Creation and new creation

I participate in a community of theologian-artists who, along with our neighbors and the wider world, have felt a deep sense of crisis in recent years. As we see society cautiously and exhaustedly stepping further into a new normal, we wonder how our interactions have changed—and we wish for far more than a hiccup in the status quo before it settles back into the same inequalities.

This period of transition was well underway when The Art of New Creation landed on my desk. The book’s overarching aim is to advance dialogue in theology and the arts by exploring two vibrant motifs woven through the tapestry of scripture: creation and new creation. These are familiar themes in my community. As theologians, we mull over creation and new creation; as artists, we make creation and new creation. It is what we hope for in Christ.

The Art of New Creation successfully navigates two risks. First, it risks difficulty drawing in readers who did not attend DITA10, the 2019 symposium organized by Duke Initiatives in Theology and the Arts at Duke Divinity School, from which the contents are drawn. Second, it risks disappointing readers who perceive that DITA10 predated COVID and fear that the essays will therefore be detached from our current sufferings and seekings. Attentive to these risks, the editors invited several artists and art enthusiasts to contribute new chapters in conversation with those from the symposium, which have been intentionally reworked for the book’s 2022 publication.