Well-known artist Makoto Fujimura recommends on the Christianity Today site his top five books on creativity. If you click on that last hyperlink, you’ll see his five are:

The Gift: Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World by Lewis Hyde

On Beauty and Being Just by Elaine Scarry

Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art by Madeleine L’Engle

The Mind of the Maker by Dorothy L. Sayers

Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot

Sayers’ The Mind of the Maker has been one of the most influential books I own, shaping my concept of creativity as mirroring the Creator. I’m also familiar with Eliot’s Four Quartets, but have yet to read the others.

In 2006, I interviewed Makoto for Christian Renewal. A slightly edited version of that interview, “Refracting Light and Reflecting Grace,” appears here.

In addition to being an extraordinary artist, commissioned to do the artwork for The Four Holy Gospels, ESV Bible, Makoto is the author of Refractions: A Journey of Faith, Art, and Culture. He’s the creator of the innovative Fujimura Institute, currently featuring the QU4RTETS project. As the founder of the International Arts Movement, he’s the catalyst for creative and cooperative efforts to resist the alienating effects of today’s fragmented society.

His recommendations on creativity certainly have value. Of the three I haven’t read, Walking on Water most intrigues me, but each piques my interest differently and I’m eager to read all three.