The Oxford Handbook of Religion and the Arts

by Frank Burch Brown

Overview

Nearly every form of religion or spirituality has a vital connection with art. Religions across the world, from Hinduism and Buddhism to Eastern Orthodox Christianity, have been involved over the centuries with a rich array of artistic traditions, both sacred and secular. In its uniquely multi-dimensional consideration of the topic, The Oxford Handbook of Religion and the Arts provides expert guidance to artistry and aesthetic theory in religion.

The Handbook offers nearly forty original essays by an international team of leading scholars on the main topics, issues, methods, and resources for the study of religious and theological aesthetics. The volume ranges from antiquity to the present day to examine religious and artistic imagination, fears of idolatry, aesthetics in worship, and the role of art in social transformation and in popular religion-covering a full array of forms of media, from music and poetry to architecture and film.

An authoritative text for scholars and students, The Oxford Handbook of Religion and the Arts will remain an invaluable resource for years to come.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195176674
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	01/02/2014
Series:	Oxford Handbooks
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	564
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 9.80(h) x 1.90(d)

About the Author

Frank Burch Brown is Frederick Doyle Kershner Professor of Religion and the Arts at Christian Theological Seminary, Indianapolis, and was recently Alexander Campbell Visiting Professor of Religion and the Arts at the University of Chicago Divinity School. He is the author of five books, including Religious Aesthetics (1989) and Good Taste, Bad Taste, Christian Taste: Aesthetics in Religious Life (2000). He is also a composer, with twenty commissioned works.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Contributors
Introduction: Chapter One: Mapping the Terrain of Religion and Art - Frank Burch Brown

PART ONE: RELIGIOUS AESTHETICS
Chapter Two: Aesthetics and Religion: An Overview - Richard Viladesau
Chapter Three: Beauty and Divinity - Patrick Sherry
Chapter Four: The Religious Sublime - Vijay Mishra
Chapter Five: Artistic Imagination and Religious Faith - Gesa Elsbeth Thiessen
Chapter Six: Creativity at the Intersection of Art and Religion - Deborah Haynes

PART TWO: ARTISTIC WAYS OF BEING RELIGIOUS
Chapter Seven: Musical - Frank Burch Brown
Chapter Eight: Narrative - David Jasper
Chapter Nine: Poetic - Peggy Rosenthal
Chapter Ten: Dramatic - Larry Bouchard
Chapter Eleven: Embodied-Dance - Anne-Marie Gaston, with Tony Gaston
Chapter Twelve: Architectural - Richard Kieckhefer
Chapter Thirteen: Visual and Still (Painting, Sculpture & Photography) - Diane Apostolos-Cappadona
Chapter Fourteen: Visual and Moving (Film) - Robert K. Johnston

PART THREE: RELIGIOUS WAYS OF BEING ARTISTIC
Chapter Fifteen: Judaism and Literature - Ilan Stavans
Chapter Sixteen: Judaism and Music - Mark Kligman
Chapter Seventeen: Judaism and Art - Edward van Voolen
Chapter Eighteen: Christianity and Literature - Ralph C. Wood
Chapter Nineteen: Christianity and Music - Paul Westermeyer
Chapter Twenty: Christianity and Visual Art - Graham Howes
Chapter Twenty-One: Islam and Literature - Tarif Khalidi
Chapter Twenty-Two: Islam and Visual Art - Margaret S. Graves
Chapter Twenty-Three: Islam and Music - Amnon Shiloah
Chapter Twenty-Four: Hinduism-Aesthetics, Drama, and Poetics - Sunthar Visuvalingam
Chapter Twenty-Five: Hinduism-Visual Art and Architecture - Jessica Frazier
Chapter Twenty-Six: Hinduism and Music - Guy L. Beck
Chapter Twenty-Seven: Buddhism-Image as Icon, Image as Art - Charles Lachmann
Chapter Twenty-Eight: Taoism and the Arts - Deborah A. Sommer
Chapter Twenty-Nine: Confucianism and the Arts - Deborah A. Sommer
Chapter Thirty: Shinto and Visual Art - Sybil Thornton

PART FOUR: ISSUES and THEMES
Chapter Thirty-One: Artistry in Modern and Postmodern Worship - Don Saliers
Chapter Thirty-Two: Art, Morality, and Justice - John W. de Gruchy
Chapter Thirty-Three: Belief and Doubt in Literature - Roger Lundin
Chapter Thirty-Four: Iconoclasm - Mia Mochizuki
Chapter Thirty-Five: Gender, Imagery, and Religious Imagination - Margaret Miles
Chapter Thirty-Six: Art, Material Culture, and Lived Religion - David Morgan
Chapter Thirty-Seven: Sacred and Secular in African American Music - Cheryl Kirk-Duggan

Index

Editorial Reviews

"[T]he text as a whole is a beneficial resource for many introductory or specific scholarly ends." —Jeremy Hamilton-Arnold, Religious Studies Review

"The Oxford Handbook of Religion and the Arts is a useful departure point for scholars and students who want to get to know the terrain."-Lieke Wijnia, Reading Religion

"The Oxford Handbook of Religion and the Arts presents a veritable smorgasbord of flavors to sample, consume, and, in some cases, savor."—Religion and the Arts

From the Publisher