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“Through a Glass Darkly” was founded by Colin McAllister, Department of Visual and Performing Art Assistant Professor and Music Co-Director, in 2015. It started as a small conference at UCCS held at the Heller Center and has grown each year, with Lorenzo DiTommaso of Concordia University Montr\u00e9al joining in 2018 as co-director.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThrough a Glass Darkly\u201d explores the phenomenon of the apocalypse and interest humanity has shown in it, beginning centuries ago. As the program\u2019s website states, \u201cthe study of humankind’s fascination with the apocalyptic worldview is a vast field which has increased in interest over the last three decades with the approach and passing of the start of a new millennium. It is a subject that spans cultures, religions, time, and space, and one that resists easy categorical definition. In \u2018Through a Glass Darkly,\u2019 scholars and artists gather each year to deliver presentations and engage in dialogue.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the first time since its inception the conference was held in Montr\u00e9al, co-hosted by the Department of Religions and Cultures at Concordia University and the School of Religious Studies at McGill University, in part thanks to a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. This year\u2019s theme was \u201cRevelation Rebooted: The Commentary Tradition on the Revelation of John,\u201d focusing on how the Book of Revelation was interpreted in earlier centuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is an exploration of how that book was received during the Medieval period. How did people in Medieval times think about the book?\u201d McAllister explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI love the Revelation commentary tradition. That\u2019s one of the things I\u2019ve worked in and actually translated. I think it\u2019s cool because it\u2019s like a Google search engine for understanding what people in that time period were concerned about.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
McAllister notes that while Apocalyptic studies can be specialized and not easily accessible to those who aren\u2019t pursuing the discipline, the idea of apocalypse and the world ending is a widespread interest that has permeated more accessible avenues, such as popular culture.<\/p>\n\n\n
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\u201cWhat\u2019s fascinating about the study of apocalyptic thought is that on the one hand, it can be a very precise and academic discipline. There are all these texts that exist in Latin and Greek and other languages we don\u2019t use anymore, and so that\u2019s a very specialized and scholarly pursuit, to read and interpret these texts. On the other hand, everybody is sort of interested in what is the end of the world? Is there going to be an end of time, an end of history?\u201d McAllister said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This interest is shown in the consistent outreach McAllister receives from people in various disciplines. He was recently a guest on a philosophy podcast to discuss apocalyptic literature, along with being contacted by a Washington Post reporter who came across McAllister\u2019s work while writing about NASA\u2019s recent satellite launch to make contact with an asteroid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI get calls like that all the time, from people all over that somehow find me and want to talk about the end of the world,\u201d McAllister said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unlike many conferences that host multiple workshops at the same time, \u201cThrough a Glass Darkly\u201d is structured to allow everyone attending to participate in each talk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve always curated this one to be small enough that everybody gets to go to everybody else\u2019s presentations, so there\u2019s no overlapping talks. It creates a great sense of community, and it creates, I think, really interesting dialogue,\u201d McAllister noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While these talks are a main part of the conferences, they aren\u2019t the only presentations conducted. Performance art is often incorporated, like the musical narrative \u201cAeneas in the Underworld\u201d<\/a> that McAllister developed with composer Christopher Adler.<\/p>\n\n\n This was year was the first time the conference was held outside of UCCS, something McAllister hopes to continue by alternating between Colorado Springs and Montr\u00e9al in the future: the next symposium will be held Oct. 12-14, 2023, and will be co-sponsored by UCCS and Colorado College, then will return to Montr\u00e9al in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n McAllister also highlights the support he’s received from UCCS for the conference. The program is underwritten by the UCCS Humanities Program, the Heller Center for Arts & Humanities, the UCCS Department of Visual and Performing Arts, the UCCS Department of History and the UCCS Center for Religious Diversity and Public Life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “That\u2019s what I love about UCCS. I think the UCCS community, especially our Humanities program, is incredibly supportive of transdisciplinary scholarship. I\u2019m not sure that\u2019s the case everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Learn more about “Through a Glass Darkly”<\/a> and the Heller Center for Arts and Humanities<\/a> online.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![\"\"](\"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Montreal-skyline-900x506.jpg\")