Many artists know the realities of isolation, rejection, and uncertainty. Yet in Scripture, the wilderness is not only a place of hardship—it is also a place of surrender, renewal, and transformation. On April 11, 2026, the Befriending Wilderness Symposium invited Christian artists to reflect on these seasons through the lens of the biblical story, exploring how Christ’s call into the wilderness can shape and sustain creative practice.

Led by faculty and alumni from Biola University and Wheaton College, the gathering brought together artists across generations for meaningful conversation, honest reflection, and shared community—creating space to wrestle with both the challenges and gifts of the creative life.

To continue engaging these ideas, we invite you to watch the closing lecture by Jonathan Anderson, Associate Professor of Theology and the Arts at Regent College and author of The Invisibility of Religion in Contemporary Art. In this lecture, Anderson explores the shifting place of religion within contemporary art, tracing how spiritual themes—once largely sidelined—are reemerging in new and meaningful ways. Drawing on both theology and artistic practice, Anderson considers how contemporary artists are creating space for deeper spiritual conversation, inviting viewers to reconsider what has often remained unseen or unspoken within the art world.

About Jonathan Anderson

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 author of The Invisibility of Religion in Contemporary Art (2025), Modern Art and the Life of a Culture: The Religious Impulses of Modernism (with William Dyrness, 2016), and many articles and book chapters on related topics, including “Modern Art and Religion” in The Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion (2021). 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 chair 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).

This event was made possible by the Creative Arts Collective for Christian Life & Faith and by the generosity of donors to the Center for Christianity, Culture and the Arts at Biola University.