Bezalel’s Body: The Death of God and the Birth of Art
When God died, art was born. With Christ's crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, the human imagination began to be remade. In Bezalel's Body: The Death of God and the Birth of Art, Harvard-trained art historian Katie Kresser locates the historical roots of the thing we call art. She weaves together centuries of art history, philosophy, theology, psychology, and art theory to uncover the deep spiritual foundations of this cultural form. Why do some people pay hundreds of millions of dollars for a single painting? Why are art museums almost like modern temples? The answer lies in Christian theology and the earliest forms of Christian image making. By examining how cutting-edge art trends reveal age-old spiritual dynamics, Kresser helps recover an ancient tradition with vital relevance for today.
“In this ranging, evocative book, Katie Kresser reframes the way
we approach art. Every encounter with a painting is an encounter
with otherness, a reminder of a world beyond myself and of a
mystery beyond the world. To stand before a painting or a sculpture
is to be called into a relationship, one that aims to change me in
the process. After this book, you’ll never walk through a museum in
the same way again.”
—James K. A. Smith, Professor of Philosophy, Calvin University,
Editor-in-Chief of Image journal
“The old wineskins of art history, visual culture, and traditional
theology are unable to contain the wine served up in this volume.
Simply put, Bezalel’s Body is the most satisfying account of
the emergence of art that I have encountered. In conversation with
art theory but not captive to it, Kresser is adventurous and
faithful to the extreme, offering both an assault on our
selfishness and a summons to joy.”
—Matthew J. Milliner, Associate Professor of Art History, Wheaton
College
“Theologically profound, art-historically wide-ranging, and—best of
all—direct, candid, and generous in tone. Bezalel’s Body
does what it tells us that good art does: it helps us better
appreciate the wonder of our own substantial reality, and that of
others, and does so in a reconciling spirit. That is, it would like
us to be more connected and better connected. The book is
refreshing and stimulating in equal measure, with the potential not
only to inform its readers but to transform them.”
—Ben Quash, Professor of Christianity and the Arts, King’s College
London
“In this ranging, evocative book, Katie Kresser reframes the way
we approach art. Every encounter with a painting is an encounter
with otherness, a reminder of a world beyond myself and of a
mystery beyond the world. To stand before a painting or a sculpture
is to be called into a relationship, one that aims to change me in
the process. After this book, you’ll never walk through a museum in
the same way again.”
—James K. A. Smith, Professor of Philosophy, Calvin University,
Editor-in-Chief of Image journal
“The old wineskins of art history, visual culture, and traditional
theology are unable to contain the wine served up in this volume.
Simply put, Bezalel’s Body is the most satisfying account of
the emergence of art that I have encountered. In conversation with
art theory but not captive to it, Kresser is adventurous and
faithful to the extreme, offering both an assault on our
selfishness and a summons to joy.”
—Matthew J. Milliner, Associate Professor of Art History, Wheaton
College
“Theologically profound, art-historically wide-ranging, and—best of
all—direct, candid, and generous in tone. Bezalel’s Body
does what it tells us that good art does: it helps us better
appreciate the wonder of our own substantial reality, and that of
others, and does so in a reconciling spirit. That is, it would like
us to be more connected and better connected. The book is
refreshing and stimulating in equal measure, with the potential not
only to inform its readers but to transform them.”
—Ben Quash, Professor of Christianity and the Arts, King’s College
London
Product Details
- Title : Bezalel’s Body: The Death of God and the Birth of Art
- Authors:
- Kresser, Katie
- Herman, Bruce
- Publisher: Cascade Books
- Publication Date: 2019
- ISBN: 9781532645662
Katie Kresser is Professor of Art History at Seattle Pacific University. She received her PhD from Harvard University in 2006, where she specialized in American and European modernism with a secondary focus on early Christian and medieval art. She is the author of several critical essays as well as the book The Art and Thought of John La Farge (2013).