"Proceedings of the conferences: Paris, Intitute Catholique, 12-13 Mary 20-17; Strasbourg, Faculté de Théologie Protestante, Université de Strasbourg, 19-20, Mary 2017; Florence, Facoltà Teologica dell'Italia Centrale and Opera di Santi Maria del Fiore, 25-7 May 2017; New Haven, Connecticut, Institute of Sacred Music, Yale Divinity School, 20-1 October 2017; Orleans, Massachusetts, Community of Jesus, 27-9 October, 2017."--Page 2.

Includes bibliographical references.

Introduction. An ambitious idea, a complex event, a ground-breaking book / Timothy Verdon -- What theology risks in artistic creation / Denis Villepellet -- When a theologian meets the work of art. Epistemological reflections / Christoph Theobald -- The visual experience of God in the Hebrew Bible / Jan Joosten -- Christian architectural forms and confessions. Differences, contrapositions, convergences / Severino Dianich -- Monastic life and artistic creativity / Timothy Verdon -- The monastery as laboratory of the arts. The case of the community of Jesus / William Dyrness, Martin Shannon -- Artistic creation and the theology of the Holy Spirit. From first appearance to flight / Denis Hétier -- Who will give me wings like a dove? (Psalm 54:7) / François Cassingena -- The Spirit who gives flesh / Jean-Louis Souletie -- "Creator Spiritus." The Holy Spirit in Florentine art / Timothy Verdon -- The Holy Spirit and contemporary visual art. Toward an artistic pneumatology / Jérôme Cottin -- Georges Braque : from palette to bird / Martine Sautory -- Flight in the art of Constantin Brâncuşi / Marielle Besançon, Martine Grenier -- Life and the Spirit in the ancient church (2nd - 3rd centuries) / Isaïa Gazzola -- Spirit and matter, the hand of man and the faith of the church. The sacramental character of the icon in Eastern theology / Basilio Petrà -- Florence and the theological vocation of art from Arnolfo and Giotto to Michelangelo / Timothy Verdon -- Gates of the kingdom. A narratological reading of Lorenzo Ghiberti's projects for the Florence baptistery doors / Agnese Maria Fortuna -- A German friar in Renaissance Florence. Martin Luther at the Ospedale degli Innocenti / Timothy Verdon -- The influence of the Reformation on the visual arts from the 16th century to the present / Jérôme Cottin -- The Reformation and the multiplication of printed images in German-speaking areas / Frank Muller -- Icons, likeness and Reformation spirituality / William Dyrness -- The Catholic Reformation and art / Timothy Verdon -- Tridentine theology in the Florence cathedral dome / Gianni Cioli -- Esthetics and kerygma. Protestant sacred music from the 16th century to the Baroque era / Beat Föllmi -- Pedagogical function and speculative dimension of the image in the Lutheran tradition from the 16th century to the present / Rémy Valléjo -- The resurrection of the image in the Protestant imagination. From William Blake to Bill Viola - part I / Ben Quash -- The painting as biblical metaphor. Interpreting Van Gogh through Paul Ricoeur / Jérôme Cottin -- Romano Guardini and Van Gogh / Yvonne Dohna Schlobitten -- Contemporary architecture in the service of monastic prayer. Several European examples / Jérôme Cottin -- Fotis Kontoglou and the struggle for an "authentic" ecclesiastical art in Greece / Vasileios Marinis -- The resurrection of the image in the Protestant imagination. From William Blake to Bill Viola - part 2 / Ben Quash -- Enchanting secularity : in praise of... / Jeffrey L. Kosky -- The arts and the need of the world / Deborah Sokolove -- Art as prayer. The Spirit comes to help us in our weakness / Timothy Verdon -- My artistic journey / Susan Kanaga -- Art as a Christian calling / Filippo Rossi.

"The visual arts, a privileged means of communicating Christian belief for more than a thousand years, were marginalized if not rejected by 16th-century reformers. This volume, containing papers read in a five-part conference held in France, Italy and the USA in 2017, brings together Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox and Anglican theologians, art historians and artists in an unprecendented ecumenical conversation indispensable for furture dialogue. With its broad range of confessional and methodological viewpoints, it offers an 'agora' experience of faith-based reactions to human creation and communication." -- Provided by publisher, page 4 of cover.