The Power of the Word Study Day on 12 April 2025
'Like a thorn in the heart’: Literature, Theology and Education
‘Literature is like a thorn in the heart; it moves us to contemplation and sets us on a journey.’ (Pope Francis, ‘The Global Aesthetics of the Catholic Imagination’).
Purpose: To reflect on the value of literature from various perspectives: educational, theological, ethical, spiritual and philosophical.
Keynote speakers:
Professor David Jasper (University of Glasgow): ‘To catch the conscience of the king': Literature's address to Theology
Professor Emma Mason (University of Warwick): Teaching Christian Mysticism in the Secular University
Antonio Spadaro, S.J. (Undersecretary for the Vatican’s Dicastery for Culture and Education): Literature, Pope Francis, and the Ignatian Tradition
Keynote Speaker Presentations
The videos posted here are recordings of the three keynote speakers from our April 2025 study day, '"Like a thorn in the heart": Literature, Theology, and Education'.
The speakers were tasked with reflecting on the value of the relationship between theology and literature through the philosophical, spiritual, ethical, and educational in light of the illuminating words of the late Pope Francis: 'Literature is like a thorn in the heart; it moves us to contemplation and sets us on a journey.' Each speaker draws on their own research specialisms to connect their academic work to the teaching of literature and theology at all levels of education in all kinds of institution.
David Jasper claims that theology needs literary language and grammar to negotiate the incomprehensible traumas of the twentieth century.
Emma Mason argues that Christian mysticism should be taught to students of all ages because it teaches a form of life critical of the excesses and inequality of late modernity.
And Antonio Spadaro SJ celebrates Pope Francis' roles as teacher and reader of literature, especially poetry, to announce the forthcoming English translation of his Italian version of Francis’ Viva la Poesia.
All three talks emphasise the continued urgency of attending to literature and theology, and reveal that the imaginative and prayerful reading of and listening to literature guides and trains readers to hear the word of God.