At Christmas, we celebrate how light entered into darkness. But first, Advent bids us to pause and look, with complete honesty, at the darkness. Advent asks us to name what is dark in the world and in our own lives and to invite the light of Christ into each shadowy corner. To practice Advent is to lean into a cosmic ache: our deep, wordless desire for things to be made right. We dwell in a world shrouded in sin, conflict, violence, and oppression. . . .
Before the delight of Christmas, Advent invites us to a vulnerable place—a place of individual and communal confession where we honestly name unjust systems, cultural decay, sorrow, the sin of the world, and the sin in our own lives. Only by dwelling in that vulnerable place can we learn to profess true hope. Not cheap hope, spun from falsehoods, half-truths, or denial, but a hope offered by the very light that darkness cannot overcome.
Advent begins a week from Sunday, on December 1—a roughly four-week season leading up to Christmas, during which we prepare our hearts to receive the coming Christ. Here are a few resources.
Daily posts at Art & Theology: First I want to let you know that, as I’ve done for the past three years, I will be posting daily here on the Art & Theology blog for the duration of Advent and Christmastide, each day selecting a visual artwork and a piece of music that I feel dialogue fruitfully with each other about a seasonal theme. Many Christians like to read through a devotional book during Advent, and while I do appreciate good devotional writing, I sometimes grow bored of reading prose reflections on the Christmas story. For me, I’ve found that engaging the arts frequently opens up wonder and new angles of inquiry and deepens my longing and gratitude for Christ. Songs, art, and other creative expressions help me slow down and put me in a contemplative frame of mind, and that’s why I use them as companions throughout the liturgical year.
Though the United States (my country) is heavily represented in the selections, I’ve tried to be intentional about featuring works from a variety of geographic locales. So you’ll see contributions from Mexico, Peru, The Gambia, Kenya, Germany, Turkey, Croatia, Japan, India, the Philippines, and more—a reflection of the global nature of Christianity.
Sometimes I will provide some written context or explication for the song or artwork or relevant biographical details for its maker, but other times I will let the works stand entirely on their own.
I’m really excited to unroll this year’s series! Advent starts December 1, but tune in a day early on November 30 for a “prelude” post to kick things off. The final post in the series will be on Epiphany on January 6. You can view the archives from previous years here:
In addition to the daily posts in the music-art format, I have a few poems lined up and will continue doing periodic link roundups to direct you to other great Advent and Christmas content around the web.
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THE DAILY PRAYER PROJECT: Advent 2024: The Daily Prayer Project, a liturgical publishing nonprofit I work for as curator and copyeditor, is entering its seventh year, and our latest Advent edition is out! The cover art is Look forward to the coming of God by Stanley Fung, a pastor and photographer from Taipei; it’s one of three artworks that receive dedicated attention inside.
In addition to art, the magazine includes a poem, four song sheets, two mini-essays (one on the spiritual practice of encouragement, the other on nurturing the hidden life of Christ within us), and fourteen distinct liturgies, one for each morning and evening of the week (plus a different scripture reading for every day of the season). Here is one of the featured prayers in this edition, from the Christian Council of Nigeria:
Grant us, O God, a vision of our land that is as beautiful as it could be: a land of justice where none shall prey on others; a land of plenty where poverty shall cease to fester; a land of kinship where success shall be founded on service; a land of peace where order shall rest not on force but on the love of everyone for their community. Give us grace to put this vision into practice through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Our Christmas edition will also be ready for purchase soon. It covers December 25, 2024, through March 4, 2025.
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VIDEO INTERVIEW: “Advent: The Season of Hope” with Tish Harrison Warren, Trinity Forum, December 1, 2023: In Celebration of Discipline, Richard J. Foster writes, “In contemporary society our Adversary (the devil) majors in three things: noise, hurry, and crowds. If he can keep us engaged in ‘muchness’ and ‘manyness,’ he will rest satisfied.” The pull toward those things is particularly strong in December. But Advent calls us, counterculturally, to quietness, slowness, and moments of solitude.
Here Tish Harrison Warren, an Anglican priest and the author of Advent: The Season of Hope from IVP’s Fullness of Time series, discusses the character and history of Advent, the three traditional practices associated with it, and how to wait well. She also encourages us to ask ourselves: Where do we need Christ to come in the next year? Where do we need healing? Where do we need to find hope in the next season of our life?
The Q&A starts at 38:00 and includes questions such as: How might the theme of judgment shape our observance of Advent? How do we practice Advent during a time of jollity and indulgence and parties without being perceived as a Scrooge?
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SONG: “Come to Us, Emmanuel” by Ordinary Time: Made up of Peter La Grand, Jill McFadden, and Ben Keyes, Ordinary Time is a trio whose music blends elements of folk, Americana, and traditional hymnody. This original song is from their 2007 album In the Town of David, and the music video is shot around Vancouver, where the three band members met when they were students at Regent College.
** This is one of seven songs by Ordinary Time featured on Art & Theology’s Advent Playlist. Join 2,859 others in following the playlist on Spotify, which offers over twenty-one hours of music for the season.
Check out, too, Ordinary Time’s newest album, released Friday, titled You Are My Hiding Place. Favorite track: “All Shall Be Amen Alleluia.”
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ARTICLE: “My Favorite Advent Wreath Supplies” by Ashley Tumlin Wallace:The Liturgical Home is one of my favorite blogs to follow. It’s run by Ashley Tumlin Wallace, a pastor’s wife and mom of four from Florida who collects recipes and traditions from around the world and compiles them into liturgical living guidebooks to help families celebrate the seasons of the church in their homes. In this blog post she shares how to make your own Advent wreath, collecting greenery from outside and purchasing a few basic items.
Here’s her Instagram video showing you how to put it all together:
CARD PACK: The Light Has Come: 25 Illustrated Prayers with Activities for Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany by W. David O. Taylor and Phaedra Jean Taylor: Each of the twenty-five, 4 × 6 prayer cards in this pack includes a watercolor illustration by Phaedra Taylor, and on the other side a Bible verse, a collect prayer by David Taylor, and a suggested activity (e.g., stargazing, baking or buying a treat for a friend) or prayer prompt. Included are familiar themes, such as Hope, Joy, Shepherds, and Light, but also less familiar ones, like Feasting, Sorrow, Fear, and the Fantastical. There are also cards for Saint Nicholas Day, New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day, and Epiphany. They are all held together in a cardstock sleeve.
The cards would work well in personal or family devotions, in a small group, or with church staff. “Our hope is that this box of cards will invite you to stop, look and listen afresh to the nativity narratives and to discover a story that truly heals and restores this very broken and beloved world of ours,” David writes in a blog post introducing the product.
You can order reproductions of the watercolors from this collection and others at Phaedra’s online shop.
VIRTUAL ARTIST RESIDENCY: 2023 Inbreak Residency: Led by Dea Jenkins, the organization Inbreak, which promotes social healing through the arts, is hosting its third annual (virtual) residency, open to US-based artists of any discipline interested in exploring the intersections of art, faith, and race in the United States. The residency provides a collaborative environment and opportunities for artistic development and creative leadership growth, with group workshops, group feedback sessions, studio visits, and a curriculum featuring a curated selection of viewings, readings, and dialogue prompts. It culminates in a live or virtual exhibition.
Applications are due by November 20, 2022; you are required to submit work samples, an artist statement and/or short bio, and a community-focused project proposal. Four applicants will be selected for the 2023 cohort, which runs from January to May, and each given a $500 stipend.
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SONG: “Lux Aeterna”: “Lux Aeterna” (Eternal Light) is the Communion antiphon for the Roman Catholic Requiem Mass. The traditional Latin text has been set to music by many composers. Recorded at All Hallows’ Gospel Oak in London in May 2021, this performance by the Gesualdo Six is of the setting by Spanish Renaissance composer Cristóbal de Morales. I share it in anticipation of All Saints’ Day on November 1.
The lyrics translate as follows:
May eternal light shine upon them, Lord, with your saints forever, for you are good.
Grant them eternal rest, Lord, and may light perpetual shine upon them, with your saints forever, for you are good.
The video came out of the Interfaith Sacred Art Forum and the Sacred Art in Collections pre-1900 Network, both launched last year as part of the National Gallery’s Art and Religion research strand. In their inaugural 2021–22 season, the theme was “Crossing Borders,” and they have used two paintings in the museum’s collection as a foundation for wide-ranging events and activities. The theme for 2022–23 is “The Art of Creation,” and the two paintings around which conversations and activities are based are Rachel Ruysch’s Flowers in a Vase (1685) and Claude Monet’s Flood Waters (1896).
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VIDEO: “Introducing Annie Dillard” by Tish Harrison Warren: In this video from the Trinity Forum, Anglican priest and writer Tish Harrison Warren introduces the forum’s fall reading, the Pulitzer Prize–winning classic Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (1975) by Annie Dillard. The book comprises Dillard’s evocative reflections on her time spent wandering about and observing the lively woods, creeks, and natural world of Virginia’s Roanoke Valley while she convalesced from illness.
“She [Dillard] has taught me, in the words of Eugene Peterson, to pray with my eyes open,” Warren says. “She has taught me to notice God at work in the world in ways that I wouldn’t.”
I hear Dillard quoted all the time, but I’m embarrassed to say that I have not yet read this quintessential book of hers! Though I do own it. I have now pulled it off the shelf and put it in my “to read imminently” stack. 😊
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VISUAL MEDITATION: “The Taste of Palestine” by Meryl Doney, on the art of Sliman Mansour: Sliman Mansour is a Palestinian Christian artist whose work centers on the Palestinian struggle against the Israeli occupation. This ArtWay article is a great, concise introduction to his work, spotlighting four of his paintings: Picking Olives; The Flight to Egypt; Hagar; and The Holy Family in an Olive Grove.
Sliman Mansour (Palestinian, 1947–), The Flight to Egypt, 1984. Oil on canvas.
Last month my friend Becky Hadeed, food photographer and creator and host of The Storied Recipe podcast, released an episode called “Honoring the Women of Palestine,” where she interviews Mai of Almond and Fig. Mai discusses growing up in Palestine and shares some of the ways she seeks to connect with her Middle Eastern heritage from her kitchen in Chicago.
Art & Theology 