![]() ![]() In a time when many art historians tread lightly around the spiritual implications of religious art, Heidi Hornik embraces the principles that inspired the artists who created them. ~Robert Randolf Coleman, Professor Emeritus of Art History, University of Notre Dame The Art of Christian Reflection considers the power of images to engage the viewer on a spiritual level by examining a rich array of both familiar and strikingly unusual narrative works and sacred spaces from Early Christian times to the twentieth century. Hornik’s essays provide views into how iconic images and ecclesial buildings have always helped to navigate individuals through complex ethical and moral issues, matters which continue to concern contemporary people every day. ![]() Joynes, Director, Centre for Reception History of the Bible at the University of Oxford Professor Hornik’s thought-provoking approach is to be warmly welcomed, opening up unexplored and fruitful territory. Over eighty images are brought into fascinating dialogue with a vast array of contrasting subjects, such as forgiveness, virtual reality, vocation and pornography. In this innovative volume, art historian Heidi Hornik highlights the rich potential visual art offers Christians as they seek to engage with contemporary ethical issues. ~James Clifton, Director, Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, and Curator, Renaissance and Baroque Painting, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston The book is at once accessible to the layperson-both religious and art historical-and fully grounded in scholarship, and its structure allows for brief-but-focused meditations on the beautiful objects chosen, the questions they raise, and even the answers they may provide. Heidi Hornik’s book is remarkable. Both a respected scholar of Renaissance art history and an avowed Christian, she uses her historical understanding to illuminate great works of art and her religious perspective to bring these works to bear on moral, ethical, and devotional issues facing contemporary people of faith. Pierce Chair of Religion, Oxford College of Emory University But the true focus and most enduring aspects of Hornik’s book are the enlightening insights about what these works of visual art want from us, how they challenge us to respond in our daily lives as Christians. These discussions begin with explorations of what these works of visual art mean, how they are crafted, and how they dialogue with biblical texts and other Christian contexts. The formal and iconographic analyses of eighty carefully chosen works of visual art are skillfully integrated with interpretations of biblical texts, important Christian habits and virtues, contemporary moral issues, and formative and liturgical practices of the church. This stunning book by Heidi Hornik is a rich resource for Christian reflection and action. Balentine, Professor of Old Testament and Director of Graduate Studies, Union Presbyterian Seminary To walk with her through the visuals assembled here is to embark on what she aptly describes as a ‘pilgrimage’ without doubt our journey will lead us far beyond the trifling. In this work, Heidi Hornik shows us how art can transform our sensitivities to contemporary moral issues and attune us to beauty and virtue that brings us closer to God. Art can lead the faithful who reflect on it to become not only "hearers" and "seers" of the Word-but "doers" as well. It reveals the ethics of works not associated with the church but of value to contemporary Christians. The Art of Christian Reflection paints the church’s art as not only a courageous witness to the truth and reality of the gospel, but as an act of discipleship. Hornik also discusses art’s influence on moral issues such as racism, prisons, violence, poverty, and environmentalism as well as historic Christian praxes such as prayer, work, Bible study, and worship. Specifically, Hornik explores how art may foster Christian virtues such as forgiveness, patience, and generosity. Over eighty different pieces of art-paintings, sculptures, and architecture-are the subject of Hornik’s careful analysis and commentary, which highlights the ethical implications inherent to each work. ![]() In The Art of Christian Reflection, art historian Heidi Hornik reconnects art to ethics, beauty to behavior, and form to function in classical artwork. Christian art was never intended for mere enjoyment, but was used to express the most important features of Christian faith and to suggest models for Christian practices. Contemporary Christians interact with art very differently than Christians of centuries past. ![]()
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