Join us at 7 p.m. on Tuesday night for the final talk in our series, “Reflections on the Image: Seeing Christ in Shadows of the ArtForm” at the Rattlesnake Bar and Grill with the presentation beginning at 7:30 p.m.  We’ll see you there!

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

“What’s in a Painting?
Vincent van Gogh as Theologian with a Brush”

Dr. Charles N. Davidson, Jr.
Retired Darrel Rollins Professor of Pastoral Theology, Care, and Counseling at Virginia University

School children know of the famous painter’s severed ear. Adults know that his works have sold for the highest prices ever paid for original art. Artists know that his expressionism was a bridge between impressionism and twentieth century modernism. Readers of his letters know that his life was filled with conflict, suffering, and defeat, and with a singular and passionate commitment to his calling as an artist. Yet, what do Christians know of Vincent as a theologian doing theology with his brush? The illustrated lecture will reveal lesser-known aspects of Vincent’s life and some sacred secrets contained within his art.

Charles Davidson, a Presbyterian (PCUSA) minister, is a pastoral psychotherapist in Black Mountain, NC, the retired Darrel Rollins Professor of Pastoral Theology, Care, and Counseling at Virginia University of Lynchburg (Va.), and editor of Life Turnings (lifeturnings.com), an interactive blogging community dedicated to spirituality and the healing arts. He received his B.A. from Hampden-Sydney College, his M.Div. and Th.M. from Union Presbyterian Seminary, and his D.Min. in pastoral counseling and psychotherapy from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary. His book, Bone Dead and Rising: Vincent van Gogh and the Self Before God, was published by Wipf and Stock’s Cascade Books in 2011.