“This is why artists are so seminal to the world and in the life of the church: we need people who are going to name and create out of groaning beauty the things that enable all of us to find a language to move into great hope.”
+ Mark Labberton, president of Fuller Seminary, in his lecture on “groaning beauty,” available below. For the third annual Culture Care Summit, Brehm Center director Mako Fujimura hosted a conversation on culture care in education, journalism, and more. Below, Mark Labberton reflects on creation that groans toward beauty and how the arts can express this deep longing. He is joined by Mako Fujimura and Andy Crouch, author and Fuller trustee, for a conversation on “kintsugi theology,” vulnerability, and culture care:
Reflecting on Culture Care and Journalism
+ Ivan Penn, alternative energy reporter for the New York Times, reflects on justice, truth-telling and ethics, and the risks he has faced standing against a culture of greed and power in a public forum.
+ Mako Fujimura, Andy Crouch, and Ivan Penn reflect on the complicated challenges of ethics, media, and public communication during this political moment.
Reflecting on Culture Care and Higher Education
+ Andy Crouch, author and Fuller trustee, lectures on the intersection of culture care and the Shema, reflecting on the biblical vision of the complex interconnected reality of personhood, family, and culture. Right: Catherine Hirshfield Crouch, professor of physics at Swarthmore College, who spoke on higher education and science.
+ Satyan Devadoss, Fletcher Jones Professor of Applied Mathematics at the University of San Diego, lectured on complexity, the limits of quantification, and a vision of mathematics informed by the humanities.
+Various voices from the Culture Care Summit reflected together on culture care, truth-telling in the public sphere, and the future of higher education.
Emerging Voices
“Making art has parallels to the spiritual journey. It requires risk-taking and beginning a journey before fully understanding what will emerge or exactly how to get there. In that process the wind of God’s Spirit moves and shapes the art and myself; real transformation comes in this in between space.”
+ Visual artist and alum Andrea Kraybill. Many of the students were led through a creative thesis project by Maria Fee, adjunct professor of theology and culture and PhD student (pictured left). Students and alumni respond to the Culture Care Summit with research at the intersection of worship, theology, and the arts. Listen to previous emerging voices here.
Further Reading
The Earth Is God’s: A Theology of American Culture
William Dyrness (Wipf & Stock, 2004)
Visual Faith: Art, Theology, and Worship in Dialogue
William Dyrness (Baker Academic, 2001)
Silence and Beauty: Hidden Faith Born of Suffering
Mako Fujimura (IVP Press, 2016)
Culture Care: Reconnecting with Beauty for our Common Life
Mako Fujimura (International Arts Movement and the Fujimura Institute, 2015)
Refractions: Further Thoughts on Art and Faith
Mako Fujimura (NavPress, 2009)
On Becoming Generative: An Introduction to Culture Care
Mako Fujimura (International Arts Movement and the Fujimura Institute, 2013)
+ Click here to learn more about studying theology, worship, and the arts through the Brehm Center at Fuller Seminary.