Matthew Milliner

Whenever Jason Byassee writes a guest editorial for Theology Today, don’t miss it. In the latest issue he describes his experience with young ministers:Another sign of hope is the posture of these young ministers toward institutions. Many of my former seminary classmates left the ministry . . . . Continue Reading »

Encounters with God: In Quest of Ancient Icons of Mary by Sr. Wendy Beckett Orbis Books, 132 pages, $22 Any study of art history at the graduate level will lead to the inevitable and not terribly surprising conclusion: Art history is in chaos. An entire generation of scholars has arisen”so . . . . Continue Reading »

My unborn son’s story began, five years before he died, on my parents’ screened-in porch on a cool September . . . . Continue Reading »

In his not-to-be-overlooked recent web essay , Rusty Reno reports that critical theory “remains an academic growth industry.” Berkeley’s Martin Jay , a scholar who has spent his career steeped in critical theory, see things differently. In his review of Charles Taylor’s A . . . . Continue Reading »

On previous Chelsea gallery walks featured in this forum , I have played the role of naysayer. Just as Nietzsche could not forgive Christianity for what it did to Pascal, I had difficulty forgiving the art world for what it did to friends who might have been wonderful painters. Saddled by a (not . . . . Continue Reading »

It appears I need to diversify my Google Reader, subscribe to different journals, or make some new friends, as no one in my circle of electronic, print, or human communication alerted me to the cinematic horsepower of Doubt . Granted the fault is largely my own, for I didn’t seek out any . . . . Continue Reading »

To scan the popular Christian publications today is to conclude that the category of heresy has not been lost, but it has been relocated. The new anathema is “cultural Christianity.” “Missional Christians” disparage it. The supposed demise of Christendom is the rallying cry of . . . . Continue Reading »

In a recent book assessing the state of evangelical scholarship, Mark Noll refers to “a boomlet in evangelical art history [that] rests squarely on the work of the Dutch Reformed scholar Hans Rookmaaker.” Had Noll seen Daniel Siedell’s book God in the Gallery , he might have thought . . . . Continue Reading »

In 1948, the abstract artist Barnett Newman wrote, “The impulse of modern art was to destroy beauty.” One among many impulses of recent art has been to piece it together again. It is a beleaguered movement, but promoted by a wide range of figures, from democratic populist Dave Hickey to . . . . Continue Reading »

I’ll admit I was perplexed at James Panero’s account of the Classical Realist painter Jacob Collins , back in September 2006. Do not renewal movements in art need as many friends as they can get? But Panero’s assessment is now much clearer to me, for with his new review (in the . . . . Continue Reading »