Creative Spirituality: The Way of the Artist FROM THE PUBLISHER
In a provocative book that explores the fascinating link between the creative and the sacred, Robert Wuthnow claims that artists have become the spiritual vanguard of our time. Drawing on in-depth interviews with painters, sculptors, writers, singers, dancers, and actors, Wuthnow includes the spiritual insights of accomplished artists who have gained prominence as Broadway performers, gospel singers, jazz musicians, poets, Native American painters, weavers, dancers, and installation artists. He profiles such national figures as novelist Madeleine L'Engle, playwright Tony Kushner, photographer Andres Serrano, sculptor Greg Wyatt, dancer Carla DeSola, and woodcarver David Ellsworth.
Situating these artists' reflections in the context of wider cultural ferment, Wuthnow argues that spirituality is coming increasingly to focus on the inherently ineffable character of the sacred--what artists refer to as divine mystery. As growing numbers of Americans doubt the adequacy of religious creeds in defining the sacred, they are turning to artists who seek a more intuitive sense of the sacred through symbols and imagery.
These artists provide rich insights into the social and cultural problems of our time. Many have been shaped by the growing ethnic, racial, and religious diversity of the United States. Many are at the cutting edge of new thinking about body, mind, and spirit, and many are seeking ways to integrate their understandings of spirituality with interests in nature and preserving the environment. For readers interested in exploring contemporary spirituality or engaged in spiritual pursuits of their own, this engaging, elegantly written, and erudite book will answer manyquestions about the changing moral and spiritual role of creativity and the arts.
SYNOPSIS
The leading sociologist of religion working in the field today, Robert Wuthnow, looks at how spirituality and the creative process intersect in the lives and work of artists, musicians, dancers, writers. He has interviewed numerous artists -- both world famous and the not (yet) famous -- recounting their words, work and spiritual insights.
FROM THE CRITICS
New Orleans Times-Picayune
A fascinating survey of different kinds of American artists-writers, sculptors, musicians, dancers-and the ways in which spirituality has informed their lives and work.
New Orleans Times-Picayune
A fascinating survey of different kinds of American artists-writers, sculptors, musicians, dancers-and the ways in which spirituality has informed their lives and work.
Publishers Weekly
Wuthnow (After Heaven; The Restructuring of American Religion; etc.) and his associates interviewed 100 successful artists who are interested in spirituality, offering many of their stories in this topically organized book. Ceramicists, painters, dancers, sculptors, musicians and writers talked to interviewers about their spiritual journeys, their professional lives and the way the two have informed each other, often to the point of becoming indistinguishable. While each artist's story is unique, many common themes emerge: often dealing with family trauma, these artists were spiritually curious children who asked tough questions and emerged as adults who found solace through a series of spiritual practices, romantic relationships and artistic pursuits. Compelling in some respects, these biographies are unfortunately pervaded by narcissism. In particular, several of the artists Wuthnow features have lived nomadically with children in tow, often separating them from the other parent. Wuthnow anticipates that his subjects will be perceived as self-absorbed spiritual dabblers, and takes pains on several occasions to argue that they are not. He does a fine job of finding common themes in these narratives, particularly many interviewees' appreciation of mystery and ineffability, and admiringly calls artists the spiritual leaders of our time. Artistically minded readers will likely agree with this assertion, and discover in these pages a vibrant perspective on spirituality and the meaning of contemporary life. (Mar.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Library Journal
Wuthnow (sociology, Princeton Univ.; The Restructuring of American Religion) argues that spiritually inclined artists have become America's new "public theologians" who share their spiritual visions with a culture that has no appetite for dogmatic theology. Through surveys and in-depth personal interviews, he allows dozens of musicians, writers, and artists some famous, some less well known to recount their own artistic and spiritual journeys, lightly supplementing their accounts with his synthesis, analysis, and gentle conclusions. The insights of those who work with words especially Madeleine L'Engle and Tony Kushner come across most compellingly. Although the spiritual quests and convictions of these artists are eclectic, the author finds that "if there is a single key to artists's perspectives on the spiritual, it is this: spirituality, like art, must be practiced to be perfected." Notwithstanding their often loose ties to institutional religion, the artists are "disciplined seekers" whose dedication and creativity combine to bear spiritual fruit. That fruit nourishes their art, and their art in turn nourishes others. This illuminating book is worthy of wide distribution. Steve Young, Montclair State Univ., Upper Montclair, NJ Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
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