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BOOK REVIEW: Soul Sanctuary
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Click cover to purchase book
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by: Laura V. Hilton Dancing Word Reviewer
Title: Soul Sanctuary Author: Jason Miccolo Johnson Publisher: Bulfinch Press ISBN: 0-8212-5790-0 Genre: Photographs/Christian Living
Soul Sanctuary is the first photographic book to capture the essence and rhythms of the black Christian church. It’s a multidenominational journey into the heart of the black worship experience. Photographer Jason Miccolo Johnson traveled across the country, visiting small rural churches and urban storefront churches, as well as large inner-city and suburban megachurches. He took some 15,000 photographs, and included 165 of them in this book.
Soul Sanctuary captures the spirit of the black church through arresting images of congregants’ facial expressions and body language, their uniform and dress, and the dignity of their worship. Baptisms, weddings, funerals, annual day celebrations, ecstatic soloists, choir directors, prophetic preachers, angelic liturgical dancers, and peaceful moments of prayer and praise are all included in Johnson’s intimate photographs. Also included are evocative essays by church leaders and noted theologians.
Soul Sanctuary is a fun book to look through and the photographs all gained the interest of my young children. Being white, we have not been exposed very often to the black style, except on very few occasions when we were blessed to hear a black choir perform at a blended holiday service. The book is fascinating for all, whether black or white, and no matter what denomination.
I do have to wonder what the point of the book is, would anyone want a coffee-table style book of pictures of people worshiping, but nevertheless, it is fascinating to look at, and is an excellent people study, with the body language and facial expressions. The book is rather pricey, but the quality of the work make it more than worth it. $29.95 hardcover. 159 pages. |
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