Robert Wuthnow explores the intimate engagements of art and spirituality in their common quests for meaning. Wuthnow's careful listening to the voices of working artists speaking of their work, and his analysis of the rich variety of their experiences, show the universally human, transforming power of creativity.
Creative practice reveals itself here as a primary spiritual practice.
While some of these artists follow a traditional religious path and make fascinating connections between their working experience and their religious faith others speak directly of spirituality as a discovering of the power of Spirit. At a time when the notion of spirituality seems inchoate, artists, writers and musicians can often eloquently articulate the mysterious otherness of our lives. In a provocative book that explores the fascinating link between the creative and the sacred, Robert Wuthnow claims that artists have become the spiritual vanguard of our time. Drawing on in-depth interviews with painters, sculptors, writers, singers, dancers, and actors, Wuthnow includes the spiritual insights of accomplished artists who have gained prominence as Broadway performers, gospel singers, jazz musicians, poets, Native American painters, weavers, dancers, and installation artists. He profiles such national figures as novelist Madeleine L'Engle, playwright Tony Kushner, photographer Andres Serrano, sculptor Greg Wyatt, dancer Carla DeSola, and woodcarver David Ellsworth.