About the Contributor(s):
David Baily Harned (PhD, Yale Graduate School) is a retired professor of religious studies who remains active as a classroom teacher and a scholarly writer. He taught at Williams, Smith, and Allegheny Colleges, and served a five-year term as president at Allegheny College. His longer terms of service were seven years as the Dean of Arts and Sciences at Louisiana State University and ten years as the founding chairman of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia.

Elaine H. Harned is Davids wife.

Description:
This treatise on the importance of what the artist does--especially the man of letters--examines recent Christian appraisals of the creative enterprise and argues that Protestant interpretations of culture today are marred by their departure from Biblical faith in God as Creator.

Today, theologians find themselves writing more and more about painting, music, poetry, drama, and the novel. Many are convinced that no definition of man or interpretation of his condition is adequate if it ignores man as a creator. Some Christian writers have been content to explore the possibilities...

In this book, David Baily Harned makes a persuasive case for the significance of patience as an essential ingredient of the moral life. In a bold and invigorating manner, the author addresses contemporary existence--the lives of individuals, families, communities, and nations--and demonstrates how the Christian vision informs our efforts to live in a chaotic and violent world as faithful, hopeful, loving children of God. This essay in theological ethics is rooted in classic texts: the Old and New Testaments, as well as the writings of Augustine, Gregory I, Thomas Aquinas, Thomas a Kempis,...