi: Masterpieces from the Museo Della Basilica of San Francesca.

1 comments about Reinventing the Wheel: Paintings of Rebirth in Medieval Buddhist Temples.

1. Teiser--D. T. Sukuki professor in Buddhist Studies at Princeton--puts the classical source of the wheel as the preferred and eventually conventional symbol for the Buddhist spiritual concept of a series of lifetimes for nearly every person with the Mulasarvastivada school of Indian Buddhism. Although this school is only one of many schools of Buddhism which have grown up throughout Asia over centuries, the location of the Mulasarvastivada school in north-central India where Buddhism originated and the time of its formation in the early though not the initial development of Indian Buddhism gave its teachings and practices an exceptional canonical authority. "[A]s the canonical story of the wheel of rebirth shows, the vinaya [the 'voluminous canon of monastic discipline'] provided the narrative authority for a collective enterprise that drew lay people to Buddhist temples and sent monks and nuns out into the lay community."
   
   The circular shape of the wheel is the basic configuration uniting this central symbol of Buddhism as it spread throughout Asia in the following centuries. Like the cross of Christianity, the wheel of Buddhism has become identified with this world religion. But different features of the wheel symbolizing different concepts and tenets of Buddhism have been emphasized in different regions and different times. The wheel's hub, spokes, and rim are three "compositional elements" highlighted by Teiser; with the hub, for instance, signifying both a focus and "what drives the wheel, what makes it go around." The fourth "property of the wheel is that it marks off an inside from an outside." This most complex compositional element of a wheel represents the closed system involving endless cycles of death and rebirth, but also indicates transcendence beyond this since the Buddhist wheel is always in the context of a square frame putting the wheel into perspective and suggesting that there is a realm of spirituality outside of it. "The point of the wheel, so to speak, is to move outside of it."
   
   With keen aesthetic discernment, extensive historical scholarship, and sensitivity to Buddhist spirituality, this work seamlessly studies all significant aspects of the Buddhist wheel found in old Buddhist temples while bringing in relevant dimensions of Buddhist spirituality. Art, symbology, history, culture, and spirituality are interwoven in an engrossing, enlightening manner.

2 comments about The Gothic Image: Religious Art in France of the Thirteenth Century (Icon Editions Series).

1. The Gothic Image captures through art and architecture the spirit and elan of the medieval renaissance in ways histories and biographies cannot. Unlike today, where contemporary art and architecture either may or may not mimic our age, the Gothic Image is an imprint of its time and place. Male leaves few artifacts unturned, and explores in so many different facets of the polysemy of its age. A must for every medievalist, and gem for artists, theologians, architects, and "builders" of meaning. This highly critical reviewer gives it full accolades, and recommends all interested parties to grab this reprint before it too fades from view!



2. I can think of no better introduction, as well as comprehensive review, of the medieval renaissance than this wonderful synthesis of medieval art and medieval sacramentalism, wherein the whole universe, from stellar constellations, to the gargoyle atop cathedral buttresses, comes alive in all its many dimensions. This book, long out of print, was the gem of my undergraduate work in medieval history, philosophy, art, and architecture. The price is a bit steep, but this one book can remain a perpetual resource for insight, understanding, and knowledge of a different time and place -- so foreign and alien to today's historicity, but that captures the imagination and never lets go.

3 comments about Architecture in Communion: Implementing the Second Vatican Council Through Liturgy and Architecture.

1. Steven Schloeder has written a book in which he attempts to capture what he describes as the 'true spirit of the Second Vatican Council' in architectural design for churches. Schloeder identifies difficulties in theology and liturgy that have, in his opinion, translated also in problem architecturally. With regard to modernism, he states, 'Many prominent Catholic thinkrs have not discerningly separated the wheat from the chaff and have accepted certain secondary issues as primary ones.' Among these are issues of the Eucharist being a sacrificial meal vs. a communal one, or the difference between the ministerial priesthood and the common priesthood of all being downplayed - these and others are issues that he discusses briefly in theological and historical terms, but quickly develops the way in which architecture shapes and is shaped by such ideas.
   
   Schloeder's vision for the book is set out in the introduction: 'Our goal is to enliven the parish community - which is the true Church built of living stones in Christ - with a material church building designed to serve and further the primary vocation to become a community of love, which must mean a people of sacrifice and redemption.' This is a constant theme throughout the entire text, always present in the spirit of the photographs, drawings, and essays.
   
   Even the structure of the book speaks of an underlying theological bent - three clusters of three chapters. The first three chapters explore issues of history, sociology, theology and liturgy with regard to the modern Catholic church building. The nature of the church is a primary consideration when considering what kind of design and structure its physical enclosure and manifestation should bear.
   
   The second cluster of three chapters look at particular architectural aspects. One chapter examines the needs of the santuary itself, another chapter more broadly at other services and sacramental needs, and the final chapter the wider considerations of the church family and its place in the community. In this later aspect, the church building can grow from being the domus ecclesiae (house church, or home of the church) to being a civitas dei (a city of God).
   
   The final three chapters look at artistic and aesthetic elements, particularly the icon; Schloeder strives to regain the iconographic aspect of the church in the community. The building itself can be a symbol and a work of art, and most certainly should be a sacramental space.
   
   Schloeder is honest about this book not being an answer book - to many of the issues he explores, he has no concrete answers to offer, but rather serves to highlight particular issues for consideration. Indeed, in the creativity of modern architecture, there are often multiple solutions to the same problems.
   
   This book has hundreds of photographs, examples of architecture modern, medieval and ancient, works of art, and outside symbols and examples. It is rather fun, for example, to see a picture of the British House of Commons chamber as an example of similar types of church architecture, then to know that the British HoC is modeled on the older structure in which the Members met in the choir stalls of a chapel.
   
   The writing is crisp and flowing, and fits very well its topic and the surrounding images. This is a good book for all those interested in architecture, church design, liturgy, and the intersection of theology with material arts.



2. ARCHITECTURE IN COMMUNION gave an excellent insight into the challenges and crises that Catholic church art has faced since the Second Vatican Council. Mr. Schloeder really understands the anguish that many traditional church artisans faced following the aftermath of the Council--when confusion seemed to leave traditional Catholic church arts at a crossroads.



3. "Architecture in Communion" is a detailed, yet highly approachable, weaving of theology, liturgy, architectural history, and iconography. Schloeder's vision for a restoration of beauty and meaning in Catholic church design is both original and solidly rooted in the traditions of the faith.

   His central premise is that Catholic church architecture is essentially "sacramental", that is to say, the material building is meant to be an icon or an image of the spiritual reality of the Church. Drawing upon sources from Scripture, the Church Fathers, architectural history, conciliar documents, canon law, and the Catechism, Schloeder shows us the symbolical language that has traditionally underpinned Catholic church design, and examines each part of the church (nave, sanctuary, altar, ambo, baptistery, etc.) with respect to its function, traditional form, symbolic meaning, and canonical status.

   The book is very nicely illustrated with over 300 photos and illustrations.