Jonathan A. Anderson is the Eugene and Jan Peterson Associate Professor of Theology and the Arts at Regent College (Vancouver, BC). His scholarship explores the interrelations of art history, theology, and religious studies, with a particular focus on modern and contemporary art. He is the coauthor (with William Dyrness) of the book Modern Art and the Life of a Culture: The Religious Impulses of Modernism (2016), and he is the author of many articles and book chapters, including “Modern Art” in The Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion (2021) and “The (In)visibility of Theology in Contemporary Art Criticism” (2014). Trained as an artist, art critic, and theologian, Anderson has a PhD from King’s College London and an MFA from California State University Long Beach. Prior to his appointment at Regent College, he was the postdoctoral associate of theology and the visual arts at Duke University (Durham, NC) and an associate professor of art at Biola University (La Mirada, CA).
Education
PhD (with MPhil), Theology and Religious Studies (2017–2021)
King’s College London, University of London (London, UK)
MFA, Studio Art: Drawing and Painting (2001–2004)
California State University Long Beach (Long Beach, CA)
Distinguished Achievement Award in Drawing and Painting
BS, Studio Arts: Drawing and Painting (1996–2000)
Biola University (La Mirada, CA)
Torrey Honors Institute (1996–2000), perpetual member
summa cum laude
Academic Appointments
Eugene and Jan Peterson Associate Professor of Theology and the Arts, Regent College (Vancouver, BC), 2023–present
Postdoctoral Associate of Theology and the Visual Arts, Duke University (Durham, NC), 2020–23
Associate Professor of Art, Biola University (La Mirada, CA), 2006–20
Executive Director, Center for Christianity, Culture, and the Arts, Biola University, 2015–17
Lecturer, Biola University (La Mirada, CA), 2005–6
Lecturer, California State University Long Beach (Long Beach, CA), 2006
Lecturer, California State University Dominguez Hills (Carson, CA), 2005
University Courses Taught
XTIANETH 890 / ARTS 610 Contemporary Art and Theology
XTIANTHE 890 / THEO 550 / ARTS 550 Visual Art as Theology
ARTS 701 Vocation of the Artist
ARTS 501 Christian Imagination
ARTS 315 Contemporary Art Trends: 1945–present
BBST 465 Contemporary Art and Theology (co-taught)
ARTS 410 Art History Seminar: Study Trip to Italy (3 weeks)
ARTS 410 Art History Seminar: Study Trip to London–Paris (2.5 weeks)
ARTS 410 Art History Seminar: Study Trip to Amsterdam–Berlin (2.5 weeks)
ARTS 116 History of Western Art 1: Prehistoric–Medieval
ARTS 126 History of Western Art 2: Renaissance–Romanticism
YMDT490 Torrey Honors Seminar: Theology of Spatial Relations
ARTS 100 Visual Culture and Communication Studies (IRIS seminar, co-taught)
ARTS 100 Interdisciplinary Seminar on Film and Theology (IRIS seminar, co-taught)
ARTS 107 Drawing 1
ART 170 2D Composition
ART 373 Life Drawing 1
ARTS 108 Figure Studies 1
ARTS 319 Figure Studies 2
ART 383 Intermediate Life Painting
ARTS 308 Painting 2
ARTS 413 Painting 3
Special Projects and Honors
Theology and the Visual Arts (TVA), core research member, directed by Ben Quash and Chloë Reddaway, initiative of Duke University and King’s College London, sponsored by the McDonald Agape Foundation, 2023–present
Association of Scholars of Christianity in the History of Art (ASCHA), board of directors, 2017–present
Image journal, editorial advisory board for the visual arts, 2019–present
Foundation for Spirituality and the Arts, visionary (honorary), 2021–present
Theology, Modernity, and the Visual Arts (TMVA), core research member, directed by Ben Quash, initiative of Duke University and King’s College London, sponsored by the McDonald Agape Foundation, 2018–22
Art Seeking Understanding, advisor, Templeton Religion Trust, 2018–22
Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Art and Ritual, research member, directed by Lexi Eikelboom and David Newheiser, sponsored by Templeton Religion Trust, 2022–23
The Art of Understanding and the Heresy of Paraphrase: Toward a Science of Art’s Irreducibility, research member, project directed by James K.A. Smith, sponsored by Templeton Religion Trust, 2020–21
Founder’s Award Alumnus of the Year (co-recipient with Natalie Anderson), Torrey Honors Institute, Biola University, 2014
South Africa R5 Seminar in the Visual Arts, research fellowship (10 North American artists and 10 Southern African artists in a two-week seminar and studio event in Johannesburg, Pretoria, and Cape Town, South Africa), directed by Rachel Hostetter Smith, Nagel Institute for the Study of World Christianity, 2013
Center for Christian Thought, research fellowship, Biola University, 2012
Whale & Star Studio, artist residency, Miami, FL, 2011
Gardena Neighborhood Poster Project, LA Metro commission, 2010 (installation)
Publications
Books
Jonathan A. Anderson, The Invisibility of Religion in Contemporary Art (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2025). [forthcoming]
Jonathan A. Anderson and William A. Dyrness, Modern Art and the Life of a Culture: The Religious Impulses of Modernism (Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2016).
→ 2017 Book of the Year Award of Merit in Culture & the Arts, Christianity Today
→ Top Ten Books of 2016, Image journal
→ 2019 A+C Book Award shortlist, Art and Christianity
Amos Yong with Jonathan A. Anderson, Renewing Christian Theology: Systematics for a Global Christianity (Waco: Baylor University Press, 2014).
Book Chapters and Sections
Jonathan A. Anderson, “Rituals of Transformation: Sermons, Video Recordings, and Arthur Jafa’s akingdoncomethas,” in Art-Making as Spiritual Practice: Rituals of Embodied Understanding, ed. Lexi Eikelboom and David Newheiser (London: Bloomsbury, 2025). [forthcoming]
Jonathan A. Anderson, “Thinking with Christianity: A Grammar of Doubt and Belief in Contemporary Art,” in Theology, Modernity, and the Visual Arts, ed. Ben Quash and Chloë Reddaway (Turnhout: Brepols, 2024), 3–17. [forthcoming]
Jonathan A. Anderson, “The New Visibility of Religion in Contemporary Art: Four Interpretive Horizons,” in Religion and Contemporary Art: A Curious Accord, ed. Ronald R. Bernier and Rachel Hostetter Smith (New York: Routledge, 2023), 21–36.
Jonathan A. Anderson, “North America: Visual Arts,” in The Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception, vol. 21, ed. Constance M. Furey, Joel Marcus LeMon, Brian Matz, Thomas Römer, Jens Schröter, Barry Dov Walfish, and Eric Ziolkowski (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2023), 842–846.
Jonathan A. Anderson, “The Hereafter in Contemporary Art,” and “Kris Martin,” in Here After, ed. Cara Megan Lewis, Linnéa Gabriella Spransy Neuss, Vicki Phung Smith, and Meaghan K. Ritchey, exhibition catalog (Los Angeles: Bridge Projects, 2022), 136–143, 163.
Jonathan A. Anderson, “Visual Arts: Modern Art,” in The Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021), https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.013.800.
Jonathan A. Anderson, “Bin Bag Visions: Theological Horizons in Maciej Urbanek’s HS,” in Transforming Christian Thought in the Visual Arts: Theology, Aesthetics, and Practice, ed. Sheona Beaumont and Madeleine Emerald Thiele (London: Routledge, 2021), 179–196.
Jonathan A. Anderson, “Contemporary Art and the Life We’re Living,” in Cultural Engagement: A Crash Course in Contemporary Issues, ed. Joshua D. Chatraw and Karen Swallow Prior (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2019), 294–298.
Jonathan A. Anderson, “Ecclesiastes 1:1–12,” The Visual Commentary on Scripture, ed. Ben Quash (London: King’s College London, 2018).
Jonathan A. Anderson, “On the Strange Place of Religious Writing in Contemporary Art,” in Contemporary Art and the Church: A Conversation between Two Worlds, ed. W. David O. Taylor and Taylor Worley (Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2017), 37–46.
Jonathan A. Anderson, “The (In)visibility of Theology in Contemporary Art Criticism,” in Christian Scholarship in the Twenty-First Century: Prospects and Perils, ed. Thomas M. Crisp, Steve L. Porter, Gregg Ten Elshof (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2014), 53–79.
Jonathan A. Anderson, “Essential Ambiguities: A Meditation on the Paintings of Maja Lisa Engelhardt,” The Art of Maja Lisa Engelhardt from the Ahmanson Collection, exhibition catalog (La Mirada: Biola University, 2011).
Articles
Jonathan A. Anderson, “Grids, Nets, and the Unspeakable: Dan Callis’s Resurgam,” exhibition catalog essay, republished online by Bridge Projects (2023).
Jonathan A. Anderson, “Conceptual Art, Theology, and Re-Presentation,” Religions 13, no. 10 (2022): 984 (pp. 1–14), https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13100984.
James Elkins and Jonathan A. Anderson, “The Strange Persistence of Religion in Contemporary Art,” Image 110 (Fall 2021): 48–62.
Jonathan A. Anderson, “Silence in an Age of Mass Media: John Cage and the Art of Living,” ARTS: The Arts in Religious and Theological Studies 28, no. 2 (2017): 29–37.
Jonathan A. Anderson and William A. Dyrness, “Modern Art and the Life of a Culture: Moving beyond Rookmaaker,” Radix Magazine 38, no. 1 (2015): 28–30.
Jonathan A. Anderson, “Contingency and Faithfulness: Francis Alÿs and the (Re)presentation of St. Fabiola,” Religion and the Arts 18, no. 1–2 (2014): 269–289.
Jonathan A. Anderson, “Suspending Disbelief: Wim Botha’s Crucifix,” SEEN 14, no. 1, Unsettled Ground issue, ed. Rachel Hostetter Smith and Joe Cory (Spring 2014): 22–24.
Amos Yong and Jonathan A. Anderson, “Painting Pentecost: The Spirit-filled Art of Sawai Chinnawong,” The Christian Century 131, no. 11 (2014): 30–33.
Book Reviews and Exhibition Reviews
Jonathan A. Anderson, “Leaps of Faith,” review of Faith in Art: Religion, Aesthetics, and Early Modernism by Joseph Masheck, Artforum (Feb 21, 2024).
Jonathan A. Anderson, “10 for 2020: Ten Contemporary Artworks from the 2010s,” The Curator Magazine (Jan 3, 2020).
Jonathan A. Anderson, exhibition review of Fragments of a Crucifixion at Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Art and Christianity 99 (Autumn 2019): 11–12.
Jonathan A. Anderson, review of No Idols: The Missing Theology of Art by Thomas Crow, Art and Christianity 94 (Summer 2018): 13.
Jonathan A. Anderson, review of The Operation of Grace: Further Essays on Art, Faith, and Mystery by Gregory Wolfe, Christian Scholar’s Review 46, no. 3 (Spring 2017): 289–291.
Jonathan A. Anderson, “An Inverted Truth,” exhibition review of Rachel Whiteread retrospective at Tate Britain, Art and Christianity 92 (Winter 2017): 2–4.
Jonathan A. Anderson, review of Through Your Eyes: Dialogues on the Paintings of Bruce Herman by G. Walter Hansen and Bruce Herman, Themelios 40, no. 3 (Dec 2015): 573–574.
Jonathan A. Anderson, “Tim Hawkinson: Doing Theology with One’s Hands,” The Examined Life (Dec 2010).