Tõnu Kõrvits has for some decades been a rising star among Estonian composers—one can now say that the star is decisively risen, and shines with the ethereal light of his lush and compelling work. Another episode recorded in the field—this time in the heart of Tallinn, Estonia.
Kaupo Kikkas is one of the most compelling photographers working today. Centering on portrait as well as fine art photography, with predilections for the American Southwest, the Amazon rain forest, and Lapland, as well as for musicians and their instruments. He is deeply reflective, and highly articulate about his craft and his vision.
David Bentley Hart began his storied career as theologian and public intellectual with a book called The Beauty of the Infinite , a game-changing and definitive foray into theological aesthetics. His most recent little masterpiece is Roland in Moonlight , a reverie about his philosophical mentor, who also happens to be his dog Roland. We have a lot to talk about.
When a Nobel Prize-winning physicist begins to speak of the universe as “a work of art,” don’t we want to ask him whether the universe itself could be numbered among the sacred arts? And whether he thinks there might be an Artist? Frank Wilczek is brilliant and engaging, with a talent (and commitment) to making complex concepts understandable for the rest of us.
Susan Ashbrook Harvey is one of the foremost scholars in her field of Late Antiquity (with a focus on Syriac Christianity). Two of her particular areas of interest and expertise make her an especially fascinating guest on Luminous. One is her study of fragrance (her book Scenting Salvation: Ancient Christianity and the Olfactory Imagination is a classic), and the other is women’s voices in Syriac liturgical singing.
Fr Ivan Moody is a world-renowned composer, conductor, scholar, author. His music often draws on ancient chant traditions and then takes off into new directions, at once consonant with the past and building on it into timelessness. Listen to this conversation among deeply informed friends.
Tobi Kahn is a painter and sculptor whose work has been shown in over forty solo exhibitions and over sixty museum and group shows. For twenty-five years, Kahn has been making miniature sacred spaces he calls "shrines." Steadfast in the pursuit of his distinct vision and persistent in his commitment to the redemptive possibilities of art, Kahn has explored the correspondence between the intimate and monumental in paint, stone, and bronze.
Dn Haig Utidjian is one of the foremost figures in the world of Armenian musicology, as well as in several other fields including Czech composers. A gifted and much-sought-after conductor, an educator, a scholar/author, he is a delight to talk with on many aspects of sacred arts.
Paul Barnes is a force of nature. His music, and his insights about music, pour out of him, with beauty. His longtime collaboration with Phillip Glass has left an indelible mark on both of them. Our conversation on Luminous is full of that ebullient energy.
A conversation with one of today’s most brilliant and creative minds on creativity and holiness, through icons, poetry, fiction, monasticism, and so much more.
Rob Saler, an exciting and highly attuned theologian and culture maven, talks with Peter about the ways in which culture and theology learn from each other. Inevitably they focus on his favorite band—Radiohead, on whom Saler has authored a recent book.
Christina Maranci is one of the world’s foremost scholars of Armenian sacred art. She has played an inestimable role in the display and understanding of the arts of the Armenian Church—which dates back to the fourth century. She and Peter discuss the sacred arts, how these can properly be displayed in a museum, how churches become consecrated, and a host of other great things.
Gavin Bryars is one of the leading experimental composers of his generation. Among his diverse and prodigious repertoire, his best known work remains the process composition Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet, a stirring work of cumulative power. We talk about this and all his work, and whether the word “spiritual” may be applicable.
Gary Vikan is one of the most renowned figures among art historians as well as in the world of museum curation. His bold, exciting, but also sensitively conceived exhibits of Byzantine art are among his great achievements during his storied tenure at the Walters Museum. He’s also a great friend of our work at the Institute of Sacred Arts.
Metropolitan Savas, one of the most culturally and intellectually engaged and curious people I know, talks with me about finding the sacred within the arts—especially in the oeuvre of Bob Dylan.
Lisa DeBoer is an art historian, who since 1999 has been teaching at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California. She is the author of The Visual Arts in the Worshiping Church — something sending us into far-reaching conversations about the use of the arts in different denominations.
Scott Cairns—poet, educator, and just a supremely wise dude, talks with Peter about how poetry works. But also about how the poetic can function throughout spoken and written communication.
One of the most influential, innovative, and inspired choral conductors and educators in the world, James Jordan has so much to tell us about the sacred relationship between conductor and singer, and more than that: about the human being with the other.
Shawn Wallace is many things—a master of the jazz idiom, a pedagogue, a social commentator, and a man of deep faith. Finding himself an Orthodox Christian, he has brought the rich and beautiful musical legacy of black gospel music with him, showing us all how big the tent can be. We talk about that project, and learn much about his origin story—including the origin of “Thunder.”
Richard Viladesau is one of the masters of the field of theological aesthetics. His work has centered on philosophical theology, in particular the question of how we know God — and really how we know anything. He is interested too in the concept of revelation, both in Christian and non-Christian traditions. In recent years he has become known primarily for his contributions to the field of aesthetics, theoretical and historical. He has been on the faculty of Fordham University since 1988, and is...
On a special episode of Luminous, we feature a six-way discussion on the experience of African American Orthodox Christians and the encounter with existing musical traditions in the Orthodox Church. Co-sponsored by the world-class vocal ensemble Cappella Romana and our own Institute of Sacred Arts, we brought together some key voices to help identify some bridges. A typical experience of Orthodox Christian liturgy will often bear stronger or weaker traces of Byzantine, Slavic, and/or Middle-East...
The Sacred Art of the Vestment. Deeply gifted in the art of sewing and embroidery, also articulate in reflecting on her craft, Krista adds immeasurably to the conversation on sacred arts.
One of the world’s greatest living bass players, and a person of deep faith, John and Peter have a lot to talk about, such as the inspiration behind John’s composed and improvised music.
Peter and Grant talk about enchantment (and disenchantment), how to listen, learn from the religiously uncommitted. Oh yes and bricolage.
Jeremy Begbie is one of the most incisive commentators on the relationship between arts and theology. We visit many fascinating destinations in this episode of Luminous.
Pageau is an icon-carver, graphic designer, and a public commentator on sacred art and the meaning of the symbolic world. In this episode Jonathan talks about his apprenticeship in Kenya, the sacred in art, and about his video presentations and their following. His YouTube channel has over 80,000 subscribers.
One of the great scholars and teachers of art history, specializing in iconography—especially in her beloved Cyprus—Prof. Carr talks about the meaning of “sacred” in sacred art, and about the Institute’s vision of “exploring the intersection of human creativity and holiness.”
A highly celebrated visual artist, Makoto Fujimura also reflects deeply on art, faith, and the need for cultural advocacy, through his books, most recently (with N.T. Wright), Art and Faith: A Theology of Making . He talks here on themes relating to his art, as well as another recent work, Silence and Beauty —an extended reflection on the implications for art of Shusaku Endo’s Silence.
Long-time professor of Liturgy and Music History, at Yale and Notre Dame, Margot talks with Peter about her work on Hildegard of Bingen—12th-century mystic, poet, musician, theologian—and how music, text, and cosmology can all come together in a harmonious whole.
Professor Junius Johnson, a musician and theologian, has written eloquently about a theology of beauty. He talks with Peter about how there’s no accounting for taste — or is there?
