Book By Two Distinguished Holy Cross Professors to Be Subject of Discussion

WORCESTER, Mass. – The Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture will continue its "Celebration of Books" recently published by Holy Cross faculty with a discussion on Practicing Mortality: Art, Philosophy, and Contemplative Seeing on Feb. 21 at 4 p.m. in the College’s Rehm Library. The event is free and open to the public.

Practicing Mortality (Palgrave, 2005) is a collaborative endeavor to deepen readers’ understanding of "contemplating seeing" through the works of Plato, Thoreau, Heidegger and others. The authors — an art historian and philosopher — explore what it means to "see" reality and contemplate how viewing reality philosophically and artfully is a form of spirituality. In this way, the authors propose a way of seeing that unites both critical scrutiny and spiritual involvement, as opposed to simple passive reception.

The authors of Practicing Mortality are Christopher Dustin, associate professor and former chair of the department of philosophy, and Joanna Ziegler, professor of art history and former chair of the department of visual arts. Both authors are recipients of the College’s Distinguished Teaching Award.

Mark Freeman, professor of psychology and assistant dean of the Class of 2007, will review the book, Dustin and Ziegler will respond with their own remarks and an open floor discussion will follow. Freeman is author of several books of his own, including Finding the Muse: A Sociopsychological Inquiry into the Conditions of Artistic Creativity (Cambridge, 1993). Designated an Outstanding Academic Book by Choice magazine in 1995, Finding the Muse explores the lives of a group of aspiring American artists, focusing especially on problems of creativity as they relate to such issues as the mystique of the modern artist, the place of the art market in fashioning artistic identity, and the limits and possibilities of modern art itself.

Therese Schroeder-Sheker, founder of the Chalice of Repose Project and educator at the Catholic University of America, says, "Practicing Mortality is a masterpiece of the contemplative life. ... With quiet beauty-filled humility, and in a seamless blending of voices that rarely occurs, Professors Ziegler and Dustin return pedagogy to a creative, religious significance and substance that is at once deepening and liberating. ... Thoroughly American, fully grounded, highly textured, radical in its candor, confident and peace-filled, Practicing Mortality is sure to become a spiritual classic: read, re-read, and read again by everyone who enters its world."

The event is the continuation of a series of discussions of books by faculty that run across the concerns of the Center — religion, ethics and culture.