David William Brown: Architecture, Worship, and Imagination

David taught for fourteen years at Oxford and for seventeen at Durham before becoming Professor of Theology, Aesthetics & Culture at the University of St. Andrews in 2007. In recent years he has focused on interactions between theology and the arts and indeed culture more generally. This resulted in a series of five books for Oxford University Press: "Tradition and Imagination," "Discipleship and Imagination," "God and Enchantment of Place," "God and Grace of Body" and "God and Mystery in Words." David was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2002, and of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2012. His most recent book is "Gospel as Work of Art: Imaginative Truth and the Open Text."

In this episode, David and I discuss architecture, worship, and imagination. From the symbolism of stained glass to the impact of architectural design on the worship experience, we draw parallels between Hindu temples, Jewish synagogues, and churches as we explore the nature of sacred space. We also talked about how aesthetic and religious experience overlap but also differ in important ways.