Faith and Scholarship Integration Seminar
Peter TierneyThe Lumen Christi Institute
Peter Bernardi, SJLumen Christi Institute
Open only to current graduate students. Registration required. To register, contact Fr. Peter Bernardi, SJ, at bernardisj@gmail.com.
The Lumen Christi Institute will host periodic “integration seminars” at its newly acquired Woodlawn Residence. These seminars will promote discussion and reflection on how to relate one’s Catholic faith to one’s scholarship. Each seminar will feature a Catholic scholar sharing how she or he relates their Catholic faith to their field of research. These scholars will be drawn from a variety of fields: social and natural sciences, philosophy, history, etc. This sharing is intended to animate discussion among the participating students.
Participation is by invitation only. To enable discussion, the number of students will be limited to 10-12; the applications of doctoral and post-doc students will be given priority. It is not necessary to commit to attending every seminar. If you are a graduate student serious about your Catholic faith and your scholarly discipline and would like to participate in these seminars, contact Fr. Pete Bernardi at: “bernardisj@gmail.com”
The first integration seminar is scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 12, 10am-12pm, at the Lumen Christi Woodlawn Residence. Dr. Peter Tierney will 'prime the pump' by sharing how he integrates his Catholic faith with his area of scholarly expertise: paleontology. Peter's sharing will open up a discussion among the participating students. Besides the four residential doctoral students, a small number of non-residential graduate students have been invited to participate.
Coffee and pastries will be available, starting at 9:45. For those who can stay beyond noon, lunch will be offered.
If you have any questions, contact Fr. Pete Bernardi at: “bernardisj@gmail.com”
Peter Tierney is the Science & Religion Program Coordinator and In Lumine Project Co-Director at the Lumen Christi Institute. He received his doctorate in Geophysical Sciences from the University of Chicago in 2018. His research is on the evolutionary ecology of reef systems, with a particular focus on Early to Middle Paleozoic reefs of North America. He is also active in Catholic lay ministry in Hyde Park, both at Calvert House and St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church.
Fr. Peter Bernardi, SJ is scholar-in-residence at the Lumen Christi Institute and Associate Professor Emeritus of Theology at Loyola University of Chicago, where he taught from 2010 to 2020. Before coming to Chicago he taught at Loyola University New Orleans from 1996 to 2010. Fr. Bernardi holds an Honors B.A. in Classical Languages from Xavier University (Cincinnati), an MA in Philosophy from the University of Detroit, a Master of Divinity from Regis College of the Toronto School of Theology, an STL from the Weston School of Theology with a thesis concerning soteriology, and a PhD in Systematic Theology from the Catholic University of America. His areas of interest include modern Christian thought; John Henry Newman, Maurice Blondel, and the Renewal of Catholic Theology; Theology of Vatican II; Christology & Soteriology. He is the author of Maurice Blondel, Social Catholicism and Action Française: The Clash over the Church’s Role in Society During the Modernist Era (CUA Press, 2009). His most recent scholarly publications are "Blondel, Maurice (1861–1949)" in the Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Philosophers (2020), "Louis Cardinal Billot, S.J. (1846–1931): Thomist, Anti-Modernist, Integralist" in the Journal of Jesuit Studies 8 (2021): 585-616, and "Maurice Blondel's diagnosis of extrinsicist 'Monophorism': An enduring critique of Christian Integralism," in Pesando-Revista de Filosofia. Vol 13, No 30 (2022) Dossie Maurice Blondel, 100-113.
