Deborah Sokolove
Deborah has been a Steward of Seekers Church since 1991, and a member of Celebration Circle mission group for many years, where she often presides at worship. She is a practicing artist, Professor of Art and Theology at Wesley Seminary and Director of the Henry Luce III Center for the Arts and Religion
Deborah’s Books:
S
anctifying Art: Inviting Conversation Between Artists, Theologians, and the Church. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2013. Ordering Information
As an artist, Deborah Sokolove has often been surprised and dismayed by the unexamined attitudes and assumptions that the church holds about how artists think and how art functions in human life. By investigating these attitudes and tying them to concrete examples, Sokolove hopes to demystify art–to bring art down to earth, where theologians, pastors, and ordinary Christians can wrestle with its meanings, participate in its processes, and understand its uses. In showing the commonalities and distinctions among the various ways that artists themselves approach their work, Sanctifying Art can help the church talk about the arts in ways that artists will recognize. As a member of both the church and the art world, Sokolove is well-positioned to bridge the gap between the habits of thought that inform the discourse of the art world and those quite different ideas about art that are taken for granted by many Christians. When art is understood as intellectual, technical, and physical as well as ethereal, mysterious, and sacred, we will see it as an integral part of our life together in Christ, fully human and fully divine.
Calling on God: Inclusive Christian Prayers for Three Years of Sundays. (with Peter Bankson). Woodstock, VT: SkyLight Paths, 2014 Ordering Information
This special prayerbook is for today’s Christians who find comfort in the rhythm of the traditional lectionary but long to connect with God in ways that are satisfying to the modern heart and mind. Founded on creativity, inclusivity and sharing, it encourages us to remember the divine elements of the natural world around us as we express our hopes and fears for others and ourselves.
