BEAUTY AND THE SEARCH FOR MEANING AROUND THE WORLD

In collaboration with John Templeton Foundation

Stephanie Acker, Founder and Executive Director, Everyplace; Chiara Curti, architect expert on the Sagrada Familia, lecturer and researcher at the Antoni Gaudí Faculty in Barcelona; Wael Farouq, Director of the Arab Cultural Institute (ACI), professor of Arabic Language and Literature, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore;. Moderated by Brandon Vaidyanathan, Professor of Sociology and Director of the Institutional Flourishing Lab at The Catholic University of America

To ask whether beauty saves or redeems us is not to pose an abstract aesthetic question. It is to ask what happens when the religious sense meets reality. What takes place when we encounter something that exceeds our measure and awakens the question of meaning? Drawing on social scientific data on beauty in the US and UK populations, experiences of beauty in refugee contexts in Africa, and reflections on beauty in architecture, and perspectives on beauty in Arabic/Islamic culture, this conversation explores how beauty moves us, gathers us together, and makes love possible.