IS220 - Christianity and the Arts

The resources and information found here is intended to supplement course materials provided to you by your instructor. It is the result of a collaboration between your instructor and the seminary librarian.

Please consider this as a starting point for your assignments, an opportunity to dig deeper into what you're learning in this course, and a trusted source for additional support in your learning experience at Lancaster Theological Seminary.

If you find anything that is out of place or not working correctly, please inform the seminary librarian.

This course has materials on course reserve. To see the full list of resources and their current availability click the link below:

Course Reserves for IS220 - Christianity and the Arts

Course reserves are available at the Circulation Desk. You may check out up to three items at a time for a three hour loan period. Reserves may be renewed up to two times if they are not on hold for another patron. If you check out a reserve within one hour of the library's closing, you may keep it overnight and return it within one hour of opening the following day. Overdue reserve items accumulate a fine of $1 per hour.

Pictures and images convey meaning in a visually powerful way that words cannot. We want to use them in our worship bulletins, on our church websites, and in our social media posts, just to name a few examples. These are public venues, and the non-profit or religious status of your organization does not exempt you from abiding by copyright law. Let's make sure we're doing this responsibly.

1. Assume any image you want to use is protected by U.S. or international copyright law. Unless you created it (by taking a photograph or drawing the original, for example), then it is almost certain that someone else owns the copyright.
2. Know the creator and the source. Before using any image, you must keep a record of who created it and where you found it. Some images are posted by creators who go by a username instead of their legal name. This is fine as long as you also record all the information about the site where the image was posted. You need to know the URL of the image, the name of the website, and the date you accessed it.
3. Check for licenses and permissions. Some creators publish their images on sites and attach a special license to it that grant permission for others to use the image publicly. The Creative Commons offers several licensing options that are popular and easy for creators to apply to their works. A license does not mean that a work is not covered by copyright. It is a permission that the creator grants to authorize use of their work by others.
4. Use is prohibited? Choose another image. As much as you may like and want to use an image from a source that says any public use is prohibited, it is best to respect the creator and choose another image. In some cases, you could try contacting the creator to obtain special permission to use their work; however, this may not always be practical or the creator may deny your request.
5. Follow the conditions of the license and give credit. Licenses are not all the same. Read the conditions to make sure your use falls within the bounds of what the license allows. When a creator needs to be given credit for the work, be sure to include that with your work. A caption with the image or a byline along the side of the image works nicely.

Additional Resources for Understanding Copyright:

• Copyright Quick Guide, Columbia University Libraries - an excellent resource conceived by one of the top copyright experts in the United States
• Stanford Copyright & Fair Use Center - a rich source of information and current news related to copyright cases
• Copyright and the Church, United Church of Christ - an FAQ for copyright concerns that many churches face

• Art in the Christian Tradition
  A freely available, regularly updated visual image internet resource. Designed for scholars, students, pastors, and religious educators, all of the images may be used for educational and/or religious non-profit purposes. - From the Vanderbilt Divinity Library
• Art Institute of Chicago images (Christianity)
  The Art Institute of Chicago is pleased to offer free, unrestricted use of over 50,000 images of works in the collection believed to be in the public domain or to which the museum otherwise waives any copyright it might have. Such images are made available under Creative Commons Zero (CC0) designation and the Terms and Conditions of this website.
• Atla Digital Library
  The Atla Digital Library is designed to provide Atla members and other organizations with a standards compliant, sustainable, and inter-operable hub that will promote visibility and access to their valuable digital collections.
• Everett Ferguson Photo Collection (Early Christianity)
  Images include those of early Christian churches, basilicas and cathedrals as well as images of modern and ancient cities and archaeological sites in Israel, Turkey, Greece, ancient Rome, and throughout Europe. The objects photographed are from exhibits at the British Museum, the Ashmolean, the Louvre and other prominent museums of Europe and the Mediterranean countries.
• Getty Images
  The Getty collection of images are now available for embedding for free.
• JSTOR images
  Explore millions of high-quality primary sources and images from around the world, including artworks, maps, photographs, and more.
• Pitts Theology Library Digital Image Archive
  The Digital Image Archive (DIA) presents more than 65,000 images of biblical illustrations, portraits of religious leaders, printers' devices, engravings of church buildings, and other theological topics. They are available for teaching, research, and other non-commercial purposes.
• World Digital Library: Religion
  The World Digital Library (WDL) makes available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from all countries and cultures. Item types include books, journals, manuscripts, maps, motion pictures, newspapers, prints and photographs, and sound recordings.

All of these websites allow users to download images for non-commercial use. Do give credit and link back to the original when using any images from these websites.

• Art Images for College Teaching
• The British Museum
• Brooklyn Museum
• Los Angeles County Museum of Art
• Metropolitan Museum of Art Open Access Collections
• Museo del Prado
• Philadelphia Museum of Art

For many faith traditions, music is essential to worship and other spiritual practices. It is important to consider copyright and licensing when reproducing musical scores or lyrics, performing musical compsitions, or playing recorded music in any public venue.

1. What copyrights exist? The general principle of copyright is that a work is protected for the life of the author plus 70 years. After that, the work becomes public domain. There are separate copyrights for musical compositions and sound recordings. For any musical composition, there may be separate copyrights for the music and the lyrics. Some musical compositions, both protected by copyright and public domain, may be set in an arrangement that is copyrighted. 
2. Is there an exception for my use? There are some exceptions to copyright that apply to in-person religious services. Non-dramatic musical compositions may be performed without permission and lyrics may be projected on a screen. If an in-person religious service is also being streamed or recorded for sharing online, these exceptions will not apply and the appropriate license or permission is needed.
3. Does my organization have a license? Licenses are the most practical way to gain permission and access to copyrighted musical compositions and sound recordings for public venues. When using a license, it is important to understand what is covered and what is not. Read the terms carefully and follow them.

Once you've determined the copyright status of the music or other media, and whether there are exceptions or a license that covers your intended use, the next step is to verify your ownership permissions on the actual media you will be sharing. There are different standards for obtaining and using media for personal use as opposed to sharing in a public venue.

1. Do you own a lawfully obtained copy of the music, video, or other media? A lawfully obtained copy is one that you have paid for or received as a freely granted gift. Photocopies, facsimilies, or other reproductions that are not authorized by the copyright holder are likely not considered lawfully obtained for the purposes of sharing in a public venue.
2. If streaming from a subscription service, do you have permission to use subscriber content in a public venue? Streaming services for music and video are extrememly popular and each vendor enforces their own Terms & Conditions for subscribers. Review the Terms & Conditions carefully to see what is said about sharing, playing, or performing media in a public venue. Most vendors prohibit this use of their subscription streaming service. Some vendors make exceptions for use in educational settings.

Licensing

• One License - "We are the leading music licensing agency for congregational worship and we are proud to have a growing list of over 300 Member Publishers and their catalogs represented globally."
• Christian Copyright Licensing International - "The [CCLI] Copyright License is tailored to your congregational singing activities and provides broad coverage for lyric storage, projections, song sheets, bulletin inserts, instrumental/vocal arrangements and service recordings."
• Christian Copyright Solutions - "CCS is a leading authority on church music rights, providing performance licensing solutions that give churches the freedom to legally play, perform and stream more than 28 million Christian, secular, and holiday songs across all genres."

Public Domain, Creative Commons, and Open Access Music Resources

• Cantus Index - online catalogue for mass and office chants
• Free Music Archive - free access to open licensed original music by independent artists
• Hymn Tune Index - all hymns printed anywhere in the world with English-languages texts up to 1820, and their publication history up to that date
• Hymnary.org - a comprehensive index of hymns and hymnals
• Musopen - recordings, sheet music, and textbooks available for free without copyright restrictions
• Name That Hymn - hymn lyrics search engine
• Printed Sacred Music Database - printed sacred music in Europe 1500-1800
• Sounding Spirit Digital Library - songbooks and hymnals published across the southern United States from 1850 to 1925.

Other Helpful Library Guides

• Illinois University Library
• Meadville Lombard Theological School