Jesuit Priest & Artist Father Jonathan Harmon on Art as a 'Work of Service', Defining Sacred Art and Seeking Justice Through Art

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To learn more, please visit Father Harmon's site.

Show notes:

1:15 Harmon’s background and work as priest since 2008

2:10 teaching fine arts and being a pastoral resource at Loyola University

3:00 his work in the arts

8:20 history of art in Jesuit community 

12:00 Daniel Segers, Jesuit Priest and artist 

12:30  Harmon’s process as a painter in light of being a ‘work of service’

16:00 Harmon’s painting from pilgrimage through Spain

17:30 students’ responses

19:15 his attendance at New York Academy of Art  

23:30 Jerry Alonzo: how to communicate through your art

26:45 Pope Benedict XVI’s Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate 

28:20 definition of ‘sacred art’

30:30 seeking social justice through art

32:00 his work in Brownsville, TX connected to his art

33:00 his series of Catholic objects

35:30 his balance of time

37:25 Alan Robertshaw’s comments about all art being sacred

42:10 Tolkien and Flannery O’Connor on religious imagination

44:00 incorporating Catholic objects into his work

46:50 Emily Gould - spiritual impact of artwork/architecture/nature

49:15 Jarnick Vitters - importance of the physical objects to Harmon’s faith

51:00 Alan Robertshaw - subjective importance of objects

53:30 Yelena Khajekian - art as a sacred endeavor

54:40 Nnebundo Obi - interest in hearing about priest’s pursuit of other vocations 

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Music by Toulme.

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© Stephanie Drawdy [2026]