Reviews
A Few Recommended Books
by lefever on November 18, 2010
Recommended from friends at Global Spiral:
Culture Making: Recovering our Creative Calling
by Andy Crouch.
“You might already be aware of this book about Christianity as a means of creating culture. The author, Andy Crouch, has published in IMAGE and has taught at their workshops. We recently reviewed this book in The Global Spiral.”
Material Christianity: Religion and Popular Culture in America by Colleen McDannell. “This is a great book by a historian of religion that looks at the role of “low” and “middle brow” art, crafts, and architecture in American Christianity.”
The Catholic Experience: Space, Time, Silence, Prayer, Sacrament, Story…
by Walter Cunningham.
“As the title evinces, this book is specifically about the Catholic experience; it does have a wonderful chapter on Catholic church architecture, ancient and modern, its role in worship and in the religious imaginations of believers.”
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From the CIVA Library:
Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art
by Madeline L’Engle
“Madeline L’Engle explores what it means to be a Christian artist and what separates Christian art from what has often been called secular. While the text explores L’Engle’s journey as a writer, it applies equally to all stripes of artists. When asked to describe where faith stops and art begins, L’Engle explains that there is no separating the two–”it means attempting to share the meaning of my life, what gives it, for me, its tragedy and its glory.” The exquisite prose of this book has made it a classic on the topic of art and faith.”
Art and the Christian Mind: The Life and Work of H.R. Rookmaaker
by Laurel Gasque
“Laurel Gasque has produced an excellent biography on influential Dutch art historian Hans Rookmaaker. Originally produced to be part of The Complete Works of Hans Rookmaaker (Piquant Editions), the volume is now released as a single volume by Crossway Books. Gasque provides insight into a person whose work and writings had a deep impact on many of the founding members of CIVA. This book and The Complete Works (which is also available in a searchable CD format) prove that Rookmaaker’s vision and thought are just as pertinent to today’s Christians as they were over four decades ago.”
Imagine: A Vision for Christians in the Arts
by Steve Turner
IS the VISUAL image POWERFUL…?
by lefever on November 17, 2010
(…in leading the mind?)
A post:
[FBA note from JWL: I have found it important to realize the power images play in the different hands that use them – and to understand the world a bit better, it is crucial to see what is otherwise innocuous to a contemporary capitalist living in any industrialized/technological consumer driven society regardless of one’s spiritual beliefs. Culture here is worth examining in light of what it is we receive and why, not necessarily to adopt the means, but perhaps to see it as a negative, perhaps contrary to the positive call of creating an original culture that leads to a different set of values – or not – but certainly, if one was asleep, perhaps this is a wake-up that may stimulate our discussions on culture, consecration, etc.,]
Propaganda
By Edward Bernays
(The following review was found – we do not know the original source – a search reveals that bits and pieces of it are all across the web in book reviews)
The first lines: “The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country.” This was written in 1928. This nephew of Sigmund Freud worked in Woodrow Wilson’s creation, the Committee on Public Information, and saw first hand how the public’s mind can be manipulated. Wilson was elected on a peace platform and had to transform the country to go to war against the German Kaiser. Bernays later helped publicize the American Tobacco Company, and is credited as a “father” of public relations. Anyone interested in understanding how the masses are molded by the powers that be must read this book!
Propaganda, though written in the late 1920s, is an excellent resource for a citizen in general. This manual, a seminal document, is a key resource on the thoughts and workings of the public relations industry, then only a speck compared to what it is today. Everything from corporate PR to advertising in general has basically internalized what is covered in this book in order to serve those institutional functions that mold the public’s mind.
This is all related to the ‘manufacture of consent’, something that Chomsky, who writes a good intro here, and Ed Herman explored in depth in their book ‘Manufacturing Consent’ where they lay down a Propaganda Model.
This is a huge topic for Americans, period. While media and their role, and their ‘slants’ is a hot topic (sometimes even within the media, but to limited scope of discussion) this book is a straightforward reprint of the PR industry manual. It’s no ‘secret’–it’s more like company policy. It’s far more illuminating than … [continue reading]
