A handful of quotes from Robin Jensen’s book, ‘The Substance of Things Seen’. Within this short book, Robin shows the importance of art in the history of the church, and how it still relates today.
“Straight lines are only in mathematics. Creation is full of crooked, broken, or curly lines.” p11
“Art is an activity that gives form to the abstract, brings it out into the external world, so that it may be seen and judged.” p18
“Stories or texts are understood to bear a variety of meanings, depending on the context and the audience’s level of sophistication and spiritual discernment. Visual art that draws from these narratives operates in the same fashion. Sometimes the images are edited, abbreviated, juxtaposed, or transformed to make the point.” p40
“Visual images raise special concerns, not only because we might mistake earthly things for the spiritual truths they point to but because of their great power.” p74
“The illustrations in a Sunday school curriculum, the fronts of bulletin covers, and the illustrations attached to daily meditation manuals all affect the ways people hear or read their sacred stories and shape their conception of the divine.” p91
Jensen, Robin Margaret. The Substance of Things Seen: Art, Faith, and the Christian Community. Calvin Institute of Christian Worship Liturgical Studies Series. Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans Pub., 2004.
