PRESENTATION
Newman Exhibition available in English
The Newman exhibition, prepared by the CL UK community for the Rimini Meeting and the London Encounter, is now available in English. Communities are invited to bring and propose the exhibition in their parishes, universities, schools, etc. For information on how to borrow the exhibit: meetingnewman@gmail.com
Details on the aims, content, and format of the exhibition:
Presentation
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This exhibition has been realised and presented on the occasion of the XXXII edition of “Meeting per l’Amicizia fra i popoli” and the 1st Edition of the London Encounter. It has been touring the UK since then, and has been displayed in more than 30 locations.
Prepared by the UK CL Community with the help of Ian Ker and Richard Duffield. |
Content
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This exhibition responded to the invitation, made by Pope Benedict XVI during his visit to Great Britain, to reflect on the figure of John Henry Newman. He extended this invitation above all because Newman was “a modern man, who lived the whole problem of modernity”, and because he saw that all of us have a lot to learn from Newman’s three conversions. The three conversions can, in fact, be seen as three ‘conversions to reality’. The first conversion is the discovery that God and the soul are real, and that the presence of God can be perceived with the same concreteness and certainty with which one perceives the outside world, everyday objects or the faces of friends. For the young Newman this is a Copernican revolution: he realises that what truly counts in life is the clear presence of the person of God, so that all existence becomes a dialogue between the heart of man and the heart of God. The second conversion brings the realisation that faith is not exhausted in an individualistic dialogue with God but becomes an awareness of the whole of reality. A faith that is not rooted in reality, that does not change the criteria with which we relate to the world, is an illusion and not a response to the deep desires of man. From here began Newman’s untiring battle against the dualism between ‘things’ and ‘words’ and his surprising discovery that a true dialogue between man and God opens up a dialogue with the hearts of other human beings. The final conversion is Newman’s conversion to Catholicism. It is the discovery that God decided to ‘interfere in human affairs’, creating a real place of His presence in the form of the Catholic Church. In this living body, the person of Christ becomes tangible: He is present in the communion between brothers of the faith, He shines in the sanctity of their lives, He lets Himself be touched in the sacraments. In the communion of the Church, the dialogue with the heart of God coincides with the dialogue between the hearts of men. Our aim is to trace this threefold journey of conversion by proposing a biographical and thematic path, from which it emerges that conscience was the driving force of Newman’s journey towards the certainty of truth: ex umbris et imaginibus in veritatem (“out of shadows and illusions into truth”). We also consider how such a journey characterised
Newman as an educator.
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Technical details
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Number of panels
The exhibition is made of 22 panels in different formats.
Each panel is printed on a roller banner, inserted in a roll up portable stand which is supplied with a canvas carry bag.
The exhibition does not require any external hanging or standing device. PREVIEW OF PANELS AND STANDS Dimensions of the panels
- N. 20 panels 80x200 cm (nn. 1, 3-17, 19-22)
- N. 2 panels 100x200 cm (nn. 2 and 18)
The exhibition requires a space of 30 linear metres.
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Sections
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The exhibition is divided into 3 sections:
- Introduction: from panel n. 1 to panel n. 2
- Section I (The first conversion): from panel n. 3 to panel n. 6
- Section II (The second conversion): from panel n. 7 to panel n. 12
- Section III (The third conversion): from panel n. 13 to panel n. 22
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Audio-Video
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The exhibition includes also three audio-video media:
- N. 1 DVD audio-video, 8’51’’ (A dialogue with Newman), to be used in the first section
- N. 1 CD audio, 4’13’’ (A dialogue from “Callista”), to be used in the second section
- N. 1 DVD audio-video, 4’20’’ (Biglietto speech), to be used in the third section
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Language
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English
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