Imago Dei: Philosophical Approaches to the Human Being as Image of God
Russell HittingerLumen Christi Institute
John O'CallaghanUniversity of Notre Dame
Vincent CarraudUniversity of Caen
Olivier BoulnoisEcole Practique des Hautes Etudes, Catholic Institute of Paris
This conference addresses the following questions: What constitutes the image of God? How are we to understand Augustine’s claim that human beings come to understand both who they are and who they have been only through relationship with God? How do St. Thomas Aquinas and Blaise Pascal remain within or depart from the Augustinian tradition? What role do Aristotelian and Platonic (or neo-Platonic) conceptions of human identity and the soul play? Lastly, as Genesis offers an essentially relational account of “Imago Dei,” in what way can we discover or participate in such relationship with God through social relationships?
Russell Hittinger is Senior Fellow at the Lumen Christi Institute, Research Professor Ordinarius in the School of Philosophy and Senior Fellow Institute for Human
Ecology at the Catholic University of America, and Professor Emeritus of Catholic Studies and Law at the University of Tulsa. He is also Ordinarius of the Pontifical Academy of the Social Sciences and the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas. Hittinger is the author of many books, including A Critique of the New Natural Law Theory, The First Grace: Rediscovering Natural Law in a Post-Christian Age, Thomas Aquinas and the Rule of Law, and most recently Paper Wars: Catholic Social Doctrine and the Modern State (forthcoming).
John O'Callaghan is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame and director of the Jacques Maritain Center. His books include Thomistic Realism and The Linguistic Turn: Toward a More Perfect Form of Existence and Proceedings of the 4th Annual Summer Thomistic Institute, forthcoming.
Vincent Carraud is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Caen. He holds degrees from the University of Poitiers and the University of Paris-Sorbonne. Carraud has published numerous articles on the history of modern philosophy and several books, including Causa Sive Ratio: La Raison De La Cause, De Suarez a Leibniz, and Pascal et la philosophie. Carraud is also science editor for the Bulletin cartesien.
Olivier Boulnois is Professor of Philosophy at Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes. His work focuses on the history of medieval philosophy and metaphysics. He is the author of several books, including Métaphysiques rebelles, Genese et structures d'une science au Moyen Age (2013) and Lire le Principe d'individuation de Duns Scot (2014).
