WIT's Theology and Religious Studies research group are holding a public lecture on Wednesday, 20 November at 6:30 pm on the Cork Road campus in the auditorium. Admission is FREE and all are welcome.
As part of the Theology in the Public Square Lecture Series, Mark Patrick Hederman OSB will give a talk entitled 'On Faith and Mystery: A New Sense of the Sacred for Today?'.
The topic for the public lecture is Hederman's belief that to speak about Mystery, one has to reconnect with the inner language of myth. Life is not just a problem to be solved; it is a mystery to be negotiated. It requires knowledge beyond our normal ways of understanding.
Fantasy and fact
There is a thinking between fantasy and fact which exercises our imaginative intelligence. This older brain is at work not only in our religion but also in our folklore, our culture, our art worlds, and our hopes. It allows the unconscious to filter through to our conscious lives. It is where thought and feeling intersect to give access to the bigger picture, the heart of the matter
This is the factory where dreams are made, visions created, passions fired. Unless we identify and educate this ineradicable part of our make-up it can take over the driving seat. Hitler, Mussolini, Franco and Stalin knew how to manipulate the inner workings of this machinery on a grand scale; as was Mao with his Little Red Book. Closer to home we could do well to uncover the roots of our Unionist and Nationalist mythologies. All of which requires an unearthing of our mythological minds.
About the speaker
Having lived as a Benedictine monk for over fifty years, Mark Patrick Hederman has learned how to engage with mystery; both the mysteries of life and of Christianity. In his new book, Living the Mystery: What Lies Between Science and Religion, Hederman sets out to bring a new sense of the sacred into the life of the reader. He combines his knowledge of philosophy, theology and literature to make a well-rounded argument on behalf of religion in the modern world.
More information on his work is available here
Religious Studies is available as a major or minor subject on the Bachelor of Arts (Hons) WD200 or as a minor subject on the BA (Hons) in Psychology WD163 programmes.