Further Up and Further In
Further Up and Further In
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About the Anselm Society
It’s easy to see this world as disenchanted, and to give up hope.
But you were made to see the world with the eyes of heaven. And to live a bountiful life that participates in the life of God…like in the great stories.
The Anselm Society is a community pursuing this renaissance of the Christian imagination.
Like Rivendell in The Lord of the Rings, our community is a place to:
Come in and experience beauty, joyful celebration, and ancient wisdom.
Go out renewed, bringing that life to your vocation, home, & church.
We believe:
God’s world is good & He is King over it
So we respond to even the most ordinary glories with thanksgiving and delight.
He has filled it with the echoes of heaven
So we want to delve fearlessly into the truths and wonders of His creativity.
He will come to
live with us
So what we join with Him to build matters for eternity.
“Whatever you come across in the world, don’t just ask what it is, ask what it means. And for that you need your imagination.”
What does it look like?
Evenings filled with stories and songs and feasting. Homes and churches striving to be marked by meaning. Podcasts and workshops delving into the wonders of Creation—and the calling of subcreation. And maybe, just maybe, children who grow up around a community of parents who think this is all normal behavior!
So much of the life of a community is informal and organic. But organizationally, there are two main ways we seek to come together to go further up and further in.
Gatherings
Our quarterly Society gatherings and smaller community events are the main way we gather face to face.
Media
On our Learning page, you can connect with our two podcasts and other resources.
FAQ
FAQ
We’re updating this all the time; if you don’t see your question, contact us!
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Who makes up the Anselm Society? Christians who are longing for something more, and want to dive deeper into the wonder and beauty of God. Writers, visual artists, and performing artists who want to connect their art and their faith so that they build each other up. And churches that want to serve them all better with the resources of Christian wisdom. Whether you live near us in Colorado Springs or not, there are ways to be strengthened by, and contribute to, our creative community.
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We are not a church, nor do we replace church. The Anselm Society is a parachurch ministry that includes people from every denomination and background, plus institutional churches as member congregations. We were born out of Holy Trinity Anglican Church in 2013 and became a separate 501c3 nonprofit with their help several years later. Thus far, we’ve participated particularly closely with several Anglican, Orthodox, and evangelical churches–but if you want to get your church more involved, we’d love to talk!
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Well, our mission is a renaissance of the Christian imagination. We exist to help Christians remember who they are; to cultivate a deep awareness of their relationship to the Great Story, and to bring that awareness home to their families and churches. For us, that means helping each other remember some things modernity has forgotten. Like evenings filled with stories and songs and feasting. Homes and churches laboring to be marked by meaning. Conversations delving into the wonders of Creation—and the calling of subcreation. And maybe, just maybe, children who grow up around a community of parents who think this is all normal behavior!
On a theological note: this means you might encounter things from time to time you might associate with “being Catholic” or just plain old-fashioned. Reading pre-written prayers sometimes. Observing Christian feast days, not just secular ones. Thanking God for the lives of saints who’ve gone before and left behind a legacy of faithfulness. Using words like “liturgy” (which just means “something we do repetitively on purpose to help us remember something important”). In reality, contemporary American churches that DON’T do these things are the outliers, both historically and today geographically. Protestants, Catholics, and Orthodox have always done them except for a few splinter groups of which the Reformers disapproved. We think pursuing a Christian imagination means taking a posture of humility toward things our ancestors have found consistently helpful—and skepticism toward critiques of those things that only (relatively) recently gained popularity. If you’ve got more questions, by all means contact us here: https://www.anselmsociety.org/contact .
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Any time the Anselm Society gathers, you can expect to find good food and drink, warm and deep conversations, and people who want to enjoy it all with you. And you can expect experiences that remind you who you are and what you were made for. From there, the details vary! See our upcoming events here for more specific details.
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Our events generally (though not always) target adults and older kids (10 and up). That said, everybody’s kids are different and everybody’s idea of “kid-friendly” is different, so here’s ours:
We believe, with Madeleine L’Engle, that “children’s stories” that are not good enough for adults are not good enough for our children. Correspondingly, we believe that most good adult activities (and the behavioral expectations that go with them) are deeply healthy places to invite our children into—and that that invitation is one most older children are not only capable of accepting, but excited to accept.
At our community events, we want our children to see Christian grownups living life as it was meant to be lived—so they have a vision of the future to look forward to, and participate in right now.
Just keep in mind the events happen on the grownups’ terms—so unless the event states otherwise, we recommend only bringing kids who are comfortable in that space; doing what the grownups are doing (including sitting and listening).
NOTE: we often serve alcoholic drinks at our events (we don’t consider this “not kid-friendly” because we believe it’s good to model responsible consumption for our kids). More questions? Contact us.
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Start with one of our podcasts, and the written articles that accompany them. They're a great way to learn along with our local community, and feel like you've gotten to know some of our people. You can also plug in via our Facebook group.
From there, if you want to contribute from a distance (e.g. on our writing, editing, or media production teams), contact us!
History
History
History
"I thought I was the only one."
The Anselm Society is named after the archbishop of Canterbury (c. 1093) who defined theology as “faith seeking understanding”...in short, as a work of the imagination; diving deeply into the character of the One we love the most.
We were started in 2013 in Colorado by an ecumenical, intergenerational group of people who believed a renaissance of the Christian imagination was both possible and badly needed. Against the press of a secular age, we believed it was time for an era of the church marked by such a profound vision of the Kingdom of God that believers could not only withstand, but transform the world around them. And we knew this could never happen if Christians' biblical principles were being undercut by secular imaginations, formed by the rhythms and priorities of their age.
We believe for a renaissance of the Christian imagination to occur, the church needs to re-learn how to disciple and work alongside artists. Artists need to re-learn how to be a part of the church, integrating excellence of both craft and faith (whether for sacred or common art). And the laity needs to burn with a desire to, as our founding advisor Christopher Mitchell put it, see the Kingdom with the same enchanted eyes with which they see Narnia and Middle Earth.
This is what the Anselm Society exists to bring about.
Then
In its first full year of operation, the Society hosted public lectures and concerts by people like Michael Ward, Peter Leithart, Malcolm Guite, Bob Bennett, and Andrew Peterson. The events began a conversation among a growing group of Christians (artists and otherwise) who had been longing for more than what the faith had become in much of modern America. What we heard, over and over: "I thought I was the only one."
In response to the outpouring of requests, we realized just starting the conversation wasn't enough. We started an Arts Guild to provide spiritual formation and community for local artists, and working with local churches to help them develop how they ministered to (and through) artists. And we began to plan to build much larger organization which, while firmly rooted in the Christian communities of Colorado Springs, could resource a larger movement around the world.
Now
There are a lot more wonderful ministries in this general space than there were a few decades ago. Some are focused on artist communities, or publishing new art, or helping Christians better engage pop culture. What makes us unique is our focus on the reunification of truth and beauty; theology and imagination, church and art—on the historic connection between what we believe, and how we learn to love it.
Conversation. We publish written resources, host podcasts, organize events (notably the Your Imagination Redeemed conference), and bring together thought leaders to inspire and educate pastors, artists, and the laity to better work together to form the Christian imagination.
Incarnation. We want to do more than tell people something. We want to be an incarnation of a different way of doing things; in fact, most of the good God has done through us has grown organically out of exactly that. So our growing core community in Colorado Springs frequently hosts community events (concerts, discussion groups, pub nights, etc.); we also continue to work with member churches, and we run a thriving Arts Guild whose members support each other and enrich the life of local congregations.
As we look to grow, we are looking to build a strong network of financial supporters, including major donors and Anselm members, that can work with us to be a catalyst for this movement that is just waiting to take off.
Connect
We post on Facebook and Instagram a lot, and send a monthly email roundup with upcoming events and all the content we posted that month (if you sign up for the email list, we'll also send you a couple introductory emails to get you up to speed and plugged in). You can also keep up with the conversation on our podcasts.
Our Vision Partners
