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Assistant Professor of Systematic Theology

Brett Potter, PhD
I aim to do constructive theology that draws on the Christian tradition while also intentionally engaging in interreligious dialogue, particularly around justice, ecology, and the arts.

I am an interdisciplinary teacher and researcher exploring the intersection of religion, beauty, and the arts (theological aesthetics) as well as what it means to be human in light of divine revelation (theological anthropology). I am interested in the ways creativity and the human religious impulse help us imagine our place in the cosmos, which has led me to explore new horizons in interreligious dialogue and the emerging discipline of eco-theology.

My background is in the arts, and so much of my research has centred on the way that film and modern visual art serve as sites of theological meaning. In addition to critically engaging major twentieth-century theologians such as Hans Urs von Balthasar, I have published and presented work on eco-theology and the arts; the relationship between theology and phenomenology; theological aesthetics and interreligious encounter; as well as the influence of theologians like Karl Barth and Paul Tillich on Canadian literary theorist Northrop Frye.

As a teacher of theology and religion, I am committed to fostering an inclusive learning environment for all students; teaching in an interdisciplinary mode; as well as creativity and collaboration in the classroom. Frequent topics of research, teaching, and supervision include:

  • Religion and the arts, film, and popular culture
  • Theological anthropology
  • The Canadian religious imagination
  • Philosophy of religion
  • Creation and eco-theology
  • Comparative religious ethics and interreligious dialogue

My interest in questions of theological anthropology has led to new projects examining how science-engaged theology can help us understand our place as human beings in the vastness and diversity of creation. This approach also shapes my engagement with traditional theological themes such as the Trinity, christology, and eschatology. I am particularly interested in incarnational theologies that situate the redemption of human flesh within the larger contexts of evolutionary biology and “deep time.” The study of the human also fits together with my interest in theologizing human bodies in relation to things like sports, nonviolence, and transhumanism.

I aim to do constructive theology that draws on the Christian tradition while also intentionally engaging in interreligious dialogue, particularly around justice, ecology, and the arts. It is my hope that Huron students of theology and religion will similarly find that an interfaith setting is an excellent venue for exploring the richness, complexity, and beauty of global religious traditions and their transformations in the modern context.

 

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Hans Urs von Balthasar and the Phenomenology of Art: Broken Open by Beauty (Lanham, MD: Lexington, 2022)

Theology, Film, and Ecological Catastrophe (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield/Fortress Academic, forthcoming 2024)

“Inside Out and Outside In: Art, Truth, and Phenomenology in Hans Urs von Balthasar,” Heythrop Journal 61:3 (May 2020): 424-436. https://doi.org/10.1111/heyj.13508

“Tracing the Landscape: Re-enchantment, Play, and Spirituality in Parkour,” Religions 10:9 (2019): 505. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10090505

“Creative Intuition After Beauty: Jacques Maritain’s Philosophy of Art in the Contemporary Context,” Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture 21:2 (Spring 2018): 81-108.

“Image and Kenosis: Assessing Jean-Luc Marion’s Contribution to a Postmetaphysical Theological Aesthetics,” International Journal of Philosophy and Theology 79:1-2 (Fall 2017): 60-79.

“A Word Not Our Own: Northrop Frye and Karl Barth on Revelation and Imagination,” Literature and Theology 28:4 (2011): 438-456.