The question of the church and its take on contemporary art is a complex issue. On the one hand we have to clarify what we mean by church, contemporary art and the look. On the other hand, the question of the look also raises the question of knowledge. Is it the look of theologians, liturgical scholars, art historians or philosophers in the church that really does justice to contemporary art? In this conference, it will be shown by way of example how three basic looks on art developed in the church from the Middle Ages onwards, and how the church today rediscovers art in the tension of these looks.

Each Pope has had a different look on art. For the lecturer, since the Second Vatican Council, the look of the Church on art has evolved from a personal look to an ideological look, and slowly to a look over the whole. As Pope Francis writes in Veritatis Gaudium, the Church's perspective requires a transdisciplinary and transcultural perspective.

This conference will be held in english.

Building Bridges: three conferences

Brotéria was born in 1902 as a botanic publication, with the intention of contributing to the dissemination of scientific knowledge, but also aiming to fight against the divorce between science and religion. Throughout these past 120 years, building bridges was always one of the fundamental concerns of Brotéria.

Over the last 120 years, building bridges has always been one of Brotéria's major concerns. We chose natural sciences, contemporary art and moral reasoning as a starting point for three conferences. How can religion and the Catholic church be relevant to art, ethics, and science in order to contribute to the development of a fair and human society?

Yvonne Dohna Schlobitten

Professor of Christian contemporary Art at the Pontifical Gregorian University.  Schlobitten specialised in Romano Guardini’s  Weltanschauung in the context of the religious epistemology and phenomenology of ‘seeing'. Together with other scholars Schlobitten is building a field in which “The Story and Theory of the Trinitarian Seeing” is investigated as the origin of transdisciplinary knowledge (Erkenntnis). She is a member of the editorial committee of the magazine 'Donne, Chiesa, Mondo’ of L’Osservatore Romano and developing the topic ‘Women read Pope Francis' and she is part of the research group 'Donna –uomo’ at the Faculty of Philosophy at the Pontifical Gregorian University. Schlobitten is the vice-president and educator at the Centro di Formation alla Meditazione Cristina with the responsibility of teaching the “Spiritual Seeing from T. of Aquinas to U.v. Balthasar”.

Her books include “Lo specchio della Fede: La rappresentazione del Divino nell’arte di Raffaello e Michelangelo” (The Mirror of Faith: the image of the Divine in Michelangelo and Raphael” (Accademia Raffaello 2013);  “La Lotta di Giacobbe: Paradigma della Creazione Artistica.  Un'esperienza comunitaria di formazione integrale, su Chiesa, estetica e arte contemporanea, ispirata a Romano Guardini” (Cittadella, 2020); “Pope Art. La teologia della teoria e critica dell'arte" (2021, GB Press).