The Lost Word: Magic, Reality-Creation, and the Pursuit of God’s Language

This is the fifth presentation from our international symposium on Spiritual Yearning in a Disenchanted Age, held at McGill University in November 2024.

Dr. Tara Isabella Burton is the author of the novels Social Creature, The World Cannot Give, and Here in Avalon, as well as the nonfiction books Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World and Self-Made: Curating Our Image from Da Vinci to the Kardashians. She is currently working on a history of magic and modernity, to be published by Convergent in 2026.

Her fiction and nonfiction have appeared in The New York Times, National Geographic, Granta, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and more. She also co-writes the Substack newsletter "Line of Beauty" with her husband, Dhananjay Jagannathan.

Tara received a doctorate in theology from Oxford in 2017. She is a Visiting Fellow at George Mason University's Mercatus Center and a Visiting Research Fellow at Catholic University of America's Institutional Flourishing Lab.

In her talk, Tara explores:

Magic’s influence on modernity, from Hermeticism to transhumanism
The pursuit of a divine language offering truth and creative power
Art as relational creation, distinct from manipulative magical thinking
The Divine Liturgy as model for creative practices rooted in connection and participation

To learn more about Tara, you can find her at:
Website: http://www.taraisabellaburton.com/
Email: taraisabellaburton@gmail.com
X: https://x.com/NotoriousTIB

Books
Social Creature: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/564730/social-creature-by-tara-isabella-burton/
The World Cannot Give: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-World-Cannot-Give/Tara-Isabella-Burton/9781982170073
Here in Avalon: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Here-in-Avalon/Tara-Isabella-Burton/9781982170097
Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World: https://a.co/d/gOwySUy
Self-Made: Curating Our Image from Da Vinci to the Kardashians: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/tara-isabella-burton/self-made/9781541789012/

This episode is sponsored by:
John Templeton Foundation (https://www.templeton.org/)
Templeton Religion Trust (https://templetonreligiontrust.org/)

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