Education
Ph.D. Art History (Princeton University)
M.A. Art History (Princeton University)
M.Div. (Princeton Theological Seminary)
B.A. Art History (Wheaton College)
About Matthew Milliner
My scholarly specialization is Byzantine and medieval art, and my current research focuses on how art functions as visual theology. I am organizing a symposium at the Art Institute of Chicago entitled "Envisioning the Eucharist: Transcending Literal Depiction in Medieval and Byzantine Art" (February 2014) in association with the Association of Scholars of Christianity in the History of Art. I have given scholarly presentations at the University of Chicago (Symposium on Late Antiquity and Byzantium), American University (Feminist Art History Conference), the International Congress on Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo, the Byzantine Studies Association of North America and the Modern Greek Studies Association.
Courses Taught:
Art Survey (ART 101)
History of Art & Architecture I (ART 251)
History of Art & Architecture II (ART 351)
Medieval & Byzantine Art (ART 352)
Non-Western Art (ART 354)
Renaissance Art (ART 353)
Mary for Evangelicals/Image and Ideas of the Virgin Mary (BITH 377/ART 471)
Senior Seminar in Art History (ART 494)
Awards and Fellowships:
- National Humanities Center: Summer Institute for Advanced Study Fellow, 2013 (Chapel Hill) & 2014 (Berlin)
- Harold W. Dodds Honorific Fellowship, Princeton University
- Center for the Study of Religion, Religion & Culture Fellowship, Princeton University
- Junior Research Associate, Cyprus Institute, Nicosia, Cyprus
- Stanley J. Seeger Fellow, Program in Hellenic Studies, Princeton University
- Goethe Institute Scholarship, Mannheim, Germany; awarded by Princeton Theological Seminary
Selected Academic Publications:
- "Icon as Theology: The Byzantine ‘Virgin of Predestination’” in ReVisioning: Critical Methods of Seeing Christianity in the History of Art, edited by James Romaine and Linda Stratford (Cascade books, 2013).
- “The Brancacci Chapel and Academia’s ‘Religious Turn’” in Art as Spiritual Perception: Essays in Honor of E. John Walford, ed. James Romaine, (Crossway, 2012).
- “Man or Metaphor? Manuel Panselinos and the Protaton Frescoes,” in Approaches to Byzantine Architecture and Its Decoration: Studies in Honor of Slobodan Ćurčić, edited by Mark J. Johnson, Robert Ousterhout, and Amy Papalexandrou (Ashgate, 2011).
- "Primus inter Pares: Albert M. Friend and the Argument of the Princeton University Chapel,” in the Princeton University Library Chronicle, Spring 2009.
- Visual Arts in Education entry in EBR (De Gruyter’s Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception)
- "A Vacation for Grünewald: On Karl Barth's Vexed Relationship with Visual Art in Princeton Theological Review," Volume XIII, Number 2 (Spring 2007)
- “Iconoclastic Immunity: Reformed/Orthodox Convergence in Theological Aesthetics in Theodore of Studios,” Theology Today (January 2006).
Selected Art Criticism and Other Writing:
- "Image" essay in Word-Soaked World, Image, Winter 2013.
- “Seven Years in Chelsea: From Barricades to Beauty in New York’s Gallery Scene," Image, Fall 2012.
- "Kindred Spirits Revisited: T.S. Eliot & Bruce Herman" in Qua4tets (New York: Fujimura Institute, 2012)
- "Occupy the Optocracy! The Whitney Biennial & the Christian icon and Modernism," Books & Culture, May 2012.
- "A Curse Reversed: Towards a Visual Ecumenism," Seen, Fall 2012.
- "Anchors Aweigh: The Neglected Art of Theological Interpretation," Comment, Fall 2012.
- "The Return of the Religious in Contemporary Art," The Huffington Post, January 2011.
- "A Tale of Two Art Worlds," The City, Fall 2010.
- “Raphael Among the People,” L’Osservatore Romano, November 2010.
- "Origins of El Greco" The New Criterion, January 2010.
- "The Desert Fathers: Finding a Greek Orthodox monastery against a stark Arizona backdrop," in First Things, August/September, 2010.
- "Building for Humans: Architecture after Modernism," The Christian Century, March 2009.
- "Gore Walk: Night at the Museum" The City, Summer 2009.
- "A Tiny Pieta," First Things, October 2009.
Selected Book Reviews:
- "Lenten Reading: A Review of Ephraim Radner's A Brutal Unity," in Books & Culture, March 2013.
- "Evangelical 'Ressourcement,' a review of Hans Boersma's Heavenly Participation," in Books & Culture, October 2012.
- "Converting the Canvas: A Review of Timothy Gorringe's Earthly Visions," First Things, February 2012.
- "Knowing the Beautiful: A Review of Poetry, Beauty and Contemplation: The Complete Aesthetics of Jacques Maritain," First Things, May 2011.
Links to the above publications and other writing can be found at Dr. Milliner's website:
http://millinerd.com