Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “Featured”
“You can walk on water if you are painting it.” Forefront leaders Nate Mancini and Rich Christman recently had the opportunity to speak with renowned artist Makoto Fujimura about the intersection of art and faith. In this far-reaching conversation, they talk about Mako’s routines & practices, his slow process of creation, how artists can bring God’s abundance to a world …
What a read. What a brilliant, dense, and far-reaching study of the relationship between art, artist, and the living Creator. Makoto Fujimura’s Art + Faith: A Theology of Making hits deeply upon so many different roads one can take at the many-pronged intersection of art, work, faith, theology, productivity, humanity, and eternity. In this decided fullness, the book feels almost conclusive, even though it swims in a topic that is (wonderfully) inexhaustible…
French cinema. When you think of it, you likely think of art films shown exclusively in independent theaters — films in which little is explained and even less is understood. Maybe you picture Godard or Truffaut, foundational directors of the French New Wave era, or maybe you think of famous French actors that have made the leap to American cinema, like Marion Cotillard or Jean Dujardin. Or hey, maybe the word “French” just makes you think of Ratatouille, which, while not French in origin, still taught us how to pronounce the famous culinary dish…
If you’ve ever enjoyed the 1996 Schwarzenegger holiday classic “Jingle All the Way”, you know just how difficult, stress-inducing, and dare we say life-threatening getting the perfect Christmas gifts for your loved ones and neighbors can be. To alleviate some of these more negative possibilities and to spread cheer, we have compiled a short list of stellar last-minute Christmas gift …
Editor’s Note: The following is a response to Richard Christman’s article entitled A Vision of Christian Art in a World that Hates It: Thoughts Inspired by Rick & Morty. The author recommends reading Rich’s article before you read through this one. In a 2013 interview for the Awaken Generation blog, Michael Gungor (of the band Gungor) talked about a game he and …
Editor’s Note: The following is an excerpt from Dr. Benjamin Myers’ upcoming book A Poetics of Orthodoxy, which will be released by Cascade Books. We are pleased to present this excerpt exclusively on the Forefront Festival blog.Many modern patterns of thought conspire against beauty. The soft utilitarianism that saturates our society tells us that beauty is just a distraction from …
The world watched in horror as yet another Black man gasped for air, murdered on camera. In those final moments, George Floyd called out to his mother, except his mother was not alive. She had passed away two years prior, giving this cry the transcendent anguish of one who knew he was about to die. But this is not the …
Amid the bevy of opinions regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, the qualifier ‘unprecedented’ seems to be one of the few descriptors we’re all in agreement on. It appears that not a single sphere of modern life has evaded the reach of sweeping measures put in place to mitigate contagion and suffering. From the effects of broad economic shutdown on virtually every …
For some regrettable reason, I watch Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland’s hit adult animated TV show, Rick & Morty. The show, which streams online and airs on Adult Swim among other shows like it, is a witty, irreverent, sci-fi sitcom that originated from a dark parody of Back to the Future. The episodes revolve around Rick Sanchez, an elderly alcoholic …
No matter how long you’ve traversed Christian culture, it’s doubtless that you’ve heard plenty of jokes and sighs about Christian art. From the cheesiness of faith-based movies to cookie-cutter lyricism and the barren wasteland of non-blasphemous religious visual art, our collective eye-roll is stuck in a loop. Many sense there is a fracture within our religious music especially and feel …
