Background
A burgeoning field
The conversation between theology and the arts at an academic level has burgeoned in the last two or three decades. Thirty years ago, the resources were relatively limited. Today, especially in the UK and North America, but also further afield, we are witnessing a growing interest in the interface between sustained theological thinking on the one hand, and artistic practices and theory on the other. This has led to numerous publications - books, articles, journals, magazines; courses in seminaries, colleges, and Universities; and academic research initiatives.
These developments have gone hand in hand with some major shifts in the place of the arts in society, which make theological engagement with them especially timely. There is the saturation of many parts of Western society with artistic forms of one sort or another, and the explosion of the electronic media which not only disseminate art with unprecedented power but which themselves have generated many new forms of art. A disillusionment about some of the grand claims once made for the natural sciences and an unease with direct and unambiguous styles of representation have led many to seek fresh meaning in the world of the arts and to reconsider the importance of the imaginative in our wider engagements with the world. Important also are the ways in which matters of 'spirituality' are increasingly explored through artistic forms, however diffuse and inchoate such 'spirituality' may be.
In response to these emerging interests, the Institute of Theology, Imagination and the Arts (ITIA) was founded within the School of Divinity in 2000. It brought together an already existing project at St Andrews, 'Theology and Imagination', directed by Professor Trevor Hart, and 'Theology Through the Arts', directed by Professor Jeremy Begbie.
Achievements
- A doctoral programme which has attracted c. 30 students
- Honours and Masters modules
- A publishing programme, including a series with Ashgate Press
- A weekly postgraduate research seminar
- An annual conference, held each Spring, gathering participants from all over the UK and abroad
- A major international conference on Tolkien
- Two international colloquia, through collaboration with Calvin College, one in theology and music, the other in theology and the built environment
- An RCUK Academic Fellowship, formerly held by
- A series of public performance events
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