Lumen Christi Institute
Making the Catholic intellectual tradition a vital part of the secular university
Featured Events & News

On the Nature of Angels: Thomas Aquinas Student Reading Course
This student reading group explores one of St. Thomas Aquinas's last projects was a treatise on angels, which addresses such topics the immateriality of angels, their origin, their knowledge, and the distinctions among them. It offers some of Thomas’s most sophisticated discussions of the metaphysics of creation, hylomorphism, and participation.
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March 27 | Polarization, Social Cohesion, and the Economy
Political and economic polarization is globally on the rise. This has been linked by economists to a broader fragmentation of social cohesion, contributing to and evidenced by greater poverty, political and social instability, and even deaths of despair. How might we better understand this global moment?
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March 20 | "A Philosophy of Work, Leisure, and Catholic Culture" with Paul Blaschko
In his influential essay, Josef Pieper claims that we in modern western society have come to inhabit a “world of total work,” and that an essential precondition for escape is recapturing a more ancient notion of “leisure.” In this lecture, Prof. Blaschko, who studies the philosophy of work at Notre Dame, will proceed in a different direction, asking “What kind of culture, and what kind of work culture, would we create if we wanted to incorporate genuine leisure into our lives?” This event is part of the West Suburban Catholic Culture Series.
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On the Nature of Angels: Thomas Aquinas Student Reading Course
This student reading group explores one of St. Thomas Aquinas's last projects was a treatise on angels, which addresses such topics the immateriality of angels, their origin, their knowledge, and the distinctions among them. It offers some of Thomas’s most sophisticated discussions of the metaphysics of creation, hylomorphism, and participation.
Learn More
March 27 | Polarization, Social Cohesion, and the Economy
Political and economic polarization is globally on the rise. This has been linked by economists to a broader fragmentation of social cohesion, contributing to and evidenced by greater poverty, political and social instability, and even deaths of despair. How might we better understand this global moment?
Learn MoreLumen Christi has been one of the great spiritual achievements of the last 25 years. And to see Lumen Christi flourishing so well and expanding around the country is a sign of tremendous hope for the Church.
– Bishop Robert Barron

The longest intellectual tradition of any institution in the contemporary world.
Celebrated University of Chicago President Robert Maynard Hutchins once remarked that the Catholic Church has “the longest intellectual tradition of any institution in the contemporary world.” The mission of the Lumen Christi Institute is to make the Catholic intellectual tradition a vital part of the secular university and the broader culture. The Lumen Christi Institute’s programs enrich academic communities at the University of Chicago and beyond with the insights of Catholic thought, in order to engage our secular culture in dialogue and ultimately to renew our civilization by forming leaders for a global society in need of Christian wisdom.

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Making the Catholic intellectual tradition a vital part of the secular university