Modern Art and the Life of a Culture – The Religious Impulses of Modernism

Christianity Today Book of the Year Award of Merit - Culture and the Arts For many Christians, engaging with modern art raises several questions: Is the Christian faith at odds with modern art? Does modernism contain religious themes? What is the place of Christian artists in the landscape of modern art?Nearly fifty years ago, Dutch art historian and theologian Hans Rookmaaker offered his answers to these questions when he published his groundbreaking work, Modern Art and the Death of a Culture, which was characterized by both misgivings and hopefulness. While appreciating Rookmaaker's invaluable contribution to the study of theology and the arts, this volume—coauthored by an artist and a theologian—responds to his work and offers its own answers to these questions by arguing that there were actually strong religious impulses that positively shaped modern visual art. Instead of affirming a pattern of decline and growing antipathy towards faith, the authors contend that theological engagement and inquiry can be perceived across a wide range of modern art—French, British, German, Dutch, Russian, and North American—and through particular works by artists such as Gauguin, Picasso, David Jones, Caspar David Friedrich, van Gogh, Kandinsky, Warhol, and many others.This Studies in Theology and the Arts volume brings together the disciplines of art history and theology and points to the signs of life in modern art in order to help Christians navigate these difficult waters.The Studies in Theology and the Arts  series encourages Christians to thoughtfully engage with the relationship between their faith and artistic expression, with contributions from both theologians and artists on a range of artistic media including visual art, music, poetry, literature, film, and more.

"In seven chapters, artist/art critic Jonathan Anderson and noted cultural theologian William Dyrness offer a compelling counter-narrative to Hans Rookmaaker's provocative and highly influential Modern Art and the Death of a Culture. . . . This volume is indispensible not only for Christians seeking to be faithful participants in the contemporary art world (artists, curators, critics, etc.) but anyone desiring a fascinating account of the omission of religious sources feeding modern art. Indeed, by taking modern art on its own terms, the authors have demonstrated convincingly that the standard story of modern art as a purveyor of secularism is untenable, making it impossible ever to view modern art the same way.", "Just what should Christians think of modern art? Is it void of all religious impulses and persuasions? Or is there a deeper vision often left unexplored? Rather than writing off the last century and a half of visual art as purely secular, Anderson and Dyrness meticulously detail the patterns of piety and spirituality that both influenced and empowered artists like van Gogh, Gauguin, Kandinsky, and Warhol.", "This book signals an important mid-course correction in evangelical scholarship about modern art and it should become a staple textbook in college and seminary classes.", "In Modern Art and the Life of a Culture, Anderson and Dyrness have combined their expertise to provide a treatment of modern art that is historically accurate, aesthetically conscientious, and theologically grounded.", "In this compelling collaboration between an artist and a theologian, Jonathan A. Anderson and William A. Dyrness begin a conversation about how Christian artists, critics, enthusiasts and theologians can reclaim and rediscover modern art, identifying and celebrating its religious and spiritual impulses."

Jonathan A. Anderson (MFA, California State University, Long Beach) is an artist, art critic and associate professor of art at Biola University. He is the coauthor, along with Amos Yong, of Renewing Christian Theology: Systematics for a Global Christianity and a contributor to Christian Scholarship in the Twenty-First Century: Prospects and Perils. William A. Dyrness (DTheol, University of Strasbourg; Doctorandus, Free University) is professor of theology and culture at Fuller Theological Seminary. He is the author of many books, including Poetic Theology: God and the Poetics of Everyday Life, Senses of the Soul: Art and the Visual in Christian Worship, Reformed Theology and Visual Culture: The Protestant Imagination from Calvin to Edwards, and Visual Faith: Art, Theology, and Worship in Dialogue.