Climacus Conference: "Truth, Goodness, Beauty Will Save Us"

The Climacus Conference

(Orthodox Arts Journal) - The Climacus Conference is a clas­sical Chris­tian intel­lectual/spiri­tual event feat­uring scho­lars and voices across the fields of Theo­logy, Philo­sophy, Clas­sical Educa­tion, Litera­ture, and Hist­ory/Poli­tics. It is unique in that it prov­ides an oppor­tunity for atten­dees to be enriched by think­ing well across disci­plines.

In it’s fifth annual installment, the Climacus Conference will continue in its endeavor to “deve­lop the life of the mind through scholarly enga­gement with the clas­sic liberal arts,” approaching this by means of the Greek Patristic understanding of the nous, the mind of the heart, enab­ling our asce­nsion “of the lad­der” (κλίμακος/climacus), as insp­ired by St. John Clim­acus and his Lad­der of Div­ine Asc­ent. This year, the theme of the conference is beauty – namely in how we define it, the aesthetics of beautiful things, and the practice of that aesthetic, the “redemptive and salvific role of beauty in our lives.”

This year’s conference boasts nine lecturers giving sixteen lectures. Among these is the founder of the Orthodox Arts Journal, Andrew Gould. The conference in very reasonably priced and should be of great interest to anyone interested in beauty, beautiful things, and the effects of beauty on our lives. Andrew will be speaking from his experience as an architect and liturgical artist whose designs “marry medieval Orthodox architecture with sympathetic influences from American building traditions.”