Graduate Student, Divinity
PhD Candidate
Institute for Theology, Imagination, and the Arts
Thesis Title: Available Actors, Appropriate Action: Theodramatic Preparation and Performance
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Prof. Trevor Hart
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About
“Available Actors, Appropriate Action: Theodramatic Formation and Performance” explores theatre as a model for theological ethics, looking particularly at the dynamic interplay between formation as developing disponibility (availability) and performance as displaying fittingness (appropriateness). A primary goal of this project is to demonstrate how disponible formation and fitting performance are multi-dimensional processes oriented simultaneously toward the triune God (as playwright-producer-protagonist), Scripture (as transcript and prescript), the church (as company), tradition (as performance traditions), outsiders (as audience), and local contexts (as stage). As a result, this theodramatic approach seeks to integrate theology and ethics, describing and resourcing everyday Christian living with rich theological reflection. In addition, focusing on the dynamic interplay between formation and performance is an attempt to unify agent-oriented with action-oriented ethics in a holistic, performative matrix. Finally, through attentive interaction with theatrical theory and practice, this project hopes to contribute to a fruitful conversation between Christian theology and the arts, particularly how theatre can provide imaginative, heuristic models for contemporary theology and ethics within the liberating constraints of creedal and confessional Christianity.
