Bird Calls & Summonses by William Graddy

View

Bird Calls & Summonses

William Graddy on Seeing with a "Devout, Intransitive Eye"

I'm going to start by sketching three brief personal experiences. Each, though literally true, is also parabolic of basic claims about art or creativity once thought axiomatic but now generally resisted when considered together.

The Two Birds

THIS ARTICLE ONLY AVAILABLE TO SUBSCRIBERS.
FOR QUICK ACCESS:


William Graddy taught literature and writing at Trinity College, Deerfield, Illinois, for 38 years. His work has appeared previously in Touchstone, several other journals, and the Eerdmans’ Handbook to American Church History.

A Journal of Mere Christianity—Delivered to Your Door

  • Essays on theology, culture, and the Church
  • Contributors from across the Christian traditions
Subscribe (Print + Online)

Six print issues (one year) of Touchstone, plus full online access and PDF downloads for only $39.95.

Subscribe (Online Only)

Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95.


bulk subscriptions

Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.

Transactions will be processed on a secure server.


more on Christianity from the online archives

8.4—Fall 1995

The Demise of Biblical Preaching

Distortions of the Gospel and its Recovery by Donald G. Bloesch

33.4—July/August 2020

The Joy of God

by S. M. Hutchens

18.10—December 2005

A Mighty Child

on an Apostle’s Encounter with the Son’s Children by Anthony Esolen


more from the online archives

22.7—September/October 2009

Science Fictions

on a Random Quantum Fluctuation by Marilyn Prever

11.5—September/October 1998

Speaking the Truths Only the Imagination May Grasp

An Essay on Myth & 'Real Life' by Stratford Caldecott

18.8—October 2005

XXX-Communicated

on Why Pornography Is Not the Sin We Say It Is by Anthony Esolen

calling all readers

Please Donate

"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand

"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor

Support Touchstone

00