The semester is off to a new start this week, and I am back
with good news. I spent the summer virtually attached to my computer, and
finished the book. And, just because God likes to laugh, just as I was writing
the last few words of the last chapter, and all worried about what I would do
if I didn’t have a publisher, I received an offer of publication from Wipf
& Stock, under their Cascade Books imprint.
The book is called Sanctifying
Art: An Invitation to Conversation Between Artists, Theologians, and the Church.
As you know if you have been following this blog at all, or have ever heard me
talk about art and the church, I have often been surprised and dismayed by the
unexamined attitudes and assumptions that the church holds about how artists
think and how art functions in human life. In this book, I have tried to
investigate these attitudes and tie them to concrete examples, hoping to
demystify art—to bring art down to earth, where theologians, pastors, and
ordinary Christians can wrestle with its meanings, participate in its
processes, and understand its uses.
Needless to say, I am beyond excited to know that the book
is on its way. I still have some editing and formatting to do, and then there
is a long process one the publisher has it in hand, but I should have a
physical book in hand sometime in the spring. Expect to hear me celebrating.
