Religious Disenchantment Narratives and the Arts Dissertation
| Sunday 17th May 2009 09:34pm 1 |
The deconvert
31 Posts
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I received the following inquiry from
Philip Francis, a
doctoral student at Harvard Divinity School:
My name is Philip
Francis, a doctoral student at Harvard Divinity School, writing a
dissertation on religious disenchantment narratives and the arts. I
am posting here to see if there are any readers who would be
willing to contribute to my project a short memoir of their
experience of leaving the Christian fold, making particular note of
the role of the arts, creativity, literature, beauty or aesthetic
experience (broadly conceived) in this process.
This memoir could be sent to me directly at pfrancis@hds.harvard.edu or posted here. Questions
about the project may also be directed to my email address.
The following are some basic guidelines and starter questions, but
approach the writing anyway you like.
The memoir may be as short or long as you like and assume any form.
It may be signed or anonymous.
Others have found it useful to structure their memoir as
follows:
1. The Unsettling: reflect on your experience of the forces and
factors that unsettled you from the system of beliefs and practices
that you once held in a dogmatically unassailable manner. Were the
arts in any way a part of this initial unsettling? Feel free to
cite specific examples from the arts and literature, or your own
creative projects.
2. The Liminality: reflect on your experience of the initial
transition away from your previous system of beliefs and practices,
the in-between space. Was there a time in which you had begun to
disavow your previous religious beliefs and practices but had not
yet established a new set of beliefs and practices? What was it
like to dwell in that liminal, in-between space? Did the arts play
a role in this phase?
3. The loss of faith: reflect on the experience of losing religious
faith all together, or losing faith in a particular set of beliefs
and practices, or a certain vision of God. And/or reflect on the
various kinds of losses incurred in this process of disenchantment
with Christianity (or some aspect of it). In all these experiences,
was loss negotiated in any way by recourse to the arts, creativity
and aesthetic experience?
4.The aftermath: reflect on your experience of the aftermath of
disenchantment with Christianity (or with some other form of
religious belief and practice). Have you found new forms of faith
and practice? Have you found it unnecessary to construct new,
fixed, systems of belief? Did your relationship to religious doubt,
uncertainty and mystery change over the course of this
experience?
What is the role of the arts in the aftermath of these experiences?
Have the arts assumed any of the roles once played by your previous
forms of religious faith?
***
In all aspects of this memoir I am most interested in hearing about
your lived experience, not merely your rational, theological or
philosophical justifications for leaving Christianity (or other),
although I recognize that it is not always easy to separate the
two.
***
Thanks very much for your contribution to this project. All the
best, Philip (pfrancis@hds.harvard.edu)
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