Theological Thoughts from the Neurotheology sequence

The University of Chicago Press has just published a new book entitled: A Field Guide to a New Meta-Field: Bridging the Humanities-Neurosciences Divide, edited by Barbara Maria Stafford. I was honored by Anne Benvenuti’s and Elizabeth Davenport’s request to contribute an image to their chapter in this book, “The New Archaic: a Neurophenomological Approach to Religious Ways of Knowing.” A reproduction of Theological Thoughts appears on page 220.

As with many of my art works, there is underlying Canadian content. The transformed photograph used was that of St. John’s Anglican Church on Humberside Avenue in West Toronto, just a few blocks from where I grew up. When I was nine years old, during summer, a neighborhood friend took me across the grounds of Humberside Collegiate Institute, and showed me the church he and his family attended. I was utterly astounded to learn that the services were conducted differently from what I was accustomed to, and that there were no confessionals, and no confessions! My Roman Catholic, Baltimore Cathechism education indicated that eternal damnation was assured. However, he was a friend of mine, and we spent the summer together quite nicely, with no appearance of any form of damnation. This was a mind-transforming event in my life.

Full-size, archival-quality prints on canvas of this image (5 x 6 feet in size) are on permanent display at:

Pritzker School of Medicine, first floor entrance lobby
Donnelley Biological Sciences Building
University of Chicago
924 E. 57 Street
Chicago, IL 60637 and

Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture
6500 S. Pulaski Rd.
Chicago, IL 60629