By David R. Bains

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses

These words which open the twelfth chapter of the Letter to the Hebrews have encouraged many Christians to remember their forebears in the faith, not only the figures from Abel to Samuel named by in Hebrews 11, but also later figures in the history of the Christian church. To do this, they have often erected images of these faithful exemplars, these saints, in churches and other public places. In fall 2023, sixteen students in my Samford University Core Seminar on Icons and Memorials have selected depictions of Christian heroes on public display in Birmingham to present here on Magic City Religion. Most of these figures come from the “Cloud of Witnesses” mural in the dome of Hodges Chapel at Beeson Divinity School on the campus of Samford University. Others are found on the chapel’s pulpit, in Catholic and Orthodox cathedrals, and two on the sides of downtown Birmingham buildings!

Each image is unique, telling a different story a different way. In some cases the reason why a saint is depicted where and how they are is fairly straightforward. This is the case with both the oldest and newest artworks students have examined: the stained glass window of St. Patrick in the Cathedral of St. Paul in downtown Birmingham (1893) and the murals of civil rights leaders John Lewis (2020) and Fred Shuttlesworth (2023). In other cases, such as the inclusion of Roman Catholic theologian Thomas Aquinas next to Martin Luther in the chapel of a divinity school avowedly committed to “great principles that characterized the Protestant Reformation,” the rationale is less obvious (Beeson Divinity School 2023).

When images appear in a collection or series, as in the Cathedral of St. Paul, Holy Trinity – Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Cathedral, or Hodges Chapel, part of their meaning is derived from their place in the larger collection. Since twelve of the sixteen images presented this semester appear in Hodges Chapel, it is useful to introduce the chapel and its context here.

Hodges Chapel at Beeson Divinity School

Beeson was established in 1988 as an interdenominational divinity school at a Baptist university (Samford) by the gift of a Presbyterian layman (Ralph Waldo Beeson) in 1988. It is named in honor of him and his father, a Methodist lay preacher and college president (Musgraves 2019). Thus, Christian diversity was written into the identity of the school from the beginning. Today it has endowed chairs set aside for professors representing the Anglican, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Baptist traditions. Its faculty and students come from other denominations as well. It states its core values as followed

Confessional: We are committed to the great tradition of historic Christian orthodoxy.
Evangelical: We are committed to the full inspiration and total truthfulness of Holy Scripture.
Interdenominational: We welcome and celebrate denominational diversity within our faculty and student body.
Reformational: We are committed to the theological principles characterized in the Protestant Reformation: Sola Gratia, Sola Fide, Sola Scriptura, Solus Christus and Soli Deo Gloria!

“About Beeson” Samford University Accessed November 1, 2023.

After the school opened, a men’s dormitory was renovated to become Divinity Hall and Hodges Chapel was added to the complex. The school’s initial faculty chose the sixteen figures for the chapel dome “to represent the whole panoply of Christ’s people through the ages.” Naturally, there had to be compromise. As Dean Timothy George has explained, “Nobody got everyone he wanted. Not even the dean.” (George and Laing 2022). The series begins with the third-century Carthaginian martyr Vibia Perpetua and concludes with the twentieth-century Japanese reformer Toyohiko Kagawa. Between them are foundational figures of the Lutheran, Anglican, Reformed, Methodist, and Pentecostal traditions as well as exemplary figures from the Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Baptist traditions.

Authors of these series of essays with the Cloud of Witness painting in the Dome of Hodges Chapel.

Petru Botezatu, the Romanian artist chosen to paint the dome, included symbols with each saint to represent particular aspects of their lives or their contributions to Christianity. Each is depicted against a landscape that includes representative buildings, frequently famous landmarks. Most are shown with books or scrolls, often these bear the name of their most famous works. Placed among trees, buildings, and books, the saints look right at home on a college campus. Students’ essays will tell you more about Athanasius, Augustine of Hippo, Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther, Thomas Cranmer, John Knox, John Bunyan, John Wesley, John Leland, Lottie Moon, and Toyohiko Kagawa.

Felicitas, Perpetua, Augustine, and Augustine

Saints Around Town

This recital of heroic Christians is continued on the pulpit of Hodges Chapel and in its cycle of six busts of twentieth-century martyrs, and echoed in other local churches. One preacher on the pulpit in Hodges, John Knox, the reformer of Scotland is examined in this series. In addition to the stained glass window of St. Patrick mentioned earlier, our series also includes the icon of St. Basil the Great in Holy Trinity Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Cathedral.

In recent decades, urban murals have become a popular phenomenon. Bhamwiki chronicles over one hundred such murals across the city, including recent murals of the Baptist ministers and civil rights leaders Fred Shuttlesworth and John Lewis. Unlike the other fourteen saints, both of these men were born in Alabama. The presence of their images in Birmingham’s religious landscape is a reminder that saintliness is not only global, but local. We hope you enjoy reading these essays and learning more about these sixteen individuals’ contributions, and the example they offer to followers of Christ today.

List of Essays

References

Beeson Divinity School. 2023. “About Beeson.” Samford University. https://www.samford.edu/beeson-divinity/about

Bhamwiki. 2023. “List of Birmingham Murals.” Bhamwiki. Last updated July 5, 2023. https://www.bhamwiki.com/w/List_of_Birmingham_murals

George, Timothy, and Stefana Dan Laing. 2022. “Hodges Chapel: A Special Christmas Episode,” Beeson Divinity School Podcast. https://www.samford.edu/beeson-divinity/podcast/2022/conversation-Timothy-George-Stefana-Dan-Laing

Musgraves, Evan. 2019. “Founding Saints of Beeson Divinity School.” Beeson Magazine, May 29, 2019. https://www.samford.edu/beeson-divinity/blog/2019/founding-saints-of-beeson

Published November 26, 2023, revised January 4, 2024.

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