J.R. Howard Hall

What changes when we stop seeing religious objects as works of art—and recognize them instead as material embodiments of divine power? Drawing on Arthur Danto and Hans Belting, this lecture explores the fundamental ontological differences between artworks and religious objects, and what we lose when we mistake one for the other.

What should higher education become in an age when technology and globalization are reshaping how we learn and live? This lecture proposes a revival of humane learning and philosophy as a way of life—an intercultural, reconstructive approach designed not simply to transmit knowledge, but to cultivate thoughtful, grounded human beings.