Summer 2025 Update — Institute of Sacred Arts

The state of the sacred arts

Scenes from iconography workshops, classes, conversations, and more

June 2025

Dear Friends of the Sacred Arts,

The Psalms understand and express the amazing relationship, between God, creation, and the human person:

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars that you have established;
what are human beings that you are mindful of them,
mortals that you care for them?
Yet you have made them a little lower than God,
and crowned them with glory and honor…

(Psalm 8:3–5)

Creation somehow needs the human person. The human person – uniquely in God’s image – plays a central role in mediating God to the world, and the world to God. But what is a human being without the plants, the animals, the earth, the rocks, the seas? Our purpose and destiny under the Creator are intertwined with each other.

During the spring semester of 2025, Institute of Sacred Arts Profs. Rossitza Schroeder and Peter Bouteneff co-taught a new course entitled “Creation in the Church’s Art and Theology.” We invited seven speakers working at the intersections of arts, creation, animal care, science, and theology to speak on the way Orthodoxy’s poetic attitude—reflected in its art and its theology of creation – can make a surprising and vital contribution to contemporary discussions of ecological issues. Through these rich discussions, we aimed towards a response to issues pertaining to nature and its conservation that was not only rational, but also emotive, and thus relational.

*Professor Schroeder explores frescoes for their depiction of creation.*

During the course, we heard from:

Professor Henry Maguire, who drew on his storied career in the study of Byzantine art;
Professor Alexander Lingas, who addressed how we sing about creation in the Church’s hymnography;
Professor Vigen Guroian, who drew on his book Inheriting Paradise to make profound connections between theology and gardening;
Brother Christopher of New Skete Monastery, who demonstrated how training and living with (and listening to) dogs can transform one’s vision of oneself and the world;
Aidan Hart, a practicing iconographer, sculptor, and builder, who spoke about the motivations behind and the sources for the vast and intricate icon of creation he has just painted;
Fr. Alexis Vinogradov, who revealed to us the architectural and spatial factors guiding his design of the seminary’s Three Hierarchs Chapel; and
Fr. Doru Costache, who explored the relationship between science and Orthodox theology.

*Fr. Alexis Vinogradov, speaking about the Three Hierarchs Chapel that he designed.*

Each week, students were given new language to discuss the unique attitudes of the Church toward the natural environment, interpret texts and images utilized by the Church, speak credibly on the teaching of the Orthodox Church on creation for contemporary issues of conservation and climate change, and offer ways to interweave the theoretical tenets of the Church with daily living.

*Prof. Schroeder, and Profs. Henry and Eunice Maguire (seated).*

In its theology and its artistic expression, the Orthodox Church speaks volumes about its understanding of creation. "Creation," in this sense, refers both to God’s action of bringing the universe into existence, as well as to the universe that God has made, in all its diversity, splendor, and mystery. The Church’s iconography, church decorations, church architecture, and its hymnography celebrate the cosmos. It exults in the glory of the material word, a world thoroughly indwelt by God.

*A Zoom session with Vigen Guroian (above), and a classroom visit with Brother Christopher of New Skete (below).*

We have more exciting announcements coming ahead as we continue to work and learn at this intersection of human creativity and holiness, and the “icon” of all Creation! Thank you for your prayers and support through educational programs like this—and so much more.

Please be in touch if you have questions, encouragement, and ideas. You may email us any time at sacredarts@svots.edu.

On behalf of my team,

Peter Bouteneff
Director, Institute of Sacred Arts