ABSTRACT
Through the life and works of artist John August Swanson (Mexican-American/Swedish-American, 1938–2021), this chapter explores the vital role the arts play in a world where we must attend and answer to the woundedness of the vulnerable. Approached through the methodology of theological aesthetics, the chapter argues for the inherent link between the aesthetic and the ethical as vitally relevant for the continued role that both the arts and the religious play within a society. Three of Swanson’s works, The Prisoner (1972), The Ascent (2014), and The Procession (2007), along with Swanson’s biography disclose the fruitfulness of breaking down borders of separation between heaven, earth, and each other and dreaming new dreams toward planetary flourishing.
