William Dyrness: Protestant Aesthetics, Modernism, and Theopoetics

William is Professor of Theology and Culture at Fuller Theological Seminary, where from 1990 to 2000 he served as Dean of the School of Theology. His teaching and research interests focus on the relation of the Christian Faith to culture, especially to the visual arts and on missions and global theology. In addition to many articles and reviews he has published several books including "Rouault: A Vision of Suffering and Salvation; How Does America Hear the Gospel?"; "Learning About Theology from the Third World"; "The Earth is God’s: A Theology of American Culture"; "Visual Faith: Art, Theology and Worship in Dialogue"; and "Reformed Theology and Visual Culture: The Protestant Imagination from Calvin to Edwards". In 2008 he co-edited the "Global Dictionary of Theology" with V. M. Karkainnen.  William's more recent books include "Poetic Theology: God and the Poetics of Everyday Life"; "Theology Without Borders" (co-written with Oscar Garcia-Johnson); "Modern Art and the Life of a Culture" (co-written with Jonathan Anderson) and "The Facts on the Ground".

In this episode, William and I discussed a number of important issues related to visual art and Christian culture. We began our conversation with William sharing his thoughts on the importance of art to spirituality and the historical and theological reasons behind different ideas about images found in Protestantism versus Catholicism. We also talked about the often unseen but fascinating centrality of Christianity within Modern art. Then we unpacked the subject of theopoetics, with William distinguishing its primary traits and how it connects art to daily life.