Leading out of who you are: Discovering the secret of undefended leadership

Pieter Kwant is the former Director of Literature for Langham Partnership International. He has been a theological bookseller, publisher and literary agent for almost fifty years, a lifelong enthusiast for the arts and a keen supporter of Christians in the arts. Pieter is married to Elria. Together they started Piquant in 1999. Pieter and Elria live in the UK and have four married grown-up sons and eleven grandchildren.

Children, we used to be told, should be seen and not heard. The Bible for some people is only heard but never “seen”. Revelation demands both. John oscillates again and again between what he saw and what he heard, and invites our attentive imagination to grasp, wonder, and respond to both, for our adoration, encouragement and warning. Pieter Kwant’s rich artistic engagement, the fruit of many years of saturated study of the book, combines fascinating glimpses of ancient and contemporary renderings of Revelation’s vivid imagery alongside his own richly coloured interpretative paintings of what John invites us all to “see and hear”, as Jesus draws back the curtain and reveals the breadth and depth, challenge and hope of his own Lordship. This is one of those books I enjoyed on first reading, and even more on the second, and doubtless more yet to come. 

Chris Wright

Students of the Bible are taught that meaning emerges as they engage both the content and the form of a specific genre. The book of Revelation is a prophetic word which emerges in the form of a vision. There is something to hear and to see. And yet its interpreters, down through the years, have struggled to engage this visionary element. Pieter Kwant puts together what scholars have readily put asunder. Writing in a conversational way, he combines bold, evocative imagery with clear, accessible explanation. The outcome is a book which welcomes the reader into the strange world of Revelation, calming their fears and building their confidence as they journey with it.

Paul Windsor 

The images are rough and startling and naive and powerful. And the overall look of the book is something unique and intriguing.—

Betty Spackman, MFAMultimedia installation artist, painter, educator and author

7 Preface

8-15 Medieval Illustrated Apocalypses

16 12:1-2 Story 54 A Great Sign, a Woman

18 12:3-4, 9 Story 55 Another Sign, a Great Serpent

20 12:4-5 Story 56 Enthronement

22 12:6 Story 57 The Woman in the Wilderness

24 12:7-9 Story 58 War in Heaven

26 12:10-12 Story 59 They Conquered: Woe to Earth and Sea

28 12:13-17 Story 60 A Hot Pursuit

30 12:8-13:1-3 Story 61 The Beast from the Sea

32 13:3-8 Story 62 Worship the Beast

34 13:9-10 Story 63 A Call to Endurance and Faith

36 13:11-13 Story 64 The Beast from the Earth

38 13:13-15 Story 65 Worship the Image of the Beast

40 13:16-18 Story 66 The Number of the Beast

42 14:1-5 Story 67 Liturgy of the Lamb

44 14:2-3 Story 68 A New Song to Learn

46 14:6-7, 12 Story 69 The Eternal Gospel

48 14:8 Story 70 Fallen is Babylon

50 14:9-11 Story 71 God’s Judgement Revealed

52-53 The Eternal Gospel Triptych

54 14:12-13 Story 72 Endurance and Blessedness

56 14:14-16 Story 73 Like a Son of Man

58 14:17-19 Story 74 The Vintage

60 14:20 Story 75 Outside the City

62-63 My Understanding of Endurance and War

64-65 Visual Meditations 5

66 Reading and List of Illustrations

67 List of Illustrations