Reflections
Create an Altar at Home: A Pandemic Invitation Courtney T. Goto
O
nce in a great while, and if you are lucky, a teaching angel delivers an idea for an assignment that blossoms into learning outcomes you could not have imagined. For me, it began with a series of photos sent by my advisee Erin, a talented visual artist. She had built a mixed-media, multi-level altar in response to Holy Week, explaining the elements and what they meant to her. Inspired by what she had created, I devised a final project for my course, “Doing Theology Aesthetically.” The assignment was to “create an altar that honors a person, season, event, story, or idea with theological, cultural, personal, and/or social significance. An altar is a small, aesthetically marked, sacred space that serves as a focal point for the senses. Reflect on how you might communicate your theme powerfully through multiple elements (color, shape, texture, space). Be creative.” Inviting students to build an altar at home during the pandemic for a fully remote course had multiple implications. With most religious communities worshipping online or outdoors, students were (and still are, at this writing) separated from and disconnected with the holy place where their community’s altar is located. Tasked with creating a home altar, learners were literally and figuratively “creating with the stuff of their lives”1—with materials that they had on hand or found. The context of learning meant that students worked on their own time, at their own pace, and possibly in the company of members of their household. Rather than being constructed in a classroom and removed because another class Author’s note: Thanks to the August 2020 students of “Doing Theology Aesthetically,” especially Erin, Joann, and Beth, who generously allowed me to reflect on their work, and also to my colleague Chris Schlauch, my conversation partner in developing this essay.
Courtney Goto is associate professor of religious education and co-
director for the Center for Practical Theology at the Boston University School of Theology where she earned the 2020 Metcalf Award for Teaching Excellence. She is the author of Taking on Practical Theology (Brill 2018) and The Grace of Playing: Pedagogies for Leaning into God’s New Creation (Pickwick, 2016). 16
