Art
Love binds and builds, heals and hallows, redeems and restores. A broken world can expect all this and more, say our Johannine scriptures, when God’s power courses mystically through human events. John 10 finds the shepherd Jesus foretelling self-sacrificial love for the sheep. In John 15, Jesus calls the faithful to be willing to lay down their lives for their friends.
1 John 4 focuses on the intimate nature of God’s love for us, which evokes our love for others, while the next chapter equates the love of God with keeping the divine commandments. On the stage of Acts 1, 4, 8, and 10, the fruit-bearing and inclusive nature of divinely inspired love is dramatized by the great cast that is the early church.
This month’s passages offer both a head-on command to love and a traveler’s guide to the nature of love itself. John makes up only 10 percent of the New Testament, yet it provides a full third of the references to love. “Love” appears in John more often as a verb than a noun. Feelings won’t suffice. Actions must prevail.
The Holy One leads us beside still waters and restores our souls, whether we are Gentiles, eunuchs, or the homeless of Detroit. This power of life originates from God in every moment, forming living, healthy relationships.
God chose to enter history and love us. We must choose to love others and head into a world that doesn’t like those who love unconditionally.
These paintings were part of an exposition held in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It was no ordinary exposition.
In Image and Spirit, author and artist Karen Stone recounts comments she overheard in a modern art museum one November day
I avoid movies with car chases and wish more television heroes were not both handsome and single. In my reading, however, I tend to be more open-minded.
The Motor City may never lack for drama, but until the Mosaic Youth Theatre came along there were few opportunities for young people to express themselves on stage.
THANK YOU, Don Michael Hudson, for an intelligent, well-thought-through article on the arts and the Christian's freedom toward them
For too long civic participation in the arts has been viewed as the domain of the wealthy, but a new study by the Urban Institute suggests otherwise.
For years activists have called attention to the plight of the Palestinians through protests, teach-ins, and seminars.
The Gallery at the American Bible Society in New York City recently presented "Reflections on Glass: 20th Century Stained Glass in American Art and Architecture."
Worshippers at St. Mary's Episcopal Cathedral, in Glasgow, Scotland, are now sharing pews with Scotland's most avant-garde artists.
A national study documents what many congregations already knew—that the arts are good for faith, and faith can be good for the arts.
Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church's new building demonstrates how architecture can incarnate the history, strength, and spirit of a people.
"Art has the power to heal spiritual, emotional, and physical brokenness."
Artist Barry Moser's new illustrated Bible shows that the people of scripture---and books themselves---are very much alive.