Contemplative Realism: Event to Attend This Week, Book to Read, Manifesto to Sign

Joshua Hren's thought-provoking book, Contemplative Realism: A Theological-Aesthetical Manifesto, represents a Catholic novelist, theorist, and professor of writing wrestling with these aesthetic and philosophical questions: What’s wrong with contemporary theories of literary realism, and what changes if we take the reality of God seriously in our work as artists?

“The contemplative realist is keenly aware of the difference between the necessarily clinical gaze of the scientist and the mesmerized smittenness of the contemplative.”—Joshua Hren

Read This

Contemplative Realism was recently published by the Benedict XVI Institute for Sacred Music and Divine Worship and is available for purchase here.

Attend This

The book’s release event over ZOOM this coming Wednesday, February 23, 5:30 PST/ 8:30 EST, promises to be well worth attending, with author Joshua Hren in discussion with Dappled Things editor in chief, Katy Carl, and Maggie Gallagher, Benedict XVI Institute Director. Register here.

Sign This

The Benedict XVI Institute has created a Contemplative Realism Manifesto, a summary of the ideas presented in the book, and is inviting everyone interested to read and sign it here. Signatories so far include DT founder, Bernardo Aparicio, and Michael O’Brien, Katy Carl, Sarah Cortez, Glenn Avery, Sally Thomas, me, and more.

Watch This

And, oh yes, not to forget, there is this video to watch too.