Student Fellows
Elise Edwards
Ph.D. in Religion
Claremont Graduate University
Project Title: Designers as Agents: Theological Interpretations of Architecture’s Ethical Task
Abstract: The task of architecture is usually understood as an aesthetic and utilitarian endeavor; this study of the ethical approach provides a perspective that will expand the theologian's understanding of what architecture is and how the agents who interact with it do so. Grounded in work of philosopher Karsten Harries and theologian Timothy Gorringe, this study develops an argument that architecture presents interpretations of an ethos, or way of life, for a specific time and place. Yet buildings as objects have no power to perform this ethical function without the agency of those who engage architecture. This project examines moral agents who design architecture according to their community’s ethos and Christian conceptions of fittingness, justice, and redemption. Designers as Agents has two components: a constructed theology about design as an ethical task and a case study that illustrates how designers have created architecture according to a community’s ethos. This theological work not only considers the ideals, principles, and processes that go into architecture, but the concrete objects that result from the design process. It will document the Lafitte Redevelopment in New Orleans through photographs and recorded interviews with designers, developers, non-profit agencies and residents who have been involved in rebuilding housing that was damaged and destroyed in Hurricane Katrina. The design of homes in Lafitte intentionally grasps the ethos of the community because it reflects the residents’ desire for the homes to address concerns about sustainability and soundness of construction, but to also have an architecture that represents the neighborhood’s historic character and relates to its prevailing architectural styles.
Jennifer Awes Freeman
Ph.D. in Religion
Vanderbilt University
Project Title: The Opus Caroli Regis and Medieval Western Theology of the Image
Abstract: The debate over whether the Christian Church ought to prescribe or proscribe manmade images of God, and how to treat such images, dates back nearly to the origins of the church itself. This project consists of three stages: an original translation of several key chapters of the 8th century Opus Caroli Regis contra Synodum (OCR), Charlemagne’s response to the Second Council of Nicaea; a paper which presents the theological elements of the translated portion and which then attempts to connect these elements to some of the artworks commissioned by the court of Charlemagne (both intheir consistencies and inconsistencies); and finally, the paper and translation will be made accessible to the public by being posted on the website of Vanderbilt University’s Theology and Practice Program.
Faculty Fellow
Rev. Michael Patella, OSB
Professor, New Testament
Saint John's School of Theology Seminary
Project Title: Word and Image: The Hermeneutics of the Saint John's Bible
Abstract: The Saint John’s Bible is the first hand-written Bible to be commissioned by a Benedictine Abbey in over 500 years. From the outset, it was conceived as using the ancient art form of quill and vellum to present the Bible to the new millennium. The text is from the NRSVand the passages chosen for artistic depiction and illumination reflect the exigencies of this age; they do not suggest a nostalgic longing for years long past. Combining an ancient medium with contemporary demands results in a new hermeneutic for reading the SJB. Among those demands are such issues as globalization, ecumenism, violence, ecology, and underrepresented minorities.
The development of this hermeneutic will rely on explaining the use of images to employ intra- and intertextuality within the SJB; it will also seek whether and how such visuals as intra- and intertextualreferenceswere exegetical practices for centuries before the Enlightenment. Moreover, it will explore intra- and intertextuality as a form of exegesis that allows for broader enculturation of Scripture by engaging various segments of society with the biblical text.