Explore the depth of this brilliant and tortured artist's spirituality and find a new Van Gogh--philosopher of life, unorthodox theologian, and determined seeker of global spirituality.

Cliff Edwards, a well-known Vincent Van Gogh author and scholar, explores Van Gogh's second gift--the surprising written works of Van Gogh in letters to his brother, fellow artists, and friends. Edwards illuminates Van Gogh's vision and creative process for readers as a way of living and creating more deeply. Van Gogh's Second Gift gives us another side of Van Gogh, whose poetic, creative, and original mind opened up startling insights on the creative process. A perfect book for creatives and those who want to understand more about one of the world's most beloved artists, the genius creator of works like Starry Night. Focusing on more than 40 letter excerpts, Edwards offers clear background and insights into Van Gogh's life and creative ideas, as well as suggestions for reflection and personal engagement. Van Gogh sketches are scattered throughout the book.

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.

This richly textured book bridges analytic and hermeneutic and phenomenological philosophy of science. It features unique resources for students of the philosophy and history of quantum mechanics and the Copenhagen Interpretation, cognitive theory and the psychology of perception, the history and philosophy of art, and the pragmatic and historical relationships between religion and science.

Based on Van Gogh's personal correspondence, this biography shows the artist's pilgrimage of faith, from his early religious training through his evangelical missionary periods to his struggle with religion and modernity. 24 illustrations.

Carol Berry and her husband met and befriended Henri Nouwen when she sat in his course on compassion at Yale Divinity School in the 1970s. At the request of Henri Nouwen's literary estate, she has written this book, which includes unpublished material recorded from Nouwen's lectures. As an art educator, Berry is uniquely situated to develop Nouwen's work on Vincent van Gogh and to add her own research. She fills in background on the much misunderstood spiritual context of van Gogh's work, and reinterprets van Gogh's art (presented here in full color) in light of Nouwen's lectures. Berry also brings in her own experience in ministry, sharing how Nouwen and van Gogh, each in his own way, led her to the richness and beauty of the compassionate life.

An original account of the tortuous and revealing relationship between two seminal figures of modern painting, Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin.