One of the reasons for naming this blog Transpositions is that all of us are interested in creative transpositions between the arts and Christianity, exploring ways that the arts inform Christianity and vice versa. Although this type of transposition has…
Last Sunday I started a series with the youth in our community on the topic of discerning popular culture as Christians. They’re loving it. I’m excited but scared. The youth are loving it because they long to discuss and discover…
Both art and discipleship depend on paying attention. I cannot speak for all artists, but I have dabbled in instrumental and choral music, theatre, poetry and prose, and in all these artistic activities, paying attention is paramount. Take acting on…
If Shakespeare was right that all the world’s a stage and we are all actors performing particular roles, then what exactly is the drama in which we are performing, and what part do we have to play? As one might…
Christine C. Schnusenberg, The Mythological Traditions of Liturgical Drama: The Eucharist as Theater (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2010). “In the beginning there was theater.” As the last chapter title in the book, this phrase provides a fitting thesis for the…
Through music, humans express and explore every possible area of emotion and experience. For example, we use music to mourn, celebrate, muse, rage, despair, rejoice, and give thanks. To take this last example, what does it sound like to give…
I love to dance. My experience as a dancer began as a child in an American family with strong ties to our Dutch heritage. In order to maintain these ethnic roots, my parents encouraged us to participate in Dutch dancing…
Among Christian theologians and ethicists who utilise theatrical metaphors and models, it is common to assign to Scripture the role of script. If life is a drama being played out on the world stage, the argument goes, then Scripture is…
Brian Godawa. Word Pictures: Knowing God through Story and Imagination. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1999. Pp. 208. $16.00 Word Pictures is an extended reflection on the dynamic interplay between word and image understood as categories of discourse. Word refers to…