Wednesday, August 5, 2009

What are they smoking in Scotland?

The 2008 New College Lectures were brilliant. They were given by Prof. Trevor Hart from the Institute for Theology, Imagination and the Arts (!) at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. The topic was "God and the Artist: Human Creativity in Theological Perspective". Depending on the sort of person you are the topics will either sound thrilling or pretentious and probably in both cases, confusing - "'The lunatic, the lover and the poet': divine copyright and the dangers of 'strong imagination'"; "The 'heart of man' and the 'mind of the maker': Tolkein and Sayers on imagination and human artistry"; "Givenness, grace, and gratitude: creation, artistry and eucharist". But I'm happy to say they were fascinating, stimulating and very clear. Now I'm just waiting for his book to come out - he told me it would be called Creation, Creativity and Artistry but the interweb's giving me nothing.

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