11:30 am in the Kennedy Room
Join professor Helen Brooks
in a two part Sunday Forum to explore the truly thought-provoking advent--- in
the globalized and cross-cultural Early Modern world---of infusing literature
and art with the spiritual, or divine “presence,” well-captured in John Donne’s
words: “Nothing else is.” Today’s research in the areas of
neuroscience, or cognitive science, is yielding increasing evidence for what
has become defined as the “spiritual brain.”
We will explore multiple writers and artists within this framework, such
as Donne, Shakespeare, Beckett and selected art, time-permitting. Scholarly
material in the field will also be distributed for discussion. This is a vibrant and growing area of study,
and one, in my view, that can enhance our thinking across perceived boundaries,
and perhaps even contribute to our taking this spiritual mindset “to the
streets.”
