16 Books on Faith and Art

How should Christians think about art? Is art something frivolous and “extra,” like a hobby? Is it an arcane interest accessible mainly to specialists or the well-to-do?

I’m convinced that art is in fact far more important to the Christian life than we often believe. After all, we all participate in art every day, whether through the way we adorn our homes and yards, or the way we outfit our offices, or the way our places of worship are designed. Art is all around us. We see and hear it, but that doesn’t mean we give it the thought and attention we should. Art is a profoundly theological subject. Here are some books to help you think more deeply about the intersection of faith and art.

Introductory Books on Faith and Art

The following books serve as introductions to thinking about art as a Christian. Although I’m describing them as introductory, they are excellent for the already-committed art lover, too:

• 1. Art and the Bible by Francis Schaeffer is a short, accessible introduction that first offers a brief survey of what the Bible teaches about art, then offers some helpful principles for evaluating art.
• 2. Russ Ramsey’s brilliant book, Rembrandt Is in the Wind: Learning to Love Art through the Eyes of Faith is like a mini-course in both art and art history, viewed through the lens of the Christian faith. This book is for art aficionados and newcomers alike and offers a theological education as well as one on art.
• 3. Terry Glaspey’s Discovering God through the Arts: How We Can Grow Closer to God by Appreciating Beauty & Creativity is another primer on art. Like Rembrandt is in the Wind, Glaspey doesn’t just offer lessons about art, but provides a robust theological framework for why art and beauty matter.
• 4. A forthcoming book I’m personally very excited about (having had the opportunity to read the manuscript in advance) is Redeeming Vision: A Christian Guide to Looking at and Learning from Art by Elissa Yukiko Weichbrodt. While written for the layperson, this book goes more deeply into technical aspects of art than many introductory works do. But it also is full of rich theological and cultural analyses that equip the reader for encounters with art out in the world beyond the pages of this book.

Books Beyond the Visual Arts

Here are some excellent books on art and faith that go beyond the visual arts in exploring a range of artistic forms from a Christian perspective:

• 5. Another work by Terry Glaspey, 75 Masterpieces Every Christian Should Know: The Fascinating Stories Behind Great Works of Art, Literature, Music, and Film covers various artistic forms and examines specific examples as models for how to think theologically about both the form and the content of all kinds of art.
• 6. Resounding Truth: Christian Wisdom in the World of Music by Jeremy Begbie is not just for those who know and love music (although it certainly will delight such readers). Begbie is as gifted as a theologian as he is talented as a musician. His insights into the relationship between music and the Christian faith can be applied to all the creative arts (and to life!).
• 7. The Beauty of God: Theology and the Arts is a collection of academic essays from a theological perspective that covers a variety of artistic forms, including music, visual arts, and literature.
• 8. Despite its title, Visual Faith by William Dyrness is about much more than the visual arts. This book covers a lot of ground in pointing readers to the Bible, history, church history, and theology for a better understanding of art and beauty.
• 9. Imagining Our Neighbors as Ourselves: How Art Shapes Empathy by Mary McCampbell focuses on a variety of narrative forms of art in order to show how enlarged imaginations can help us better love our neighbors.

Books on Art History and Artists

If you are interested not only in works of art but also in the history and cultural contexts that give rise to artists and artistic movements (and how we as Christians might thing about these contexts and movements), these books are great places to start:

• 10. State of the Arts: From Bezalel to Mapplethorpe by Gene Edward Veith is a classic in Christian worldview criticism and was an early influence on my own understanding.
• 11. Another work in this vein, but one focused more on modern art is Modern Art and the Death of a Culture by H. R. Rookmaaker.

Both of these books ought to be complemented by thinkers who have more sympathy with some of the underlying developments that led to modern and postmodern art, which Christians too easily dismiss or misunderstand.

• 12. Daniel Seidell’s God in the Gallery: A Christian Embrace of Modern Art will help even the most skeptical Christian better see behind the surface of so much modern art that may not be as hostile to belief as it seems.
• 13. One book that offers this more nuanced perspective, one that sees beyond the despair often expressed in art that comes from Christ-hidden cultures, is Silence and Beauty by Makoto Fujimura, who is himself a world-renowned artist in the vein of one modern style, abstract expressionism.

Speaking of Makoto Fujimura, some books can help us to better understand the artists in our lives (and our churches). Two of Fujimura’s books do this quite well:

• 14. Art + Faith: A Theology of Making
• 15. Culture Care: Reconnecting with Beauty for our Common Life

A Series of Books on Theology and the Arts

• 16. I would be remiss not to highly recommend this leading series from IVP: Studies in Theology and the Arts. (In full disclosure, I serve on its advisory board.) The series goes both deep and wide in showing just how theological art (and our thinking about art) can be.

As all these books show, art isn’t, for the Christian, an option or a luxury. Beauty and art reflect the nature of God, and the nature of all human beings who are made in his image. Thus beauty and art must have a place in any robust, complete Christian theology.