Chris O. Divich

Major General Chris O. Divich is commander of the Air Force Military Training Center, Lackland Air Force Base, Texas. A major component of the Air Training Command, the center is responsible for commissioning high-quality second lieutenants through the Officer Training School; conducting basic military training for all personnel entering the Air Force, Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard; providing technical training in nearly 100 courses; and providing English language training for foreign military personnel.

General Divich was born in Doland, S.D., in 1934, where he graduated from high school in 1952. He graduated from the University of Kansas in 1956 with a bachelor of science degree in education and received his commission through the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps program. He completed Squadron Officer School in 1960, Air Command and Staff College in 1967 and the Industrial College of the Armed Forces in 1976.

He entered the U.S. Air Force in September 1956 and in January 1958 completed pilot training at Reese Air Force Base, Texas. He served as a KC-97 pilot, aircraft commander and instructor pilot at Schilling Air Force Base, Kan., from March 1958 to October 1963. The general was then assigned to Dow Air Force Base, Maine, as a KC-135 commander and, later, standardization and evaluation pilot.

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Sailors of the Sky

In these timely conversations led by Fr. Radovan Bigovic, many issues are introduced that enable the contemporary reader to deepen and expand his or her understanding of the role of art in the life of the Church. Here we find answers to questions on the crisis of contemporary ecclesiastical art in West and East; the impact of Impressionism, Expressionism, Cubism, Surrealism and Abstract painting on contemporary ecclesiastical painting; and a consideration of the main distrinction between iconography and secular painting. The dialogue, while resolving some doubts about the difference between iconography, religious painting, and painting in general, reconciles the requirement to obey inconographic canons with the freedom essential to artistic creativity, demonstrating that obedience to the canons is not a threat to the vitatlity of iconography. Both artists illumine the role of prayer and ascetisicm in the art of iconography. They also mention curcial differences between iconography in the Orthodox Church and in Roman Catholicism. How important thse distinctions are when exploring the relationship between contemporary theology and art! In a time when postmodern "metaphysics' revitalizes every concept, these masters still believe that, to some extent, Post-Modernism adds to the revitatiztion of Christian art, stimulating questions about "artistic inspiration" and the essential asethetic categories of Christian painting. Their exceptionally wide, yet nonetheless deep, expertise assists their not-so-everday connections between theology, ar, and modern issues concerning society: "society" taken in its broader meaning as "civilization." Finally, the entire artistic project of Stamatis and Rupnik has important ecumenical implications that aswer a genuine longing for unity in the Christian word.

The text of this 94-page soft-bound book has been translated from the Serbian by Ivana Jakovljevic, Fr. Gregory Edwards, and Andrijana Krstic. Published by Sebastian Press, Western American Diocese of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Contemporary Christian Thought Series, number 7, First Edition, ISBN: 978-0-9719505-8-0

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