The last fifty years have seen a rediscovery of the role of the visual arts in the lives of all Christians. In tune with this ecumenical age, this book shares the belief that beauty and art can bridge differences, unite people in "shared admiration," and possibly become an instrument of communion among separated Christians.
The authors of this book are Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, and Protestant artists, scholars, and clergy who in 2017 will take part in a symposium organized to commemorate the Reformation, which began when Martin Luther published his 95 theses in 1517. With sessions in Paris, Strasburg, Florence, New Haven (CT), and Orleans (MA), the symposium is promoted by Catholic and Protestant schools of theology together with Mount Tabor Centre for Art and Spirituality, in Barga, Italy.
"This book signals what surely needs to be central to any future engagement of faith and the arts - an ecumenical spirit that can take differences seriously while constantly trying to find ways in which Christians can more fully live into their inheritance in Christ."
—Jeremy Begbie, Duke University
"It is. . . a pleasure to have theologians and artists from Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox traditions gather—as they do in this volume—to consider afresh the vital place of images, art, and beauty."
—Cameron J. Anderson is the author of The Faithful Artist: A Vision for Evangelicalism and the Arts and the Executive Director of CIVA | Christians in the Visual Arts.
Monsignor Timothy Verdon, one of the world’s most respected art historians, is the Academic Director of the Mount Tabor Centre in Barga, Italy. He earned his PhD at Yale University and for most of the last 50 years has lived in Florence, Italy, where he directs the Diocesan Office of Sacred Art and Church Cultural Heritage, the Cathedral Foundation Museum (Museo dell’Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore), and the Centre for Ecumenism of the Archdiocese of Florence.
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