Network

‘Bible & Visual Arts Network’: a UK-wide network to unite, support, and co-ordinate scholars engaged in the study of the Bible and the visual arts (Biblical Studies, Theology, Religious Studies, Art History, Visual-Cultural Studies, Fine Art, Critical Studies, and Film, TV, Theatre, and Media Studies). The Centre for Studies in the Visual Culture of Religion is currently submitting an application to the AHRC for funding to support the establishment of the network.


Publications

John Harvey, The Unrepresentable. The book examines societal and religious prohibitions, strictures, and conflict regarding representation; and concepts, ideas, and phenomena that, by their nature, lie beyond representation. For example, the study addresses the concept of visual blasphemy (that is, the profanation or misrepresentation of God and of sacred persons) in relation to art, visual culture, and the Abrahamic religions. The study also examines certain types of “disfigurative” and defamatory representations of human beings in the secular sphere.

John Harvey and Martin O'Kane, The Bible as Art: An Introduction. The book addresses the need not only for artists to deepen their understanding of biblical theology, themes, and stories but also for biblical scholars to better comprehend the ways in which biblical images (traditional and modern) serve as a significant (albeit nonverbal) exegetical tool, as an articulation of doctrine, theology, and belief, and as an influential mode of biblical, cultural reception.