On Mortality
How then should we live in light of death?
For the opening of this year's ORIGIN series, Art House Dallas welcomed author, professor, and Tolkien expert, Matthew Dickerson for an evening conversation exploring mortality and vocation through the lens of J.R.R. Tolkien's short story Leaf by Niggle. With so much money and effort invested in attempting to lengthen the span of human life even to the extreme point of one day possibly eliminating death altogether, it is wise to return to simpler questions that remind us of what it means to be human and what it means to flourish in a created world where all things die. What value does human creativity and art have in the shadow of death and mortality? And further to the point, what does mortality have to do with art and its appreciation?
About Matthew Dickerson: Matthew Dickerson is the author of numerous works of fiction and non-fiction in a variety of genres whose works have appeared in a variety of print and online magazines and journals and is a popular speaker on a variety of topics including creative writing, fantasy literature (especially on the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis), philosophy of mind, and trout and fly-fishing.
He is a professor at Middlebury College in Vermont and is currently co-directing and teaching at the new Northern Pen Young Writers' Conference. For twelve years he was the Director of the New England Young Writers' Conference at Breadloaf, and still serves on the NEYWC Coordinating Committee and frequently leads workshops or craft sessions there.
Order the Origin Reader: On Mortality
This anthology is the loving creation of a community of friends in hope of transformation and an ever-deepening faith. As with previous anthologies, each chapter includes an anchor text, poetry, visual art, and scripture, and prayerful reflection. We hope you will find the authors, poets, and artists to be wise guides and friends as you enter into a companioned journey of exploring mortality in Christ through the door of imagination.
This reader is intended to be used alongside the Art House Dallas Origin program, if you are unable to afford this reader and would still love to participate, please fill out this form and let us know your situation.
On Mortality will be mailed to participants. Pickup dates will be available in Dallas as well.
ABOUT ORIGIN
Origin, an Art House Dallas program, seeks to establish a wholeness and connectedness between spiritual formation, imagination, and the arts with the ultimate intent to establish a sacred perspective on how we individually and collectively live and create. We believe that beauty shown through the arts, culture, and creation holds a powerful ability to form the way we see ourselves, the world, and our interaction with both. As embodied creatures made in the image of the Triune God we must consider the formation of our senses, our emotions, and our ideas. This same incarnate God calls us to be like him in our participation of cultivating goodness, truth, and beauty. There are few things more sacred in life than points of origin. The point from where thoughts, ideas, and perspectives begin holds potent ability to echo and endure through generations and shape how people and cultures both speak and act. How a person interacts with and thinks about the world is the essence of living and the result of a starting point.
The thematic direction of the ORIGIN series this year will explore the construct of death and mortality, especially as it relates to how we live in response to our understanding. The aim of this year’s series will be to go beyond exploration of death as a subject to be understood; rather, the hope is to meditate on the implications of our finitude as artists, as patrons of the arts, as clergy, as believers – and as husbands, wives, children, neighbors, friends, and learn to “number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.” (Psalm 90:12)