Episode 456: W. David O. Taylor
In this episode, W. David O. Taylor joins me to talk about To Set the World Aflame and the artist's calling to bear witness to the fullness of God's creation. Artists work with the sensory, the imaginative, the emotional, the metaphorical, the material stuff of the world, and in doing so they help the rest of us see what's actually there. We talk about what an artist really is, why belovedness comes before output, and how the calling has shifted across centuries without losing its center. We linger on abundance: seven thousand kinds of apples, more wine than anyone could drink, a God who delights in more than enough.
W. David O. Taylor is Associate Professor of Theology & Culture at Fuller Theological Seminary and the author of ten books, including For the Beauty of the Church: Casting a Vision for the Arts and To Set the World Aflame: How Artists Bear Witness to the Fullness of God’s Creation. An Anglican priest, he has written for The Washington Post, The Gospel Coalition, Religion News Service, and Christianity Today, among others, and has contributed scholarly essays to the T&T Clark Companion to Theology and the Arts, Theology, Modernity and the Visual Arts, and Contemporary Art and the Church. He served on the board of Christians in the Visual Arts and is part of a three-year scholarly project, "Theology and the Visual Arts," hosted by King's College London. He lives on twenty-one acres of land east of Austin with his artist wife (Phaedra) and children. He posts about art and faith on Substack (@wdavidotaylor) and Instagram (@davidtaylor_theologian).
David's Book:
