“Behold” (Wipf and Stock, 2024), a book of poetry and artistic collaboration by Kimberly Callas, MFA, associate professor in the Department of Art and Design, and author Michael McCarthy, was recently featured by Yale University’s Forum of Religion and Ecology in the monthly newsletter for its Journey of the Universe project. The effort centers around a 2011 documentary film, “Journey of the Universe,” which traces the development of the universe from the Big Bang to humans.
After meeting more than a decade ago, Callas and McCarthy began discussing a collaborative poetry book concept connecting the body and the sky, resulting in a work that “lyrically explores how our passing bones are tuned to celestial bodies that keep time in eons,” according to McCarthy’s description. “Behold” discusses the harmony of space and human anatomy through McCarthy’s poetry while Callas’ art helps readers better visualize their common blueprint.
The Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology is an international multireligious project contributing to a new academic field and an engaged moral force of religious environmentalism. With its conferences, publications, monthly newsletter, and website, it explores religious worldviews, texts, and ethics in order to contribute to environmental solutions along with science, policy, law, economics, and appropriate technology.