Wes Vander Lugt graciously joins us on The Artistic Vision today. Full disclosure: this was the first interview we did, so you’ll see some real amateurs in action. We’re floundering; Dr. Vander Lugt is great. We talk about art, agriculture, his work at Gordon Conwell, and his new book, Beauty as Oxygen.

Wesley Vander Lugt
Wes currently works as the Acting Director of the Leighton Ford Center for Theology, the Arts, and Gospel Witness and Adjunct Professor of Theology at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Charlotte. He is also the Co-Founder of Kinship Plot, a community of learning and practice imagining and embodying resonant relationships of every kind. Wes holds a PhD in Theology, Imagination, and the Arts from the University of St Andrews and enjoys writing and speaking on a variety of topics including beauty, spiritual formation and the arts, discipleship in the theodrama, slow faith, pastoral ministry, kinship, and creativity. His publications include Living Theodrama: Reimagining Theological Ethics (Routledge, 2014), Theatrical Theology: Explorations in Performing the Faith (Cascade, 2014), and Beauty is Oxygen: Finding a Faith that Breathes (Eerdmans, 2024).

The Artistic Vision
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Jessica Hooten Wilson joins Gary and Alex today on The Artistic Vision to talk about art, creativity, and especially one of our favorites: Flannery O’Connor. O’Connor’s literary theory is central to our understanding of the artistic vision, and Dr. Hooten Wilson sheds light on how that vision could be beneficial for you.

Jessica Hooten Wilson is the Fletcher Jones Chair of Great Books at Pepperdine University. She is the author of several books, most recently Flannery O’Connor’s Why Do the Heathen Rage?: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at a Work in Progress. Her book Giving the Devil his Due: Flannery O’Connor and The Brothers Karamazov received a 2018 Christianity Today book of the year in arts and culture award and The Scandal of Holiness received a 2022 Award of Merit. Most recently, she completed the unfinished novel of Flannery O’Connor called Why Do the Heathens Rage.

The Artistic Vision
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Today, on The Artistic Vision podcast, Gary and Alex welcome the famed contemporary artist and author Makoto Fujimura to talk creative practice, the relation between faith and art, and how suffering can shape an artist.

Makoto Fujimura is an artist, arts advocate, writer, and speaker, and the founder of the International Arts Movement. He is the author of many books, most recently Art and Faith: A Theology of Making (Yale University Press, 2021). Fujimura graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Bucknell University, then studied in a traditional Japanese painting doctorate program at Tokyo University of the Arts. Fujimura’s art has been featured in galleries and museums around the world.

The Artistic Vision
Find the book HERE!