Ateneo, La Salle unveil book on faith
THE Ateneo de Manila University (AdMU) and De La Salle University (DLSU) set aside their long-running collegiate basketball rivalry to launch Siya
Nga! Reflections with Art at the latter’s campus in Manila on January 28.
Written by AdMU President Fr. Jose Ramon “Jett” Villarin, S.J., edited by David Jonathan Bayot and published by the DLSU Publishing House, Siya Nga! collects reflections on 52 terms used in Christianity.
Each 300-word reflection in the book — on terms like the Incarnation, Trinity, Word, Freedom and Christmas — aims to shed a light on the terms that Villarin and Bayot deemed significant in the lives of those in the Christian faith.
“What we wanted to do is to make these familiar words unfamiliar once again,” Villarin said. “The book aims to look at these words in a different way, in a different manner so that we may show that the newness of God will never grow old, and the bigness of His love will never grow small.”
Each reflection is accompanied by images of artworks by notable of Filipino artists, including Federico Aguilar Alcuaz, Benedicto Cabrera, Arturo Luz and Elmer Borlongan.
“I envision the book to be one that contains images of artwork by a broad range of Filipino artists: from the canonical ones, including the National Artists, to the younger voices in the Philippine art scene,” Bayot said.
“In so doing, the book seeks to foreground the artistic representations of the Filipinos and the range of the representations,” he added.
The launch culminated in St. La Salle Hall being lit in blue and green — the colors of AdMU and DLSU, respectively — to celebrate the partnership between the two universities and to mark Villarin’s 60th birthday.