Seerveld sees a central role in education for "understanding and developing history," but then "history" not as rote rehearsal of what has transpired but as past and present events in their complex interrelation. Education is inevitably an induction into our cultural heritage; conceived ecumenically, in the spirit of loving our neighbors and their "mistaken visions," wherever and whenever they may be. But as Cultural Education and History Writing makes plain, we are initiators - culture-makers, shapers of history, and also history-keepers - as much as we are inductees. These seventeen essays are introduced by Doug Blomberg and Gideon Strauss.

The essays in Art History Revisited, introduced by Dirk van den Berg and Henry Luttikhuizen, follow a general course from the historiography of philosophy to the historiography of art and aesthetics to analyses of individual artists like Antoine Watteau and Gerald Folkerts and the theory and practice of artist/aestheticians like William Hogarth and Anton Raphael Mengs. As this selection of essays attests, Seerveld is both well-versed in the history of art and has made significant contributions to this field as well.

In the talks, lyrics, and articles in Biblical Studies and Wisdom for Living, introduced by Craig Bartholomew and Peter S. Smith, Seerveld opens Scripture in a variety of life contexts in which God's people find themselves today. In both his professional studies and popular lectures, Seerveld seeks to explicate, both devoutly and playfully, a biblical wisdom for daily living, convinced as he is that the Holy Spirit-given biblical writings bespeak God's everlasting care and wisdom for us corporeal mortals.

Seerveld is convinced that philosophical aesthetics-systematic reflection on the nature and task of human imaginative life-will be normative when the thought is wholesome, edible, worth chewing, and builds the body of a community with joyful shalom. Normative Aesthetics, introduced by Lambert Zuidervaart, aims to spell out some of what this aesthetic imperative means for human imaginative acts, for the arts, and for other acts and institutions where aesthetic functions play a role.

Art, for Seerveld, belongs to the very infrastructure of a good society, in the same way that a country's economy, transportation system, or media network do: "With a vital artistic infrastructure priming its inhabitants' imaginativity, a society can dress its wounds and be able to clothe and mitigate what otherwise might become naked technocratic deeds." Redemptive Art in Society, introduced by Adrienne Dengerink Chaplin, addresses the need for Christian public artistry and ways in which Christians can be stewards of art.

Cultural Problems in Western Society, introduced by Barbara Carvill, explores the unfavorable conditions in which European society and its Christian artists find themselves today. Seerveld masterfully locates current quandaries in the large timeframe stretching from Ancient Greece to the present, all the while introducing normative alternatives that are biblically oriented. The artwork of mostly twentieth century and contemporary artists that Seerveld includes exemplify the kind of redemptive, modern, Christian art he is advocating.