Organized by Institute for the Study of Values and Spirituality, The Cambridge Centre for the Study of Platonism, Cambridge University, in cooperation with Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, Romania.
Organizing Committee: Dan Chițoiu (ISVS&UAIC), Corina Domnari (ISVS&UAIC).
This event explores the topic of theosis or deification with a particular reference to the theme of the icon. Philosophical questions of aesthetics, anthropology, epistemology and theology converge in the ancient theological problem of construing the relationship between theosis and icon, image and archetype. Furthermore, while this theme is deeply entrenched in the Eastern Christian tradition, the topic can be fruitfully discussed in a comparative religious context: how does the Christian perspective relate to Hindu, Muslim or Buddhist approaches? Even within Christianity, the theme is controversial and the subject of vexed debate. And how, moreover, can this topic be relevant for secular culture?
Opening Session
- Douglas Hedley (Cambridge University): Theosis and the Play of Imagination
- Dan Chițoiu (UAIC & ISVS): Perceiving Spiritual: Icons and Theosis
Presented Papers
- Frederick Lauritzen (Scuola Grande di San Marco): Byzantine Theosis between Orthodoxy and Platonism
- Avedis Hadjian (École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociale & Verb): The Boundaries of Transcendence: The Armenian Church, Icons, and Its Unique Path to Theosis
- Francesco Aresco (Cambridge University): Byzantine Resonances and Divergences: Mirandola’s Devotion and Mannerism in Sixteenth-Century Art
- Gareth Polmeer (Royal College of Arts): Iconicity and Meaning: Icons, Art and the Digital Age
- Daniel Codrescu (Iconographer, Bucharest): From Mystical Experience to Matter from a Practical Iconographic Perspective
- Alan Cardew (University of Essex): Seeking Glory on the Edge of Light: Apotheosis Through Materiality in the Western Tradition
- Hadi Fakhoury (Cambridge University): The Iconic Ontology of Henry Corbin
- Osman Bilen (Dokuz Eylul University): Imago Dei or Imitatio Dei: Enlightenment or the Fall into Atavism
- Ioan Alexandru Tofan (Alexandru Ioan Cuza University): Icon as Experience. Marian Tarangul
The conference is available on the ISVS YouTube channel.
Keynote Address
Professor Douglas Hedley (Cambridge University): Theosis and the Play of Imagination
