Description: ""One of the great joys of the academic life is to pay homage in a Festschrift to a scholar who has influenced both colleagues and students over years of interaction and friendship both professional and personal. This volume honors a scholar and theologian of historical theology, a theorist and a practitioner of religion and the arts, and a keen analyst of cultural trends both ancient and modern. . . . "" Margaret R.] Miles's prodigious production as a scholar has legendary qualities. Her dozen-plus books alone explore history, patristics, ancient philosophy, art and art history,...

Bakhtin and the Visual Arts is the first book to assess the relevance of Mikhail Bakhtin's ideas as they relate to painting and sculpture. Deborah Haynes' in-depth study of Bakhtin's aesthetics, especially his theory of creativity, analyzes its applicability to contemporary art theory and criticism. With such categories as answerability, outsideness and unfinalizability, Bakhtin, the author posits, offers a conceptual basis for interpreting the moral dimensions of creative activity.

Originating in the author's experience as a practicing artist and scholar, this book is a thoroughly postmodern enterprise that draws from a wide range of historical and theoretical resources in cultural history, especially art history/theory and the study of religion. It discusses historical roles of the artist, and also presents a particular perspective on the contemporary function of the artist as prophetic critic and visionary. Using specific interpretations of the words "vocation," "prophetic," and "visionary," the author brings attention to the need for artists to assess critically the...

Spirituality and Growth on the Leadership Path: An Abecedary offers lessons not usually taught about leadership, lessons learned over the author's more than thirty years in higher education and nonprofit organizations. Few resources on leadership and administration attend to the inner life of a person in a leadership position. Many of this book's themes are therefore related to the inner moral and spiritual life. Some topics are prosaic, dealing with everyday activities. Throughout the book, "pith instructions" offer simple practical advice about the inner process and core values that may...