Luminous: Conversations On Sacred Arts

Rob Saler, an exciting and highly attuned theologian and culture maven, talks with Peter about the ways in which culture and theology learn from each other. Inevitably they focus on his favorite band—Radiohead, on whom Saler has authored a recent book.

Christina Maranci is one of the world’s foremost scholars of Armenian sacred art. She has played an inestimable role in the display and understanding of the arts of the Armenian Church—which dates back to the fourth century. She and Peter discuss the sacred arts, how these can properly be displayed in a museum, how churches become consecrated, and a host of other great things.

Gavin Bryars is one of the leading experimental composers of his generation. Among his diverse and prodigious repertoire, his best known work remains the process composition Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet, a stirring work of cumulative power. We talk about this and all his work, and whether the word “spiritual” may be applicable.

Gary Vikan is one of the most renowned figures among art historians as well as in the world of museum curation. His bold, exciting, but also sensitively conceived exhibits of Byzantine art are among his great achievements during his storied tenure at the Walters Museum. He’s also a great friend of our work at the Institute of Sacred Arts.

Metropolitan Savas, one of the most culturally and intellectually engaged and curious people I know, talks with me about finding the sacred within the arts—especially in the oeuvre of Bob Dylan.

Lisa DeBoer is an art historian, who since 1999 has been teaching at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California. She is the author of The Visual Arts in the Worshiping Church — something sending us into far-reaching conversations about the use of the arts in different denominations.

Scott Cairns—poet, educator, and just a supremely wise dude, talks with Peter about how poetry works. But also about how the poetic can function throughout spoken and written communication.

One of the most influential, innovative, and inspired choral conductors and educators in the world, James Jordan has so much to tell us about the sacred relationship between conductor and singer, and more than that: about the human being with the other.

Shawn Wallace is many things—a master of the jazz idiom, a pedagogue, a social commentator, and a man of deep faith. Finding himself an Orthodox Christian, he has brought the rich and beautiful musical legacy of black gospel music with him, showing us all how big the tent can be. We talk about that project, and learn much about his origin story—including the origin of “Thunder.”

Richard Viladesau is one of the masters of the field of theological aesthetics. His work has centered on philosophical theology, in particular the question of how we know God — and really how we know anything. He is interested too in the concept of revelation, both in Christian and non-Christian traditions. In recent years he has become known primarily for his contributions to the field of aesthetics, theoretical and historical. He has been on the faculty of Fordham University since 1988, and is author of numerous important books, including a monumental five-volume series with Oxford University Press, on how the passion of Christ is depicted in the arts.  Our conversation goes many fascinating places, including a broad expansion of what “aesthetics” actually is.