To Lift the Lowly: An Aesthetic of the Common Good

Speaker: Dr. Nichole Flores

In the spirit of Mary’s Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55), Cuban-American theologian Alejandro Garcia-Rivera (1951-2010) argued that the community of the beautiful is formed through the common act of aesthetic interpretation that “lifts up the lowly." Dr. Flores argues that the aesthetic act of foregrounding the marginalized is necessary for cultivating relationships predicated on mutuality, equality, vulnerability, and participation that are the foundation of a thriving democratic society characterized by religious pluralism. This lecture analyzes the cooperative work of two community theater companies based in Denver, Colorado (one Black and the other Latinx), arguing that the aesthetic act of “lifting up the lowly” is essential to the formation of social solidarity that is central to cultivating the common good.

Dr. Flores is an assistant professor of religious studies at the University of Virginia. She writes, speaks, and teaches about the significance of Catholic ethics in plural social, political, and ecclesial contexts. Her research emphasizes the contributions of Catholic and Latinx theologies to notions of justice, emotion, and aesthetics as they relate to the common good within plural socio-political contexts. Her research in applied ethics addresses issues of migration, labor, consumption, race and ethnicity, gender, family, and ecology.