Sin, Holiness, and the Anthropocene: Week 5
A note from Joe: I’d like to express my sincerest gratitude to everyone in our community for the love and compassion you’ve shown following my father’s passing last month. This week we’ll wrap up our “Sin, Holiness, and the Anthropocene” summer series before moving on to a new pre-advent series on loving our enemies (stay tuned or subscribe to our newsletter for details!).
What is it about art that seems to transcend the limits of language and narrative? Why does a painting, a sculpture, a photograph, a song, a poem, or a perfectly plated meal communicate something to us that words can’t quite describe?
Could it be that art helps us remember something that we’ve lost? Could it provide a portal for healing that language alone cannot accomplish?
In terms of our location in the Anthropocene, how does art influence the ways we interact with our physical surroundings…with nature, climate, the planet, and beyond? Could art hold the key to redeeming the damage we’ve done? Could it be therapy for our collective trauma?
This week at New Wineskins we’ll wrap up our “Sin, Holiness, and the Anthropocene” summer series by hearing from artist and visual anthropologist Marlon Hall about art as “Amnesia Therapy” and the ways it catalyzes, nurtures, and informs wholeness in a way nothing else really can.
Archival photo taken in Tulsa as a visual expression of the Phoenix rising from the ashes of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. Featured in the Greenwood Art Project Google Art and Culture Exhibition, this image represents the beauty and fire proof essence of the Black Community’s soul.
Please join us this Sunday, Oct. 1, in the New Wineskins Virtual Theology Pub powered by Zoom for the final session of of “Sin, Holiness, and the Anthropocene” as we examine the ways that art speaks to us, moves us, and ultimately has the power to heal us and make us whole not just as individuals, but as communities…and, possibly, ultimately as the human community.
Click here to view this week’s discussion video (email address required)
6:00pm ET: Happy Half-Hour (informal meet & greet time)
6:30pm ET: Presentation & conversation begin
Can we really love our enemies?
It may be the most succinct and yet most difficult of Jesus’s teachings…“Love your enemies.” We’ve learned to twist it many different ways to try to make it easier, but it’s the one thing Jesus seems to be unmistakably clear about.
Which begs the question…if Beloved Community is the goal, can we ever get there without learning to love our enemies first? What might that require of us?
For the rest of October and November, we’ll work our way toward Advent with a series of conversations about what it really means to love our enemies, the kind of internal work it necessitates for individuals and communities, and how to navigate the societal and cultural barriers that stand in our way.
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Feature image by Cherry Laithang on Pexels.com
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