Meet the Author
Charles McCollough is an ordained United Church of Christ minister with a Ph.D. in theology, and an extensive background in art. He worked for many years on the national staff of the UCC in the areas of adult education and social justice. While pursuing that work, he studied sculpture at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Johnson Atelier, the Princeton Association, and Mercer College. McCollough has taught and/or served as an artist in residence in numerous seminaries, and is the author of eight books including The Art of Parables: Reinterpreting the Teaching Stories of Jesus in Word & Sculpture (2008) and The Non-Violent Radical: Seeing and Living the Wisdom of Jesus (2012).
Book Basics
The Non-Violent Radical: Seeing and Living the Wisdom of Jesus unlocks the beauty, power, and meaning of Jesus’ teaching by uniting McCullough’s sculpture and scholarship in an exploration of over 40 different wisdom sayings on blessings, nonviolence, and daily life that the gospel writers attribute to Jesus. Rather than advancing new ideas, McCollough highlights recent scholarship – focusing primarily on that which locates the speech in its original economic and political context – and illustrates what the sayings mean and how they speak to and through him by means of images of his sculptures. For the thinking person of faith, this book functions as an inexhaustible inquiry capable of helping facilitate new ideas, images, and insight with each reading of a given wisdom saying.
My Connection
I first learned of McCollough’s work in 2008 when I previewed his then latest book in preparation for teaching a class on the parables. I found the material so helpful that I tweaked my course outline to include more multimedia, including slide shows from the disc included with The Art of Parables.
Earlier this year, I was delighted McCollough accepted my invitation to be a featured presenter at Naples United Church of Christ and the United Church of Marco Island. Participants in both events saw his sculptures transformed as he spoke; for most these works of art were viewed with interest beforehand and with amazement after his presentation.
So What?
Art often offers new ways to look at and think about content, especially material with which the viewer has prior familiarity. The image at right brings to life the saying “why do you worry about the speck in your neighbor’s eye
when you have a beam in your own?”
Browse some of McCollough’s clay sculptures depicting
then choose one image for further reflection. Spend several minutes with the image and in the associated biblical text(s). Share how this experience spoke to you, and/or how it helped you see a familiar story with new perspective.
Charles McCullough. The Non-Violent Radical: Seeing and Living the Wisdom of Jesus (Wipf and Stock, 2012). ISBN: 9781608999651