I am delighted to have been invited to give a presentation at an upcoming conference on the Theology of the Body and the New Evangelization.

My talk will be entitled Art and Anthropology: Explaining the Styles of Christian Art with Reference to the Writing of John Paul II and Benedict XVI, and those interesting in registering should follow the link here.

In this presentation, I will consider how Christian anthropology as presented in St Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body can give us an understanding of the authentic liturgical traditions of Christian art, as categorized by Benedict XVI in his book, The Spirit of the Liturgy.

John Paul II called for artists today to present the human form in an ordered way so as to contribute to a realignment of the dis-ordered view of the human person that is so prevalent in the modern world. This presentation also considers, in the light of tradition, what that art might actually look like today.

The Institute created the following promotional materials, including (flatteringly) one based on a picture of me several years ago. Anyone who has seen me recently will know that I am fuller of face, greyer, and have a beard, but apart from that everything is accurate!