The First Verb: Cultivating Christian Creativity
Ebook
Frustrated by years of neglecting her creativity, Colleen Warren finally vowed in a New Year's resolution to do something creative every day, a decision that literally transformed her life. This book tells her story and reveals the ideas, mindsets, habits, and practices she adopted that enabled that change.
The First Verb offers the encouraging message that creativity is every person's possession, by virtue of being created in the image of a creative God. Readers will be inspired by the book's celebration of God's own creative attributes, spiritually strengthened by its theological affirmation of creativity, motivated by exploring the benefits of creativity and the qualities of creative people, and energized by engaging in activities that enlarge creativity.
“Colleen Warren’s latest is an erudite, personal, and practical book, a great starting point for exploring connections between God, the Bible, art, creativity, and our everyday world. Warren guides us to a richer understanding of imago dei and, indeed, the first verb, through deft examinations of Scripture, relevant thoughts from great artists, and anecdotes from her family life and creative practice. Here you’ll find insightful but realistic ideas for journeying deeper into your unique creative gift and, in doing so, loving God and neighbor in new ways.”
—Daniel Bowman Jr., editor-in-chief, Relief: A Journal of Art & Faith
“The First Verb is a unique practical theology of creativity, informed by insights of thinkers from Van Gogh to Frank Lloyd Wright to Einstein. Replete with illustrations from multiple artistic genres, especially literature and painting, Warren continually puts practical flesh on the theological bones of her aesthetic perspective, so the reader cannot miss the benefits of her powerful message. Highly recommended!”
—James S. Spiegel, research fellow, Hillsdale College
“Colleen Warren has provided a gracious gift for the church: a primer on creativity as a biblical response to our Creator and as servanthood to Jesus’ followers and the world in general.”
—Michael Card, author of Inexpressible: Hesed and the Mystery of God’s Lovingkindness
- Title: The First Verb: Cultivating Christian Creativity
- Author: Colleen Warren
- Publisher: Cascade Books
- Print Publication Date: 2024
- Logos Release Date: 2024
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781666785289, 9781666785265, 1666785261, 9781666785272, 166678527X, 1666785288
- Resource ID: LLS:9781666785289
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-10T03:10:28Z
Colleen Warren is a professor of American literature at Taylor University in Upland, Indiana. Her previously published books are Annie Dillard and the Word Made Flesh (2010) and Reentering Eden: Christian Meditation in Nature (2021). She has been married to her husband, Jim, for over forty years, has four adult children, and writes from a Thoreavian cabin on her seventeen acres. She blogs erratically at 1womanwandering.wordpress.com.