Theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar spoke of Beauty as one of the three transcendental “sisters”—Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. He further declared that when it is diminished or exiled, Beauty takes along with herself her sisters––in an act of mysterious vengeance. In his plenary address on the opening night of the 2024 C.S. Lewis Conference & Faculty Forum, painter and writer Bruce Herman will address this threefold interwoven mystery via an exploration of contemporary religious art—particularly as it reveals the loss and recovery of Beauty as God’s self-portrait in Christ. Examples of Herman’s art will be on exhibit during the conference, and he will be reading brief excerpts from his forthcoming book, Makers by Nature.*