Art for Faith’s Sake (8 vols.)

Senses of the Soul is an invaluable grass-roots study of how people actually use and engage the visual aspects of Christian worship. Rather than emphasizing what theology and liturgy think the arts should contribute (or not) to worship, Dyrness breaks new ground by listening to ordinary Christians’ talk about what the arts actually do contribute. In so doing, he re-draws the boundaries of art and points to the power of our religious imaginations to direct our engagement with the visual and physical dimensions of Christian worship. I am very much looking forward to using this book in my own teaching and research.

—Lisa DeBoer, art historian, Westmont College

William Dyrness offers us here a very timely and strategic contribution to the growing conversation about how the arts can contribute to worship and the life of faith. By listening to so many varied voices of worshipers in actual congregations, Dyrness offers many illuminating insights that promise to sharpen not only the work of artists in many media, but also the faith life of pastors, theologians, worship leaders, and all thoughtful Christians who long for a multi-sensory life of prayer.

—John D. Witvliet, professor of worship, Calvin College and Calvin Theological Seminary

Senses of the Soul is a pioneering contribution to the ways in which Christians appropriate visual images in worship. Based on 80 interviews with individuals from Protestant, Orthodox, and Catholic congregations in Southern California, this book creatively blends empirical research with theological and social-scientific insight. The book is richly illustrated with photos of religious images from the sites where William Dyrness did his research. This book opens a fresh chapter in our understanding of the embodiment of religious experience in artistic expression.

—Donald E. Miller, executive director, Center for Religion and Civic Culture, University of Southern California

Bartow’s poems serve their purposes with dignity and grace. Appropriating and adapting traditional forms, he has commemorated not only the large events that give shape to specific lives—birth, death, marriage—but also the small moments in which grace becomes visible in a squirrel, a shaft of light on a forest path, an awakened memory of an old teacher. We hear in these poems echoes of Herbert, Emerson, and Frost, and of the biblical stories and scenes that deeply inform the poet’s sensibility and frame his understanding of ‘ordinary’ life, which insists, like Hopkins, that nothing is really ordinary, because ‘it is all a purchase, all a prize.’

—Marilyn Chandler McEntyre, professor of English, Westmont College, Santa Barbara, CA

Stop, keep still, and listen to the soul stirring poems in this collection. Charles Bartow lays these pieces before us like steppingstones across his passion for God, God’s Gospel, and God’s Creation. His work is honest, heart-felt, and inspiring. Take them up, give them voice, and watch them dance in the Spirit!

—Richard F. Ward, associate professor of preaching and performance studies, Iliff School of Theology, Denver, CO

Like photographs or glimpses through a window that capture a moment and reveal an unsuspected truth, these poems by James Crenshaw are encounters with the pain and joy of nature, biblical characters, and human relationships. Through these poems Crenshaw wrestles with that enigmatic God from whom he seeks a costly blessing.

—Carol Newsom, Charles Howard Candler Professor of Old Testament, Emory University

A fish called Methuselah and a cat called JOY, the Babel and beauty of the church, the joys of family and of study, and the anguish of cancer—James Crenshaw beautifully articulates these and many more aspects of a rich life, viewed by a mind that is sharply critical and yet humble. The poems are both complex and lucid; many are peopled by the characters of Scripture. These are poems to share with other Christians, and to read again and again.

—Ellen F. Davis, Amos Ragan Kearns Distinguished Professor of Bible and Practical Theology, Duke Divinity School

James Crenshaw’s prose always makes me think slowly yet also furiously, and refuses me the luxury of easy answers. Now his poems do the same, though they also open up avenues to hope and trust.

—John Goldingay, David Allan Hubbard Professor of Old Testament, Fuller Theological Seminary

Beautifully constructed and equally well suited for use by either first-time or long-time practitioners of fixed-hour prayer, Praying the Hours in Ordinary Life is rich in details, offering brief, informing commentary on the history of the divine hours and speaking with candor about both the how-to and the why-to of the discipline. Those of us who have learned over the years to appreciate the power of fixed-hour prayer in shaping our Christian life will all rejoice in the arrival of this newest manual and breviary.

—Phyllis Tickle, founding editor of the religion department, Publishers Weekly

If you wonder where the attraction lies in recovering these dusty practices, you would do well to read this beautiful book carefully. More importantly you should take the time to join these ancient voices in prayer. I guarantee doing so will challenge and enrich your faith and your practice of prayer. It has certainly done this for my students—and their teacher!

—William Dyrness, director, Visual Faith Institute of Art and Architecture, Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, CA

Will Willimon is a master preacher who is eminently qualified to teach a ‘master class’ on preaching. Paradoxically, he refuses to master the text or the awesome responsibility of preaching the Gospel. Instead, he shows us how to listen for God’s Word and to experience it in every moment of the pastoral life. In Willimon’s reading, preaching is not an onerous burden but a lively exercise of the theological and biblical imagination. He really can’t help himself! He loves words, but he loves the Word even more. The outcome of this book is something we could all use—a newfound joy in the art of preaching.

—Richard Lischer, James T. and Alice Mead Cleland Professor of Preaching, Duke Divinity School

What a wonderful collection of insightful essays that invite us preachers to learn from the homiletic wisdom of Bishop Will Willimon. Arguably, what is best about this little book is that the teacher of this wisdom has been a faithful preacher of the Gospel for more than 30 years. I hope many readers will take advantage of this opportunity to enhance their growth in the art of preaching for building up the faith and life of the church.

—Michael Pasquarello III, Granger E. and Anna A. Fisher Professor of Preaching, Asbury Theological Seminary

Who’s afraid of Emily Dickinson? Not me, when I’ve got Susan Emily VanZanten at my side. Precise, elegant, and evocative, VanZanten guides the reader through the spiritual tangles of Dickinson’s verse in ways that enlighten and refresh the soul. This is a book to keep and to treasure.

—Paul J. Willis, professor of English, Westmont College, Santa Barbara, CA

I’ve never read a book quite like this, and I’m hoping it will inspire a new genre: engaged reading, slow reading, deeply informed by scholarship but inviting to all.

—John Wilson, editor, Books & Culture

There is a growing body of literature on worship that focuses on concrete images and religious practices, thus ‘earthing’ a field that often veers toward abstraction. This is a welcome addition to that corpus, which will doubtless deepen our understanding of the richness and complexity of worship in different traditions.

—Jeremy Begbie, Thomas A. Langford Research Professor of Theology, Duke University

Making his readers part of a community that longs to know and love the other, Dyrness models the beauty of which he speaks as we discover our own complexities mirrored in the passing on and reimagining of religious traditions of ordinary people. Senses of Devotion is an outstanding example of inclusive theologizing for anyone who wishes to live out the possibility of a united human family made beautiful precisely through difference.

—Cecilia González-Andrieu, assistant professor of theological studies, Loyola Marymount University

This important study describes encounters and conversations that all readers will want to share and even replicate. Dyrness opens the way, sensitively and wisely avoiding common suppositions, undermining stereotypes, and keeping focused on actual practice as he pursues an eye-opening subject: the nonverbal dimensions of religious practice in other faith traditions. Among the rich rewards this book gives is a better perspective on ourselves.

—Robin M. Jensen, Luce Chancellor’s Professor of the History of Christian Art and Worship, Vanderbilt University

Neal brings her considerable gifts and lays them at the feet of the church. These dramatic pieces are part theater, part prayer, and part sermon. She has compassionately knit together the elements of life and faith most of us keep separate: the iconic figure of Mary becomes sister and friend to all women. Readers and audiences will be blessed by Neal’s Blessed.

—Richard Lischer, James T. and Alice Mead Cleland Professor of Preaching, Duke Divinity School

Whether read or performed, turned as single gems or taken as a single work, Neal’s deft, dramatic pieces raise deep questions about Mary—the blessed but utterly human mother of Jesus. Drawn into these scenes, we cannot help wondering, as well, at the astonishing intersections of the divine life with our own.

—Sally A. Brown, Elizabeth M. Engle Associate Professor of Preaching and Worship, Princeton Theological Seminary

These beautiful and poignant monologues call us to the deep places of preaching, where bearing and birthing the Word is both a painful struggle and a joyful hope. Like Mary, Neal has pondered the Word in her heart, and she has given that Word rich, embodied form. All who enter this Gospel drama with her will be fearfully and wonderfully blessed.

—Charles L. Campbell, Professor of Homiletics, Duke Divinity School