In the spring 2014 semester, Duke Initiatives in Theology and the Arts (DITA) will present three new courses in theology, literature, and the arts.
 
Daniel Train, a postdoctoral associate, will be teaching “Sacred and Secular Scriptures: An Introduction to Christian Approaches to Literature.” This course will offer a broad survey of pivotal texts that have characterized Christianity’s engagement with imaginative literature in the West, and explore the West’s great debt to biblical texts and exegesis. The readings will span from Augustine to Milton to contemporary authors and poets.
 
Professor Roger Lundin, DITA's visiting scholar from Wheaton College, will offer a course specifically on theology and the arts in late modernity titled “Keeping the Believing Nimble,” focusing on some of the poetry and fiction of the last 150 years, the questions it poses to the modern West, and some possible creative Christian counterproposals.
 
Dean Richard Hays and Professor Jeremy Begbie will be co-teaching an advanced course on the Passion narratives, engaging the arts, classical and contemporary, as a conversation partner in theological exegesis.

The new classes will meet a growing need among students for more regular courses in theology in the arts. They will also complement other DITA events during the semester, especially the "Sounding the Passion" events and lectures April 9-11 and the premier of the new St. Luke Passion by Scottish composer James MacMillan in Duke Chapel on April 13.