Theology, Modernity, and Literature

The third and final iteration of the TMA project, the Theology, Modernity, and Literature project asks: In what ways can scholarly attention to literature contribute to the theological narration of modernity? Like the additional music and visual arts wings, the TML colloquium has as its main goal the publication of an academic volume of research and the forming of a core community of scholars in the field of theology and the literary arts.

The project began with an exploratory meeting in 2021 in Cambridge: against the backdrop of the Easter at King’s Festival, a group of literary scholars, theologians, and artists met to outline a project that addresses key gaps in the field of literature and the arts and articulates a New Creation theology of the literary arts in the modern era. The advisory board also determined the project’s scope, selected the steering committee, and appointed former archbishop Lord Rowan Williams and DITA Associate Director Dr. Dan Train as co-directors.

Since 2021, the project has convened twice for focused conferences at King’s College Cambridge. In 2022, project participants assembled for a series of collaborative seminars again during the Easter at King’s Festival, and in 2023, the steering committee and invited guests gathered in Trinity Hall in the autumn to begin work on the project's collaborative volume of research. The project's next meeting is tentatively scheduled for fall 2025 and will focus primarily on the poetry, drama, and fiction of modern British literature. 

Funding for this project has generously been provided by the McDonald Agape Foundation.