Theology on Tap returns next week!

Join us on Tuesday, March 11th at 7 PM for the first talk in our series, “The Existential Art of Flannery O’Connor: A Three-Part Series,” by Adam Rutledge at the Rattlesnake Bar and Grill at 384 Boylston Street with the presentation beginning at 7:30 PM.

“When you can assume that your audience holds the same beliefs you do, you can relax a little and use more normal ways of talking to it; when you have to assume that it does not, then you have to make your vision apparent by shock – to the hard of hearing you shout, and for the blind you draw large and startling figures.” – O’Connor, Mystery and Manners

What does it mean to be a Christian writer in the modern age? An age in which many believe they have moved beyond faith, beyond the need for metaphysical truth claims, beyond the need for God? Through close readings of several of Flannery O’Connor’s short stories, including A Good Man is Hard to Find, Parker’s Back, and Revelation, this series will explore the answer to that question as given by one of the 20th century’s most enigmatic and engaging writers.

Tuesday, March 11 – Week One

“Startling Figures: An Introduction to O’Connor and her Work”
Part 1 of the series will provide a brief introduction and overview of the life and work of Flannery O’Connor, including her prose writings and her recently published prayer journal, written when she was in her early 20s and pondering her artistic vocation just prior to the onset of the debilitating disease that would eventually claim her life at the age of 39. The talk with then turn to an initial examination of the short stories to be taken up in the remainder of the series on March 17th and 25th.

Adam Rutledge, Treasurer at the Church of the Advent, is finishing a PhD on religious themes in literary modernism in the English Department at Brandeis University, and he has a master’s degree in Religion and Literature from Yale Divinity School.  His interests include Aesthetics, the relationship between Philosophy, Theology, and Literature, Medieval Latin Literature, and the History of the Book.  He currently works in the investment group of a trust firm in Boston’s financial district.

This series then continues the following two weeks:

• Monday, March 17th (note the date change)
• Tuesday, March 25th