The Wisdom and Power of the Cross

"""The book will be valuable for those in the visual arts as well as theology. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates; graduate students; professionals."" -- A. W. Klink, CHOICE ""Richard Viladesau is the rare person with the kind of experience, learning, and creativity to embark on a cross-disciplinary effort such as this. He offers a masterful synthesis of meticulous research, wise sensibility, and wide-ranging aesthetic curiosity. This book is a triumph."" -- Peter C. Bouteneff, Professor of Systematic Theology and Director of the Institute of Sacred Arts at St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary ""Richard Viladesau draws a new geography confirming the arts as historical documents for the doing of theology as he spans the work of 20th and 21st century Catholic, Protestant, and Eastern Orthodox theologians as well as feminist, liberation, and Black theology. Particularly enlightening are his analyses of the cross in film from DeMille to Gibson and in music from Pärt to Adams. Throughout he expands how the recognition and place of salvation history is communicated in the secular century."" -- Diane Apostolos-Cappadona, Professor Emerita of Religious Art and Cultural History, Georgetown University ""In this magisterial volume, Richard Viladesau explores what the Cross means in late modernity and postmodernity. He does so through a traversal of an extraordinarily wide range of sources, theological and philosophical, and through the arts, including the plastic arts, film and music, revealing a depth of thought unique amongst theologians of our time. This is a daringly provocative and innovative work, essential for anyone interested in theology and the arts."" -- Very Rev. Dr Ivan Moody, CESEM - Universidade Nova, Lisbon"