On A Related Note

My father-in-law, the Rev. Richard Bamforth, is teaching a course entitled "Seeing and Believing" in the Senior College in Augusta, Maine. He describes it as “A critical approach to the ways Christianity has communicated its message visually through the ages. Students will view and discuss examples of Christian art from underground catacombs to soaring gothic cathedrals and modern stark simplicity. The focus will be how message and meaning are expressed and the parallels, contrasts, and controversies between verbal and visual media.”

His bibliography includes:

IMAGE AND INSIGHT by Margaret R. Miles,
Visual understanding in Western Christianity and Secular Culture. Beacon, 1985
THE SACRED GAZE by David Morgan
Religious Visual Culture in Theory and Practice. Univ of CA, 2005
IMAGE AND SPIRIT by Karen Stone
Finding Meaning in Visual Art. Augsburg, 2003
WALKING ON WATER by Madeleine L'Engle
Reflections on Faith and Art. Shaw, 1980
THE CELTIC WAY OF PRAYER by Esther De Waal
The Recovery of Religious Imagination. Image/Doubleday, 1997
THE FOUNDATIONS OF CHRISTIAN ART by Titus Burckhardt
Illustrated, World Wisdom, 2006
MONT-SAINT-MICHEL et CHARTRES by Henry Adams
A Study of Mediaevalism. Houghton Mifflin, 1905

I’m tickled that his project and mine converge so, and I’ll look forward to hearing how his class goes.