Resources

James R. Blaettler, S.J. received his undergraduate degree in languages and linguistics at Georgetown University, and his Master's in art and art education at Teachers College (Columbia University). Subsequent academic work in philosophy and theology was undertaken in the United States and Europe. Returning to the U.S., Dr. Blaettler was ordained a Roman Catholic priest and then began a doctoral program in art history at the University of Chicago. He completed his dissertation in 1989 on the early twelfth-century cloister sculpture at the Spanish monastery of Santo Domingo de Silos. While teaching art history at Santa Clara University in California and Fairfield University in Connecticut Dr. Blaettler added a secondary focus in contemporary art. That led to his assuming the role of curator and researcher for a number of exhibitions of contemporary religious art. In the 1990's Dr. Blaettler was inducted as a fellow into the Society for the Arts, Religion and Contemporary Culture. While an artist-in-residence at Corpus Christi Catholic Church in Manhattan (2000-2001), he taught art in the parish elementary school, aesthetics and religious education for the Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education at Fordham University (New York) and a class on art and the Bible for the Catholic Archdiocese of New York's Institute of Religious Studies (Yonkers). Currently Dr. Blaettler is an Associate Pastor at St. Ignatius Church, which is located on the campus of the University of San Francisco. Simultaneously he is the director of the Archives of Modern Christian Art, which is under the auspices of the University's Department of Visual and Performing Arts.  See "Mourning Into Dancing": Spiritual Conversion At Silos

James F. Caccamo is a doctoral candidate in Christian Ethics at Loyola University Chicago. His dissertation is constructive proposal for a way of understanding the relationship between ritual song and the moral life. Former choir director and computer programmer, his work focuses on the ways that various cultural and religious modes of communication effect the formation and practice of the moral life. His recent work has included studies of moral and cultural implications of Catholic liturgical song, Chicago-school gospel music, 70's funk, sacred visual art, Anabaptist quilting traditions, and the use of presentation technology in Christian worship. He is currently teaching Roman Catholic Social Thought at DePaul University and working on a team that is developing a multimedia software resource for teaching worship in seminary settings with the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship.  See Old Wine in New Wineskins: Responding to God and the Spiritual Internet

Lisa DeBoer teaches the history of art at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California.  She received her undergraduate degree from Calvin College and her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. Her areas of particular interest include the arts of early modern Northern Europe and the uses of the visual arts in Christian Worship. See The Arts and Christian Worship: A Selected Bibliography for an Orientation to History, Theory and Practice

Christopher Eads grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana, where he attended parochial schools and earned a B.A. in History and German language at Indiana University at Indianapolis. He completed his Master of Architecture degree at North Carolina State University in 1999, concentrating in historic preservation. Having designed an Antiochian Orthodox church as his master's research project, Eads continues to explore the relationship among theology, worship practice, and architectural design. He is currently a Project Manager at Moseley Architects in Harrisonburg, Virginia.  See They Will Know We Are Christians by Our Land: A Christian Landscape Aesthetic

Brian Fee is a painter who lives in New York City with his wife Maria (also a painter) and his three children. His first professional exhibition was a two-person show at the Bates Gallery in Chicago in 1986. Since then he has had many solo and group exhibitions in several parts of the country but mainly in New York. Brian has worked as a cabinetmaker and general carpentry contractor, and for the past 11 years has taught art in the New York City public high schools, and as an adjunct professor at a local college. He has also been a visiting artist/lecturer in several places including schools in England and Austria. These experiences-and those of his Christian faith-have informed his artwork, which usually involves some carefully-assembled structure upon which abstract and symbolic images are situated. Brian has a passion for uncovering the unique artistic language that the Creator has placed in everyone, for His glory and pleasure. All of his pursuits-whether painting, teaching, or writing-are bent on this goal.  See Beauty Glimpsed, or If You Get Everybody Making Art, Something Good Is Bound To Come Out Of It

Brian T. Hartley, Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Religion at Greenville College, Illinois, is completing his work towards the Ph.D in Historical Theology at Saint Louis University, with previous graduate study at Princeton and Oklahoma State University. Professor Hartley was the recipient of the Princeton preaching fellowship in London, England, as well as pastor of churches in Toronto, Canada, and Stillwater, Oklahoma. This past summer (2003) he received the second of two recent awards from the National Endowment for the Humanities, which took him to the Folger Library in Washington, D.C., where he continued his work on sermons from the Elizabethan period in England. Other passions for Professor Hartley include playing the drums, baking bread, performing Shakespeare, and collecting prayer books.  See "Reading the Homilies as Liturgical Act, Canonical Construct, and Homiletic Discourse"

Jack A. Kremers, AIA
Jack is Emeritus Professor of Architecture, Kent State University and currently is Chairman of the Department of Architecture and Professor of Architecture at Judson College. He is a registered architect in three states. His Master of Architecture degree is from the University of Michigan. He and his wife, Dorie, live in Winfield, Illinois where they are members of the Wheaton Christian Reformed Church. They have three children and six grandchildren.  See Evangelical Church Spaces And Design: The Role Of The Architect

Charlotte Kroeker, Ph.D., is Director of Church Music Initiatives at the Institute for Church Life, University of Notre Dame in Indiana. As a professor, church musician, and performing pianist, Dr. Kroeker also has a research interest in the performance practice and sacred literature for the piano in liturgical settings.  She is currently editing a book of essays titled Music in Christian Worship.  See Abstract for "Choosing Music for Worship

Jeanne Logan has an MFA in Printmaking from The University of Notre Dame. She taught design at Indiana University in South Bend, Indiana for 6 years, and is currently the University's art gallery Coordinator. Drawing and fibers are her most often used medium. Her drawings and fiber pieces are rich in texture and natural influences. She began creating artwear while in graduate school and has recently become interested in theology and liturgical art.  In addition to wearable pieces, her large fiber commissions are in hospitals, churches and chapels.  See The Stole, an Ecclesiastical Vestment

Mark S. McLeod-Harrison is Associate Professor of Philosophy at George Fox University in Newberg, Oregon. His Ph.D. is from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is also an Episcopal Priest with the Communion of Evangelical Episcopal Churches and Abbot of the Community of Christ the Teacher. His publications include essays, poetry and the monograph "Rationality and Theistic Belief: An Essay on Reformed Epistemology."  See Abstract of "Music and the Patterns of Christian Worship"

John Steven Paul is the W.C. Dickmeyer Professor of Christian Education and chair of the Department of Theatre at Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, Indiana, where he teaches dramatic literature, play directing, and playwriting and directs plays for the University Theatre. He is a graduate of Concordia Lutheran High School in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and of Valparaiso University. Dr. Paul received the Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is the director of Soul Purpose, the liturgical drama troupe of the Valparaiso University Theatre, and the Young Actors Shakespeare Workshop. His writing has appeared in The Cresset, The Christian Century, the Chicago Tribune, Liberal Education and ARTS. His essay "I Love to Tell the Story: the teaching of theatre at a church-related college" was recently published as a chapter in Teaching As an Act of Faith: Theory and Practice in Church-Related Higher Education (Fordham University Press, 2002). In 1999, Professor Paul was awarded the Distinguished Teaching Award by the Valparaiso University Alumni Association.  See The Wedding

Bert Polman studied at Dordt College (BA 1968), the University of Minnesota (MA 1969, PhD in musicology 1981), and the Institute for Christian Studies. His teaching covers a wide range of courses in music theory, music history, music literature, and worship, and he's also into academic administration and Canadian Native studies. His research specialty is Christian hymnody; see the Psalter Hymnal Handbook (1989). Two current projects are: (a) a brief hymnal companion to Praise & Worship songs, and (b) a lengthy history of musical settings of the Song of Mary or Magnificat. Bert is a church organist, a frequent workshop leader at music & worship conferences, and contributes to journals such as The Hymn, and Reformed Worship.  See Praise & Worship Songs

Luke M. Reinsma, Professor of English at Seattle Pacific University, is a medievalist who has directed the university's general education course in the arts and the Christian community over the past several years. He has written articles on Anglo-Saxon rhetoric for Communication Monographs and Rhetorica, on the contemporary Japanese novelists Kenzaburo Oe and Shusaku Endo for Christianity and Literature, and on Michelangelo for Christian Scholar's Review.  See Thomas Kinkade’s Paradise Lost

Andrew Mark Sauerwein composes music both for worship and for the concert hall. His catalog of works includes a wide range of genres, including music for orchestra, concert band, solo instrumental pieces, various chamber works, choral works, music for dance and theatre, electronic and computer music, and hybrid pieces combining Western instruments with Balinese gamelan. He holds degrees in composition from Duke University (Ph. D, M.A.) and the University of Oregon (M.Mus, B.Mus), as well as a degree in Biblical literature (AA) from Multnomah Bible College. He is an active member of the Christian Fellowship of Art Music Composers (CFAMC), which is celebrating its tenth anniversary in 2004.
        Partly as an outgrowth of his compositional work, Andy has been exploring issues which link aesthetics and music-making to Christian theology and worship (which led to his participation in the Seminars in Christian Scholarship). His work draws on disciplines as diverse as ethnomusicology and inductive Bible study. He seeks a balance of scholarship and creative work aimed at not only enriching corporate worship practices but also developing a theologically sound and practical understanding of the listener’s active and creative part in music-making.
        Andy has been a visiting professor of music at Northwestern College of Iowa since Fall 2003. In addition to teaching music theory, composition, and related courses, he composed and arranged music for college events and was a music consultant for the theatre department’s premiere of And God Said, a collection of plays of ancient Israel taken from the Old Testament. Before that, he taught part-time in the Department of Music at Duke University and was an active musician and composer at Blacknall Memorial Presbyterian Church in Durham, NC.  See Abstract of Seminar Project

Tom Scofield is an assistant professor of mathematics at Calvin College. He is an applied mathematician, and his interests include inverse problems, integral equations and imaging. He lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan with his wife Pam of 11 years and their 10-month-old son Benjamin. A member of Woodlawn Christian Reformed Church, Pam and he are two of five members in the a capella singing group "Soul Delight", providing special music in area churches.  See The Mathematics behind the Theology of John Polkinghorne, and Its Use in Christian Worship

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