I loved this book because it took me by surprise. I’d never encountered such an experimental, emotional, and yet still intellectual, invitation to see art as an essential aspect of everyday life. And as a kind of faith.
The author writes a third of the way through, “What can be defined as good art? Good religious art? Why should this matter outside the art and theology world? So much goes into this mix. But maybe the place to start is to ask: What do you ‘feel’ when you leave an art gallery, a museum, a sacred space?”
Since so many of us now seek examples of beauty more than we seek organized religious services — perhaps especially on Saturdays and Sundays? — this felt like the best opening to understanding art and beauty, faith and vision, in a new way.
The author is also a visual artist — he’s a Brooklyn-based painter. His book includes color reproductions of some of his art — not in the highest quality, but good enough to appreciate it — and these include reimaginings of the Nativity, priestly vestments, and the spiritual practice of lectio (sacred reading) which of course can’t be represented per se, but then again, that’s the whole point; this is how faith feels.
