Bone Dead, and Rising: Vincent Van Gogh and the Self Before God

Davidson, Charles (Author)/ Rector, Lallene J. (Foreword)

ISBN 10: 1498211755 / ISBN 13: 9781498211758

Published by Cascade Books, 2011

About this Item

280 pages. 6.00x0.75x9.00 inches. In Stock.

Seller Inventory # x-1498211755

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Bone Dead, and Rising: Vincent Van Gogh and the Self Before God
• Publisher: Cascade Books
• Publication Date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1498211755
• ISBN 13: 9781498211758
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Brand New
• Weight: 0.58 kilograms

About this title

Synopsis

Here is a vivid, poetic, and evocative story of the painter Vincent van Gogh's struggle to become his true self. The author listens in on Vincent's most intimate, frequently startling thoughts on a host of topics, drawn from three volumes of his correspondence and his 900 extant paintings. What emerges is the portrait of an artist whose spiritual vision was borne of an agonizingly prolonged experience of the "dark night of the soul" through which his art dared to envision the triumph of joy over sorrow, of resurrection over suffering and death. Readers will discover that in many ways Vincent's story is as much about us as about him. Tracing van Gogh's pilgrimage from being an apprentice art dealer to being called to minister, in self-renunciation and misery, among destitute coal miners, the narrative follows his winding, tortuous path into adulthood as he struggles with family, associates, lovers--and with himself. Constantly evidenced in Vincent's own eloquent words and paintings is his tussle with the mysterious presence and maddening absence of God. Vocation unveils as a process of summoning and birthing his own self, through an attempt to imitate Christ, calling forth van Gogh's extraordinary creative powers from deep within. Adding choice supplies from other observers, Davidson here weaves his own exact, artful tapestry of interpretation, producing a suspenseful excursion into the life of van Gogh that offers profound meaning at every turn.

About the Author

Charles Davidson, retired Darrel Rollins Professor of Pastoral Theology, Care, and Counseling at Virginia University of Lynchburg (Virginia), is a Presbyterian minister and pastoral counselor living in Asheville, North Carolina.