Ninth International Conference on Religion & Spirituality in Society

Abstract

“There is something deeply hypocritical about praying for a problem you are unwilling to resolve.” Following the quote from Miroslav Volf, the presentation attempts to investigate questions raised by the author’s research of contemporary sacred art embedded in the field of design culture studies, with regard of the relation of design and religion. What can design learn from religion—and vice versa—in the era of the Capitalocene? Theories of sacred design to sacred service design suggest a wide range of approaches. The paper suggests that design culture and its academic studies, as “it forces one to move beyond the enervated position of the detached or alienated observer overwhelmed by images” to become “mobilized not merely as analysis, but as a generative mode that produces new sensibilities, attitudes, approaches, and intellectual processes in design practice” and the sacred, as it “inhabits this gap between knowing and doing, and could thus be a powerful counterforce to akrasia” show analogies, and can thus cooperate in providing a relevant and effective answer for major current challenges. In support of the arguments, the presentation uses works from Ferenc Svindt’s oeuvre as a case study.