“I often think that we need beauty as much as we need food, water, or shelter. And I don’t mean beauty from material wealth. Rather, beauty in nature, in quality of thought and action, in ethical and moral vision, in human understanding, in divine awareness, and in forms of expression –whether spoken, sung, imaged, crafted, or prayed.” (Church historian Susan Ashbrook Harvey)
Our first speaker for our retreat on Healing Beauty is Dr. Pia Chaudhari, who holds a doctorate in theology from the department of Psychiatry & Religion at Union Theological Seminary in New York. She spent two years working as a chaplain intern in a psychiatric hospital, and has trained and worked extensively in Jungian psychoanalysis. She is a founding co-chair of the Analytical Psychology and Orthodox Christianity Consultation which was started in order to promote dialogue across the fields of Orthodox theology/pastoral care and analytical psychology after Carl Jung.
Pia is the founder and principal at Pia Cameron Interiors, an interior decorating firm. She is also the author of Dynamis of Healing; Patristic Theology and the Psyche (Fordham University Press 2019), as well as numerous articles, including on marriage and theosis, the unconscious and prayer, and healing and the Theotokos. Her research interests include theological anthropology, depth psychology, processes of healing, the feminine, aesthetics and beauty.
(Orthodox women only, please.)