Terry Glaspey - Discovering God Through the Arts: How We Can Grow Closer to God by Appreciating Beauty & Creativity

With countless examples from across the arts, the Discovering God through the Arts is a treasure trove of diverse recommendations for Christians who appreciate the arts. In a distracted age with a glut of spectacles to constantly amuse us, Glaspey helps readers cut through the clutter and meaningfully attend to the good, true, and beautiful. For over-mediated souls whose senses are dulled by the barrage of stimuli before them, a book like this is an absolute gift.

BRETT MCCRACKEN, senior editor at The Gospel Coalition and author of The Wisdom Pyramid: Feeding Your Soul in a Post-Truth World

In Discovering God through the Arts, Terry Glaspey writes, Experiencing art is like falling in love. It demands vulnerability at the start and often takes a lot of work. Reading Glaspeys beautiful, rich, and profound new book felt a lot like falling in love. From J. S. Bach to William Blake, from Dante to Dylan, from Caravaggio to Flannery OConnor, Glaspey explains how artists through the ages have pointed us to God. Glaspeys writing is engaging and winsome, and his insights dazzling and rich. its a survival manual for the radically changing world we live in. Whether we admit it or not, our artists, musicians, filmmakers, poets, and writers have become our souls ministers in a time when traditional religious institutions seem to be losing their way. Glaspeys book teaches us how art comforts us; reinvigorates our faith, our empathy, and our prayers; and revives our much-neglected sense of wonder. Read it for the joy it containsand also for your own souls sake.

ROBERT HUDSON, author, The Poet and the Fly, Kiss the Earth When You Pray, and The Monks Record Player

When we begin to see God as Creatoras artist, as poet, as musician, as novelist, as sculptor, as architectwe find ourselves continually overwhelmed by his loving presence. Not since Brennan Manning has there been a more endearing voice urging us to seek the God of all creation.

KAREN SPEARS ZACHARIAS, award-winning author and speaker.

Beauty will save the world. So wrote Dostoevsky. No truer statement was ever made. Despite this, we are a people who at best often ignore it, or at worst sometimes outright despise itand do so to our peril, not least as followers of Jesus. With prose that is as beautiful as the subject matter into which our author bids us come and dine, Terry Glaspey has, with Discovering God through the Arts, given us a treasure. Read it and live. Read it and flourish. And by all means, read it and become the very beauty that God envisions you to be.

CURT THOMPSON, psychiatrist and author of The Soul of Shame and Anatomy of the Soul

Reading this goldmine of insight is like joining Glaspeya born teacheron a global art walk. I listen with gratitude as he reveals treasure within pictures, poems, and music. He writes just as he speaks, just as he lives: with generosity, enthusiasm, and a keen eye for recognizing Gods glory in unexpected places. He leads us, by example, into a deeper and more dazzling communion with our Creator.

JEFFREY OVERSTREET, assistant professor of English and writing at Seattle Pacific University, and author of Auralias Colors and Through a Screen Darkly

Brimming with insight, information, and invitation, Discovering God through the Arts reads like a travelogue of Terrys own hearts pilgrimage through the arts to an authentic encounter with God, with others, and with the teeming profusion of beauty and mystery in this world of ours.

STEVE BELL, award-winning singer/songwriter and author

In Discovering God through the Arts, Terry reminds us that art can be a channel through which we experience the Divine. If you long for artistic depth in a superficial age, then youve come to the right place.

BEN COURSON, founder of Hope Generation, and author of Optimisfits and Flirting with Darkness.

I was a college grad before Francis Schaeffer and Hans Rookmaaker mentored me in the ways of imagination through their books. Terry Glaspey continues down their same path but makes the journey even more accessible in his beautiful book, Discovering God through the Arts. Youll be inspired and comforted. And, most importantly, as the arts help you draw near to God through both your reason and imagination, you will enjoy your beautiful God.

LAEL ARRINGTON, coauthor/editor, Faith and Culture: The Guide to a Culture Shaped by Faith

I was a college grad before Francis Schaeffer and Hans Rookmaaker mentored me in the ways of Discovering God through the Arts is a compelling work that commands the minds and hearts of those with a faith heritage; and those seeking ways in which to engage with the challenging and controversial aspects of the arts. It is a thought-provoking and pivotal work that enlarges ones sense of how art can foster a deeper relationship with God.

MARIE TEILHARD, conceptual portrait photographer and Arts Advocate

In my circles, Terry Glaspey is an institution in himself. In Discovering God through the Arts, Glaspey takes us on a whimsical and illuminating journey of appreciating Gods gifts of creativity as they are scattered through history. A must read from an unquestionably transformative author.

A.J. SWOBODA, assistant professor of Bible, Theology, and World Christianity at Bushnell University and the author of After Doubt

In Discovering God through the Arts, Terry Glaspey serves as a skilled and informative tour guide who personally introduces us to his friends: a myriad of artisans who have profoundly impacted his life by helping him relate to God and the Bible with more openness, wonder, and curiosity. This book will enhance the spiritual life of anyone who desires to be awakened to the multi-faceted nature of God as reflected through poetry, music, film, photography, paintings, and much more.

MICHELLE WATSON CANFIELD, author of Lets Talk: Conversation Starters for Dads and Daughters, and radio/podcast host of The Dad Whisperer

Terry Glaspey is an incisive and artful craftsman of words who has spent decades paying attention to art in all its forms, and thinking deeply about the ways in which they express and shape the life of faith. Whether you are a long-term kindred spirit in that appreciation or new to contemplating the notion of the arts and spiritual disciplines as vital and intertwined paths to faith, join Glaspey as a fellow pilgrim through the careful, leisurely reading of this warm and winsome book.

JEFF CROSBY, publishing executive, and compiler of Days of Grace through the Year

In Discovering God through the Arts, Terry Glaspey gives us a perfect pairing for his award-winning 75 Masterpieces Every Christian Should Know. Thoughtfully written, this book explores the mysteries of how we can meet God in deeper ways through our encounters with art, and how that knowledge can enrich our faith. Glaspey leads us step-by-step through the journey of discovery of arts power not only to inspire but also to heal, and with the honed skill of a good teacher, he offers us a wonderful resource to further our journeying. I heartily recommend it to you!

LANCIA E. SMITH, founder and executive director, Cultivating and The Cultivating Project

Discovering God through the Arts