Icons of Resistance: The Freedom of Embodied Prayer

This presentation examines a series of woodcut prints depicting religious leaders who fought for freedom in their communities, including Harriet Tubman, Martin Luther King Jr., Óscar Romero, Gustavo Gutiérrez, and Judy Heumann. Drawing on Alejandro García-Rivera’s theology of community-oriented beauty and justice, Karl Barth’s theology of prayer, and the icon tradition, this study explores the body’s religious freedom to pray through creative action. Just as these leaders embodied their prayers in the struggle for justice, artists engage their whole selves in the act of creating. Through the physical motions of making, artists reflect deeply on their materials and subject matter, expressing their lament, hope, protest, and joy. When rooted in their communities, their work becomes a reflection on and a prayer for communal flourishing. In this way, artistic practice is a lived prayer—an embodied response of hope and a witness to change.