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This book explores the relationship between religion and the visual arts--and vice versa--within Christianity and other major religious traditions. It identifies and describes the main historical, theological, sociological and aesthetic dimensions of "religious" art, with particular attention to "popular" as well as "high" culture, and within societies of the developing world. It also attempts to locate, and predict, the forms and functions of such art in a changing contemporary context of obligation, modernity, secularism and fundamentalism
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‘Wise insights relating art and religion reward the reader of Graham Howes’ fine work. His interdisciplinary integrity stems from a deeply rooted study of both art and theology, which he reveals as twins. He explores sources of creativity in a variety of successful collaborations from Fra Angelico at San Marco to Moore at Northampton, Matisse at Vence, Rothko at Houston, and Viola’s videos of The Passions and The Messenger. Graham Howes helps us see how “faith lives from the particular” incarnation, how concrete projects mediate the transcendent, and how we may hope to hearten religion and art to inspire and to inform each other.’ Douglas G. Adams, Professor of Christianity and the Arts, Pacific School of Religion ‘Long involved, internationally, in the study of visual arts and religion, Graham Howes has given us a book that only he could have written. While providing a lucid overview of the multiple connections between visual art and religious belief (or “the sacred”), he also supplies fascinating case studies and attends to pertinent historical and theological developments up to the present moment. It is hard to believe that Howes can condense so much insight and valuable information into such a relatively short book. The Art of the Sacred should not be missed by anyone who wants to explore the topic intelligently, or get a real sense of the importance (and complexity) of the issues.’ Frank Burch Brown, Frederick Doyle Kershner Professor of Religion and the Arts, Christian Theological Seminary, Indianapolis ‘Now that many visitors to museums and galleries have so little knowledge of the religious subjects painted by artists in the past, Graham Howes’ book is superbly well-timed. His illuminating introduction to the aesthetics of art and belief will prove indispensable. Above all, he succeeds in reminding us that great art is essentially an act of faith, Christian or otherwise.’ Richard Cork, art critic, historian and broadcaster ‘John Ruskin threw down the gauntlet in Modern Painters, years ago: “How far [has] Fine Art, in all or any ages of the world, been conducive to the religious life.” Using this famous challenge as his starting point, Graham Howes takes us on a multidisciplinary journey through the changing relationship between aesthetic and religious experience mainly in the Western Church tradition – though with applications beyond – from historical, art historical and sociological perspectives, and with the eye of a trained artist. He writes about a very complex web of ideas in a refreshingly clear and no-nonsense way. Moreover, his selection of illustrative case-studies (among them the mid-Victorians, the clerical patronage of Walter Hussey, the work of Matisse and Rothko, Viola and Gormley, and – for me the most fascinating – the public’s reaction to the ‘Seeing Salvation’ exhibition at London’s National Gallery in ) is both imaginative and apt. I will treasure for a long time his demolition of fashionable assertions about ‘the church as heritage centre’. The Art of the Sacred is an excellent introduction to a surprisingly timely subject.’ Sir Christopher Frayling, Rector, Royal College of Art, London ‘Graham Howes provides an eminently civilised entry into the range of relationships, historical and contempor