Liturgical Dance: JOB 23:1-17

Three of my Seminarians crafted and performed this liturgical-dance interpretation of Job 23 as a final exegetical project in my OT-2 course this Spring. Classmates Maggie Paul, Ellie Singer, and Lydia Arnts collaborated in creating the dance and recording the video embedded below. As the video begins, Lydia enters as Job and lays his legal case before God (vv. 4-5). Job kneels on the ground in rebellion (v.2) and God (Maggie) faces away reflecting Job's sense of abandonment but also God's allowing Job space to vent and imagine. Job's beckoning hand movements reflect his imagined ideal of being able to summon God. As Ellie takes up the part of Job (@ 00:26), she enacts vv. 8-9, where Job looks to every direction in search of God, but cannot see him. She arises as "gold" (v. 10) at 00:47. Then she proceeds to walk in step with God. Verses 13-14 come to life as Ellie embodies God's pumping up God's arms. Job's dread seen in v. 15 comes to life as Maggie, as Job, is covered by darkness (v. 17), yet at the end she raises her head expressing the persistence and defiance expressed in the NIV's rendering of v. 17.  

ICON on Job 23:1-17, by Kate Mumey

 

Kate Mumey created this icon as part of her final project in my Spring Old Testament Interpretation course. Here is an excerpt of her description of Job: "This is not an icon of a man who feels himself embraced by the loving arms of a just and true God. This icon is fear, anger, and the most feverish desperation. In Job’s own words, he is in search, and the language [of finding God], reverential though it is, implies the absence of God, and he has searched for this elusive and unresponsive God. There is panicked energy in the arms of Job. You can almost see it shooting out of his fingertips in desperation for confrontation and understanding from his God."

Visual AI Meditations on Psalms 51 and 121 by Greg Williams

 For his final project for my Psalms class, Greg Williams leveraged his experience with prompt engineering and design and development of artistic concepts to create DALL-E (ChatGPT) images illuminating Psalms 51 and 121. Below are some of his images and excerpts of his discussion of them:  

Psalm 51:3, "For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me." The image reflects the psalm's "profound and raw honesty with respect to...the depth of sin." The ash and charcoal style fits the liturgical deployment of the Psalm on Ash Wednesday. 

Psalm 121:3, "He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber." Greg explains the image as follows: "John Brown chose Harpers Ferry as the site of his famous raid and attempt to start an abolitionist slave revolt because of the importance of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the underground railroad and the ability of enslaved African-Americans to move in secret and with some safety in the many nooks and crannies of this mountainous region. The final inspiration for this image, then, is the concept of enslaved African-Americans escaping through treacherous mountains at night guided and protected by God." The Harlem Renaissance style is Greg's deliberate choice. 

Star Hebrew Students Graduating Today

Luke, Katie, Myself, Thomas, Tom

THE TWO HUNDRED AND FIRST COMMENCEMENT SERVICE of the VIRGINIA THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, Thursday, May 9, 2024 at 10am

ARTWORK on Psalm 13 by Daisy Colón

 

Graduating M.Div. Senior Daisy Colón created this mixed-media artwork as part of her final project in my Psalms course this semester. The artwork offers a powerful visual corollary to Psalm 13's themes of distress and hope. Daisy notes that the cry "how long?" occurs multiple times in the poem (four times in vv. 1-2). Here is human wretchedness, alone under a giant sky, on rough, black sinking ground. 

Artwork: Psalm 128, by Silas Engstrom

As his final project for our Psalms class, M.Div. senior Silas Engstrom created this image of watercolor, acrylic, and pencil. Here is an excerpt from Si's description: "The human forms collectively represent the relational connections of family. They face the altar table with expectation to symbolize their pilgrimage toward God. The faces are intentionally not visible to express the universality of being. These forms convey both any individual’s pilgrimage toward the source of blessedness and all humankind’s journey toward the Holy."

Psalm 13: Music Video Project by Katie Spero

 Graduating M.Div. senior Katie Spero wrote music and produced this music video as her final project in my VTS Psalms Course. At the beginning of her middle year of seminary at VTS, Katie received a cancer diagnosis and entered into a prolonged period of suffering. Feeling plunged into the darkness of chaos, loss, and fear lead her to cry out to God like the suppliant of Psalm 13. "How Long?" In the essay accompanying the video, Katie writes: I agree with James Mays’ idea that the faithful “are simultaneously the anxious, fearful, dying, historical person who cannot find God where we want God to be, and the elect with a second history, a salvation history, a life hid with Christ in God.” The tone of the song [of Psalm 13] is uplifting, even inspirational, while the words express depths of despair and turmoil.

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