In today’s conversation, Natalie Carnes joins "The Artistic Vision" to share about her calling as a constructive theologian, the theological vision of beauty from Gregory of Nyssa, and how the cross of Christ reinterprets beauty.

Natalie Carnes
Dr. Carnes trained at Harvard, University of Chicago, and Duke before coming to Baylor, where she is Professor of Theology in the Religion Department, Affiliate faculty member in Women’s and Gender Studies, and the Director of the Baylor Initiative in Christianity and the Arts. Among Professor Carnes’s scholarship are four books, including Beauty: A Theological Engagement with Gregory of Nyssa, Image and Presence: A Christological Reflection on Iconoclasm and Iconophilia, and Motherhood: A Confession. Her fourth and most recent book, Attunement: The Art and Politics of Feminist Theology reflects on the entanglement of aesthetics, politics, and theology to suggest a path forward by which feminist theology might transform Christian theological discourse.

The Artistic Vision
Find the book HERE!

Wes Vander Lugt graciously joins us on The Artistic Vision today. Full disclosure: this was the first interview we did, so you’ll see some real amateurs in action. We’re floundering; Dr. Vander Lugt is great. We talk about art, agriculture, his work at Gordon Conwell, and his new book, Beauty as Oxygen.

Wesley Vander Lugt
Wes currently works as the Acting Director of the Leighton Ford Center for Theology, the Arts, and Gospel Witness and Adjunct Professor of Theology at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Charlotte. He is also the Co-Founder of Kinship Plot, a community of learning and practice imagining and embodying resonant relationships of every kind. Wes holds a PhD in Theology, Imagination, and the Arts from the University of St Andrews and enjoys writing and speaking on a variety of topics including beauty, spiritual formation and the arts, discipleship in the theodrama, slow faith, pastoral ministry, kinship, and creativity. His publications include Living Theodrama: Reimagining Theological Ethics (Routledge, 2014), Theatrical Theology: Explorations in Performing the Faith (Cascade, 2014), and Beauty is Oxygen: Finding a Faith that Breathes (Eerdmans, 2024).

The Artistic Vision
Find the book HERE!

Jessica Hooten Wilson joins Gary and Alex today on The Artistic Vision to talk about art, creativity, and especially one of our favorites: Flannery O’Connor. O’Connor’s literary theory is central to our understanding of the artistic vision, and Dr. Hooten Wilson sheds light on how that vision could be beneficial for you.

Jessica Hooten Wilson is the Fletcher Jones Chair of Great Books at Pepperdine University. She is the author of several books, most recently Flannery O’Connor’s Why Do the Heathen Rage?: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at a Work in Progress. Her book Giving the Devil his Due: Flannery O’Connor and The Brothers Karamazov received a 2018 Christianity Today book of the year in arts and culture award and The Scandal of Holiness received a 2022 Award of Merit. Most recently, she completed the unfinished novel of Flannery O’Connor called Why Do the Heathens Rage.

The Artistic Vision
Find the book HERE!