The Faithful Artist: A Vision for Evangelicalism and the Arts

by Cameron J. Anderson

Publisher:

IVP Academic

, 2016

Overview

The tension between Christianity and the arts is often real. But it also offers a false dichotomy. Many Christian artists think that they must choose between their faith and their artistic calling.

Drawing upon his experiences as both a Christian and a practicing artist, Cameron J. Anderson explores the dynamics of faith and art in this Studies in Theology and the Arts volume. Tracing the relationship between evangelicalism and modern art in postwar America—two entities that often found themselves at odds with each other—Anderson raises several issues that confront artists. With skill, sensitivity, and insight, he considers questions such as the role of our bodies and our senses in our experience of the arts, the relationship between text and image, the persistent dangers of idolatry, the possibility of pursuing God through an encounter with beauty, and more.

Throughout this study, Anderson’s principal concern is how Christian artists can faithfully pursue their vocational calling in contemporary culture. Readers will find here not only an informed and thoughtful response, but also a vision that offers guidance and hope.

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.

Contents

List of Images
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. A Double-Consciousness
2. The Body They May Kill
3. Secular Sirens
4. Be Careful Little Eyes What You See
5. A People of the Book and the Image
6. A Semblance of a Whole
7. The Music of the Spheres
8. An Aesthetic Pilgrimage
Bibliography
Image Credits
Author Index
Subject Index
Scripture Index

Praise for The Faithful Artist

"Cam Anderson has read a lot of good books and that’s part of what makes this book so rich and rewarding. But, far more importantly, this book represents a lifelong engagement with the arts and a deep faithfulness to Anderson’s roots in the evangelical church. So this is a personal book in the best possible sense. It is, to quote Eugene Peterson, evidence of ‘a long obedience in the same direction.’"

"From the perspective of his longtime dual residency in both the modern art world and the evangelical church, my good friend Cam Anderson is uniquely qualified to lead evangelicals and artists to understand and love one another. As I encountered a wide range of modern art in his book (Manet, Monet, Newman, Rothko, Warhol, Pollock and many others) I experienced a sense of wonder at the power and elegance of work that I had not noticed or appreciated before. For Christians seeking an aesthetic adventure in the modern art world and for Christian artists working to fulfill their God-given vocation, this book provides excellent guidance from one who is a faithful Christian and a gifted artist."

"Cam Anderson’s The Faithful Artist is the most probing analysis ever written on the roots of the negative attitude of twentieth-century evangelicals toward the visual arts. Anderson knows evangelicalism from the inside. What greatly enhances his analysis is that it is set within the context of a broad, deep and sympathetic understanding of developments in the world of the visual arts in the twentieth century. The book reaches its climax with an eloquent, biblically based appeal to evangelicals to engage the visual arts, both as creators and as viewers. We have needed this very book for a long time."

"An engaging and carefully researched summation of where Christian faith and visual art have been and where they may be headed. Artists are invited to take a seat at a wedding feast where binary opposition withers and an enriched complexity emerges. Observing how conviction and restless longing coexist in ‘the faithful artist,’ Anderson sets out to illuminate a way forward."

Product Details

• Title: The Faithful Artist: A Vision for Evangelicalism and the Arts
• Author: Cameron J. Anderson
• Series: Unchanging Commission
• Publisher: IVP Academic
• Print Publication Date: 2016
• Logos Release Date: 2021
• Pages: 283
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Ebook
• ISBNs: 9780830894420, 9780830850648, 0830850643, 083089442X
• Resource ID: LLS:9780830894420
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2025-04-22T21:25:48Z

About Cameron J. Anderson

Cameron J. Anderson (MFA, Cranbrook Academy of Art) is an artist and the executive director of Christians in the Visual Arts (CIVA). Prior to joining CIVA, he served on the staff of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship for thirty years, most recently as the national director for graduate and faculty ministries. He lectures frequently on the arts, media, advertising and contemporary culture, and he coedited, with Sandra Bowden, Faith and Vision: Twenty-Five Years of Christians in the Visual Arts.