Author: John Canver

“The Several Lives of the Book of Mormon”

Terryl Givens, University of Richmond Department of English The Boston University Department of Religion Annual Lecture. The 19th century saw repeated calls for an authentic American Bible. When the century was over, the Book of Mormon had emerged as the foremost claimant for the title. This lecture will review that book’s history and composition, then […]

Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials: A Panel Discussion

Chaired by Donna Freitas, Boston University Department of Religion and featuring Scott Westerfeld, author of the Uglies and Midnighters trilogies Jason King, St. Vincent College Department of Religious Education, co-author of Killing the Imposter God: Philip Pullman’s Spiritual Imagination in His Dark Materials Cristine Hutchison-Jones, PhD candidate, Boston University Division of Religious and Theological Studies […]

“An Evening with Rosanna Warren: A Reading”

Rosanna Warren, Boston University, University Professors Program A reading of Professor Warren’s own poetry, as well as the work of other poets who have inspired her as a writer and a teacher. Rosanna Warren is the author of four collections of poetry: Snow Day (1981), Each Leaf Shines Separate (1985), Stained Glass: Poems (1994), and Departure: Poems (2003).  She […]

“Language as Sacrament in the New Testament”

The second Amos Wilder Lecture in Scripture and Literary Arts delivered by Pulitzer-Prize-winning poet Franz Wright Wright will explore the idea of language as sacrament in the Christian scriptures, as well as the poetic forms used by Jesus in his teaching. He will also discuss the possibility of religious poetry in our own unpropitious time. […]

“Prayers for a Dark God: Rainer Maria Rilke among the Mystics”

Mark Burrows, Professor of the History of Christianity, Andover Newton Theological School “My God is dark and like a clump of a hundred roots which drink silently…” What are we to make of a poet who addresses God as “you darkness,” and proclaims his belief in nights?  In an early collection first entitled Book of Prayers […]

“Filming Religion: The Documentary Art of Helen Whitney”

Helen Whitney, Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Helen Whitney has spent a long and award-winning career making films. Her credits include Youth Terror: The View from behind the Gun for ABC, The Choice ’96 for Frontline, and Richard Avedon: Darkness and Light for American Masters on PBS. Primarily, however, Whitney’s work has focused on religion and personal experiences of […]

“Religious Visual Culture and the Conditions of Visibility”

David Morgan, Professor of Humanities in Christ College and Phyllis & Richard Duesenberg Chair in Christianity and the Arts, Valparaiso University This talk explored what it is that makes something visible within the different visual fields that constitute acts of seeing. The presentation began with Marian apparitions, specifically asking what makes Mary visible in the […]