*** DEBUG START ***
*** DEBUG END ***

Book review: Gospel as Work of Art: Imaginative truth and the open text by David Brown

by
06 December 2024

Richard Harries reads about the interface of Bible and culture

A DEEPLY felt plea runs through this important book by Professor David Brown. It is that readers of the Bible, his fellow scholars in particular, should not be so obsessed with the historicity of the Gospels. Whether a Gospel event happened matters, but from the beginning the record of what occurred was inseparable from an understanding of its meaning; human imagination was engaged from the outset.

So David Brown wants us to see the Bible as an open text, one whose meaning and significance did not ossify with the closure of the biblical canon, but one that can be further deepened in every age. To this end, he looks to the visual arts, poetry, novels, architecture, and even ballet.

There are many books on the Bible in art, and some on poetry and novels that explore Christian themes. But Brown’s point is that these should not be seen simply as illustrations or applications of a Gospel story. They deepen and bring out its meaning, and should, therefore, be seen in continuity with the New Testament writers themselves.

This is a work of 572 pages, beautifully produced with more than 100 illustrations. It reflects a lifetime of research and teaching by the author, who is learned in a range of theological sub-disciplines and well read in a variety of art forms. His desire to see the Bible as an open text is related to another major concern, which is to find points of contact between our own time and the world of the Gospels. For this reason, he writes on subjects not always to the fore among theologians, such as the religious experience of Jesus, and the immanence of God in creation.

He is also alert to modern concerns, not least the role of women, and there is a salutary section on the Gospels and disability, including a painting of the Last Supper which includes a Down-syndrome person. Readers will be pleased to see many of their favourite paintings, poems, and novels discussed here, but also others, both modern and ancient, with which they will be unfamiliar.

AlamyEcce Ancilla Domini! (The Annunciation) (1849-50) by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, one of the artists discussed in the book

Brown’s method is to take a particular incident or story — say, the baptism of Christ, the raising of Lazarus, or the parable of the two sons — and then explore what the Gospels say about them, in particular showing how there may be different meanings, especially between John and the Synoptic Gospels. He sees those differences or developments as the beginning of a process that continued through Christian history and, in our time, might find a new focus in a poem or painting.

I will take just one of the many examples that Brown considers: the part played by church buildings, and our somewhat ambivalent attitude to them. He begins with the temple in Jerusalem and the attitude of Jesus towards it

The main discussion, however, concerns the impact of Gothic art. He looks at its origin in the vision of Abbot Sugar that it should move viewers “from the material to the immaterial” and so let them be “translated by divine grace from the inferior to a higher world”. He then considers the renewal of that vision in the work of Ruskin and Pugin in the 19th century, together with its impact in Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre-Dame and The Cathedral by Joris-Karl Huysmans.

When it comes into the 20th century, he draws on the poetry of Edith Wharton, Rilke, David Jones, and Geoffrey Hill, as well as novels such as Sally Vickers’s The Cleaner of Chartres and William Golding’s The Spire.

The section concludes with examples of visual art in which the majesty of a church building can be set in relation to the human, as with Dame Elisabeth Frink’s Walking Madonna outside Salisbury Cathedral and the sculpture Homeless Jesus by Timothy P. Schmalz, versions of which can be found in a number of churches. The words of Dame Tracey Emin “I felt you and I knew you loved me” written in bold neon script in Liverpool Cathedral remind us that sacred buildings have too often excluded women.

Brown concludes that Gothic art and architecture retain their power to speak of a divine transcendence, just as the temple spoke to Jesus, but the message of the cleansing of the temple must continue to remind us that these buildings exist for people.

Other subjects are treated in a similarly comprehensive manner. The only surprising omission was the deeply moving incident in Crime and Punishment when Sonia reads the story of the raising of Lazarus to Raskolnikov. This book is a massive achievement, which will be read with enjoyment and profit by anyone concerned with the interface of the Bible and wider culture.

The Rt Revd Lord Harries of Pentregarth is a former Bishop of Oxford, and an Hon. Professor of Theology at King’s College, London. His latest book is Wounded I Sing: From Advent to Christmas with George Herbert (SPCK, 2024).

Gospel as Work of Art: Imaginative truth and the open text
David Brown
Eerdmans £46.99
(978-0-8028-8282-0)

Browse Church and Charity jobs on the Church Times jobsite

Church Times Bookshop

Save money on books reviewed or featured in the Church Times. To get your reader discount:

> Click on the “Church Times Bookshop” link at the end of the review.

> Call 0845 017 6965 (Mon-Fri, 9.30am-5pm).

The reader discount is valid for two months after the review publication date. E&OE

Forthcoming Events

Women Mystics: Female Theologians through Christian History

13 January - 19 May 2025

An online evening lecture series, run jointly by Sarum College and The Church Times

tickets available

 

Festival of Faith and Literature

28 February - 2 March 2025

tickets available

 

Visit our Events page for upcoming and past events 

The Church Times Archive

Read reports from issues stretching back to 1863, search for your parish or see if any of the clergy you know get a mention.

FREE for Church Times subscribers.

Explore the archive

Welcome to the Church Times

 

To explore the Church Times website fully, please sign in or subscribe.

Non-subscribers can read four articles for free each month. (You will need to register.)