RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY & THE ARTS SEMINAR in partnership with Christian Theological Seminary

What is the Religion, Spirituality & the Arts Seminar?
Religion, Spirituality & the Arts—directed by Rabbi Sandy Sasso: This Symposium is a new initiative to bring people together from diverse artistic disciplines, practices and religious/spiritual perspectives for a sustained study and reflection on a Biblical text. Selected participants will be part of a seminar that will engage the sacred text as they seek inspiration to create new work (music, poetry, visual art, dance, drama, narrative, liturgical art). These works will be shared in the seminar and in a final community exhibition.

They now have available RSA education and curriculum materials that are provided for community use on their wordpress site. The first collection is on Genesis 22, The Binding of Isaac.

Intro to Curriculum Materials

Round 6 Seminar will explore “Creation” Genesis 1 & 2, Adam and Eve

Session VI Fall 2017 seminar dates are Thursdays, September 28, October 5, 12, 19, November 9, December 7, January 11, 2018 and February 8.

Applications will be accepted until May 31, 2017.
Creation- Genesis 1-2:2

In the beginning… was there nothing, or did the earth already exist unformed?  Was the first creative act a crafting out of the void or an ordering out of chaos?  Might the creative process that yields music, painting, poetry and dance be both – the chaotic swirl of thought and feeling and the breathing out of form, or the calling up from emptiness something altogether new and original?  The author of the first chapter of Genesis seeks to capture not the science of creation but its majestic wonder.

Discover the art, music, poetry and religious interpretations that give expression to the first 33 verses of the Bible.  Consider the following questions:  What is creativity? What was the light of the first day of creation and how does it differ from the light of the sun and the moon?  What is the place of withdrawal and separation in creation?  What is the image of God?  Should humans have been created? Is rest a part of creation or the cessation of it?

The RSA seminar is a place for artists to reflect on the text, argue with it, challenge it, build open it and to create from it.

For more information, visit https://www.butler.edu/religion-arts