Upcoming Fota Conference: Benedict XVI on Beauty: Issues in the Tradition of Christian Aesthetics

St. Colman’s Society for Catholic Liturgy have announced their upcoming conference topics and speakers for 2009, to take place again at the Sheraton Hotel on Fota Island, Cork, Ireland.

The topic of the conference sounds particularly intriguing and certainly hits upon an area of significant relevance and interest: "Benedict XVI on Beauty: Issues in the Tradition of Christian Aesthetics".

The conference will take place from July 12-13, 2009 and will be chaired by Professor D. Vincent Twomey, SVD.

Speakers and topics will include:

Ethan Anthony
The Third Revival: New Gothic and Romanesque Catholic Architecture in North America

Dr. Helen Ratner Dietz, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.
The Nuptial Meaning of Classic Church Architecture

Fr. Daniel Gallagher
The Liturgical Consequences of Thomistic Aesthetics

Fr. Uwe Michael Lang
Louis Bouyer and Church Architecture

Dr. Joseph Murphy
The Fairest and the Formless: The Face of Christ as Criterion for Christian Beauty

Dr. Alcuin Reid
‘Noble Simplicity’ Revisited

[NLM note: This is a topic of particular importance. There is perhaps no concept in this realm that is so misunderstood and misappropriated as is "noble simplicity".]

Dr. Neil J. Roy
The Galilee Chapel: A Medieval Notion Comes of Age

Dr. Janet Rutherford
Eastern iconoclasm and the defence of divine beauty

Professor Duncan G. Stroik
Image of Eternity: the Church building as anagogical