Post-Western Christianity
The Boston College Institute for the Liberal Arts will present Post-Western Christianity and the Post-Christian West with Lamin Sanneh, D. Willis James Professor of Missions and World Christianity at Yale Divinity School and Professor of History at Yale University on Feb. 11 at 5:30 p.m. Sanneh is the author of Abolitionists Abroad: American Blacks and the Making of Modern West Africa; Faith and Power: Christianity and Islam in “Secular” Britain (with Lesslie Newbigin and Jenny Taylor); Whose Religion is Christianity? The Gospel Beyond the West, and The Crown and the Turban: Muslims and West African Pluralism, among others. His articles have appeared in scholarly journals, including Church History: Studies on Christianity and Culture; Newsletter of the International Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World (University of Leiden, The Netherlands); and The Encyclopedia of Politics and Religion. He also is an editor-at-large of the ecumenical weekly The Christian Century. The presentation will take place in Gasson Hall, room 305.
Posted in Guest Authors
Tagged Christianity, Institute for the Liberal Arts, religion
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T.S. Eliot and anti-Semitism
Jayme Stayer, S.J. will present “T. S. Eliot, Anti-Semitism, and the Problem of Cumulative Effect” on Feb. 7 at noon in Corcoran Commons. The event is free and open to the public, but registration is requested at cjlearning@bc.edu. Jayme Stayer, S.J. is currently an assistant professor of English at John Carroll University. Though his specialty is the poetry of T. S. Eliot, he has published broadly on such topics as rhetoric, music, Beethoven, Stravinsky, and twentieth-century poetry. He recently co-wrote a rhetoric textbook, Think About It: Critical Skills for Academic Writing (Cengage 2013). He is currently editing a volume, T. S. Eliot, France, and the Mind of Europe (Cambridge Scholars, forthcoming) and is finishing another book manuscript, Becoming T. S. Eliot: The Rhetoric of Voice and Audience in Inventions of the March Hare. Sponsor: The Center for Christian-Jewish Learning.
Kidder talk postponed
Please note: The talk by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Tracy Kidder at Boston College scheduled for Feb. 5 has been postponed due to weather. A new date is TBD. Sponsor: Lowell Humanities Series
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Mapping the invisible nature of theater
Meditations on those entities that a theater audience doesn’t see—and their significance—are offered by Boston College Associate Professor of English Andrew Sofer in Dark Matter: Invisibility in Drama, Theater, and Performance (University of Michigan Press). In mapping the invisible dimension of theater—whose effects are felt in performance and focus an audience’s experience—Sofer examines phenomena such as hallucination, offstage character and action, technology and trauma. He illuminates the invisible in periods of postclassical western theater and drama, pinpoints new facets of drama and performance that escape sight, and provides case studies that show how dark matter is woven into the fabric of theatrical representation. A colleague writes that, to his knowledge, “No one has undertaken a book-length study of the important phenomenon of unseen objects, people and actions as Sofer has done, and certainly no one has applied to the phenomenon the rich body of theoretical discourse, drawn not only from theater, but from the sciences and social sciences….”
Kidder on “Another Set of Eyes”
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Tracy Kidder will present “Another Set of Eyes” at Boston College on Feb. 5 at 7 p.m. in Gasson Hall, room 100. Kidder is the author of House, Among Schoolchildren, Old Friends, Home Town, My Detachment, Strength in What Remains, Mountains Beyond Mountains and The Soul of a New Machine, which won a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award. His newest book, Good Prose, is about creating good nonfiction as well as the 40-year association between Kidder and editor Richard Todd, who co-authors Good Prose. From the publisher: “Kidder and Todd draw candidly, sometimes comically, on their own experience—their mistakes as well as accomplishments—to demonstrate the pragmatic ways in which creative problems get solved…They talk about narrative strategies (and about how to find a story, sometimes in surprising places), about the ethical challenges of nonfiction, and about the realities of making a living as a writer.” Sponsor: Lowell Humanities Series | Video of Kidder and Dr. Paul Farmer, the subject of Mountains Beyond Mountains, at Boston College in 2004.
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Tagged Lowell Humanities Series, nonfiction, Pulitzer Prize winner
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Review by Fr. Ken Himes
Theology Associate Professor Fr. Kenneth Himes reviews Offering Hospitality: Questioning Christian Approaches to War by Caron E. Gentry for America magazine. According to Fr. Himes, Gentry’s book is “a work that adds another voice to the chorus calling for Christians not just to avoid war or practice it with restraint, but to build peace.”
Cultural exports
In her new book, Through a Screen Darkly: Popular Culture, Public Diplomacy, and America’s Image Abroad (Yale University Press), Martha Bayles shows how America’s in-your-face entertainment became our country’s de facto ambassador. Based on interviews she conducted in 11 countries, Bayles argues that this distorted picture of America has been a most influential export. She cites many objections to the violence and vulgarity pervading today’s American popular culture, but also a deeper complaint: namely, that America no longer shares the best of itself. Far from finding fault, Bayles hopes her work can help to chart a positive path for the future. Listen to her talk about her new book on NPR’s “On Point.” Bayles teaches in the College of Arts & Sciences Honors Program. She is also the author of Hole in Our Soul: The Loss of Beauty and Meaning in American Music.
Posted in Boston College Authors
Tagged College of Arts & Sciences, media, pop culture
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