The Arts and the Christian Life

Earl Davey

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English

Wipf & Stock Publishers
09 May 2022

Religious subjects depicted in art; Literature: history & criticism; Christianity; Christian life & practice; Personal Christian testimony & inspirational works

Many find their engagement with works of art raises questions concerning where value is found and how meaning and import are understood and experienced. For persons of Christian faith, a parallel question arises concerning the significance such experience holds for the Christian life and the spiritual journey. This collection of essays pursues questions that address how we perceive value in our experience of the arts, how this experience leads to a greater measure of human fullness, and what significance engagement with the arts holds for the Christian life. The author argues that human experience and the quality of our personhood are enriched in and through the imaginative life and that our spiritual lives are profoundly impacted by our aesthetic engagements. An underlying assumption is that all great art, all that is beautiful, is inherently religious: that is, it embodies qualities that reflect the glory of God and is therefore valuable to the Christian life and one's spiritual experience. Indeed, insofar as the noetic privileges language and reason, the arts and the domain of the aesthetic provide an alternate pathway by which we are able to encounter the Divine.

By: Earl Davey
Imprint: Wipf & Stock Publishers
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 9mm
Weight: 227g
ISBN: 9781666733310
ISBN 10: 1666733318
Pages: 162
Publication Date: 09 May 2022
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Earl Davey was for an extended period a member of the Brandon University Faculty of Music, where he was director of choral music and both taught and published in the field of philosophy of music. Davey was vice president academic of Tyndale University College and Seminary, and later he held a similar post at Canadian Mennonite University in Winnipeg. He was a contributing member of the Canadian Society for Aesthetics for many years.

Reviews for The Arts and the Christian Life

The role of the arts in a life of faith is a concept worth exploring. Through an examination of thought and practice, The Arts and the Christian Life invites us into this conversation, presenting ideas that resonated with my experience. I came away with a renewed hope regarding the merits of artistic practice, not as an aside to faith but as an integral part of living out salvation. --Lisa Lysack, visual artist 'The soul is the form of forms, ' said Joyce in Ulysses. Earl Davey, in The Arts and the Christian Life, philosophically examines the role of art in the life of the individual and in the church and attempts to answer the question of how art can be understood to shape the Christian soul in such a manner that it manifests a way of being in Christ. --Sally Ito, Canadian Mennonite University Few things are more perplexing to the congregation than the role of beauty in worship. Why does beauty matter? Does beauty lead us to God? Who decides whether something is beautiful and according to what criteria? In this illuminating book, Earl Davey guides us through major themes in the field of aesthetics, explaining at each stage of the argument how and why great music, painting, and poetry lead us into the beauty of holiness. --David Widdicombe, former rector, St. Margaret's Anglican Church Davey conducts his readers faithfully through philosophical nuances of aesthetics and the value of the arts raised throughout Western civilization's discourse. Most eloquent is Davey's evocation of mankind's need to strive for richer meaning and purpose, to 'revel in the magnificence of the creation, and in the joy . . . found in creating.' --Karen Holland, teacher and visual artist Lyrical, passionate, and persuasive, Davey's argument for the embrace of the arts as a way to experience greater wholeness and joy in the Christian walk will be welcome for anyone seeking to reconcile serious faith with serious artistry. The fruit of a lifetime of devotion, musical engagement, philosophical reflection, and teaching, it ought to stimulate debate in classrooms, greenrooms, and vestries regarding the extent to which God reveals himself through great works of art. --Yuri Hooker, principal cello, Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, and associate pastor, Bethesda Church