Many centuries of mind-body dualism have conditioned Christians to evaluate art primarily by its capacity to transcend our finite embodied existence in search of ‘the spiritual.’ By contrast, this course will focus on the way art, whether religious or secular, articulates lived human experience as a way to gain more intimate contact with the world, each other and, ultimately, also with God. In order to do so we will discuss the crucial role of the body in our pre-reflective understanding of the world; the importance of the sense of touch for sensing nuanced textures and timbres; and the notion of beauty understood as unfolding in time rather than as a timeless, captured moment. The course will conclude by assessing the implications of this approach for a fresh understanding of art, with particular attention to the recent return of religious references in contemporary art. The aim of the course is to enable participants to develop new Christian criteria by which to approach and evaluate works of art of our time.
ICS 151208/251208 S16
Dr. Adrienne Dengerink Chaplin
On-Campus Summer Intensive
CANCELLED
(MWS, MA, PhD)
CSTC Approved (Worldview)
Syllabus
