Meaning-Full Expression:
An Interfaith Exploration through the Arts
Exploring Art as a Spiritual Path to Meaning and Interfaith Understanding
This six-week course emphasizes engaging the heart as well as the mind, inviting participants to encounter art as a way of discovering meaning and interfaith understanding.
Course Description
Meaning-Full Expression: An Interfaith Exploration Through the Arts is a six-week virtual course sponsored by Process & Faith, SPARKS, the Center for Process Studies’ arts collective, and The Interfaith Center. Taught by Jay McDaniel with guest artists from diverse faith traditions, the course explores how art can become a vital space where spirituality, meaning, and lived experience meet.
Grounded in process philosophy/theology, the series emphasizes engaging the heart as well as the mind, inviting participants to encounter art as a way of discovering meaning and interfaith understanding. Each one-hour session weaves together artist presentations, immersive engagement with an art piece, guided reflection, and dialogue that connects artistic practice with interfaith wisdom and process thought.
Course Outline
- SESSION 1 – Hindu Perspectives: Kuchipudi Dance with Shruthi Dubbaka
- SESSION 2 – Christian Perspectives: Photographs and Poetic Prayer with Lisa Thorpe
- SESSION 3 – Jewish Perspectives: Poetry with Carol Rose
- SESSION 4 – Buddhist Perspectives: Painting with Adrianne Smith
- SESSION 5 – Muslim Perspectives: Digital Calligraphy with Ahmet Arduc
- SESSION 6 – Chinese Perspectives: Classical Chinese Aesthetics with Dr. Meijun Fan
“The merit of Art in its service to civilization lies in its artificiality and its finiteness. It exhibits for consciousness a finite fragment of human effort achieving its own perfection within its own limits. . . . The work of Art is a fragment of nature with the mark on it of a finite creative effort, so that it stands alone, an individual thing detailed from the vague infinity of its background. Thus Art heightens the sense of humanity. It gives an elation of feeling which is supernatural. A sunset is glorious, but it dwarfs humanity and belongs to the general flow of nature. A million sunsets will not spur on men towards civilization. It requires Art to evoke into consciousness the finite perfections which lie ready for human achievement.”
-Alfred North Whitehead, Adventures of Ideas
About the Facilitators
Dr. Jay McDaniel, Professor Emeritus of World Religions at Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas. Dr. McDaniel specializes in process philosophy and theology, with extensive experience in world religions, spirituality, and ecology. A scholar and author of numerous books, including Gandhi’s Hope: Learning from Other Religions as a Path to Peace and Living from the Center: Spirituality in an Age of Consumerism, Dr. McDaniel is known for his engaging teaching style that encourages students to develop their own theological and spiritual perspectives.
Sarah Hyndman is the Program Director for The Interfaith Center in Little Rock, AR, whose interfaith programs include a children’s day camp, high school youth group, faith leader gatherings, community service programs, worship services, community dinners, and more. Sarah is a graduate of Hendrix College with an interdisciplinary degree in Religion, Globalization, and Culture.
Price
- Lifetime access to session recordings
- Receive early notification of future courses
- Watch live or follow your own schedule
- Interact with class members via private discussion forum
- *If you cannot pay this amount, please contribute whatever you feel the course is worth or whatever you can afford to help support this and other programs like it.
This course is made possible through a collaboration between friends.
Got questions? We've got answers. Contact Us.