The Human Predicament

Trevor Hart talks about art and what it means to be both material and non-material beings.

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Summary

Trevor Hart talks about art and what it means to be both material and non-material beings.

What does it mean to be both material and non-material creatures? How can art help us negotiate that reality? And what light do Christian ideas like “incarnation” shed on the relationship of body to spirit? 

Trevor Hart is a pastor and Honorary Professor at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. He has thought a lot about the relationship between faith and art, and was in Sydney to deliver the 2015 New College Lectures, “Taking Flesh: Christology, Embodiment and the Arts”. In this interview with Simon Smart, Professor Hart talks about how nobody is really a pure materialist, why Christians aren’t anti-body, and what art can offer as we engage with the ambiguity and richness of human life.