Comments on: Protestants embrace the arts

By: Cody

Cody — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 23:48:49 +0000

I’m an art student doing my Senior Thesis on this very subject! I attend Azusa Pacific University (rival of BIOLA) and am going to work on my masters here as well. We have an MFA program with a very open minded staff and who operate with a “God First” mindset. Talk to Bill Catling (depatment head) or Jim Daichendt (Ed.d.) at the art department. Hope this helped!

By: Follow up: JBU Gallery St. Francis benefit « The Aesthetic Elevator

Follow up: JBU Gallery St. Francis benefit « The Aesthetic Elevator — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 03:14:25 +0000

[...] that the number of influential artists of the Christian faith lagged sorely in the 20th century. This trend seems to be slowly rectifying itself — [...]

By: The Protestant embrace of visual art is “in its infancy” « The Aesthetic Elevator

Wed, 10 Jan 2007 19:27:58 +0000

[...] sadly, there isn’t much news about art and faith. However, I feel led to elaborate on my last post and Chad’s comment on that last [...]

By: tAE

tAE — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 14:14:00 +0000

Chad,

Thank you for reminding me of my own plight! This is one aspect of Protestantism which is still sorely deficient in the arts, you are right. Just after finishing my BFA I looked intently for a Christian school (all of my education to that point had been at public schools) to get an MFA in studio art from. I found three things:

Biola used to have an MFA program, but it was draining too much from their BFA program.

The University of Dallas, a catholic university, offered an MFA in studio art. That didn’t appeal to me at the time (being Protestant).

Bob Jones University — yes, THAT Bob Jones — offered a masters in studio art, but it wasn’t an “MFA” and hence my ability to get a university job with their degree was not very good.

At the time I felt as though I had left no stone unturned, although I probably could have been more throrough in my search. Your point is well made, but I suppose my use of the term “infancy” in relationship to the Protestant’s embrace of the arts allows for such lack, no?

By: chad

chad — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 07:06:19 +0000

While I would agree with your words here, I would like to add something else. I am a student at Asbury Theological Seminary and an artist and the amount of post graduate training available dealing with theology and art is VERY slim. There are a few programs in Canada, and Asbury allows a sort of redirect towards this field. I think that the availability of an education in this should be something that is strived for as well. Maybe even some required courses for all going into vocational ministry to understand these issues?