THE ARTIST AFTER GOD:
A History Within a Lesson
TREASURES OF THE
DOMINICAN THEOLOGICAL LIBRARY
Br. Luke Hoyt, O.P.
The Dominican Theological Library
(DTL) that serves the PFIC wasn’t always
located in D.C. It began in the farm
fields of Ohio, outside the little town of
Somerset, back in 1834. However, when
the House of Studies moved to the new
priory in Washington, D.C. in 1905, the
library came with it.
One thing that has not changed is
its mission to provide students with
the academic resources they need to
bring the Gospel to the world. This is
achieved not only by the collection
the DTL maintains, but also by the
environment for sacred study that
it provides.
Being a Dominican library, the DTL
has an emphasis on philosophy and
theology, with a special focus on the
works of St. Thomas Aquinas and
“Dominicana” – works by Dominican
authors. Items in the rare book
collection range from a fifteenthcentury Bible to a 1796 print of the
U.S. Constitution.
Faith & Reason - Winter 2015
Maintaining a collection of 59,000 volumes
requires much attention. In addition to
the regular maintenance of the catalog,
the staff of five – led by Librarian Fr. John
Martin Ruiz, O.P. (MA ’02; MDiv, STB ’07)
– attends to many other duties: making
acquisitions to expand the collection,
subscribing to online databases, restoring
old books, digitizing collections, and
arranging the storage of digital files.
For students of the PFIC, books provide
a supernatural encounter with the Word
of God and a natural encounter with
the development of human thought.
By facilitating these encounters, the
Dominican Theological Library does more
than help students achieve good grades
in their coursework. It helps them become
better disciples of Christ who aspire to
speak his truth to all nations.
Your support of the library
is the key to its preservation:
www.dhs.edu/donate
Thank you!
By Erin O’Kane
Erin O’Kane is an actress and calls the
Dominican parish of St. Joseph’s in
Greenwich Village her spiritual home.
She recounts a recent Catholic Artist’s
Society event in New York City sponsored
by the PFIC’s Thomistic Institute
(www.thomisticinstitute.org).
I recently attended a lecture at the
Catholic Center at NYU hosted by The
Catholic Artists Society entitled The
Artist After God: A History with a Lesson.
The talk was given by Dr. Ryan N. S.
Topping who is a professor of Theology
at Thomas More College in Merrimack,
New Hampshire.
Topping opened his lecture with
the phrase “Let your prayer be your
work and your work be your prayer.”
This practice of praying, courtesy of
Benedictine theological tradition, links
prayer to labor. He argued that this
mixture of sanctification and fabrication
resulted in such masterpieces
as medieval Gothic cathedrals,
Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel, and
Beethoven’s Mass in C Minor.
With the dawning of the Age of
Enlightenment, Topping explained how
the intelligentsia began to perceive faith
with suspicion. This thinking brought
about scientific inquiry divorced from
transcendence.
The perception of beauty in art also
changed dramatically. This was illustrated
in Mozart’s opera, Così fan tutte, where
love and prayer transform into pain. The
poet William Wordsworth showcased this
new philosophy in his poem, “The Tables
Turned,” in which all the beauty in the
world eventually turns from good to evil.
In his final message, Dr. Topping urged
artists to use their talents to bring others
closer to God. He added that it is through
the Sacraments that we experience
the beauty of God. And to illustrate the
enduring bond between faith and the arts
he gave a quotation from the Dominican
friar and Renaissance painter, Fra Angelico:
“He who does Christ’s work must stay with
Christ always.”
As I continue to engage in the New
York theater scene, I am grateful for
Dr. Topping’s analysis of the interaction
between faith and the arts.
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