2010 Symposium
Symposium Schedule
Tuesday, Sept. 144:30 p.m.
“Wonder Worlds” Reception and Gallery Talk
Cyrus M. Running Gallery
While humankind has always had the impulse to collect objects from our world, a surge of collecting in 15th century Europe inspired Kunst-und-Wunderkammern, or cabinets of art and marvels (also commonly known as Cabinets of Curiosity or Wonder). Royalty and aristocrats filled their palaces with rooms of extraordinary, mysterious, and beautiful objects of both human and nature-made objects, which formed the earliest modern museums. The collections celebrated both the genius of artists and scientists as well as the wonders of God’s creation.
Items in these collections came from all corners of the world. Exotic species and beauty inspired wonder and awe; people had not dissected and explained these marvels through science and analysis. However, with the Enlightenment period, reveling in the mysterious and unexplained became the mark of children and the uneducated and Cabinets of Curiosity went out of fashion.
The art exhibition “Wonder Worlds” asks artists among Concordia faculty, students, alumni, and artists from the Fargo-Moorhead community to show us where they continue to find wonder and mystery in our world. Join us in the Cyrus Running Art Gallery for a reception (4:30 – 6:00 p.m.) and gallery talk (5:00 p.m.) with Heather Hardester, curator of the exhibit and director of the Museum Studies program.
7:30 p.m.
Opening Plenary: “The Constant Fire: Beyond the Religion vs. Science Debate”
Dr. Adam Frank, Professor, Astrophysics, University of Rochester
Though science and religion have often clashed during the centuries since Galileo, Adam Frank argues that both are authentic responses to the world’s great mystery. Once we see that “the constant fire” – the experience of wonder as we stand before the real – lies at the source of both science and religion, we can appreciate both as authentic and indispensible forms of wisdom. In the face of a looming planetary environmental crisis, Frank argues that we need both types of wisdom, and so we have an urgent need to get beyond antagonism between science and religion.
Wednesday, Sept. 15
8:30-10 a.m.
Plenary Session: “From 'Just So' Stories to 'As If' Worlds: Modern Enchantment and Mass Culture”
Dr. Michael Saler, Professor, History, University of California Davis
“Enchantment” means to “delight” and to “delude,” but intellectuals have tended to define it exclusively in the latter sense. But a “disenchanted enchantment” is possible: one that delights but does not delude. It is widespread within mass culture, where the wonders of the imagination are accepted “as if” they were real, and associated with rationality. From Sherlock Holmes through Avatar, “Fictionalism” has been a prevalent form of modern re-enchantment, applicable to both secular and spiritual world-views.
10-10:30 a.m.
Break
10:30 a.m.-Noon
Plenary Session: “Sacramental Realism: Relocating the Sacred”
Dr. Ronald Thiemann, Professor, Theology, Harvard Divinity School
Historians, sociologists, and scholars of religion often argue that the Protestant Reformation, though itself a religious movement, set in motion processes of secularization by disenchanting the world of Medieval Catholicism. Against this view, Ronald Thiemann will argue that the Protestant Reformers saw the sacred as present in the midst of the world: in the arts, in the everyday, and in the sacraments. By looking at art works, both visual and literary, from the Reformation and Renaissance, he will show how this sense of sacred presence -- this "sacramental realism" -- set the stage for important social, cultural and political initiatives and criticisms.
Noon-1:15 p.m.
Lunch
1:15-2:15 p.m.
Concurrent Sessions (see following page for detail)
2:30 - 3:45 p.m.
Plenary Session: “Worldly Wonder: Religions Enter their Ecological Phase”
Dr. Mary Evelyn Tucker, Adjunct Professor, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
The world's major religions are often regarded as preservers of traditional views and behaviors and thus conservative in their outlooks. What should not be overlooked, however, is that religions can also be liberating, and thus capable of provoking social change. Although religions have initially been slow to respond and do not immediately spring to mind as catalysts for environmental action, the moral authority and institutional power of the world’s religions make them well-situated to help effect a change in attitudes, practices, and public policies in respect to sustainability.
3:45-4 p.m.
Break
4-5 p.m.
Closing Panel Discussion
Panelists:
Dr. Adam Frank, Professor, Astrophysics, University of Rochester
Dr. Michael Saler, Professor, History, University of California Davis
Dr. Ronald Thiemann, Professor, Theology, Harvard Divinity School
Dr. Evelyn Tucker, Adjunct Professor, Yale School of Forestry and Yale Divinity School
Moderator:
Judith Valente, journalist and poet
This concluding panel discussion, moderated by journalist and poet Judith Valente, will explore the many areas of intersection – both expected and discovered – that our plenary speakers will address during their sessions.
