Reports of the death of religious art have been greatly exaggerated

LOS ANGELES REVIEW OF BOOKS
By S. Brent Plate

Modern Art and the Life of a Culture: The Religious Impulses of Modernism (Studies in Theology and the Arts) Paperback – June 27, 2016 by Jonathan A. Anderson (Author), William A. Dyrness (Author)

Critics and journalists rarely diverge from the secular gaze when it comes to using art and spirit in the same sentence. Apart from Holland Cotter’s usually astute observations in The New York Times, and a handful of others. In Modern Art and the Life of a Culture (2016), Jonathan A. Anderson and William A. Dyrness rewrite modernist history, but from a Protestant theological perspective. Dig around in religion, and we find art. Art historian Karen Gonzalez Rice’s Long Suffering: American Endurance Art as Prophetic Witness (2016) is an important addition to this growing bibliography. Perhaps now, with religious literacy an increasing necessity for civic life, perhaps ultimately, critics will start paying more attention. [link]