In troubled times of heightened global tensions and conflict, (un)Common Sounds: Songs of Peace and Reconciliation among Muslims and Christians explores the contribution of music and the performing arts to peacebuilding and interfaith dialogue in interreligious settings. It asks the simple but endlessly complex question: How is music and song used in our faiths and daily lives to foster peace and reconciliation? Focusing on the two largest world religions that together comprise more than 55% of the world''s population, the essays address the complexities of embodied, lived religious traditions by moving across and linking a range of disciplines: ethnomusicology (the intersection of music and culture), peacemaking, Islamic studies, and Christian theology. Based on research in the Middle East, North Africa, and Indonesia, context-specific case studies serve to identify and reflect on the significant roles of music and the performing arts in fostering sustainable peace. (un)Common Sounds investigates the dynamics of peacebuilding and interfaith dialogue as they relate to music''s transformative roles in conflict and post-conflict settings. Classroom tested, (un)Common Sounds also provides discussion questions and projects for each chapter, a companion Web site (www.songsforpeaceproject.org), and an available documentary film to enhance learning in the academy, nongovernmental organizations, and religious groups.""(un)Common Sounds shows how the common sounds between Muslims and Christians have intensified from the clanging of swords to the thunder of bombs. By holding consultations and concerts in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, the authors have shown that when swords are beaten into flutes on their way to becoming plowshares, people''s feelings, thinking, and behavior are changed so that they can hear the still small voice of the God of Abraham and Jesus whom their Scriptures proclaim. Then as friends they can better deal with their differences and the (un) can be removed from ''Common Sounds.''""--J. Dudley Woodberry, Dean emeritus, School of Intercultural Studies, Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, CARoberta R. King, PhD, is Associate Professor of Communication and Ethnomusicology, Fuller Theological Seminary, School of Intercultural Studies, California, USA. Her publications include Pathways in Christian Music Communication: The Case of the Senufo of Cote d''Ivoire and Music in the Life of the African Church.Sooi Ling Tan, PhD, is an Adjunct Assistant Professor, Fuller Theological Seminary and Adjunct Lecturer, Malaysia Baptist Theological Seminary, Malaysia. Her publications include Transformative Among the Salakos of Sarawak, Malaysia and ""Transformative Worship in the Malaysian Context.""
Description:Dust and Prayers offers an evocation of love, human and divine, and of the struggles of believers and unbelievers. It depicts something of the human condition apart from God and, through praise and lament, with humor and pathos it speaks of the divine remedy. It speaks of creation, too, and of the Creator, and of humanity (created in God''s image), as dust and spirit. Its voice at times is free of the constraints of rigorous poetic forms. At other times its voice is set free by adherence to them. Its cry is biblical: Lord, "I believe; help my unbelief" (Mark 9:24)! It references the Psalms, the Prophets, the Gospels, the Apostle Paul''s letters, and strains to come to terms with God''s Holy Presence felt as Holy Absence in, with, under-and in front of-the text. Its hope is grounded in the blessed disturbance with which the Christ, attested in Holy Scripture, proffers the "blessed assurance" that we are his.Endorsements:"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, author of Christ, My Companion: Meditations on the Prayer of St. Patrick"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, author of Speaking of the Holy: The Art of Communication in PreachingAbout the Contributor(s):Charles L. Bartow is Carl and Helen Egner Professor of Speech Communication in Ministry at Princeton Theological Seminary. He is author of God''s Human Speech: A Practical Theology of Proclamation (1997).
Description:Preachers around the globe have come to rely on Will Willimon for insight and advice on the craft of preaching. For over a decade, Willimon has published his reflections in the ""Five-Minute Preaching Workshop,"" a quarterly column he writes as editor of Pulpit Resource. Here the best selections from that column have been brought together into a single volume for the first time. Drawing on years of experience, study, and careful observation of the current state of preaching, Willimon offers candid thoughts on a wide range of homiletical issues-from theological to pastoral, cultural, and stylistic. Readers will find challenge and inspiration from a few hours spent in the studio of this master preacher. Endorsements:""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 LischerDuke Divinity Schoolauthor of The End of Words ""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 thirty 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 IIIGranger E. and Anna A. Fisher Professor of PreachingAsbury Theological SeminaryAbout the Contributor(s):William H. Willimon is Bishop of the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church and former Dean of the Chapel at Duke University. He is the author of over fifty books and is widely recognized as one of America''s best preachers.
Description:In the wake of excessive evil--the Holocaust, genocide in Africa, tsunamis in Indonesia, terrorism, earthquakes, and floods--must one surrender belief in a good God? The poems in this volume, honest and reverent, arose from the struggle to answer that question with an emphatic ""No."" They exhibit the tension that also exists in the Bible where the expression ""Dust and Ashes"" occurs. When Abraham questioned God''s justice involving the wholesale destruction of the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah and an aggrieved Job responded to speeches from a whirlwind, their status as mortals gave rise to different approaches, boldness in one, humility in the other. Following their examples and the voice of dissenters within much of Scripture, these poems chronicle the journey of a lonely ""man of faith,"" the agony and ecstasy of one who refuses to abandon belief in God despite much evidence that brings it into question. They discover the Sacred in Nature, a book written by the finger of God, and they lovingly reflect on biblical texts, a human record of encounter with the Sublime.Endorsements:""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 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 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 GoldingayFuller Theological SeminaryAbout the Contributor(s): James L. Crenshaw is the Robert L. Flowers Professor of Old Testament Emeritus, Duke University. Among his recent books are Defending God (2005) and Prophets, Sages, & Poets (2006).
Description:Although Emily Dickinson is sometimes seen as a religious skeptic, she never gave up on God, struggling with issues of faith and doubt throughout her life. Many of her poems depict such struggles, sometimes with humor and sometimes with despair. Reading and reflecting on these poems can be a powerful way to listen to and experience God through the arts.Mending a Tattered Faith presents, first, an accessible introduction to the mysteries of Dickinson''s life and poetry, considering her relationships to her family and the church, the significant poetic strategies she employed, and the dramatic family struggle over publishing her poetry that began soon after her death. It then offers twenty-nine carefully selected poems by Dickinson, each with an accompanying meditation. By helping readers unpack Dickinson''s intense but brief poems, supplying absorbing historical background and information, and relating some personal stories and reflections, this book encourages readers to embark upon their own meditative journey with Dickinson, whose engaging struggles with faith and doubt can help illuminate our own spiritual questions, sorrows, and joys.Endorsements:""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. Willisauthor of Rosing from the Dead: Poems""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 WilsonEditor, Books & CultureAbout the Contributor(s):Susan VanZanten is Professor of English at Seattle Pacific University. She is the author of Truth and Reconciliation: The Confessional Mode in South African Literature (2002), the editor of Postcolonial Literature and the Biblical Call to Justice (1994), and co-author (with Roger Lundin) of Literature through the Eyes of Faith (1989).
Description:ReVisioning: Critical Methods of Seeing Christianity in the History of Art examines the application of art historical methods to the history of Christianity and art. As methods of art history have become more interdisciplinary, there has been a notable emergence of discussions of religion in art history as well as related fields such as visual culture and theology. This book represents the first critical examination of scholarly methodologies applied to the study of Christian subjects, themes, and contexts in art. ReVisioning contains original work from a range of scholars, each of whom has addressed the question, in regard to a well-known work of art or body of work, ""How have particular methods of art history been applied, and with what effect?"" The study moves from the third century to the present, providing extensive treatment and analysis of art historical methods applied to the history of Christianity and art.
The Teaching Hymnal: Ecumenical and Evangelical is a teaching resource that provides a new generation of worshipers the opportunity to draw upon the rich history of the use of hymns and hymnody in the church. It contains a body of hymns and worship songs, worship services and templates, material that explains the sources of hymns and songs, hymnal usage, the sources of historic prayers and worship texts, and it provides essays on worship planning and leading. It also contains a thorough glossary of worship terms. This is a complete guide to hymn usage and worship planning designed especially for use in seminaries and Christian colleges.Clayton J. Schmit, is pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church (ELCA) in Stevens Point, WI. He was formerly Provost of Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary of Lenoir-Rhyne University. He is author of several books on worship and preaching, including Sent and Gathered: A Worship Manual for the Missional Church and co-author (with Lauralee Farrer) of Praying the Hours in Ordinary Life (Cascade Books).
About the Contributor(s):Rev. Dr. Angela Yarber is also author of The Gendered Pulpit: Sex, Body, and Desire in Preaching and Worship and Embodying the Feminine in the Dances of the World''s Religions. She has a Ph.D. in Art and Religion from the Graduate Theological Union and she has been a clergywoman, professional artist, and dancer since 1999. For more, please visit www.angelayarber.com.
Senses of the Soul explores the way art and visual elements are incorporated into Christian worship. It incorporates research conducted in Los Angeles congregations. Through extensive interviews in a sample of Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox congregations it looks into the way visual elements actually become part of the experience of worship. By looking at attitudes and experiences of beauty, art, and memories, it suggests that believers appropriate images and aesthetic encounters in terms of imaginative structures that have been formed through worship practices over time. By comparing responses across denominations, the book proposes that people receive visual elements in ways that have been shaped by long traditions and specific background beliefs. In addition to discussions of the differences between the major Christian traditions, the book also examines the relation of art and beauty to worship, the role of memories and everyday life, and the power of images in spirituality and worship.By its focus on the worshiper, the book seeks to make a contribution to the growing conversation between the arts and Christian worship and to the process of worship renewal.""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 DeBoerArt 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. WitvlietDirector, Calvin Institute of Christian Worship 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 eighty 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. MillerExecutive Director, Center for Religion and Civic CultureUniversity of Southern CaliforniaWilliam A. Dyrness is Professor of Theology and Culture in the School of Theology, Fuller Theological Seminary. He is the author most recently of Reformed Theology and Visual Culture (2004) and Visual Faith (2001).
Preachers around the globe have come to rely on Will Willimon for insight and advice on the craft of preaching. For over a decade, Willimon has published his reflections in the ""Five-Minute Preaching Workshop,"" a quarterly column he writes as editor of Pulpit Resource. Here the best selections from that column have been brought together into a single volume for the first time. Drawing on years of experience, study, and careful observation of the current state of preaching, Willimon offers candid thoughts on a wide range of homiletical issues-from theological to pastoral, cultural, and stylistic. Readers will find challenge and inspiration from a few hours spent in the studio of this master preacher.""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 LischerDuke Divinity Schoolauthor of The End of Words ""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 thirty 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 IIIGranger E. and Anna A. Fisher Professor of PreachingAsbury Theological SeminaryWilliam H. Willimon is Bishop of the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church and former Dean of the Chapel at Duke University. He is the author of over fifty books and is widely recognized as one of America''s best preachers.
In troubled times of heightened global tensions and conflict, (un)Common Sounds: Songs of Peace and Reconciliation among Muslims and Christians explores the contribution of music and the performing arts to peacebuilding and interfaith dialogue in interreligious settings. It asks the simple but endlessly complex question: How is music and song used in our faiths and daily lives to foster peace and reconciliation? Focusing on the two largest world religions that together comprise more than 55% of the world''s population, the essays address the complexities of embodied, lived religious traditions by moving across and linking a range of disciplines: ethnomusicology (the intersection of music and culture), peacemaking, Islamic studies, and Christian theology. Based on research in the Middle East, North Africa, and Indonesia, context-specific case studies serve to identify and reflect on the significant roles of music and the performing arts in fostering sustainable peace. (un)Common Sounds investigates the dynamics of peacebuilding and interfaith dialogue as they relate to music''s transformative roles in conflict and post-conflict settings. Classroom tested, (un)Common Sounds also provides discussion questions and projects for each chapter, a companion Web site (www.songsforpeaceproject.org), and an available documentary film to enhance learning in the academy, nongovernmental organizations, and religious groups.""(un)Common Sounds shows how the common sounds between Muslims and Christians have intensified from the clanging of swords to the thunder of bombs. By holding consultations and concerts in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, the authors have shown that when swords are beaten into flutes on their way to becoming plowshares, people''s feelings, thinking, and behavior are changed so that they can hear the still small voice of the God of Abraham and Jesus whom their Scriptures proclaim. Then as friends they can better deal with their differences and the (un) can be removed from ''Common Sounds.''""--J. Dudley Woodberry, Dean emeritus, School of Intercultural Studies, Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, CARoberta R. King, PhD, is Associate Professor of Communication and Ethnomusicology, Fuller Theological Seminary, School of Intercultural Studies, California, USA. Her publications include Pathways in Christian Music Communication: The Case of the Senufo of Cote d''Ivoire and Music in the Life of the African Church.Sooi Ling Tan, PhD, is an Adjunct Assistant Professor, Fuller Theological Seminary and Adjunct Lecturer, Malaysia Baptist Theological Seminary, Malaysia. Her publications include Transformative Among the Salako of Sarawak, Malaysia and ""Transformative Worship in the Malaysian Context.""
Although Emily Dickinson is sometimes seen as a religious skeptic, she never gave up on God, struggling with issues of faith and doubt throughout her life. Many of her poems depict such struggles, sometimes with humor and sometimes with despair. Reading and reflecting on these poems can be a powerful way to listen to and experience God through the arts.Mending a Tattered Faith presents, first, an accessible introduction to the mysteries of Dickinson''s life and poetry, considering her relationships to her family and the church, the significant poetic strategies she employed, and the dramatic family struggle over publishing her poetry that began soon after her death. It then offers twenty-nine carefully selected poems by Dickinson, each with an accompanying meditation. By helping readers unpack Dickinson''s intense but brief poems, supplying absorbing historical background and information, and relating some personal stories and reflections, this book encourages readers to embark upon their own meditative journey with Dickinson, whose engaging struggles with faith and doubt can help illuminate our own spiritual questions, sorrows, and joys.""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. Willisauthor of Rosing from the Dead: Poems""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 WilsonEditor, Books & CultureSusan VanZanten is Professor of English at Seattle Pacific University. She is the author of Truth and Reconciliation: The Confessional Mode in South African Literature (2002), the editor of Postcolonial Literature and the Biblical Call to Justice (1994), and co-author (with Roger Lundin) of Literature through the Eyes of Faith (1989).
ReVisioning: Critical Methods of Seeing Christianity in the History of Art examines the application of art historical methods to the history of Christianity and art. As methods of art history have become more interdisciplinary, there has been a notable emergence of discussions of religion in art history as well as related fields such as visual culture and theology. This book represents the first critical examination of scholarly methodologies applied to the study of Christian subjects, themes, and contexts in art. ReVisioning contains original work from a range of scholars, each of whom has addressed the question, in regard to a well-known work of art or body of work, ""How have particular methods of art history been applied, and with what effect?"" The study moves from the third century to the present, providing extensive treatment and analysis of art historical methods applied to the history of Christianity and art.""Romaine and Stratford''s collection raises the question of how methodologies of art history--formulated within the secular context of modern academe--have failed and succeeded at understanding the Christian content of works of art. The question becomes urgent when the artworks under examination are also from the modern period and thus suffer from the doubling of denial of Christian content, but the collection is also enriched by material from earlier periods of art.""--Natasha Seaman, Rhode Island College""ReVisioning delivers on the nuanced promise in its subtitle; it sustains intellectual sophistication while it revises, reconsiders, and reimagines the rich threads in the fabric of critical Christianity. The more than fifteen thoughtful essays venture courageously into the space within academe too often dismissed, suppressed, or maligned--that is to say, the space of the sacred. . . . Its essays, spanning the history of artistic production from the medieval to the moderns in a mix of fresh, critical perspectives, go a long way to restore the relevance of mystery, transcendence, and dare it be said, the sacred, to what I hope is an ongoing conversation on theological aesthetics. ReVisioning is a courageous and long-overdue stake in the ground.""--Ronald R. Bernier, Wentworth Institute of TechnologyJames Romaine, Associate Professor of Art History and chair of the Department of Art History at Nyack College. He is the President of the Association of Scholars of Christianity in the History of Art (ASCHA). His recent scholarship includes Art as Spiritual Perception: A Festschrift for Dr. E. John Walford (2012), and contributing to the exhibition catalog Tim Rollins and K.O.S.: A History (2009). Linda Stratford, Associate Professor at Asbury University. She is a board member of the Association of Scholars of Christianity in the History of Art (ASCHA) and has produced a number of publications and presentations that draw upon cross-disciplinary training in art history and aesthetics, including a manuscript in progress, ""Artists into Frenchmen,"" a study of art and identity in modern France.
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