The Christian Imagination and the Question of Autonomous Art

Theopolis is excited to present the inaugural Gaudí Lecture, featuring renowned liturgical artist, writer, and speaker Jonathan Pageau.

The notion of “art for art’s sake” continues to pervade contemporary thinking and practice in the arts. Art is understood as autonomous, liberated from its connection to worship, culture, morality, truth, or beauty, or reduced to a commodity valued primarily for its price and prestige. In either case, art risks becoming detached from the larger human story.

In this lecture, Pageau will argue that the response of the Christian imagination is not simply to reunite art with religious content by depicting biblical scenes or communicating moral messages. Rather, liturgy and sacramentality must be recovered as the internal and coherent driving force of the arts themselves, shaping their forms and their application within the Body of Christ.

Jonathan Pageau is a renowned liturgical artist, writer, and public speaker whose work explores symbolism, religion, art, literature, and culture.

Through his carvings, writing, lectures, and The Symbolic World, Pageau has helped a wide audience recover a symbolic vision of the world, one in which spiritual meaning is revealed through images, stories, rituals, and the patterns of everyday life. Drawing deeply from the Christian tradition, his work offers a compelling way of engaging many of the central questions facing contemporary culture.

Theopolis is honoured to welcome Jonathan Pageau to Toronto to deliver the inaugural Gaudí Lecture.

The Gaudí Lecture is an annual public lecture exploring the importance, influence, and enduring relevance of the Christian imagination. Each year, Theopolis will invite a distinguished creative figure to reflect on the role of the Christian imagination in shaping culture, artistic practice, and daily life.

The lecture is named for Venerable Antoni Gaudí, whose architecture reflects an imagination formed by faith, nature, craftsmanship, and a profound sense of the sacred. His work reveals how artistic practice can become a form of contemplation and how beauty can prepare the soul for faith.

Through this series, Theopolis hopes to create a lasting forum for serious and accessible public conversation, bringing artists, students, professionals, clergy, patrons, academics, and members of the wider community into a shared exploration of art, faith, and culture.