About RCTA
Our Vision
Every work of scholarship and creative act shares a desire to make sense of the world and answer the questions which intrigue the human mind: What does it mean to be human? What gives our lives meaning? How should we live?
Such questions summon voices from many corridors, but these voices often do not engage with one another. As a result, discourses fragment along disciplinary, vocational, ideological, or religious lines.
The Rivendell Center for Theology and the Arts (RCTA) envisions a different path, curating conversations between a variety of interlocutors. By drawing upon the fruitful partnership historically enjoyed by Christian theology and the arts, and expanding this to include scholars and practitioners from many different disciplines and perspectives, we seek to generate fresh, innovative approaches to these critical questions. In all we do, we ask: how do works of the imagination shape our understanding of ourselves and our world?
History of RCTA
RCTA was founded in 2016 as a Research Center of the Rivendell Institute at Yale. Both Dr. Mahan and Dr. Walker’s personal engagement with theology and the arts recognized the importance of the imagination and works of the imagination for understanding the human experience, providing the impetus for the creation of the center.
RCTA’s co-founders also recognized that any theological engagement with the arts needed to participate in a broader conversation with artists and art scholars from many different outlooks and points of view. With this commitment in mind, ‘curating meaningful conversations’ emerged as one of the central ambitions of the center –– conversations that remain open to diverse voices and committed to scholarly rigor.
People
Directors, Fellows, and Staff
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DAVID MAHAN
Co-Director, RCTA
Senior Fellow, Rivendell Institute
Lecturer in Religion and Literature,
Yale Institute of Sacred Music,
Yale Divinity School -
TANYA WALKER
Co-Director, RCTA
Senior Fellow, Rivendell Institute
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NAOMI HOFFMAN
Administrative Assistant,
Rivendell Institute
Board of Reference
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AWET ANDEMICAEL
Operatic Soprano, Theologian
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MAGGI DAWN
Musician, Writer, Theologian
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MAKOTO FUJIMURA
Visual Artist
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ELIZABETH T. GRAY, JR.
Poet and Translator
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MICHEAL O'SIADHAIL
Poet and Translator
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NICHOLAS WOLTERSTORFF
Philosopher of Religion
About the Rivendell Institute
Founded at Yale University in 1995, the Rivendell Institute seeks to examine and advance the contribution of a Christian vision of life to human flourishing and the common good within the academy and contemporary culture.
Partner with RCTA
Your financial contribution will advance our goal of ‘curating meaningful conversations’ and support the many programs we offer.
Contact RCTA
We’d love to hear from you! Contact us to learn more about our work, and how you can become involved.
rcta@rivendellinstitute.org
Rivendell Office: (203) 785 0164
RCTA | Rivendell Institute
291 Edwards St.
New Haven, CT 06511