Bruce Herman

A Prophet in the Darkness

Arts & Literature

“An important and richly layered new volume on one of the most important painters of the twentieth century—one whose commitment to Christ as the true image of God is unparalleled. Georges Rouault should be a household name for every believer who cares about the intersection of art and faith—and Wes Vander Lugt has assembled a deeply valuable resource to that end. The intellectual artistic hospitality of the many fine writers and thinkers in this book will serve to ensure that Rouault is remembered as a prophetic voice in the wilderness of modern art.”

Bezalel’s Body

Arts & Literature

Foreword

(wrote the foreword)

Boundaries for Your Soul

Counseling, Grief & Mental Health

“Compelling yet accessible insights on a timely issue: our need to befriend the inner stranger. Our personal mental, spiritual, and emotional health depends on this kind of knowledge—and the health and common good of our society require that we examine our own inner landscape, searching for the clues that will enable us to resist coldness of heart. By gaining insight into our broken inner lives, we grow in empathy and love for those we naturally regard as strangers or enemies. Cook and Miller have given us a valuable tool to assist us in this important self-work.”

Church Beautiful

Arts & Literature

“We are a culture starved for enchantment—in a desperate search for the numinous—through theme parks, exotic travel, extreme sport and entertainment, and a hunger for ecstatic experiences. Dr. Katie Kresser’s new book Church Beautiful invites us to leave these mirage-like distractions and encounter afresh the holy—exploring the dance steps laid out for us in the riches of church tradition: art and architecture, ritual and worship, the invitation to God’s own banquet table. In a series of brilliant meditations on everything from masquerade and fashion to sacred space and ritual, Dr. Kresser expertly guides us into uncovering ‘the hint half guessed / the gift half understood [that] is Incarnation’—the gift bequeathed to us by our Christian forebears. And she pulls back the veil a little to reveal the surprise and shock of the sacred in contemporary art as well. Highest recommendation.”

Contemporary Art and the Church

Arts & Literature

“For nearly eighteen hundred years, the Christian church was one of the prime patrons of art, allowing a pivotal role for art and artist. Yet for the past two centuries, artists have been largely estranged from their old patron for many reasons, not in the least due to a sea-change in art's self-understanding. Contemporary Art and the Church explores a new basis for that old relationship, functioning like a generous invitation to join an ongoing conversation between experts who are surprisingly interested in the layperson's role in this important project: reenvisioning a role for art and artist in the church in this still-new century.”

Redeeming Vision

Christian Living

“An erudite and yet wonderfully hospitable invitation for the layperson to engage deeply with art and art history through a profoundly Christian theological perspective. That means, among other things, that the incarnation is a powerful reality liberating our gaze––allowing us to let down our guard and receive the gift of art. This is because God has let down God’s own guard and come among us, vulnerable and open. Weichbrodt’s careful analysis and accessible and enjoyable writing style offer a rich and expansive feast of beauty and significance. A vital contribution to the library of any sincere student of visual culture and its central importance in our lives.”

The Faithful Artist

Arts & Literature

“In The Faithful Artist Cam Anderson extends an intellectual welcome to readers who may feel that modern and contemporary art are an exclusive party, a private conversation for an artistic elite. By skillfully unpacking cultural factors leading to the modernist rejection of traditional artistic forms, he reveals some of the reasons for art's estrangement from educated laypersons. Anderson then clarifies for Christians why art still matters in the midst of tensions between traditionalreligious belief and modern aesthetic sensibility—issuing a compelling call for artists to rediscover their accountability and calling within the body of Christ, broken afresh for the life of the world. Additionally he makes a vital argument for why the church needs art and artists, providing genuine answers for how these might once again find their way into healthy communion with one another.”

What Is Beauty?

Philosophy

“When most people use the word 'beautiful,' they’re expressing a feeling. Do we ever think clearly about what we mean—and how our feeling is related to the art we encounter—especially current day artworks? What do we think and feel about works of art that confuse or frustrate our longing for beauty? These and other questions are handled exceptionally well in Dennis Bray's new book, What Is Beauty? This book goes far beyond simply attempting to answer the question in its title—it gives the reader a foothold in a virtual landslide of contemporary ideas and issues surrounding art and the problematic status of the beautiful over the past hundred years or more. Bray's fresh take on ancient questions surrounding beauty is instructive not only for undergraduates but for any thinker who has ever questioned their own or another's evaluation of a work of art. This book will do for the careful reader what genuine education always seeks. It will enable you to think well and clearly—a skill badly needed in a muddled world in which truth and beauty are seemingly AWOL.”