Rembrandt Is in the Wind: Learning to Love Art through the Eyes of Faith

by Russ Ramsey, Makoto Fujimura (Foreword by)

Overview

How do art and faith intersect? How does art help us see our own lives more clearly? What can we understand about God and humanity by looking at the lives of artists?

Striving for beauty, art also reveals what is broken. It presents us with the tremendous struggles and longings common to the human experience. And it says a lot about our Creator too. Great works of art can speak to the soul in a unique way.

Rembrandt Is in the Wind is an invitation to discover some of the world's most celebrated artists and works and how each of them illuminates something about God, people, and the purpose of life. Part art history, part biblical study, part philosophy, and part analysis of the human experience, this book is nonetheless all story.

From Michelangelo to Vincent van Gogh to Edward Hopper, the lives of the artists in this book illustrate the struggle of living in this world and point to the beauty of the redemption available to us in Christ. Each story is different. Some conclude with resounding triumph while others end in struggle. But all of them raise important questions about humanity's hunger and capacity for glory, and all of them teach us to love and see beauty.

"The artists featured in these pages—artists who devoted their lives and work to what is good, true, and beautiful—remind us that we can, and should, do the same." —Karen Swallow Prior, author of On Reading Well

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780310129721
Publisher:	Zondervan
Publication date:	03/22/2022
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	66,872
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Russ Ramsey is an author and pastor with a passion for uniting art and faith. He has been in vocational ministry for more than twenty years and currently serves as the lead pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church’s Cool Springs location. He holds an MDiv and Th M from Covenant Theological Seminary, and is the author of six books, including Rembrandt is in the Wind: Learning to Love Art through the Eyes of Faith (Zondervan 2022), and Behold the King of Glory, recipient of the 2016 Christian Book Award for New Author. Russ was also a founding contributor and member of The Rabbit Room and is a featured speaker each year at The Rabbit Room’s annual conference, Hutchmoot. Russ lives with his wife and children in Nashville, Tennessee.

Table of Contents

Foreword Makoto Fujimura xiii

1 Beautifying Eden 1

Why Pursuing Goodness, Truth, and Beauty Matters

2 Pursuing Perfection 17

Michelangelo's David and Our Hunger for Glory

3 The Sacred and the Profane 41

Caravaggio and the Paradox of Corruption and Grace

4 Rembrandt Is in the Wind 67

The Tragedy of Desecration and the Hope of Redemption

5 Borrowed Light 87

Johannes Vermeer and the Mystery of Creation

6 Creating in Community 111

Jean Frédéric Bazille, the Impressionists, and the Importance of Belonging

7 The Striving Artist 125

Vincent van Gogh's The Red Vineyard and the Elusive Nature of Contentment

8 Beyond Imagination 147

Henry O. Tanner, Race, and the Humble Power of Curiosity

9 What Remains Unsaid 171

Edward Hopper, Loneliness, and Our Longing for Connection

10 Measuring a Life 191

Lilias Trotter and the Joys and Sorrows of Sacrificial Obedience

Epilogue 207

A World Short on Masters

Appendices

1 How to Visit an Art Museum 213

2 How to Look at a Work of Art 217

3 Overview of Western Art: Renaissance to Modern 221

Selected Works 231

Notes 235

Editorial Reviews

'Sometimes, when standing at a museum, I think to myself 'I wish somebody who knows something would explain this to me.' And I look around and see, on one side of me, someone expertly pointing out every intricacy in the painting and, on the other, someone bored and looking at a phone in hand. Somehow this book is able to captivate people in all those categories. In this book, Russ Ramsey walks us through a museum of artists and art works, showing how each of them illuminates something about God, humanity, and the meaning of life. And this book does so in a way that won't bore the expert or intimidate the novice. Those who love art will find here new paths to the gospel. And those who love the gospel will find that they can love art. That's a lot to ask from a book, and this one delivers.'

Director of Christianity Today’s Public Fait Russell Moore

'Art and the act of creating is essential. We must remember that without it, we would not be here. To notice beauty is to be fully alive and without the act of intimately engaging life, we are numb to ourselves and to the world around us. Ramsey points us towards God through the raw, sensual power of the art, disrupting our unconscious lives that often want to grasp for whatever makes us un-feel.'

award-winning artist and illustrator Wayne Brezinka

'Ramsey is a deep lover of art and a student of art history. In this book he takes the reader on an amazing guided tour through an art museum that doesn't exist. In this carefully curated collection of art from around the world, he offers you an experience that only someone who really loves art can. This book inspires the reader to engage art in an eye-opening way and understand how these famous works of art bring glory to God.'

Ned Bustard

'It is easy to believe that enjoying and understanding 'Art' is only for those who have a Ph D in Art History. Russ Ramsey reminds us how simple and holy it is to be stirred by the mystery of images.'

author/illustrator of The Faithful Spy: Dietri John Hendrix

'In days fractured by those who aim to seize power, darkened by those who play dirty politics, and clouded by those who use platforms to polarize, perhaps the artists can lead us home. The artists featured in these pages, artists who devoted their life and work to what is good, true, and beautiful, remind us that we can—and should—do the same.'

Research Professor of English and Christianity & C Karen Swallow Prior

'Russ Ramsey was kind enough to give me an early chapter of this book a few years ago when I was preparing to go on a silent retreat and asked him for a work of art I might spend some time meditating on during my weekend away. Thanks to Russ's recommendation, I spent hours contemplating Rembrandt's painting, The Storm on the Sea of Galilee. I was shaken by the depiction of this scene and the disciples' question to Jesus, 'Do you not care that we are perishing?' Russ's gentle shepherding of my understanding regarding the painting and the Biblical story behind it was a balm in my life just when I needed it. I know that this book will be the same for you.'

author of The Day the Angels Fell and The Weight o Shawn Smucker

'Ramsey leads us well into one of the best possible uses of our time—engaging with art and beauty.'

Mark Maggiori is an award-winning painter of the American West

'Here's what I love about Russ Ramsey's latest project—it understands down deep that Truth is exclusive to no party or sect; that Goodness arrives in the form of the lonely, the ill, and the outcast; and that Beauty, amid the church's moral twilight, might be the last apologetic that holds.'

Bestselling Author of Virgil Wander and Peace Like Leif Enger

'Russ Ramsey doesn't just see some of the wonders seen and painted by great artists of the past, but even more wonderfully, he helps us see them too. Yet it is full of surprises. What he offers is never a matter of beauty for its own sake, although we are drawn into a glorious journey of beauty down the ages; nor is it one of artistic skills and accomplishments, although every one of the artists he focuses on could easily claim to have mastered their art; nor even can this book be distilled into a mere, fascinating overview of five centuries of human creativity (even though the story told provides a superb entry-point to the novice keen to learn more). The greatest joy of this book, however, is that the accumulative effect of these nine artists has helped me glimpse something of the world and of humanity as God our Creator sees us. And what a gift that is!'

Mark Meynell

'Russ Ramsey has gone deep into the histories of nine artists and their masterworks, revealing how each struggled—in both their giftedness and fallenness—to create beauty. I am reminded anew of how beauty leads us to God, 'the Author of beauty.' I cannot wait to share this book!'

visual artist Debbie Taylor

'Encountering paintings drawings and sculpture as a little boy set me up for my life arc. Encountering Christ set me up for a lifelong love affair with my creator. Russ has gone to great lengths to examine art and faith in a way that helps us define our path forward. Art making is sometimes a lonely experience relying on one's own imagination and talent. This book illustrates the tight wire one must balance on to find the peace and beauty in expression. It's often difficult to maintain balance with all life offers is pulling on us. Rembrandt in the wind helps us find a way forward by the examples and stories of art makers who have gone before us.'

Jimmy Abegg