Get Ready for Sights, Sounds, and Stories: the 2024 ATA Theological Consultation! 

A prominent artist by the name of George Inness once said, “The true use of art is, first, to cultivate the artist’s own spiritual nature.” But several people, especially those within the church, rarely associate art with anything spiritual or think that it has any theological or missional use at all!. Art, in the eyes of the majority, only serves aestheic purposes and has no use in matters of spirtuality, theology, and mission. Yet the arts, in its diverse forms, can intersect with theology and things spiritual and can even be of great use in the life of the church and in His mission. So, there is a great need for the church to come together to converse on such an often overlooked matter- and the Asia Theological Association dares to create the space for such conversations through this year’s theological consultation with the theme “Sights, Sounds, and Stories”.

Theology and the Arts: Sights, Sounds, and Story, the 2024 ATA Theological Consultation, will be held on November 12 up until the 15th in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The goal of this year’s consultation to bring together creatives, pastors, leaders of churches and mission organizations, and of course, theologians and biblical scholars into an open space of vibrant conversations about, faith, life, and the arts in Asia. In addition to lively conversations, we will likewise be having keynote speakers, panel discussions and interviews, workshops, presentation of papers, performances, art installations and displays, and artistic presentations! Exciting right?

So, we are inviting not just researchers, students, professors, and others working in the theological and wider academic community, but also artists and creatives to contribute to this year’s consultation! So, we are not just calling for paper proposals that intend to explore the intersection of theology and the arts, but also for creative art project proposals too! We encourage paper proposals and creative art project proposals that:

  • Reflect the breadth and the depth of human experience
  • Embody and inform Christian thinking.
  • Express, enact, and unfold the beauty, wisdom, and love of God.
  • Invite hermeneutical discourse and critical contextualisation.
  • Reach and transform communities.

Why does art matter in theology? 

Learn what some of the plenary speakers and presenters have to say about that

“Art continues to speak of and to God where even our most brilliant speech fails.” – Marie Joy Pring Faraz 

“Storytelling is among the oldest of art forms, and that is what largely what the Bible uses to mediate theology.” – Havilah Dharamraj  

“Music is an art of time, which is best paired with the Divine Word”.- Joshua Chang 

“Art, in its many expressions, is an extension and participation in the divine nature, showing us ourselves and who we can become.” – Fritz Melodi 

.”..art reflect artists’ hermeneutics.” – Samuel Goh 

“Art communicates theological reflection in ways that words can never express.”- Angelica de Vera 

“Artmaking helps us enter a creative process of imagination and meaning making that go beyond the immediate reality which to me is another form of theological reflection.” – Joyce Chan