Seeing either the restoration or the erasure of the Word mural as the only two viable options for the artwork, Anderson shows why the difficulties in the construction of the mural are not reasons for its destruction. Citing the difficulties with the work—ethnicity of the subject, the scale at which it was made, and the depiction of Jesus as disengaged—Anderson argues that erasure would do nothing to solve these problems. He instead argues that Biola must be a graceful community, recognizing the scale of the gift of the mural and the hard task of visual theology represented in the work. He also calls for the university to be an inclusive community, one that addresses the relational tensions brought out by the mural and provides other works of art to be in conversation with the Jesus mural.
The Institute for Cultural Engagement, an official program of Multnomah University and Biblical Seminary