Aesthetics & Spirituality with Professor Norman Cornett

Donald Woods Winnicott (1896-1971) conducted seminal research in pediatrics and psychoanalysis. He endeavoured to understand how a newborn relates the womb to the world, the internal to the external. He proposed that a transitional object, such as the mother's breast, enables the newborn to make such connnections. Based on this concept Professor Norman Cornett maintains that the, '' arts create a transitional space between the material and spiritual realms so that aesthetics constitute the threshold of spirituality.'' He concludes that, ''the arts thus provide a paradigm whereby we may develop a postmodern construct of spirituality.'' As a result, "the arts serve as the axis of his dialogic philosophy of religious studies."Professor Norman Cornett will lead a dialogue on this topic.