Contemplative Beholding

"To call Upton's book 'original' or 'creative' is to understate the case. I regard his approach as extraordinary; [it's] unlike anything I have seen during my forty years of engagement with these issues."
—Parker Palmer, author of The Courage to Teach

Contemplative Beholding: A Way of Life and Love is not a treatise on the history of art, though it will enhance one's historical knowledge; nor does it present an argument toward a particular theory of art. Instead, through guided engagement with over 500 photographs and works of art of various mediums, Joel Upton offers a training in beholding.To behold is to see, yes, but in an enhanced way, better and more deeply. This way of beholding applies, ultimately, to much more than art: to life itself, and its source, which is love.

A note on format: Because of the sheer number of images referred to in the text of Contemplative Beholding, images that are meant to be seen (beheld) in the course of reading, inserting them in the printed book proved impossible. We are grateful to Amherst College for hosting the book's companion website, <contemplativebeholding.org>, which features all of the images, arranged by chapter, in gentle, user-friendly galleries. In addition, the book itself has been bound with a special "lay-flat" spine, to aid in the unique process of reading called for with this text and its companion website.