Lumen Christi Institute

This master class is open to current graduate students. It will take place online on Zoom. Others interested in participating should contact us.

In his intellectual autobiography, John Henry Newman makes a bold claim that may confound our contemporary sensibility.  In matters of religion, the human mind has only two consistent options: either atheism or Catholicism.  Any position in-between is but a logical half-way house.  Our master class will explore the relation in Newman between faith and reason that endeavors to justify this claim.  In the process, we will deal with the role of probability, which would seem to be the antithesis of faith.  We will also probe into liberalism which, although much admired in the west, is for Newman inimical to an authentic revelation from the Divine.

READINGS

• Apologia pro Vita Sua, Chapter 1: "History of My Religious Opinions up to 1833"; Chapter 5: "Position of My Mind since 1845."
• Plain and Parochial Sermons, vol. 8, number 13: "Truth Hidden When Not Sought After"