FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 4, 2007
Media Contact: Micki Leventhal 312-344-7383
WHAT: Monsters in the Christian Tradition –
An Illustrated Intersections Presentation by Stephen T. Asma
WHEN: Wednesday, October 3 – 6:00 p.m.
WHERE: Chicago Cultural Center, Garland Room, 78 E. Washington, 1st Floor
HOW MUCH: Free and open to the public
MORE INFO: 312-744-6630
Many people have heard of Leviathan and Behemoth in the Old Testament, but lesser known are the race of Giants --born of human women who were impregnated by fallen angels. So too, while many Christians may have a St. Christopher statue on the dashboard of their cars, Christopher is rarely depicted (as the Eastern Church believes) as a monster with a dog’s head. Many ancient and medieval monsters have been conveniently edited out of modern orthodoxy, but they played important roles in previous eras.
To be a monster is to be an omen. Sometimes the monster is a display of God’s wrath, sometimes a portent of the future, sometimes a symbol of moral virtue or vice, sometimes an accident of nature.
The monster is more than an odious creature of the imagination, it is a kind of cultural category –employed in domains as diverse as religion, biology, literature and politics. In this lecture Dr. Asma will examine some of the fabulous creatures of ancient legend, and draw parallels to our contemporary uses and abuses of monsters. Significant images will be included in the presentation.
Stephen T. Asma, Ph.D. is a professor of philosophy and Distinguished Scholar at Columbia College Chicago. He is the author of several books, including Buddha for Beginners (Writers & Readers, 1996) Stuffed Animals and Pickled Heads: The Culture and Evolution of Natural History Museums (Oxford University Press, 2001) and The Gods Drink Whiskey: Stumbling Toward Enlightenment in the Land of the Tattered Buddha (HarperCollins San Francisco, 2005). He is currently at work on his fifth book, Monsters: An Unnatural History, forthcoming from Oxford University Press in 2008. Dr. Asma writes extensively for the Chronicle of Higher Education Review, is a published visual artist and a blues musician. Visit www.stephenasma.com
WHO: A collaboration between the Cultural Studies Program of Columbia College Chicago and the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, Intersections presents lectures and discussions that investigate and celebrate the complexity of contemporary culture and the arts in which scholars and educators from Columbia College Chicago explore a broad range of compelling topics in a format designed to be informative, invigorating and accessible.
UPCOMING INTERSECTIONS PROGRAM:
November 14: The Two Daleys: Comparing and Contrasting Two Administrations with historian Dominic A. Pacyga December 5: Our Post 9/11 World: Terrorism and the War on Terrorism, with civil right attorney H. Candace Gorman, philosophy professor Raja Halwani and political science professor Robert Watkins.