Finding the Difference Between Poetry and Rhetoric: A Theology for the Writing Life
March 28-29, Sunday 3 p.m. until Monday 3 p.m.In her treatise titled The Writing Life, American author Annie Dillard states, "When you write, you lay out a line of words. The line of words is a miner's pick, a woodcarver's gouge, a surgeon's probe. You wield it, and it digs a path you follow. Soon you find yourself deep in new territory. Is it a dead end, or have you located the real subject? You will know tomorrow, or this time next year." Participants in this retreat will explore how writing, in the tradition of lectio, meditatio, oratio, and contemplation, constructs a path which leads us into new intellectual and spiritual territories and discoveries. We will consider how writing serves an act of scriptio divina and may become a discipline within our spiritual formation as well as how metaphor serves us in our resistance against rhetoric.
Spirituality & the Arts retreats are scheduled Sunday evenings through Monday afternoons and are an excellent opportunity for a brief but powerful retreat experience, either as an overnight guest or as a commuter.
Spirituality & the Arts retreats are not listed in our annual Programs Brochure. Please visit our website for updates, information, and new additions to this series. If you would like to be included in our notification list for this series, please contact the center by e-mail stmarysoffice@bellsouth.net or by phone 931-598-5342.
Presenter:
Victor Judge At Vanderbilt University Divinity School, Victor Judge serves as lecturer in religion and literature where he teaches courses on the literary theologians Flannery O'Connor, Albert Camus, John Donne, Emily Dickinson, and Gerard Manley Hopkins, S.J., and a course in writing about religion. He also holds the positions of registrar and editor of the Divinity School's journal, The Spire. In addition to his roles at the Divinity School, he is a member of the faculty of the University's Retirement Learning Program which offers continuing education opportunities for life-long learners; for the current academic year, he is conducting a writing workshop and a course in the poetry of T.S. Eliot. Judge earned the baccalaureate and graduate degree in English from George Peabody College for Teachers and is entering his thirty-second year in higher-education. He lectures extensively within different congregations and communities of faith on religious themes in literature.
Residential Fee: $100 Commuter Fee: $60 Deposit: $50