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“Utilizing an original religious-studies perspective, Girardot opens up the scholarship on the visionary image maker who thrust the imagination into uncomfortable spiritual acrobatics and countercultural mythological intuition.”—David Morgan, Professor of Religious Studies, Duke University, and author of The Embodied Eye: Religious Visual Culture and the Social Life of Feeling
“
Envisioning Howard Finster is a mythological tale rooted in serious and extensive scholarship that greatly enriches our knowledge of Finster and his context in late twentieth-century American culture.”—Colin Rhodes, author of
Outsider Art: Spontaneous Alternatives “Introducing astute comparisons between Finster and other artists, spiritual leaders, and historical figures, Girardot raises timely, provocative questions regarding Finster’s place in the art world, Southern evangelical Protestantism, popular culture, and American history.”—Tom Patterson, freelance writer, independent curator, author of
Howard Finster: Stranger from Another World and
St. EOM in the Land of Pasaquan
Sommario
Note on Internet Citations and Additional Web Resources
Preface: Stories about Stories
Introduction. Once upon a Time: Encountering the Word Made Flesh
1. On the Finster Trail: The Business of Howard Finster’s Divine Busyness
2. Signs of the Times: Howard Finster and Prophetic Reenchantment
3. The Matter of My Mission: Howard Finster’s Religious Template
4. The First and Second Noah: Howard Finster’s Ark of Myth and Meaning
5. The Finster Mythos: Just the Facts in Howard Finster’s Mythic Life
6. Snakes in the Garden: Life and Death in Paradise
7. The Strange Beauty of Bad and Nasty Art: Toward a Finsterian Aesthetic
Conclusion. Howard Finster: The Hidden Man of the Heart
Notes
Acknowledgments
List of Illustrations
Index
Info autore
Norman Girardot is University Distinguished Professor Emeritus of religion at Lehigh University.
Riassunto
Finster began preaching as a teenager in the South in the 1930s. But it was not until he received a revelation from God at the age of sixty that he began to make sacred art. This book explores the life and religious-artistic significance of Finster and his work.
Testo aggiuntivo
"Densely written but supremely readable. Much of its density comes from the author's often hilarious and often riotously poetic language, which echoes the ecstatic excesses of Paradise Garden itself. . . . His inquiry, which both complicates and elucidates the Finster myth, demonstrates why Finster's lifework matters."
