Mystery and Meaning
Art & Soul
Thursday, March 20-Saturday, March 22, 2003
Go to:
Program Description
The fourth annual Art & Soul program will explore the role of mystery and meaning in the arts.
Mystery pervades good art—whether literary, musical, theatrical, or visual. Indeed, the presence of mystery in the arts helps express the subtleties of meaning and complexities of interpretation that distinguish lasting works from the merely faddish. This no doubt is because mystery is an integral part of life, a tenet long acknowledged within theological reflection. After all, our finite standing before an infinite God necessitates ambiguity, something that can occasion wonderment as well as despair. To deprive either art or our lives of mystery misguidedly impoverishes them both, to our detriment. Understanding the role of mystery—if not mysteries themselves—has constituted a central preoccupation of many of the world's finest thinkers, writers, and artists, and constitutes a unifying theme for our 2003 Art & Soul program.
Speakers
Kathleen Barrier, Milton Center
A teacher and writer, Barrier has published poetry in The Berkley Poetry Review and Mikrokosmos, and is currently completing her creative non-fiction book entitled Fat Girl in Paradise
Fredrick Barton, University of New Orleans
Award-winning journalist, film critic, and author of the new novel A House Divided, Barton is Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at UNO. He has participated in every Art & Soul since its inception.
Jeremy Begbie, University of St. Andrews/Cambridge
Reader in Theology at St. Andrews (Scotland), Begbie is author or editor of Beholding the Glory: Incarnation through the Arts; Theology, Music, and Time; Voiceing Creation's Praise: Toward a Theology of the Arts; More Like the Master: A Christian Musician's Reader; and the new Sounding the Depths: Theology Through the Arts.
Jeff Berryman
Author of the plays When Comes the Way, The Christmas Cafe, Arthur: The Begetting, and Arthur: The Hunt, and first novel, Leaving Ruin.
Scott Cairns, University of Missouri
Professor of English at the University of Missouri, Columbia, Cairn's poetry collections are Recovered Body,, Figures for the Ghost, The Translation of Babel, The Theology of Doubt and the new PhiloKalia: New & Selected Poems.
Kate Young Caley
Author of the recent best-selling memoir The House Where the Hardest Things Happened (Doubleday), a stirring and courageous account of her family's shunning by a fundamentalist church and her determined journey back to God.
Lil Copan
Acquisitions Editor of literary fiction and spiritual writing for Paraclete Press.
Robert Darden, III, Baylor University
Editor of the religion and humor magazine The Door and author of numerous works of nonfiction and fiction including Mad Man in Waco and I, Jesus: Stories from the Savior; and, most recently, Corporate Giants: Personal Stories of Faith and Finance.
William Virgil Davis, Baylor University
Writer-in-Residence at Baylor University, winner of the Yale Series of Younger Poets Award, and author of the collections One Way to Reconstruct the Scene and Winter Light, as well as books on R. S. Thomas and Robert Bly.
Janice Elsheimer
Author of The Creative Call: An Artist's Response to the Way of the Spirit, and The Way of the Spirit: A Christian's Guide to Reawakening the Artist Within.
Terence Faherty
Award-winning mystery writer of Scott-Elliot series, post-WWII Hollywood historicals, and the Owen Keane series, detailing the life journey of a failed seminarian who searches out mysteries in hope of finding answers to the metaphysical questions that still haunt him.
Greg Garrett, Baylor University
Author of the novel Free Bird—chosen by Publisher's Weekly and The Denver Rocky Mountain News as one of the best first novels of 2002—and is an award-winning professor of English at Baylor University and also directs the Art & Soul festival.
Diane Glancy, Macalester College
This Oklahoma Cherokee writer is a past winner of the American Book Award and author of books of prose, poetry, and fiction, including Pushing the Bear: A Novel of the Trail of Tears, Monkey Secret, The Relief of America and Claiming Breath. Glancy makes her third appearance at Art & Soul while spending the semester as a visiting writer-in-residence at Baylor.
Joy Jordan-Lake, Baylor University
Author of Grit & Grace: Portraits of a Woman's Life, Jordan-Lake teaches writing and literature at Baylor
Todd Lake, Baylor University
A graduate of Harvard, the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and Boston University, Lake serves as Baylor's Dean for University Ministries with responsibility for campus-wide chapel programming and spiritual life initiatives. For this year's program, he has planned the Saturday evening vespers service.
Frederica Mathewes-Greene
Author of The Illumined Heart, Facing East: A Pilgrim's Journey into the Mysteries of Orthodoxy, and At the Corner of East and Now: A Modern Life in Ancient Christian Orthodoxy and contributor to such publications as National Public Radio, Christianity Today, and beliefnet.com.
Ralph McInerny, University of Notre Dame
Noted philosopher and author of over fifty books (including many in the Father Dowling mystery series), McInerny won the lifetime achievement award from the Mystery Writers of America and has received a number of honorary doctorates.
John McLean, Baylor University
Conductor of the Baylor University Concert Choir, McLean also directs Baylor's Women's Chorus and the Waco Symphony Chorus.
Bill Mitchell, Oklahoma Baptist University
Emeritus Professor of English at OBU, Mitchell's published works include numerous poems in The Christian Century and other magazines, Voices of the Advent, My Life Before the Fire, Trying to Teach Like Jesus, and most recently a first novel, Hiding Amy.
Scott Moore, Baylor University
Director of the Great Texts Program, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, and a member of a family of distinguished Baylor faculty, Moore has recently completed a book titled The End of Convenient Stereotypes: Extraordinary Politics at the End of Modernity.
Kathleen Norris
The award-winning poet and author of the New York Times bestsellers The Cloister Walk, Dakota, Amazing Grace, and The Virgin of Bennington, Norris is one of America's foremost literary chroniclers of the spiritual life.
Michael O'Brien
Author of Strangers and Sojourners, The Plague Journal, Eclipse of the Sun, and Father Elijah, and lectures widely on faith and culture.
Don Pape
Publisher of Waterbrook Press, a CBA imprint of Random House, Pape acquires quality fiction and nonfiction
Nicholas Samaras
Winner of the Yale Series of Younger Poets Award and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Samaras has published poems in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Paris Review, Poetry, and the Kenyon Review.
Chris Seay
Author of The Gospel According to Tony Soprano and the Tao of Enron, Seay is one of the prime movers in the postmodern Christian movement and pastor of Ecclesia, a progressive Christian community in Houston, Texas, recognized for exploring spiritual questions of culture and breaking new ground in art, music, and film. Chris has appeared at every Art & Soul Festival.
Chuck Smith, Jr.
Senior Pastor of Capo Beach Calvary Chapel, Smith is also the author of The End of the World as We Know It: Clear Direction for Bold and Innovative Ministry in a Postmodern World and the new Epiphany: Discover the Delight of God's Word.
Virginia Smith, The Milton Center
An editor, researcher, and writer at several new organizations including Reuters, Newsweek, ABC News, and The New York Observer, Smith has received fellowships from the Fine Arts Center, The Milton Center, and the Jaffe Award for Women Writers
Elisa Stanford
Editor of Shaw Books, Stanford is interested in acquiring nonfiction and literary properties
Lorenzo Thomas, University of Houston-Downtown
An authority on African-American culture, Thomas is also one of Texas' leading poets, with books including Extraordinary Measures, Sing the Sun up: Creative Writing Ideals from African-American Literature, The Bathers, and Chances Are Few. Thomas was featured in a 1999 special section of the African American literary journal Callaloo. This is his second appearance at Art & Soul.
R. Scott Walker
Pastor of First Baptist Church, Waco, Texas, Walker is the author of numerous works of nonfiction and devotions, including Understanding Christianity: Looking Through the Windows of God, Glimpses of God: Stories That Point the Way, and Liferails: Holding Fast to God's Promises. Walker has appeared at every Art & Soul.
Ralph Wood, Baylor University
University Professor of Religion and Literature at Baylor University, Wood is the author of The Comedy of Redemption: Christian Faith and Comic Vision in Four American Novelists, forthcoming books of J. R. R. Tolkien and Christianity and culture, regular contributor to such publications as Christian Century, and First Things.
Schedule
Thursday, March 20, 2005
12:00 p.m.
Registration/Information table open
2:00 p.m.
Convocation
- Interview with Scott Cairns
3:30 p.m.
Public Presentation
- Nicholas Samaras: Capturing the Breath of God
- Lorenzo Thomas
3:30 to 4:45 p.m.
Concurrent Sessions 1
Mystery and Meaning 1
- Joe Barnhart, University of North Texas: The Ambiguity of Sacrifices
- David Gambrell, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary: The Riddle of the Harp: Mystery and the Music of the Psalms
- Nancy Gidden: Alison Hawthorne Deming and Annie Dillard: Two Worlds Colliding
Pastoral Session
- Chuck Smith, Jr., Capo Beach Calvary, Capistrono Beach, California: A House with Many Windows: Iconography in Meditation and Worship
Fiction Reading 1
- Dawn Comer, Albion College: Erick the Red
- Stan Coppinger, LeTourneau University: The Widow
- Michael Kula, Rollins College: Last Judgment
Workshop
- Bill Mitchell, Oklahoma Baptist University: Writing as an Exercise of Spiritual Discovery
Panel: Nonfiction
- Kate Young Caley
- Lil Copan
- Frederica Mathewes-Green
- R. Scott Walker
Popular Culture 1
- Kristine Harmon, University of Virginia: The Oohs and Aahs Over Mechanized Mystery: Disney's Beauty and the Beast on Broadway
- Joshua Wenck, Emanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church, Mnpls, MN: Saturday Night/Sunday Morning: Broken Evangelism
7:00 p.m.
Public Presentation
- Baylor University Concert Choir, John McLean conductor
8:00 p.m.
Public Presentation
- Jeremy Begbie: Music, Meaning and the Mystery of God
Friday, March 21, 2005
8:00 a.m.
Registration/Information table open
8:30 to 9:45 a.m.
Concurrent Sessions 2
Mystery & Meaning 2
- Tyrus Clutter, Northwest Nazarene University: Image and Word: The Fullness and Complexity of Revelation and Incarnation
- Marty Gallagher, Baylor University: Knowing a Mysterious God: The Important Contribution of Thomas Aquinas
Contemporary Poetry
- Katherine Abernathy, University of Mobile: A Fine Line: Ambiguity's Despair and Mystery's Faith in the Poetry of Denise Levertov
- Allen Heggen, University of Deleware: The Body of Poetry: Mark Doty, B. H. Fairchild, and a Poetics of Sentiency
- Susan Udry, University of St. Francis: Believing in the Mystery: Seekerhood and Modern Sensibility in the Poetry of Delmore Schwartz and Louise Bogan
Doubt in the Victorian Novel
- Sarah Del Collo, University of Texas at Tyler: Recoiling from the Crucifix: Religious Doubt in Bram Stoker's Dracula
- Paul Guajardo, University of Houston: Doubting Thomas (Hardy)
Drama 1
- Martha Green Eads, Valparaiso University: Secular Sermons in Late-Twentieth Century English Biblical Drama
- Ray Palasz, Valparaisio University: The Mystery of Acting: Medieval Plays in Interdisciplinary Learning
- Edward Uehling, Valparaiso University: The Mystery of Truth Telling, Medieval and Modern
- John Steven Paul, Valparaiso University: Maitre du Secrets: Directing Mystery Plays for a University Theater
World Literature
- Matt Lumpkin, Ouachita Baptist University: An Eye to the Far Bank: Religious Interaction in Ngugi wa Thiong'O's The River Between
Master Class:Poetry
- Nicholas Samaras
10:00 a.m.
Public Presentation
- Ralph Wood, Baylor University
10:00 to 11:15 a.m.
Concurrent Sessions 3
Mystery and Meaning 3
- David Fuentes, Calvin College: The Musical Impulse, Revisited
- Clay Motley, Charleston Southern University: Stepping Towards Common Ground: Class Anxiety and Gender Identity in Charles Sheldon's In His Steps
Doubt & Faith in Christina Rossetti
- Cecily Michelle Young, Brigham Young University: Arranging Her Canon: Doubt and Faith in Christina Rossetti's Early Poems
Harry Potter
- Scott Moore, Baylor University: Hogwart's School for Techne and Phronesis: Harry Potter and Eudaimonia
- John O'Callaghan, University of Portland: Fides Quarens Intellectum in Harry Potter
Poetry Reading 1
- Sheryl Cornett, North Carolina State University: Word Manifest: Surrendering to Myster, Accessing Meaning
- J.M. Holwerda, Michigan State University: The Sixth Day
- Rebecca Munro, Baylor University: A Vision I Once Saw
Master Class: Nonfiction
- Kathleen Norris
Workshop
- Mary P. Walker: Catholic Spirit: Writing for the Religious Market
Poetry Panel
- Scott Cairns
- Nicholas Samaras
- Lorenzo Thomas, Diane Glancy
11:30 to 1:30 p.m.
Lunch
2:00 to 3:15 p.m.
Public Presentation
- Michael O' Brien/Terence Faherty: Sacred Mysteries: Tracking God through Crime Fiction
Public Presentation
- Jeff Berryman, Two-Act Play: Leaving Ruin
Leaving Ruin is a story-telling adventure calling us to love and faithfulness, even in time of God's silence, trusting that His call and wisdom will come, though it may be murky, and not necessarily what we had in mind. This 90-minute play will be immediately followed in the next session with a presentation and discussion of the play. Both the play and discussion will be repeated on Saturday afternoon.
Concurrent Sessions 4
Mystery & Meaning
- Kristin Johnson-Neshati, George Mason University: Female, Male & Divine: An Exploration of Character in Bharata Natyam Dance
- Andrew Mark Sauerwein, Duke University: Mystery and the Language of Musical Simultaneity
American Literature 1
- Sarah Ford, Baylor University: Voices in the Closet: The Absence of the Author in Charles Brockden Brown's Wieland
- Joe Fulton, Baylor University: Mystery and Theology in Early American Literature
- Aaron Urbanczyk, Baylor University: The Failure of the Theological Imagination in Melville and Hawthorne
Poetry Reading 2
- Kathleen Hart, Texas A&M University: The Wondrous Year
- Janet McCann, Texas A&M University: Emily Jumping and Emily's Kitchen
- Scott Simpson, Abilene Christian University
Workshop
- Michael Olin-Hitt, Mount Union College: The Bible as Inspiration
Master Class
- Chris Seay, Ecclesial/Greg Garrett, Baylor University: Advocacy Writing
3:30 to 4:45 p.m.
Public Presentation
- William Virgil Davis/Frederica Matthewes-Green: Memoir and Persuasion
Public Presentation
- Jerry Berryman, Two-Act Play: Leaving Ruin (continued)
Concurrent Sessions 5
Mystery & Meaning 5
- Phyllis Perrakis, University of Ottowa: The Saddlebag: A Microcosm of Spiritual Development
- Keith A. Palka, Central Michigan University: George Bernanos's Monseiur Ouine: An Enigma Wrapped in a Mystery
- Christ Willerton, Abilene Christian University: Hypertext and Religious Mystery
British Literature
- Chad Engbears, Calvin College: Repentance and Rhetorical Ambiguity in John Donne's Holy Sonnets
- Stephen Petersen, Salem International University: Shakespeare and Spirituality
- Eric Channing Schaefer, Baylor University: Mystery and Judgment in Chaucer's "The Manciple's Tale"
American Literature
- Tim Carlisle, Simpson College: Mysterious and Meaningful Symbolmongering in Walker Percy's The Moviegoer
- Stan Coppinger, LeTourneau University: Searching for a Moral Center in Cormac McCarthy's The Orchard Keeper and Outer Dark
- Helen R. Andretta, The City University of New York: Mystery and Meaning in Flannery O'Connor
Workshop
- Scott Walker: Writing for the Religious Market
Panel: Fiction
- Frederick Barton
- Joy Jordan-Lake
- Greg Garrett
- Diane Glancy
7:00 p.m.
Public Presentation
- Greg Garrett
8:00 p.m.
Public Presentation
- Kathleen Norris
Saturday, March 22, 2003
8:00 a.m.
Registration/Information table open
8:30 to 9:45 a.m.
Concurrent Sessions 6
Mystery and Meaning 6
- Norman Chaney, Otterbein College: Wendell Berry and the Mystery of Divine Economy
Reading & Teaching
- Paul Allison, Indiana Wesleyan University: Good Gothic, or Why Reading Dracula Won't Make You a Vampire
- M.N. Surratt, Prestonwood Christian Academy: Canonizing the Literature of Faith: Making Suggestions for Student Reading
Fiction Reading 2
- Gary Guinn, John Brown University: Honey
- Bill Mitchell, Oklahoma Baptist University: Hiding Amy
- Gina Ochsner: The Necessary Grace to Fall
Oxford Christians
- Jack Baker, Cornerstone University: Creation and Tolkien, a Response to God's Call towards Man as Sub-Creator
- Charles Beach, Nyack College: Murder Mystery and Holy Mysteries in Charles Williams' War In Heaven
- Chris Coulter, Lee University: The Limits of Power and Vision in Charles Williams' Many Dimensions
Workshop
- Katherine Barrier, Newman University, Milton Center: Memoir Writing: Is It the Answer or the Question?
Workshop
- Elisa Stanford, WaterBrook/Shaw: Writing a Non-Fiction Book Proposal
Master Class: Humor
- Robert "Bob" Darden
10:00 to 11:15 p.m.
Public Presentation
- Public Interview of Ralph McInerny (Scott Moore)
Public Presentation
- Diane Glancy
Concurrent Sessions 7
Flannery O'Connor
- Anne Perry, University of Texas at Arlington: Mystery, Manners, and Meaning in the Fiction of Flannery O'Connor
- Kacy Tillman, Baylor University: The Paradox in Print of Mystery and Manners: Flannery O'Connor as a Product of a Christian Racial Milieu
- Joy Farmer, Reinhardt College: Flannery O'Connor and the Violent Atonement: Solving the Mystery Wrong
Sacred Space
- Christopher Eads: They Will Know We Are Christians By Our Land: A Christian Landscape Aesthetic
- Gary Guinn, John Brown University: Gatsby on the Plains or The Way to Hope: Mythos, Logos, and Ethos in Kathleen Norris' Dakota
- D.R. Wilson, Houston Baptist University: Sacred Space: The Mystery That Cannot Be Rationalized
Prose and Poetry Readings
- Matt Craig, Baylor University: Breaking Up
- David Daniels, Baylor University: The Horse
- Allen Heggen, University of Delaware
Workshop: Writer's Groups
- Anne Perry and Dolores Donner, co-facilitators
An overview of the history and methods of the DFW Writer's Group, one of the most successful ongoing writer's groups in the country, with display/sale items and writing exercises.
Popular Culture 2
- Kevin Sparks, Asbury College: Kinkadia as Via Negativa: Wondering toward Sacramental Taste among the Shadows of Fallen Form
- Jim Watson, LeTourneau University: Mystery and Meaning: Satirical Responses in Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Workshop: Spiritual Writing
- Lil Copan
2:00 to 3:15 p.m.
Public Presentation
- Chris Seay
Public Presentation
- Kate Young Caley
Public Presentation
- Jeff Berryman, Two-Act Play: Leaving Ruin
Concurrent Sessions 8
Mystery and Meaning 7
- Annie Shirley Davis, Baylor University: Krono and Kairos: The Golden Legend's Use of Time in the Life of St. Francis
- Monte Scott Holman, Baylor University: Nothingness and Nowhere: Creating Something out of Nothing in Philip Larkin's High Windows
- Rachel Payne, Baylor University: Mystery and Martyrdom in Flannery O'Connor's A Temple of the Holy Ghost
Film
- Mark Dollar, King College: Breaking the Spell: Neil Jordan's Adaptation of The End of the Affair
- Charlie Starr, Kentucky Christian College: Signs and C. S. Lewis: The Meaning of Meaning and the Emerging New Literacy
Art & Poetry
- Mary Morgan, Prestwood Christian Academy: Pike's Peak
- Eliezer Oyola, Evangel University: From Visual Perception to Reader Reception: The Ekphrastic Topos in Unammor's El Cristo de Velazquez
- Dan Russ, CIVA: Lyric Longing, Human Eros, and the Embrace of God
Mystery as Meaning in Shakespeare's The Winter's
Tale
This session brings together faculty, graduate and
undergraduate students in a performance of the final scene of
The Winter's Tale, together with critical commentary
and discussion. The performance and related discussion will
span this and the immediately following session
- DeAnna Toten Beard, Baylor University: A Dramaturgical Introduction on Theatre and Mystery
- Marion Castleberry and Kelly Russel, Baylor University, director and assistant director of The Winter's Tale (Act IV, scene iii)
- Marion Castleberry and Kelly Russell, Baylor University: The Challenge and Craft of Creating Theatrical Mystery
Victorian Women & Doubt
- Peaches M. Henry, University of Wyoming: Frances Power Cobbe, An Honest Doubter
- Linda Mills Woolsey, Houghton College: Landscapes of Uncertainty: Italy as a Locus of Doubt and Discovery in Aurora Leigh, Agnes of Sorrento, and Romola
Mystery Writing Panel
- Terence Faherty/Ralph McInerny
Workshop
- Kathryn Campbell: A New Creation: Using the Arts to Express the Soul
Workshop
- Brent Adams and Meg Zauner, Bethel College: Theatre: The Mystery and Art of Incarnating in Word
3:30 to 4:45 p.m.
Public Presentation
- Fredrick Barton
Public Presentation
- Jeff Berryman, Two-Act Play: Leaving Ruin (continued)
Concurrent Sessions 9
Science and the Humanities
- Raymond Neubauer, University of Texas: Mysticism and the Brain: A Novel Hypothesis
Art & Story
- Kathy Hettinga and Kim Yunez, Messiah College: The Mystery of Death in Story and Image
- Daniel Siedell, University of Nebraska: Real Presence and Contemporary Art: Enrique Martinez Celaya's Thing and Deception (1997)
Mystery as Meaning in Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale (continued)
- Steven Pounders, Chris Day, and Steven Day, Baylor University: Redemption, Reconciliation, and Resurrection: The Confessional Aspects of Acting
- Maurice Hunt, Baylor University: Christian Elements in The Winter's Tale
Fiction Reading 3
- Hardy Boydston, Baylor University: Cushioned
- Amy Hayes, Baylor University: Short Fiction
- Jayne Lawrence, Baylor University: Hooah!
Workshop
- Janice Elsheimer: Answering the Creative Call
Panel: The Author/Editor Relationship
- Chuck Smith, Jr., Elisa Stanford, Robert Kruschwitz
Panel: Mystery and Meaning in the Arts
- Jeremy Begbie, Michael O'Brien, Frederica Mathewes-Green
7:00 p.m.
Evening Vespers
8:00 p.m.
Public Presentation
- Scott Cairns: A Reading from Philokalia: New and Selected Poems