Theology and Arts Institute :: Student Resources

At the River: The Theology & Arts Institute programming builds on and expands a long-standing tradition in which artistic expression articulates and dialogues with culture. Art has transmitted faith and expressed humanity's deepest concerns from cave walls on every continent to Stonehenge to African war masks to the Sistine Chapel. Singers have sung their despair and hope; dancers have sought to please and to appease gods. Christianity is one among faiths that have used artistic endeavors as ritual and as witness, seen in stained glass, and tapestries and heard in drama, music, and poetry. The Protestant Reformation saw a backlash and misunderstanding of iconic work, and a dearth of art prevailed, until recently.

At Memphis Theological Seminary, we believe that art bridges divides like no other media, and speaks when words fail. Art reaches beyond race, gender, class, culture, and language to help build communities for common good, and congregations committed to just worship and work in the world. The arts may help Christians flesh out their faith in fresh ways that employ all the senses.

What began as a modest proposal for a one-year experiment to renew worship has burgeoned into a transformative movement. Dr. Valerie Bridgeman, associate professor of Hebrew Bible/Homiletics & Worship. Received a grant through the Lilly Foundation-funded Calvin Institute for Christian Worship and developed and implemented the Theology & Arts program, and its premiere vehicle, the Return Beat: Theology & Arts Institute. Dr. Bridgeman, an acclaimed published poet and accomplished performance artist, brought together her passion for the church and its witness and mission with her passion for art to create this program, designed to promote artistic expression as a faithful response to God's creative work.

The program values collaborative, creative, ecumenical and interfaith works for their ability to connect persons to God and to one another. As a ministry of Memphis Theological Seminary, the institute is the premier vehicle for theologically exploring and creating arts for worship and public life in the Mid-South, and connecting art, theology, and justice in tangible ways. About our work, Civil Rights Activist and Founding Director of Spirit House Ruby Sales remarked:

I am struck once again that for people who are oppressed and for those from dominating groups who wish to break from the Empire, the arts give us an opportunity to create a new world and build up a new culture. The power to create outside of a violent and oppressive culture is another example of God's grace and evidence that God does not intend for us to be entrapped in a history or culture without the creative tools and open door to sing our songs in a strange land...to recreate ourselves beyond images, language, theology and symbols that slander and diminish us, our relationship to each other and our relationship with God. Art [is] God's open door. It's our open door to reflect on this great gift of power that is ours to use to be free and more fully human.

The Design

At the River: The Theology & Arts Institute is designed to prepare those with a strong background and/or interest in art - pastors/seminarians, lay leaders, community activists, artists - to incorporate theological reflection as they produce art, and to produce art that speaks to life's ultimate concerns. The goal is to produce graduates of At the River and its programs who will be leaders, shapers and interpreters of a resurgence of theologically grounded art. Those who wish to pursue work as practicing artists, teachers, workers in related fields, or those intending further study will gain the historical, theological, biblical and cultural preparation necessary to be both interpreters of culture and theologically grounded artists. Future religious leaders learn the value of incorporating art and artists in the on-going life of their faith communities, especially as it relates to justice-making.

The program also is designed to move people into a place where tradition is not typically embraced or explored. There is a culture of poverty and violence in the city of Memphis that the religious communities alone cannot reach. Memphis suffers the social ills of most urban landscapes, including political abuse of power. Infiltration into this culture is not for the faint of heart, but for those who are led by God to this ministry and empowered with knowledge and skills needed to make a difference.

The city of Memphis has a deeply ingrained connection to "justice" - it is synonymous with the civil rights struggle of this country, and is an immigration site with a richly diverse culture. It is also the Birthplace of the Blues and home to the King of Rock-n-Roll. Memphis is where art happens. For the 2008 Institute, we focused on ways in which art may help address violence in our culture and facilitate peace and wellness to those who are broken. Memphis holds the sad distinction of being the "violence capital in the United States" (FBI stats), even with more than 6,000 churches in the area.

At the River takes what is naturally in Memphis - justice and art - and translates it into curriculum through the work of artists - not only as performances, but as instruments of justice. And in a culture in need of justice, the arts' boundaries are permeable. Through art, disenfranchised people can express themselves, the human need to be heard - whether it is joy or anger, or those hidden issues (too deep for words). The arts, says institute faculty member Keith Mason, are the only disciplines that really help us touch our humanity and connect with others. This is the Art of Justice.

The Art of Justice: Creative Resistance to Violence

This seminary has three goals of theological education: scholarship - to gain an enhanced body of knowledge and skills and to develop competent leaders who provide resources for the church's life and witness; piety - to promote the knowledge and love of God and cultivate a desire for the healing of the world; and justice - to expand ecumenical cooperation, awareness and experience, and increase a sense of interdependence in relation to human need. These truths are taught in our classrooms and encouraged in daily life.

It is these truths that the institute takes beyond our classrooms in order to interact with the community, providing a ministry that introduces seminarians to a larger expression of their faith, and allowing artists and activists to have a place to reflect on the work they do in the community. The institute provides a way to bridge from seminary to the street, where students, faculty, and staff connect physically and emotionally to real lives, and are thereby transforming and transformed. Our current three-year term, The Art of Justice: Creative Opposition to Violence, will bring theologians together with the marginalized people-and both will be changed forever.

The Goals

At the River uses artistic media as subjects for theological reflection, and theology as a subject for artistic expression by bringing freedom, creativity, imagination and action together to produce art and programs that will help create a just society, e.g., stem violence in Memphis. It challenges laity and clergy to express faith, spirituality and commitment in new ways:

To provide a strong foundation in the disciplines of theology and rich opportunities for engaging art as a spiritual discipline
To prepare religious and community leaders to reintegrate art into the life and worship of communities of faith
To help religious communities rediscover the significance of art in the expression, celebration, teaching and practice of faith
To develop a creative tool that not only looks at the needs of justice in our world but works to solve these issues
To engage students from many different faith expressions through creative avenues of grace and hope so that peace may be formed