How Can Christians Engage Contemporary Art | Elissa Yukiko Weichbrodt

Lecture Title - The Art of Confession, or How the Art You Don’t Like Can Grow Your Love for God Contemporary art can often be unexpected or downright unsettling in its form and subject matter. In that, it may actually remind us of the startling actions and embodied metaphors employed by Old Testament prophets like Ezekiel and Isaiah. They intentionally disrupted their audiences for the purpose of calling them to repentance. By likewise reframing our discomfort with certain contemporary artworks as an invitation to self-examination, we open up new, generative possibilities. This lecture uses examples from the Art Institute of Chicago to explore how artworks might serve as a prompt to personal confession and a growing love for the God who loves us. Elissa Yukiko Weichbrodt (PhD Washington University) is Associate Professor of Art and Art History and a Little Endowed Scholar at Covenant College. She is especially interested in how we are formed by images, and her writing and teaching focuses on representations of race and gender in nineteenth and twentieth century art. Her essay “A Loving Regard: Contemporary Art and Expanding the Archive” was included in the edited collection, Religion and Contemporary Art: A Curious Accord (Routledge, 2023). Her first book, Redeeming Vision: A Christian Guide to Looking at and Learning from Art (Baker Academic, 2023), is a practical introduction to engaging art with generosity and grace. The Henry Center for Theological Understanding provides theological resources that help bridge the gap between the academy and the church. It houses a cluster of initiatives, each of which is aimed at applying practical Christian wisdom to important kingdom issues—for the good of the church, for the soul of the theological academy, for the sake of the world, and ultimately for the glory of God. The HCTU seeks to ground each of these initiatives in Scripture, and it pursues these goals collaboratively, in order to train a new generation of wise interpreters of the Word—lay persons and scholars alike—for the sake of tomorrow’s church, academy, and world. Visit the HCTU website: https://henrycenter.tiu.edu/  Subscribe to the HCTU Newsletter: https://bit.ly/326pRL5 Watch the HCTU on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@HenryCenter Connect with us! https://twitter.com/henry_center https://www.facebook.com/henrycenter/ https://www.instagram.com/thehenrycenter/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/thehenrycenter

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This is our archive of public lectures and conversations where scholars and pastors offer careful reflection on a range of biblical, theological, and ecclesial topics. The HCTU seeks to bridge the gap between the academy and the church by cultivating resources and communities that promote Christian wisdom. This is accomplished through a cluster of initiatives, each of which is aimed at applying practical Christian wisdom to important kingdom issues—for the good of the church, for the soul of the theological academy, for the sake of the world, and ultimately for the glory of God.