“Seeing Salvation: Art and the Search for the Sacred”
Details of the spring sermon series in the Chapel of Trinity College Dublin have been announced. The series, entitled “Seeing Salvation: Art and the Search for the Sacred”, will explore the link between art and the transcendent. Over the course of six Sundays a range of speakers will explore a well-known painting and what it might have to teach us about the spiritual life.
The full list of speakers and their chosen paintings is as follows:
On Sunday 6 February, Linda Chambers, Director of USPG Ireland, will speak about “The Washing of the Feet” by Sieger Köder.
On Sunday 13 February, the Revd Andy Braunston of the Metropolitan Community Church Manchester will speak about “Christ of Saint John of the Cross” by Salvador Dalí.
On Sunday 20 February, Dr. Lindsey Hall, Theologian & Methodist Lay Preacher, will speak about “The Resurrection, Cookham” by Stanley Spencer.
On Sunday 27 February, Dr. Katie Heffelfinger of the Church of Ireland Theological Institute will speak about “Exodus” by Marc Chagall.
On Sunday 6 March, Abbot Christopher Dillon, OSB of Glenstal Abbey will speak about “The Icon of the Madonna of Loving Kindness.”
On Sunday 13 March, the Revd Darren McCallig, Dean of Residence and Chaplain TCD will speak about “The Tower of Babel” by Pieter Bruegel the Elder.
Commenting on the series, the Revd Darren McCallig, Dean of Residence and Chaplain TCD, said: “Experts tell us that the earliest cave paintings created some 30,000 years ago by our Palaeolithic ancestors almost certainly had a ritual function. From ancient times therefore, art and the search for the sacred have gone hand in hand. It is no different today. Even in societies where religious observance is in decline many people find that great art can be the threshold of an awakening, a window into the divine. The ‘Seeing Salvation’ series will – with the help of some distinguished speakers – explore this link between art and the sacred.”
The addresses will be given in the context of the Sunday morning Choral Eucharist (10.45am) in TCD Chapel. Postcards of the paintings will be distributed at each service. All are welcome. Further details, as well as recordings of the addresses, can be accessed on the TCD Chaplaincy website, www.tcd.ie/chaplaincy