
Imagination in an Age of Crisis: Soundings from the Arts and Theology
Tricia Petraven
Tricia Petraven is a transitional pastor who uses the arts in worship to work especially with
churches who are experiencing trauma. She has also been a college professor of theater design, a set designer, and a scenic and visual artist. She is opening a new church in the fall of 2025 called the Presbyterian Church of the Arts at Park Circle, in Charleston, South Carolina.

Imagination in an Age of Crisis: Soundings from the Arts and Theology
edited by Jason Goroncy and Rod Pattenden
(Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2022)
337 pages, ISBN 978-1-6667-0688-8
Reviewed by Tricia Petraven
The arts have been eschewed by the church at various points throughout history, but the church has also been a great patron of the arts. This back-and-forth relationship is probably because artists are often edgy; we point out things that might be uncomfortable, nonconformist, or even blasphemous. As religion and the arts have found ways to work together and even embrace each other, artists continue to push boundaries and ask questions. This book came out of a conference on arts and theology that had been planned in Australia in July 2020. The conference was cancelled due to COVID-19 and turned into a published compilation of articles and writings on crisis, theology, and imagination. As such, it is a mixture of academic explorations in theology and the arts, poetry, artists discussing their work, aboriginal art experiences, and stories about how art empowers transformation in difficult times. I’m an artist and a pastor with both an M.F.A. and an M.Div., but I’m often more interested in doing art than in theorizing about it, so I related to some of the essays more than others. I’ll share a few of my favorites.
The one I cannot stop thinking about is titled “Setting the Record Straight: The Prophetic Art of Ai Weiwei” by Adrienne Dengerink Chaplin. It follows the controversial career of artist Ai Weiwei, who uses his artwork to draw attention to social justice issues. He made significant art pieces related to the earthquake in southwest China in 2008, most notably Straight, which involved collecting thousands of pieces of bent and twisted metal rods from the earthquake zone, painstakingly beating them straight, and laying them out in an exhibit in a way that mirrors the Richter scale, with each rod representing someone who died in the catastrophe. Another of his pieces, Remembering, spells out in Chinese “she had been living happily for seven years” using brightly colored children’s backpacks. This was to draw attention to the thousands of children killed because the schools they were in were not built to high standards and collapsed in the earthquake. Weiwei said this piece was “the artwork that made me the most dangerous person in China” (p. 155). He faced persecution by Chinese authorities but continued making art to criticize social problems, including consumerism in the West, the refugee crisis, and his own government’s totalitarianism. He wrote in his memoir, “If in a pitch-dark room I find a single candle . . . I will light that candle. I have no choice” (p. 167).
A similar essay by Rod Pattenden titled “George Gittoes: The Artist as Prophet and Mystic” tells of an Australian artist who works in film documentary, oil painting, and community collaboration to offer hope in the face of war and destruction. Gittoes says, “I believe in art so much that I am willing to risk my life to do it” (p. 281). One wonders how an artist can go from one crisis conflict to another, seeing so much death and devastation, and not be completely hopeless. His calling is not just to observe but to help and to make art in the face of loss and grief, which is a way to heal. Gittoes says, “Wherever there is war, there need to be artists willing to create in the face of it—the ultimate act of resistance to the destroyers” (p. 293).
Another of my favorite essays is titled “Imagined Conversations and Real Letters During COVID-Times” by Naomi Wolfe. The author shares conversations she has with her dead father and her dead mother during COVID. Written from an aboriginal perspective, the article explores the role of imagination in coping with global and personal crisis. Wolfe converses with her parents, speaking to them and imagining their responses to her as they give her courage and sound advice. She emphasizes that “there is a strong desire to seek comfort and solace from our parents and other Elders when confronted with life’s challenges” (p. 257). I felt so connected to her story of conversing with those who have died as if they were still here. I could easily see myself doing the same thing (and I have) when I lose someone I’m close to. What a gift to have that imagination and be able to manifest it in an uplifting way!
Several essays are written by artists who write about how the pandemic changed their work and changed the way they look at the world. Douglas Purnell, a retired pastor and artist, found his paintings becoming much less literal, with more layers, and found himself gravitating toward red paint for his work. Australian Penny Dunstan became moved by the phrase “choose the path you know,” and it inspired her to create art with cotton and grass. Karly Michelle Edgar, a theatre student who was diagnosed with a physically challenging disease shortly before COVID hit, coped with her disease by repeatedly drawing tiny circles, covering page after page to distract her mind and make something tangible and beautiful during her suffering. During the pandemic, she expanded her circles into large, colorful pieces using repetition to reflect and wait, and found beauty through it. Libby Byrne made art in her sketchbook throughout 2020 and sent it to the Brooklyn Art Gallery, which invites anyone to submit a sketchbook to their collection for others to see. Byrne was specifically creating art that explores worship and faith. Submitting her work for others to see was a way of connecting to community.
There is so much more to this volume than I have been able to explore here, including stunning poetry, reflections on theater and film during crisis, and features about music and drumming as artistic outlets. I was inspired to explore more art forms and to appreciate art as a rich resource for transformation, healing, and renewal.