The Bible and Art, Perspectives from Oceania [Paperback]

This volume takes readers on a fascinating journey through the visual arts of Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific Islands, contemplating the multivocal dialogues that occur between these artistic media and the texts and traditions of the Bible. With their distinctively antipodean perspectives, contributors explore the innovative ways that both creators and beholders of Oceanic arts draw upon their contexts and cultures in order to open up creative engagements with the stories, themes and theologies of the biblical traditions.

Various motifs weave their way throughout the volume, including antipodean landscapes and ecology, (post)colonialism, philosophy, Oceanic spiritualities and the often contested engagements between western and indigenous cultures. Within this weaving process, each essay invites readers to contemplate these various forms of visual culture through Oceanic eyes, and to appreciate the fresh insights that this process can bring to reading and interpreting the biblical traditions. The result is a rich and interdisciplinary array of conversations that will capture the attention of readers within the fields of biblical reception studies, cultural studies, theology and art history.

Caroline Blythis a lecturer of Religious Studies in the School of Humanities at the University of Auckland, New Zealand.

Nasili Vaka'utais the Principal of Trinity Theological College, Auckland, and Ranston Lecturer in Biblical Studies, New Zealand.

List of Figures
List of Contributors
List of Abbreviations
Introduction  Caroline Blyth and Nasili Vaka'uta
1. Analogies with Anathoth: Reading Land, Reading Jeremiah in the Paintings of Michael Shepherd  Emily Colgan, Trinity Methodist College, New Zealand
2. Darryn George: The Meeting of Modernism and Maori Tradition  Robin Woodward, University of Auckland, New Zealand
3. The Absurdly Ideal Jesus of Reg Mombassa  Roland Boer, Universilƒ}