What We Saw at the Catholic Imagination Conference
This past weekend, over four hundred theologians, poets, writers, journalists, and filmmakers gathered together at Loyola University of Chicago for the third biennial Catholic Imagination Conference. Hosted by the Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage, the conference fostered conversation and community between artists and academics who consciously strive to integrate the Catholic sacramental imagination into their work.
Some highlights from the weekend included.
I. Karin Coonrod’s Everything that Rises Must Converge
Acclaimed director Karin Coonrod brought a remounted version of Compagnia de Colombari’s lauded stage play version of Flannery O’Connor’s short story Everything that Rises Must Converge. Coonrod’s adaptation skillfully works with the limitations dictated by the O’Connor estate—that every word of the story remain intact—and creates a strong ensemble of actors who become one living organism telling a single story with their vibrantly distinct voices. Theatre is sometimes its most magical when it summons up memories of that most primal art of storytelling. It was a version of her work I felt Flannery would be proud of.
II. Heaney and Holbein in Conversation
There were many excellent academic panels, but one standout was “The Aesthetics of Faith and Doubt.” Jenny Martin’s exegesis of Hans Holbein the Younger’s The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb and John F. Deane’s examination of Seamus Heaney’s poetic entanglement of faith and doubt sparked electrifying intertwining reflections. As we encounter Christ’s absolute “abjection by God” his complete abandonment in the grave, we encounter our own sense of abandonment, despair, the deaths (of faith, of hope, of loves) we endure. As we encounter faith and the loss of faith in Heaney’s poems, we grapple with our own histories of belief. These works of art are not “proof of God’s existence” but they do seem to admit to things “beyond their measure,” pointing us to the mystery of beauty that persists beyond our own doubt and death.
III. Mary Szybist
Poet Mary Szybist, author of the collection of Annunciation poems, Incarnadine, offered a luminous acceptance speech at the Hunt Prize Ceremony on Saturday evening. In her “seven-act” poetic meditation, she pondered the idea of reverence, love and her own identity as a woman, a writer, and a Mary, bookended by the story of Salvador Dalí’s idiosyncratic gift of a castle sanctuary to his wife Gala. Her words were thought-provoking and beautifully crafted.
IV. Fellowship with other Catholic Creatives!
What could be better than three days spent with art-loving academics and nerdy artists from all over the United States (and Canada)? Loyola’s beautiful campus offered spaces to gather for lunchtime conversations, discuss and debate over drinks, share thoughts, encouragement, and ideas. I was reminded, again and again, that buying into this whole Church thing—living our lives Eucharistically—means that we can do nothing on our own. We live, move, and have our being always with the whole body of Christ. “Beauty is the word that shall be our first,” says Von Balthasar. Beauty may not be the first word on the lips of everyone you meet, but for a few days at Loyola Chicago, it was. And that was a truly invaluable gift.
Photo Credits
Madonna Della Strada Chapel, Alan C. via Flickr
Conference-goer photo: Deniz Demirer
