Each year during the liturgical celebration of the Passion, Christians relive the events of Christ's last week on earth before his resurrection. To highlight this season, we showcase the work of seven contemporary artists who consider the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus anew with a variety of approaches.

Using a vibrant palette, Tanja Butler communicates the spiritual transaction underlying Jesus' humble act of footwashing and, shown on the cover, Jesus' last meal. The mundane is illumined with joy. In contrast, the subdued tones and foggy atmosphere of her Road to Emmaus (p. 47) create a gentle mood, suggestive of Christ's everlasting patience as he waits for us to recognize him. Butler is a full-time printmaker and painter in rural upstate New York, a stepmother to nine children, and a lifelong Christian whose earliest childhood memories recall images from her parents' illustrated Bible.

Edgar Boeve's Last Supper is startling not only because the artist imagines the disciples around a table on equal terms with the Savior, but because the painting is rendered on a real table top. Boeve taught for decades at Calvin College, where in the 1960s he developed one of the first evangelical art departments and contemporary Christian art galleries.

Wayne Forte's crowing rooster is the traditional Christian symbol for Peter's betrayal of Jesus. Forte's shrilly rendered cock, six feet high in bold, thick lines, reminds us of our continual propensity to fall short of the mark, as did Peter. Forte, a successful California artist from the Philippines, will soon relocate to Brazil.

Bruce Herman's haunting works boldly portray the face of Christ under the burden of his sufferings. As they are partly inspired by self-portraits, they ...