Religion, Art, and Money

Religion, Art, and Money
Author: Peter W. Williams
Publisher: UNC Press Books
Total Pages: 294
Release: 2016-02-24
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1469626985

This cultural history of mainline Protestantism and American cities--most notably, New York City--focuses on wealthy, urban Episcopalians and the influential ways they used their money. Peter W. Williams argues that such Episcopalians, many of them the country's most successful industrialists and financiers, left a deep and lasting mark on American urban culture. Their sense of public responsibility derived from a sacramental theology that gave credit to the material realm as a vehicle for religious experience and moral formation, and they came to be distinguished by their participation in major aesthetic and social welfare endeavors. Williams traces how the church helped transmit a European-inflected artistic patronage that was adapted to the American scene by clergy and laity intent upon providing moral and aesthetic leadership for a society in flux. Episcopalian influence is most visible today in the churches, cathedrals, and elite boarding schools that stand in many cities and other locations, but Episcopalians also provided major support to the formation of stellar art collections, the performing arts, and the Arts and Crafts movement. Williams argues that Episcopalians thus helped smooth the way for acceptance of materiality in religious culture in a previously iconoclastic, Puritan-influenced society.

The "Divine" Guido

The
Author: Richard E. Spear
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 454
Release: 1997-01-01
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9780300070354

In this highly original study of Italian baroque master Guido Reni (1575-1642), Richard Spear paints a compelling portrait of the artist - his complexities, his formative experiences, his cultural surroundings, and his unique sensibilities. Spear views Reni's career from a wide variety of perspectives and sets his life and works in social, economic, historical, artistic, religious, and psychological contexts. The author focuses first on Reni's peculiar character: a man at once deeply religious, rabidly misogynist, reportedly virginal, neurotically fearful of witches, and addicted to gambling. The author considers the enduring charisma of Reni's Crucifixions, weeping Marys, and repentant saints in the light of the Catholic doctrinal meaning of grace in Reni's time, the Church's attitude toward Mary and women, and the gendered implications of visual grace. Chapters on Reni's pricing policies, selling strategies, use of assistants, and attitude toward what constituted an "original", expose the motivating importance of money for Reni, and the concerns, even among seventeenth-century collectors, about how to distinguish original paintings from studio replicas or copies. The book investigates the ways renaissance and baroque attitudes toward art-making affected Reni and closes with a fresh view of Reni's unfinished canvases and last style, including the Divine Love, the beautiful and unusual painting that remained in Reni's studio at the time of his death.

Disfiguring

Disfiguring
Author: Mark C. Taylor
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 392
Release: 1992
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 9780226791333

Disfiguring is constructive or, perhaps more accurately, reconstructive. By exploring the religious dimensions of twentieth-century painting and architecture, he shows how the visual arts continue to serve as a rich resource for the theological imagination.

Art and Faith

Art and Faith
Author: Makoto Fujimura
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 184
Release: 2021-01-05
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0300255934

From a world-renowned painter, an exploration of creativity’s quintessential—and often overlooked—role in the spiritual life “Makoto Fujimura’s art and writings have been a true inspiration to me. In this luminous book, he addresses the question of art and faith and their reconciliation with a quiet and moving eloquence.”—Martin Scorsese “[An] elegant treatise . . . Fujimura’s sensitive, evocative theology will appeal to believers interested in the role religion can play in the creation of art.”—Publishers Weekly Conceived over thirty years of painting and creating in his studio, this book is Makoto Fujimura’s broad and deep exploration of creativity and the spiritual aspects of “making.” What he does in the studio is theological work as much as it is aesthetic work. In between pouring precious, pulverized minerals onto handmade paper to create the prismatic, refractive surfaces of his art, he comes into the quiet space in the studio, in a discipline of awareness, waiting, prayer, and praise. Ranging from the Bible to T. S. Eliot, and from Mark Rothko to Japanese Kintsugi technique, he shows how unless we are making something, we cannot know the depth of God’s being and God’s grace permeating our lives. This poignant and beautiful book offers the perspective of, in Christian Wiman’s words, “an accidental theologian,” one who comes to spiritual questions always through the prism of art.

Religion as Art Form

Religion as Art Form
Author: Carl L. Jech
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 268
Release: 2013-05-09
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1620329107

If you find books such as Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion compelling but your faith heritage is also important to you, this book shows how you can affirm both. Taking a cue from Marcus Borg's contention that "scriptural literalism" is for many people a major impediment to authentic spirituality, Carl Jech describes how all religion can and should be much more explicit about its symbolic, metaphorical, and artistic nature. With a particular focus on mortality and the relationship of humans to eternity, the book affirms a postmodern understanding of "God" as ultimate eternal Mystery and of spirituality as an artistic, (w)holistic, visionary, and creative process of becoming at home in the universe as it really is with all its joys and sorrows. Religion as Art Form is a must-read for those who think of themselves as spiritual but not religious.

Art + Religion in the 21st Century

Art + Religion in the 21st Century
Author: Aaron Rosen
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2017-01-14
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9780500293034

Blaspheming artists get all the press. Some exploit the shock potential of religious imagery - but many also reflect deeply on spiritual matters and are, in fact, some of the most profound and sensitive commentators on religion today. Here, Aaron Rosen shows how religious themes and images permeate the work of contemporary artists from across the globe. Contrary to the expectations of twentieth-century rationalists, religion has not faded away in the 21st century, but roared back onto the scene with renewed vitality. This survey shows how religious themes and images continue to permeate the work of contemporary artists from across the globe. Some exploit the shock potential of religious imagery, but many also reflect deeply on spiritual matters. The introduction outlines the debates and controversies that the art-religion connection has precipitated throughout history. Each of the book's chapters opens by introducing a theme - ideas about creation, the sublime, wonder, diaspora and exile, religious and political conflict, ritual practice, mourning and monumentalizing, environmental art and sacred space - followed by a selection of works of art that develop that theme. The book encompasses a wide range of media and genres, from sculpture to street art, and considers faith in its broadest sense - from Islam and Christianity to Aboriginal mythology and meditation. Artists discussed include Ai Weiwei, Francis Alÿs, Vanessa Beecroft, Maurizio Cattelan, Cristo and Jeanne-Claude, Olafur Eliasson, Tracey Emin, Antony Gormley, Mona Hatoum, David LaChapelle, Richard Long, Annette Messager, Mariko Mori, Grayson Perry, Richard Serra, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Bill Viola, Mark Wallinger and more.

Art and Religion

Art and Religion
Author: Max Stirner
Publisher: Pattern Books
Total Pages: 34
Release: 2020-07-04
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 7199354908

You don't really need a description, but I'm required to give one since I have to have an at least 200 character description to submit the book, so here is 200 characters, once I reach those 200 characters. Still haven't reached 200 words, watching the counter go down as I type here. If you come across Max Stirner before, you don't need a description here, if you haven't come across Stirner before, here's your description:

Confidence Games

Confidence Games
Author: Mark C. Taylor
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 416
Release: 2008-05-15
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0226791688

'Confidence Games' argues that money and markets do not exist in a vacuum, but grow in a profoundly cultual medium, reflecting and in turn shaping their world. To understand the ongoing changes in the economy, one must consider the influence of art, philosophy and religion.

Theology of Money

Theology of Money
Author: Philip Goodchild
Publisher: Duke University Press
Total Pages: 315
Release: 2009-06-22
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0822392550

Theology of Money is a philosophical inquiry into the nature and role of money in the contemporary world. Philip Goodchild reveals the significance of money as a dynamic social force by arguing that under its influence, moral evaluation is subordinated to economic valuation, which is essentially abstract and anarchic. His rigorous inquiry opens into a complex analysis of political economy, encompassing markets and capital, banks and the state, class divisions, accounting practices, and the ecological crisis awaiting capitalism. Engaging with Christian theology and the thought of Carl Schmitt, Georg Simmel, Karl Marx, Adam Smith, and many others, Goodchild develops a theology of money based on four contentions, which he elaborates in depth. First, money has no intrinsic value; it is a promise of value, a crystallization of future hopes. Second, money is the supreme value in contemporary society. Third, the value of assets measured by money is always future-oriented, dependent on expectations about how much might be obtained for those assets at a later date. Since this value, when realized, will again depend on future expectations, the future is forever deferred. Financial value is essentially a degree of hope, expectation, trust, or credit. Fourth, money is created as debt, which involves a social obligation to work or make profits to repay the loan. As a system of debts, money imposes an immense and irresistible system of social control on individuals, corporations, and governments, each of whom are threatened by economic failure if they refuse their obligations to the money system. This system of debt has progressively tightened its hold on all sectors and regions of global society. With Theology of Money, Goodchild aims to make conscious our collective faith and its dire implications.

Symbols in Arts, Religion and Culture

Symbols in Arts, Religion and Culture
Author: Farrin Chwalkowski
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 620
Release: 2016-12-14
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1443857289

We are a product of nature. Every single cell of our body is made of, and depends, on nature. Our inner soul is heavily influenced by nature. We feel sad if the sun is not shining for a few days, and feel pleasure when drawn to the wonder of flowers and uplifted by the song of birds. We came from nature; we are part of nature. In short, we are nature. Nature has been an intimate part of the human experience from the earliest times. Different religions and cultures, from all corners of the world, have honoured and worshipped nature in art, ritual and literature in their own unique ways. This book shows how we learn about our own human nature, our own sense of identity and how we fit into the larger scheme of life and spirit when we come to better understand how our human ancestors, through art, symbol and myth, expressed their relationship with the natural world.