Luminous: Conversations On Sacred Arts

Mona Arshi brings all of herself to her poetry: her background as a human rights lawyer, a family lineage deeply embedded in the poetic, and a keen observation of the world—with a commitment to recognize and subvert patterns within that observation. All this makes her a very special interlocutor on her artistic medium.

Aidan Hart works in multiple media—painting, sculpture, carving, mosaics—to create liturgical art of stunning beauty. As an author and speaker, he also reflects deeply on the nature of the sacred arts, stemming from a profoundly theological vision of creation. Our Luminous conversation, recorded in his studio in Shropshire, visits all these places.

This special episode of Luminous is a tribute to Fr Ivan Moody—composer, scholar, musicologist, conductor, who impacted so many people and constituencies with his musicality, erudition, warmth, and infectious joy. With guests Alexander Lingas, Peter Phillips, Ivana Medic, Svetlana Poliakova, and Maria Takala-Roszczenko.

Vesper Stamper writes books for some of the most discerning and important audiences: young adults. And others, but it’s this audience that informs much of our conversation. Her illustrations are as clear and articulate as her writing, and together we are swept up into a narrative of history that means everything.

This conversation with award-winning poet Nicholas Samaras is a reminder of what life can be like when we listen, pay attention, and hear the musical lyricism of the world. This is at the heart of poetry, and his in particular.

On this special episode of Luminous, our host talks with two students in the MA Program at the Institute of Sacred Arts. This is an opportunity to meet two exceptional people, and to hear about the work and ethos of our Institute!

Apart from our enjoying the arts, even being spiritually uplifted by them, the sacred arts are carrying a message, even a “teaching” that we can attune ourselves to receive. Today’s guest is herself attuned to this, among other dimensions of the arts, which she teaches, writes about, and practices herself.

One of the leading lights of sacred choral music in the world today, Alexander Lingas has so much to offer in a conversation about music from many times and places, East and West, and its unique power in conveying the sacred.

"What does Tim Patitsas mean by his refrain of “beauty first?” That’s one question that made me want to talk with him. We go there. And many other places. As one does, with a thinking, reflective person who has listened to people of wisdom from within and outside the traditional fold."

Fr Maximos is Professor of Patristics and Orthodox Spirituality. A summa cum laude graduate of Holy Cross (1987), he completed his PhD in Patristics and Historical Theology at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. (1993), after which he taught at Hellenic College and Holy Cross (1993-1998). In the fall of 1998, he was invited to join the faculty of Harvard Divinity School, where he was Professor of Patristics and Orthodox Theology from 1998-2004. Responding to a life-long calling to the monastic life, he resigned his position at Harvard and was tonsured a great-schema monk at the Holy Monastery of Simonopetra, where he lived from 2004-2011. He was subsequently invited by Archbishop Demetrios to return to Holy Cross, where he has been an outstanding teacher, rigorous academic mentor, and prolific scholar. His publications include five books, more than fifty articles (many of them of monograph-length), and a dozen translated volumes. His current research project is a first-ever critical edition and English translation of the Life of the Virgin by the tenth-century Byzantine writer John Geometres.

Fr. Maximos teaches courses on the theology of the Church Fathers, including St Basil the Great, St Gregory the Theologian, St Dionysius the Areopagite, St Symeon the New Theologian, and especially St Maximos the Confessor, on whom he is an internationally recognized specialist. His research interests focus on the Patristic and Byzantine interpretation of Scripture, the Philokalia and Orthodox spirituality, the study of Byzantine manuscripts, and the theological study of Byzantine art, icons, and iconography. Fr Maximos’ interest in the arts began with a program of study at the School of Visual Arts in New York City (1979-1980), and he currently works as a consultant for American filmmaker Terrence Malick, including work on Malick’s most recent film, A Hidden Life, which is based on the real-life story of Franz Jägerstätter, an Austrian conscientious objector during World War II, who was sentenced to death and executed. He was later declared a martyr and beatified by the Roman Catholic Church.

Fr Maximos has twice held fellowships at Dumbarton Oaks, Harvard University’s Center for Byzantine Studies in Washington, D.C. (1992-1993, 2000-2002); he was the Inaugural James Rubin Visiting Professor of Patristic and Byzantine Studies at Hebrew University, Jerusalem (1991-1992); and a Visiting Professor of Patristics and Byzantine Literature and Consultant to the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae (UCLA, Irvine, 2001). In 2003, he was invited to teach Orthodox Theology at the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris; and in 2016, he served as a Visiting Professor of Byzantine Literature at Harvard University’s Department of the Classics (2016). He is a member of numerous international theological societies, and serves on multiple editorial boards, including Analogia: A Journal of Theological Dialogue; and Harvard University’s prestigious Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library series.