Publisher:
Yale University Press, New Haven ; London
From a world-renowned painter, an exploration of creativity's quintessential-and often overlooked-role in the spiritual life. Written over thirty years of painting and creating in his studio, this book is Makoto Fujimura's broad and deep exploration...
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From a world-renowned painter, an exploration of creativity's quintessential-and often overlooked-role in the spiritual life. Written 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, he asserts, 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
The sacred art of creating -- The divine nature of creativity -- Beauty, mercy, and the new creation -- Kintsugi: the "new newness" -- Caring and loving, the work of making -- Seeing the future with the eyes of the heart -- Imagination and faith -- The journey to the new through Christ's tears -- Christ's tears in the cultural river -- Lazarus culture
