REGISTER BELOW
6:30 p.m. Doors Open | 7:00 p.m. Dinner | 7:30 p.m. Lecture and Q&A | 8:30 p.m. End
Business casual attire encouraged. For more information, please contact Margaux Taffet at mtaffet@lumenchristi.org.
Is beauty in the eye of the beholder? Is literature merely a matter of taste? How can we inhabit the moral imagination in a way that avoids heavy-handed moralism? How can we grow in prudential judgment and spiritual discernment and avoid the shortcuts of sentimentality? And can looking at the world through the “million windows” of the “house of fiction” really elevate or transfigure the real lives we lead? In his lecture, Joshua Hren will answer these questions by distilling insights from his new book More than a Matter of Taste: The Moral Imagination and the Spirit of Literature (Word on Fire, May of 2026).
This event is co-sponsored by Luminor.
Series Description
How to Live, Move, and Be as a Catholic
In the ancient world, religious adherents were set apart by special dress, diet, and customs. Yet in the 2nd century Letter to Diognetus, the anonymous writer observes that Christians didn’t distinguish themselves from other people by a special abode, a special language, special attire, or a special diet.
Christians are truly a people “set apart” and sanctified, but what distinguishes the Christian people if not the traditional makers of culture? Catholics cook with a wide variety of spices and ingredients; attend all kinds of schools; are drawn to different kinds of art and music; and wear all kinds of clothes. Catholic life and worship looks very different in France from what it looks like in Rwanda, which in turn differs from Catholicism in Japan, the United States, or Poland.
To be Catholic — which means “concerning the whole” — means that everything about our lives relates back to our Faith. Yet it also means that there is a dynamic interaction between our Faith and the circumstances of our lives. To “cook as a Catholic” means something important, something deeply connected to our innermost being, but it is not a rigid set of procedures or list of prohibited foods.
For the 2026-2027 West Suburban Catholic Culture Series, we would like to invite you to join us in considering how to view the “ordinary” elements of our lives through the wisdom and tradition of the Catholic Church — but without reducing the wisdom and tradition of the church to a single method or fashion. Lectures this year will consider how to live in that tension with imagination, discernment, and with that “peace which surpasseth all understanding.”
Fall Calendar
September 23: How to Pray as a Catholic | Daniel Wasserman-Soler, Lumen Christi Institute
October 28: How to Grieve as a Catholic | Cassandra Sever, Lumen Christi Institute
November 18: How to Read Literature (and Life) as a Catholic | Joshua Hren, University of St. Thomas, Houston; Wiseblood Books
Spring Calendar
March 10: How to Do Politics as a Catholic | Anna Vincenzi, Hillsdale College
April 14: How to Drink Wine as a Catholic | Jay Martin, University of Notre Dame
May 12: How to Garden as a Catholic | Jennifer Newsome Martin, University of Notre Dame
