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Cecilia González-Andrieu: Bridge to Wonder

| March 9, 2014 | 1 comment

These resonances aside, not all readers (Pentecostal, Charismatic or otherwise) will find González-Andrieu’s bridge adequate. Some (more Barthian readers perhaps) might consider her bridge in danger of collapsing given it rests on the sands of human creativity rather than the rock-solid words of the Word. Others may suspect much ado about a vaporous bridge: a useless phantom apart from the solidifying work of the Spirit. (Unless the divine Wind blows away sin’s fog how will lost travelers ever find the real bridge?) And yet for others, the high place of beauty in González-Andrieu’s account may raise flags. Does her claim that “Beauty is the most visible sign of the work of the Holy Spirit” (34) not betray a bridge too dependent upon Plato’s transcendentals (the good, the true, the beautiful)? While such classical bridges may have suited earlier Christian generations can they continue to serve our current cultural architecture?

But such skeptics should not have the final say. A Bridge to Wonder displays a profound sensitivity and subtle awareness of the promise and perils facing a rapprochement of art and the Christian faith. Such a heartfelt, informed and rich discussion by one of the most promising young Catholic theologians of our generation is to be welcomed for its fresh, compelling vision of how to transverse what continues to be a daunting chasm separating art and the Christian faith.

Reviewed by Robert Covolo

Publisher’s page: www.baylorpress.com/Book/295/Bridge_to_Wonder.html

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Category: Living the Faith, Winter 2014

About the Author: Robert Covolo is an ordained pastor and scholar at the Visual Faith Institute of Art and Architecture in Pasadena, CA. He holds degrees and certificates in the Humanities, History, English literature, Divinity and Philosophy of Religion and has taught classes at the undergraduate and graduate level on systematic theology, New Testament and theology and the arts. Bob is a Ph.D. candidate at the Free University of Amsterdam and Fuller Theological Seminary studying the relationship between theology and the emerging discipline of fashion theory. When he is not in the pulpit, the books, or the classroom he enjoys spending his time cycling, surfing and restoring mid-century furniture.

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