-DITA10 Main Page – Duke Initiatives in Theology and the Arts

Duke Initiatives in Theology and the Arts

As I look back on the remarkable three days of DITA10, my overriding memory is of an astonishing array of good things. Judging by a steady stream of emails, tweets, and blog posts, I am not alone. Our debt to all who made it such a rich feast – artists and theologians, scholars and performers, amateurs and professionals – is beyond measure.

Many will be concerned that the momentum generated should not be lost. Some may even expect a detailed five-year agenda for the future to appear any day now. But we’re not there yet. To be sure, a book is being planned as I write, gathering the contributions of presenters and artists. The Emerging Scholars will likely re-convene next year, with a view to building an ongoing network. And we will be hosting a group to ponder carefully what DITA’s particular contribution to the field might be over the next few years. But at this stage, instead of crafting huge agendas, I think it is wiser for me simply to record some observations and lasting impressions, and what these might signal for the future.

Age

Having attended many theology and arts gatherings over the years, I was immediately struck by how youthful this one was. The average age was far lower than I had expected. There seems to be a growing awareness among the rising generations that this topic really matters, that it is worth putting time, effort, and money into what – until only recently – many saw as a niche interest. We need to think hard about how those called to plough this field in the future are going to be resourced and equipped. I bumped into many leaders and entrepreneurs-in-the-making at DITA10. What can be done to ensure they are given what they need to flourish?

Theological Confidence

Especially striking also was a willingness to take the distinctiveness of Christian faith seriously: as testified in Scripture and mediated through the Church’s key confessions. The assumption that a theological conversation with the arts means we have to mute, downplay, or marginalise the awkward uniqueness of classical Christianity was conspicuous by its absence. Of course, dogmatic confidence has no place: proclaiming without listening, refusing to recognise the Church’s sins of the past, assuming nothing can be learned from those outside the Church, and so on. But this is quite different from the kind of confidence that springs from divine forgiveness, which by its very nature counters all arrogance. In the theology and arts arena in the years to come, much will depend on returning again and again to the Church’s primary texts to sense again “the pressure out of which Christianity burst” (Williams), the pressure towards joy that more than anything else will renew the arts in our time.

Conversations

For me the major frustration of DITA10 was not being able to have anything like a proper conversation – the inevitable drawback of being on the bridge of the ship, I suppose. On the other hand, the major joy was watching others talk with each other. Nervous artists chatting with eminent scholars (and nervous scholars with eminent artists), publishers with would-be professors, poets with film-makers, violinists with novelists: little partnerships of trust, seeds of the New Creation sprouting in our midst. I can’t predict what will come from these singular encounters, but I have every confidence that with careful nourishment, the Spirit will carry forward whatever needs to be carried forward: leading to new collaborations and partnerships, stagings and exhibitions, websites and journals. A healthy future for theology and the arts will depend not on individuals alone, however pioneering; nor on institutions alone, however well organised; but perhaps above all on networks, associations of trust that start most often with just two in conversation and grow outwards.

Gratitude

Most of all, however, I am left with a sense of gratitude for the huge amounts of work that went on behind the scenes – months of planning, hours of emailing, moving chairs, shifting platforms, laying cables, testing cameras, welcoming guests (the list is endless) – much of this at impossible hours in even more impossible places. In particular I must mention Dan and Hillary Train, paragons of grace and patience, together with their incredible team. Deo gratias!