CALL FOR ART
ISSUE II: HERE I AM, LORD
SUBMISSIONS:
The deadline to contribute to the "Here I am, Lord" issue of the Transient Theology Zine is Friday, November 24 at 11:59 pm EST. Make sure to submit your artwork to the Google form before then! If you have any questions or concerns regarding your eligibility to submit, or if you run into any technical difficulties during the submission process, please don't hesitate to email me at [email protected]!
Theme Announcement:
The first issue of the Transient Theology Zine was an introductory exploration of the intersections of process philosophy, queer theory, and the lived experiences of trans+ Christians. One of the main themes of the previous issue was that of interdependence and the corresponding idea that our experience of gender is largely influenced by our relationships to other individuals and their expressions of gender.
Following up on the topic of relationships and interdependence, the Transient Theology Zine’s “Here I am, Lord” issue seeks to more closely examine trans+ Christians’ own relationships with God and the connections between their faith and gender expression. In a poll posted to the Transient Theology Project’s Instagram page on 9/21, audience members were asked what themes they would like explored in upcoming issues. The overwhelming response was mysticism — and seeing as how Christian mysticism is ultimately about unity with God, this issue will focus on the queering of our relationships with God and how mysticism breaks both the binaries between male & female and us & God. This issue is not intended to be as formally academic as the first and future issues, meaning this time around the zine won’t be as saturated with research-based essays so much as it may contain more freeform theological musings from yours truly. This leaves all the more room for other trans+ Chrisitan artists, poets, musicians, (video)essayists, photographers, and creatives of all media types to contribute their own work featuring themes of mysticism in its many dimensions: allegorical (queer) interpretations of Scripture, the liturgical mystery of the (queerly) embodied presence of Christ in the Eucharist, and contemplative/experiential knowledge of God. Artwork focusing on the intricacies of one’s own relationship with God, the angels and saints, and the Christian faith is also more than welcome to be submitted even if the artist is unsure about whether or not the piece falls in line with any specific dimension of mysticism. |
Related Quotes (to help get your gears turning!):
“The point behind mysticism is not to dazzle the mind with ecstatic wonders or heady feelings, but to foster real and lasting changes, for the purpose of becoming more like Christ, which is to say, more compassionate, more forgiving, more committed to serving others and making the world a better place.” ― Carl McColman
“I pray you: seek more to embody God than to merely have knowledge of God. For knowledge can deceive us with pride, but a meek, loving awareness will not deceive. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up (I Corinthians 8:1). Knowledge leads to travail, whereas awareness leads to rest.” ― The Book of Privy Counselling
"The man who is contented to be only himself, and therefore less a self, is in prison… Here, as in worship, in love, in moral action, and in knowing, I transcend myself; and am never more myself than when I do." — C. S. Lewis
“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main...any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee.” — John Donne
"The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God's eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love." --Meister Eckhart
"The Christian mystic therefore is one for whom God and Christ are not merely objects of belief, but living facts experimentally known first hand, and mysticism for him becomes, in so far as he responds to its demands, a life based on this conscious communion with God." — Carl McColman
"Be a gardener.
Dig a ditch, toil and sweat, and turn the earth upside down and seek the deepness and water the plants in time. Continue this labor and make sweet floods to run and noble and abundant fruits to spring. Take this food and drink and carry it to God as your true worship." — Julian of Norwich |