Thursday's Three on Art

Today's post highlights three books that explore spiritual practice and the arts.

✭ Christine Valters Paintner's Eyes of the Heart: Photography as a Christian Contemplative Practice (Ave Maria Press, 2013), available in print and as an e-book, is a guide to adapting the monastic practice of sacred reading (lectio divina) to a form of sacred seeing (lectio visio). Through the medium of photography, Paintner shows how it is possible to "receive" instead of "take" a picture that will open "the eyes of the heart". 

"Cultivating Contemplation in Your Parish Through Photography" (Video)

Eyes of the Heart at Ave Maria Press

Christine Valters Painter's Website

✭ Con Campbell's autobiographical Outreach and the Artist: Sharing the Gospel with the Arts (Zondervan, April 2013) examines evangelism and church outreach with and through the arts.

Outreach and the Artist at Zondervan

Con Campbell's Website

✭ Michael J. Bauer's Arts Ministry: Nurturing the Creative Life of God's People (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2013) offers case studies of practicing arts ministries that seek "to live and worship in full color". Bauer looks not only at theory but also provides a guide to establishing your own arts ministry. A peek inside the book is available on the publisher's Website.

Arts Ministry Trailer (Video)

Arts Ministry at Wm B Eerdmans

Michael J. Bauer Bio at Washington National Cathedral