Inside the Rainbow: Seeing and Doing the Book of Revelation

 

Books have been a lifelong passion for Pieter Kwant. Pieter has told of a first encounter with theological books in a bookshop in South Africa where he was rooted to the spot after pulling a book off the shelf and devouring all its contents. Pieter went on to buy that book along with many more and later also began publishing them.

In South Africa he managed and owned a bookshop and came up with many imaginative ways of getting his books in front of potential customers, especially students. Then he came to Europe, where he worked for IVP and Paternoster before setting up his own publishing house and book agency, Piquant.

Pieter is also with Langham Partnership as the director of its literature program, focusing on resourcing institutions in the Majority World with evangelical theological books for libraries and students, developing and training Majority World writers and publishers, and pioneering partnerships to produce exceptional indigenous book projects such as the Africa Bible Commentary and the South Asia Bible Commentary, among other activities. There, he launched Langham Creative Projects which has published over 160 titles, producing academic evangelical resources, books for Majority World preachers, and textbooks and theology relevant for Majority World readers.

“Piquant” means “pungent, spicy” and the image that inspired Pieter and his team when they started out in publishing and literary agency work in 1999 came from 2 Corinthians 2:14 paraphrased as “to spread in every place the aroma that comes from knowing Christ”. Their initial plan was to “publish books in the arts that achieve the goals of “theology animating the arts” and “art seasoning faith”, as well as books that support missions, missionaries and believers in the Majority World.”

Early on they published books about art by Hans Rookmaaker, Calvin Seerveld, Alistair Gordon, Betty Spackman and books about artists by Peter Smith, Roger Wagner, Maria Gabankova, John Walford, Anneke Kaai, Dunstan Massey and Ben Simpson. The vision of Piquant for publishing them was to help ordinary Christians understand visual culture.

Pieter notes big changes since then. Christians in the arts are not such a rare breed anymore, and the arts have become far more integrated in expressing faith. Both theology and pastoral work regularly employ the arts now. What he thinks has not changed is the church, the gospel, and the powerful “seeing”, “hearing”, “knowing” and “healing” that theology and the arts can unlock. And that a book can waft in the “sweet aroma of Jesus” to surprise you with hope and joy.

That “sweet aroma of Jesus” is no doubt what he hopes will be spread by his first book of his own words and images, ‘Inside the Rainbow:Seeing and Doing the Book of Revelation (Vol 1)’. Having immersed himself over the last seven years in reading every commentary he can find on Revelation, and picking up his teenage hobby of painting, Pieter here retraces the process whereby John first “saw” Revelation before writing it down, now moving from (biblical) text to image…

In this, Pieter takes his stand on the shoulders of both giant biblical commentators and visual artists over the centuries as he engages Revelation in a personal way that he hopes will make this, often obscure, text approachable even to children! His big hope, and the challenge he set himself, is that readers may be emboldened not to shrink from looking deeply into this concluding book of the Bible – reading and hearing (by doing) it!

His engagement with Revelation was sparked by the vivid images and vibrant colours found in the book. His acrylic paintings often quote visually from or repurpose other classic works including works by Vincent van Gogh and the medieval Beatus collection. The best of these To Be Happy is a collage incorporating photographs of his wife Elria and their grandchildren reading together surrounded by angels from the Beatus in front of the New Jerusalem window at Manchester Cathedral. The painting is drenched in the colours of the window and radiates the joy of the happiness sayings – the be-attitudes – of Revelation.

The book also contains Pieter’s reflections on the themes of Revelation itself. He notes that Revelation was written for a time that is “near” – that is, near the time when it was written but also says the text has more than one “horizon”. As a result, throughout every age the church has been able to apply Revelation’s message to herself and put it into practice. He also suggests that what is soon to take place may not be the final coming of Jesus just yet.

Although he wants to take John at his word about what will soon take place, he also wants to hold to there being a future coming. The problem with this position is that because it leaves us looking forward, it tends to distract us from focusing on all the ways in which Jesus did come near the time of John’s prophecy. That is what is most important for us, as those are all the ways in which Jesus is with us still.

He is clear, however, that the key focus in reading Revelation is to keep Jesus at the centre and His work on behalf of and through His church. With this as the focus, the meaning of the Bible is revealed, from creation to new creation, from Eden to new Jerusalem, from word to new song. Inside the Rainbow is conceived to be the first in a series. As such, it focuses particularly on Revelation 1–3. Pieter makes it clear that he does not see these opening chapters as a strong separate section but as integral to the one story of Revelation. He ends with hints of what is to come in the later volumes. Revelation refracts the light of Christ so that the church is transformed into a living structure of light, as though we are sitting inside a rainbow. This is the joyful insight of this book, as also of To Be Happy.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gungor - Who We Are.