Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Machine generated contents note: 1.A Double-Consciousness -- A False Choice -- Postwar America -- High or Low -- Secular or Sacred -- Aesthetes or Disciples -- 2.The Body They May Kill -- Ideal Form -- Modernism's Body -- The Sexed Body -- Broken Bodies -- Tents and Temples -- A Sacred Vessel -- 3.Secular Sirens -- An Evangelical Taxonomy of the Senses -- An Allegory of Passion -- The Sensate Life -- Born of Weakness -- Pleasure Redeemed -- 4.Be Careful Little Eyes What You See -- Calves and Serpents -- Three Controversies -- Evangelical Icons -- Objects of Devotion -- Seeing the Unseen -- 5.A People of the Book and the Image -- The Precincts of Word and Image -- The Modern Contest -- Reading -- It's Not What It Used to Be -- A Book for the People -- The Word Made Flesh -- 6.A Semblance of a Whole -- Crisis -- Lettrism -- Deconstruction -- Confronting Babel -- Annunciation -- 7.The Music of the Spheres -- Finding Beauty -- Beauty's Bloodied Nose -- Reviving Beauty --

Note continued: Signs of Glory -- 8.An Aesthetic Pilgrimage -- A Glimmer of Light -- The Culture Problem -- Called by God -- The Artist's Vocation -- The Hope of the New.

The tension between Christianity and the arts is often real. But it also offers a false dichotomy. Many Christian artists think that they must choose between their faith and their artistic calling. Drawing upon his experiences as both a Christian and a practicing artist, Cameron J. Anderson explores the dynamics of faith and art in this latest volume in IVP Academic's Studies in Theology and the Arts series. Tracing the relationship between evangelicalism and modern art in postwar America-two entities that often found themselves at odds with each other-Anderson raises several issues that confront artists. With skill, sensitivity and insight, he considers questions such as the role of our bodies and our senses in our experience of the arts, the relationship between text and image, the persistent dangers of idolatry, the possibility of pursuing God through an encounter with beauty and more. Throughout this study, Anderson's principal concern is how Christian artists can faithfully pursue their vocational calling in contemporary culture. Readers will find here not only an informed and thoughtful response, but also a vision that offers guidance and hope. -from publisher.