THEOLOGY AND THE ARTS

Catalog description

Aesthetic experience and the arts have been an important channel of religious expression in the history of humanity. Naturally they have been the subject of theological reflection and the focus of liturgical practice, i.e., practical theology. This course examines the theological reflection on aesthetic experience and the arts, as well as the use of the arts in liturgical practice in the Christian tradition (with limited comparisons to Jewish, Muslim, and Hindu traditions), which over the millennia has developed a considerable array of liturgical arts and theological reflection on them. The course focuses on the varied liturgical uses of and theological reflection on images, music, architecture, text, and combined media (such as liturgical action) in the life and liturgy of the church.