Viewing all items in Resource Category: God in the Arts

‘In that region there were shepherds keeping watch over their flock’ In the Old Testament shepherds were greatly valued and treated with respect. Patriarchs, prophets and kings had all tended sheep. Job, a rich man, owned 14,000 sheep. David was tending sheep when he was called by God and anointed by Samuel. But as the...

The philosopher Wittgenstein gave the following advice to people visiting an art gallery or exhibition: never try to rush through all the paintings on show, but instead choose just one painting. Sit in front of it for twenty minutes. Then get up and leave the art gallery. It is difficult advice to take to heart...

For nine days at the end of September Jewish families will have gathered to celebrate the festival of Tabernacles. It is always a happy season as adults and children alike join for their Harvest feast. Many churches will be having their own Harvest Thanksgivings at the beginning of this month. We know this was a...

There is a story that someone asked a Father of the early church, Tertullian, to prove the existence of God. He replied by showing the person a rose. But Tertullian took a risk, for while many appreciate the beauty and wonder of a rose, it is not everyone who sees that beauty pointing to God...

In the 3rd century a Chinese philosopher, Chang Tsu, had a very vivid dream. He dreamed he was a butterfly, happily flying here and there. When he awoke, he thought to himself, ‘Did Chang Tsu dream that he was a butterfly, or did the butterfly dream that it was Chang Tsu?’ Dreams are often like...

When St Peter preached his first sermon on the day of Pentecost, he showed how the life, death and resurrection of Jesus had to be understood in the light of the Old Testament. The promise of the Old was granted fulfilment in the New. This is how we understand the unity of the two Testaments:...

At the end of this month, on 28th June, we celebrate two of the great saints of the early church: Peter and Paul. We might relate more easily to Peter because his humanity and vulnerability spill out of the pages of the New Testament in everything he said and did. Peter was a fisherman, who...

When Van Gogh painted ‘The Raising of Lazarus’, he turned to Rembrandt for inspiration. But in place of the figure of Jesus, he painted a warm, glowing sun, radiant in the sky, and shining out to bring renewal of life to Lazarus and his sisters. From time immemorial people have placed the sun at the...

I like the story of the vestry noticeboard of a church in Hampshire: after a Holy Week performance of Stainer’s ‘Crucifixion’, the choirmaster wrote: ‘“The Crucifixion” – well done, everyone!’  Later that day, someone had added, ‘The Resurrection – well done, God!’ For the two disciples treading the road to Emmaus, there was no such...

‘Ecce Ancilla Domini’ (Behold the handmaid of the Lord) is the title of this month’s painting of the Annunciation by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. We shall hear those words in the Gospel for this feast on 25th March, when Mary responds to Gabriel’s message that she is to be the mother of our Saviour. It is...

Forty days and forty nights On the 17th of this month, we enter the season of Lent: those 40 days when we follow Jesus into the wilderness and prepare ourselves to celebrate His Easter victory. In the last century an artist called Stanley Spencer planned to create a series of 40 paintings, each depicting a...

When St Paul wrote about the birth and humanity of Jesus to the Philippians, he described it as an emptying and a humbling. Jesus humbled Himself, he wrote, ‘and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.’ In obedience and love Jesus followed the will of His Father through His ministry...