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Art and the Christian Mind: The Life and Work of Hans Rookmaaker, by Laurel Gasque
Hans Rookmaaker's impact on the arts in the 20th
century was enormous. His wide range of intellectual and cultural concerns led
him to explore many aspects of art, music, and philosophy during his lifetime;
and he made important contributions as an art historian, teacher, mentor,
thinker, and author. Laurel Gasque examines Rookmaaker's life and shows how he
incorporated his biblically informed beliefs into his teaching, writing, and
interaction with the arts and individuals.
“An intimate, lively and astute reflection on one of
the most intriguing and dynamic figures in 20th century Christian intellectual
history.”—DAVID LYLE JEFFREY,
“The great achievement of Laurel Gasque’s well
researched and reader friendly biographical memoir is to show how much
significant labor Rookmaaker packed into his abbreviated career and how many
networks of Christian artists, intellectuals, and cultural critics he has
influenced to this day. If there is
even anything resembling an evangelical intellectual renaissance underway today,
Rookmaaker must be given some of the credit, and Gasque’s book shows
why.—MARK NOLL,
“Laurel Gasque has written an absolutely wonderful
and much needed biography of one of the most influential … Christian
intellectuals of the twentieth century…. I
recommend this volume to all pastors, educated laypeople, and academics
interested in seeing a revival of Christian thought in the twenty-first
century.”—Irving Hexham,
“Hans Rookmaaker … was one of the great mid-twentieth century thinkers whose work did much to nurture the resurgence of interest in the relationship between Christianity and the arts. Laurel Gasque’s short, graceful, and accessible biography … is affectionate but not sentimental. It tells his life story with economy but still reveals much that has not been adequately understood or appreciated to date, including his conversion to Christianity while a prisoner of war in a Nazi camp. Gasque’s own lifetime commitment to the arts and her tireless networking puts her in the perfect position to trace the many filaments of influence and fruitfulness that emanate from Rookmaaker’s thought.”— Gregory Wolfe, editor, Image
“Laurel Gasque's fine and balanced portrayal of Hans
Rookmaaker's richly complex life, his relationships, and his contributions to a
holistic understanding of art and culture is a tribute both to the craft of the
biographer and the manifold gifts God gave to the Christian community in the
talented person of Hans Rookmaaker.”—M. Elaine Botha,
"Laurel Gasque's biography of Hans Rookmaaker provides a
wonderful narrative account of the life and thought of one of the most important
Christian cultural observers and art critics of the twentieth century.”—John Vissers,
“This insightful biography by Laurel Gasque should
open Rookmaaker for a new generation—a generation with the critical distance
to receive his insights afresh…. Gasque’s
work [provides] a wonderful entrée into the context of Rookmaaker’s thought
which should send us back to his writings anew.”—James K. A. Smith,
“You don’t have to be an artist or a philosopher to
benefit from Gasque’s lively, loving, thoroughly researched account of the
short life of Hans Rookmaaker…. To read it is to glean far more about a man
and his times than most standard history books or treatises on philosophical
aesthetics. This biography is a marvelous resource…. It tells about a man who
managed in a short life to influence a host of people and institutions, when
little was being done in his areas of expertise. Most of all … it draws us in
to a rich, biblical Christian outlook, one which knows of no sacred-secular
split.” —William Edgar,