Thanks to all who contributed their notes of appreciation for author and Image founder Gregory Wolfe.
Three contributors were selected as the winners of Wolfe’s new book The Operation of Grace. I’ll be contacting them personally to make sure that their prizes are mailed promptly.
Here are their testimonies about what Wolfe’s work and writing has meant to them.
1.
Donald Powell:
The work of Gregory Wolfe has been a pearl of great price to me. At a spiritually fallow time in my life I discovered Image Journal and it was a lifeline of intelligent engagement with the culture, while never giving in to the spirit of the age. I had grown up as an evangelical Christian and one of the things that drove me from the fold (along with my own fierce appetites) was the rampant anti-intellectualism. When I returned to the practice of a faith, one of the main doorways that beckoned me inward was primarily aesthetic. The poets (Scott Cairns and Paul Mariani to name two) and artists I found in Image and Mr. Wolfe’s own cogently argued and gracefully written essays were a special place of connection for me, a reminder that I did not walk alone, that I had fellow pilgrims on this improbable path and the best faith walks always combine heart and head, intellect and intuition.
2.
Andi Cumbo-Floyd:
I first came to know Greg Wolfe when I was fresh out of college in Pennsylvania and he advertised for an assistant editor at the new magazine Image. I applied and was granted an interview, but at the time, I wasn’t ready for such important work — at least I realize that now. Still, I have followed Image from that day on, marveling at its ability to appreciate the depth, complexity, and darkness of art without compromising a commitment to profound faith. I don’t see that richness of grace and glory often in the Christian world, and it’s even rarer when it comes to art. So while I did not work for Image, it has been a constant companion in the past 20 years, and I credit the extraordinary compassion, vision, and passion of Greg Wolfe for that gift. Thank you, Mr. Wolfe. Thank you.
3.
Terry Glaspey, author of 75 Masterpieces Every Christian Should Know:
I have spent a number of years thinking and writing about the intersection of art and faith. Unfortunately, many of the books in this genre from a Christian perspective reflect an implied apology for creative work, especially if that creative work takes a modern approach, and not one based upon the strictest sort of realism. Although writers like Schaeffer and Rookmaaker were helpful in getting me to the table, I have found their worldview-based perspectives of art to be generally too narrow and polemic. What Greg’s books have done for me is help me think about art in a way that is more purely celebratory, more engaged with human experience, and more accepting of all life’s ambiguities and mysteries. His thinking has been so helpful in enriching and guiding my own. Along the way it has not just impacted my thinking, but has fed my soul with a rich dose of Christian humanism. For that I am so grateful.
HONORABLE MENTION
I should call out a runner-up entry from Martin Stillion, who writes:
It was close, but Greg Wolfe kicked my butt again in fantasy baseball. Next year, man, next year.
For that insight on the endeavors of Mr. Wolfe, Martin will receive a free “Beauty will save the world” sticker.