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Transpositions is the official blog of the Institute for Theology, Imagination, and the Arts at the University of St Andrews. Featured Posts
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Literature
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![In his 1989 address to the graduating class of Dartmouth College the Russian poet Joseph Brodsky decided to forego the platitudes that comprise such ceremonies to instead admit that “a substantial part of what lies ahead of you is going […]](http://www.transpositions.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/the-absinthe-drinker-1876.jpgBlog-115x115.jpg "Surviving the Sahara: On Being Bored")
Surviving the Sahara: On Being Bored
Posted on 03/03/2014 | 3 CommentsIn his 1989 address to the graduating class of Dartmouth College the Russian poet Joseph Brodsky decided to forego the platitudes that comprise such ceremonies to instead admit that “a substantial part of what lies ahead of you is going […] -
![Sooner or later, the writer of creative fiction seems bound to ask just how free are my characters? Good writers strive to make their characters as free as possible – to give them a life of their own – and […]](http://www.transpositions.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/transpositionssquare-115x115.jpg "Creativity as a Call to Virtue?")
Creativity as a Call to Virtue?
Posted on 02/09/2013 | 2 CommentsSooner or later, the writer of creative fiction seems bound to ask just how free are my characters? Good writers strive to make their characters as free as possible – to give them a life of their own – and […] -
![Everyone has at least one piece of literature they are congenitally afraid of picking up. Be it the fear and trembling of page count, plot synopsis, or personal distaste for protagonists in the whaling industry, we all have literary tomes […]](http://www.transpositions.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Bookshelf-115x115.jpg "The Joy of Being Blindfolded: Or Why You Should Read Thomas Pynchon")
The Joy of Being Blindfolded: Or Why You Should Read Thomas Pynchon
Posted on 15/07/2013 | No CommentsEveryone has at least one piece of literature they are congenitally afraid of picking up. Be it the fear and trembling of page count, plot synopsis, or personal distaste for protagonists in the whaling industry, we all have literary tomes […] -
![Marilynne Robinson’s popular and critically acclaimed novels, Gilead and Home are masterpieces that deftly explore deep metaphysical questions with characters who search for meaning and redemption through Christian faith, engaging with issues of spiritual longing and fulfillment in a way […]](http://www.transpositions.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Gilead-Photo-1-115x115.jpg "Summer Reading Recommendation: <i>Gilead</i> and <i>Home</i>")
Summer Reading Recommendation: Gilead and Home
Posted on 26/06/2013 | 4 CommentsMarilynne Robinson’s popular and critically acclaimed novels, Gilead and Home are masterpieces that deftly explore deep metaphysical questions with characters who search for meaning and redemption through Christian faith, engaging with issues of spiritual longing and fulfillment in a way […] -
![One of the stumbling blocks that held C. S. Lewis back from embracing Christianity was his inability to understand how the death of an obscure Jewish rabbi two thousand years ago could have any impact on his life. Lewis found […]](http://www.transpositions.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/study-for-st-paul-preaching-in-athens-1515-115x115.jpg "The Myth Made Fact in the Local Congregation")
The Myth Made Fact in the Local Congregation
Posted on 31/05/2013 | No CommentsOne of the stumbling blocks that held C. S. Lewis back from embracing Christianity was his inability to understand how the death of an obscure Jewish rabbi two thousand years ago could have any impact on his life. Lewis found […] -
![Lance Gharavi, ed. Religion, Theatre, and Performance: Acts of Faith. New York/Oxon: Routledge, 2012. 248 pp., £90.00/$131.00 case bound. The contributors to this volume make the argument that theatre and performance studies should take religion seriously, admitting that religion is […]](http://www.transpositions.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/coexist-115x115.jpeg "Reviews: Religion, Theatre, and Performance and Blake.Wordsworth.Religion.")
Reviews: Religion, Theatre, and Performance and Blake.Wordsworth.Religion.
Posted on 06/04/2013 | 1 CommentLance Gharavi, ed. Religion, Theatre, and Performance: Acts of Faith. New York/Oxon: Routledge, 2012. 248 pp., £90.00/$131.00 case bound. The contributors to this volume make the argument that theatre and performance studies should take religion seriously, admitting that religion is […] -
![David Bentley Hart. The Devil and Pierre Gernet: Stories. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2012, xi + 172 pp., £16.99/$25.00 paper. David Bentley Hart is well-known for his works of non-fiction, including The Beauty of the Infinite and Atheist Delusions, but The Devil […]](http://www.transpositions.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/9780802817686-115x115.jpg "Reviews: The Devil and Pierre Gernet & Dickens, Christianity and ‘The Life of Our Lord’")
Reviews: The Devil and Pierre Gernet & Dickens, Christianity and ‘The Life of Our Lord’
Posted on 09/03/2013 | No CommentsDavid Bentley Hart. The Devil and Pierre Gernet: Stories. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2012, xi + 172 pp., £16.99/$25.00 paper. David Bentley Hart is well-known for his works of non-fiction, including The Beauty of the Infinite and Atheist Delusions, but The Devil […]
![Hans Boersma, Embodiment and Virtue in Gregory of Nyssa: An Anagogical Approach. Oxford Early Christian Studies. Edited by Gillian Clark and Andrew Louth. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013, 304 pp., £72.00/$135.oo cloth. Hans Boersma’s interests in sacramental ontology and ancient Christian expressions […]](http://www.transpositions.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/BOersma-Oxford-36x36.jpg "Review: Re-Approaching Gregory of Nyssa"){kind=small}
![Culture Care is the vision of culture as an ecosystem and the call to consider our stewardship of this ecosystem. Recently, as I have developed Culture Care as a thesis, I have come to a deeper understanding of the relationships between nature […]](http://www.transpositions.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/culture-care-mako-36x36.png "Artist in Residence Series: Culture Care for Churches"){kind=small}
![I often paint in order to know/see what I feel. Sometimes what I feel is not only impossible to say, but also seemingly impossible to know for certain. Paint, color, texture, shapes–physical stuff–can sometimes do a better job of getting at […]](http://www.transpositions.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/N-studio-2-36x36.jpg "Artist in Residence Series: Art and Hospitality"){kind=small}
![In his 1989 address to the graduating class of Dartmouth College the Russian poet Joseph Brodsky decided to forego the platitudes that comprise such ceremonies to instead admit that “a substantial part of what lies ahead of you is going […]](http://www.transpositions.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/the-absinthe-drinker-1876.jpgBlog-36x36.jpg "Surviving the Sahara: On Being Bored"){kind=small}
![Editor’s Note: In this second response to Michael Ward’s post, “The Next C.S. Lewis? A Note on Austin Farrer,” Professor Ann Loades gives a contrasting perspective. Whilst delighted that some attention is being given to one of the finest Anglophone philosopher-theologians of […]](http://www.transpositions.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/ou_kbc_pcf49_large-36x36.jpg "Austin Farrer: A Very Different ‘Kettle of Fish’"){kind=small}
![Sara Schumacher has written previously on “The Relationship between the Artist and the Church,” arguing that artists must resist the temptation to view themselves as prophets in exile for “becoming a victim … inhibits true reconciliation.”[1] In this post I’d like to […]](http://www.transpositions.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/william_desmond-36x36.jpg "Art and the Community of Others"){kind=small}
![Editor’s Note: This is the second post in our new Artists in Residence series, a series intended to draw working artists like Bruce Herman, Alfonse Borysewicz and Makoto Fujimura into the theology/arts conversation here on Transpositions. … /on the puzzle […]](http://www.transpositions.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Last-Supper-1-36x36.jpg "Upper Room: Alfonse Borysewicz, Artist in Residence"){kind=small}
![Amid the expanding bustle between theology and the arts, the topic of beauty seems to be ever more attractive. Among theologians it is proving especially popular. Many are questioning what Edward Farley calls the eighteenth century’s “relocation of beauty from […]](http://www.transpositions.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/beauty-36x36.jpg "Jeremy Begbie on Beauty"){kind=small}
![Last weekend, I had 24 hours without husband and kids. I fully intended to read three books, drink endless cups of tea and sleep at least 14 hours. Before I started my book, I put on a load of laundry. […]](http://www.transpositions.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/TRANS-36x36.gif "Liturgy and Housework"){kind=small}
![Over the New Year, I had the pleasure of regularly sitting at a long dinner table with a group of artists, delighting in the conversation that developed as ideas, dreams, and challenges were shared. While this is not a realm […]](http://www.transpositions.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/trans-36x36.gif "Artists and Academics: What They Might Have in Common"){kind=small}
![Last May, two of my best friends and I went to see The Avengers at the cinema near our university. I should disclose from the start that I am not necessarily the target audience for the film. I like my […]](http://www.transpositions.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Vladimirskaya-jimforest-Flickr-36x36.jpg "The Avengers’ Accidental Icon"){kind=small}
![It’s no secret that Gene Roddenberry created Star Trek to be secular. In a 1991 interview in The Humanist, Roddenberry said: ‘I condemn false prophets, I condemn the effort to take away the power of rational decision, to drain people […]](http://www.transpositions.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/emissary-final-36x36.jpg "What Makes a God?: Wormhole Aliens and Bajoran Religion"){kind=small}