Lumen Christi Institute

Technology, Culture, and Virtue
2025-01-31 14:00 - 17:00 (America/Chicago) | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
REGISTER HERE
Open to current students and faculty. This event is in-person only. All registrants will receive copies of the selected readings via Dropbox and PDFs which should be read in advance of the class. An optional wine and cheese reception will follow.
Technology is part of our everyday lives. Despite its everydayness, there remains something mysterious about it. In this master class, we will demystify technology, engaging it as a product of culture that both challenges and enhances culture.
Readings:
Martin Heidegger – “The Question Concerning Technology”
Levis, Duganzic, and Scheirer – “Organoids are Multi-Cellular Engineered Living Systems: What is the Path Forward for Their Use in the Laboratory and Beyond?”
Bishop – What is Man that AI is Mindful of Him? and Toward a Liturgical Cosmotechnics
Conwill, Levis, and Scheirer – Chapter 1 and Chapter 6 in Virtues in Virtual Spaces
Schedule:
1:30 PM | pre-event pastries and coffee
2:00 PM | Part 1: Technology as a way of thinking
2:40 PM | Part 2: Technology as a way of doing: Engineering Living Systems
3:20 PM | BREAK
3:40 PM | Part 3: Cosmotechnics: Technology, Culture, and Human Identity
4:20 PM | Part 4: Goods, Virtues, and Virtual Spaces
Class concludes at 5 PM with a reception following.
For more information, contact gzokal@lumenchristi.org
This event is made possible through the support of ‘In Lumine: Supporting the Catholic Intellectual Tradition on Campuses Nationwide’ (Grant #62372) from the John Templeton Foundation.

Master Class on Augustine's City of God
2025-02-28 14:00 - 17:00 | Swift Hall, First Floor Common Room, 1025 E 58th St,Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
REGISTER HERE
Open to current graduate students and faculty. Advanced undergraduates and others interested in participating should contact dstrobach@lumenchristi.org. This event is in-person only. All registrants will receive copies of the selected readings, which should be read in advance of the class. An optional wine and cheese reception will follow.
For the positivist political scientist, focused on polls, percentages, and prognostications, Augustine’s sprawling masterpiece—City of God (De civitate Dei)—is apt to seem a morass of mythology and otherworldly speculation. I propose, for the conduct of the master class, that we temporarily (and respectfully) shelve our inner positivist, link up with our collective political imagination, and entertain as best we can one of the great political theologies of all time. By great I do not mean unproblematic—there will be plenty of problems and perplexities—I mean greatly influential. For the first 90 minute session, we will focus on two stories of the fall, the dual invention of sin, and Augustine’s struggle not to have to concede to the impossibility of perfection, here or above. For the second session, we will turn more directly to political matters and especially to the “twilight” perspective that Augustine takes us all inescapably to have on true peace.
Jim Wetzel (Professor of Philosophy and Augustinian Endowed Chair in the Thought of St. Augustine at Villanova University) will lead this three hour master class.
Readings:
See the list of readings syllabus HERE.
Both the required and recommended readings will be distributed to participants via Dropbox and PDFs. If you prefer, you can pick up a printout of the readings at Gavin House (1220 E. 58th Street) Mon-Fri, 10am-4pm once they are ready. Please email David Strobach at dstrobach@lumenchristi.org to let us know you are coming.
Schedule:
Location: Swift Hall Common Room
1:30-2:00 | pre-event pastries and coffee
2:00-3:20 | Session 1
3:20-3:40 | Coffee break
3:40-5:00 | Session 2
5:00-5:30 | Reception

The Part The Muses Give Us
2025-09-26 12:00 - 17:30 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
REGISTER BELOW
(Note: The schedule below has been pushed back)
Lunch 12:00 | Master Class 1:00-4:30 | Wine & Cheese 4:30-5:30
This master class is intended for graduate and advanced undergraduate students. Others interested in attending should contact William Hurley at whurley@lumenchristi.org for more details.
The nature, form, and purpose of poetry was called radically into question in the last century, and yet even now this art form remains a paradigm for what it means to make for the sake of beauty.
In this master class, we will consider an account of poetry grounded in the four essential M’s (making, memory, metaphor, and meter) to see what it discloses about the function of the art in general. We shall then study and savor a handful of poems that bring particular clarity to each of these essential qualities. Preparation includes reading the final chapter of The Fortunes of Poetry in an Age of Unmaking; a small anthology of poems will be distributed for consideration during the class itself.
Participants will receive a copy of The Fortunes of Poetry in an Age of Unmaking.

Virtual Masterclass: The Thought of John Henry Newman
2026-01-09 13:00 - 14:30 | IL
Recently canonized as the first English saint since the Reformation and declared the 38th Doctor of the Universal Church and Co-patron of Catholic Education (along with St. Thomas Aquinas), John Henry Newman (1801-1890) stands as the most important Catholic thinker between the Council of Trent of the sixteenth century and the second Vatican Council (1962-65).
Newman’s intellectual autobiography (Apologia pro Vita Sua), treatise on higher education (Idea of a University), theory of knowledge (Grammar of Assent), and major work of theology (Development of Doctrine) stand as classics in their genres. In addition, his prolific sermons cover both his Anglican career at Oxford and Catholic career in Birmingham.
We will discuss two sermons from his Anglican years, delivered as “University Sermons” on the relation between faith and reason. In them, Newman offers creative insights that deepen the classic Catholic position put forth by Aquinas.
This masterclass will provide a glimpse of the 2026 intensive summer seminar on Newman’s thought. A full syllabus of the masterclass can be found here.
The Zoom link will be distributed in advance of the seminar.
This program is restricted to graduate students from any university or discipline.
This program is part of the project “In Lumine Tuo: Expanding and Sustaining the Catholic Intellectual Tradition Nationwide” (Grant #63614) supported by the John Templeton Foundation.
Times are central standard time.
For more information contact Geoffrey Zokal at gzokal@lumenchristi.org

Glimpses of Wonder: Faith, Reason, and Technology in the University Today
2026-01-23 09:00 - 10:30
One great challenge in the modern research university is the siloing of information and of knowledge. While specialized knowledge is valuable, pressing questions confronting the contemporary world require that diverse forms of knowing be integrated, both in the heart of the knower and in society. A Catholic Institute is uniquely poised to speak to this challenge since the Catholic intellectual tradition has sought to embrace and integrate five intellectual virtues as presented in Aristotle (NE, VI:3) and St. Thomas Aquinas (ST, 1a-IIae, q. 57): wisdom, science, art, prudence, and mind or understanding. The Franciscan tradition has also emphasized the importance of wonder at the beauty of creation in this synthesis. In this class, we will engage the unity of these virtues under the guidance of wonder and discuss specific applications to new technologies in artificial intelligence and ecological engineering. True human flourishing is not necessarily about slowing down or accelerating the advance of progress as finding a new measure that allows one to see epiphanies of beauty and learn from them about oneself, the world, and the creator of the beauty of the world.
This masterclass will provide an engagement with topics related to the 2026 Summer Seminar “Glimpses of Wonder: Epiphanies of Beauty in the Midst of Technological Change” and will help students explore in advance related themes.
The Zoom link will be distributed in advance of the seminar.
This program is restricted to graduate students from any university or discipline.
The syllabus and readings can be found here.
This program is part of the project “In Lumine Tuo: Expanding and Sustaining the Catholic Intellectual Tradition Nationwide” (Grant #63614) supported by the John Templeton Foundation.
All times are Central Standard Time.
For more information email Geoffrey Zokal at gzokal@lumenchristi.org

On Learned Ignorance: Nicolas of Cusa and the Wonder of the Cosmos
2026-04-10 14:00 - 17:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
REGISTER BELOW
2:00-5:00 (Detailed Schedule Below) | Refreshments Provided
This event is designated for current graduate & advanced undergraduate students and faculty from the University of Chicago & regional colleges and universities. Others interested in auditing should contact William Hurley at whurley@lumenchristi.org.
This project is made possible through the support of In Lumine Tuo: Expanding and Sustaining the Catholic Intellectual Tradition Nationwide (grant #63614) from the John Templeton Foundation and the generous support of our donors.
Description:
Is measuring the natural world a secular activity, or does wonder enliven faith in the mystery of God? Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464) was a reformist cardinal who wrote profound treatises in mystical theology in his spare time. He is arguably the most brilliant Christian thinker of the fifteenth century. For Nicholas, engaging in natural science not only deepens wonder at the cosmos and Creator, but spurs one to find God in the limits of human knowing. Mathematical thinking leads directly to theology. We will explore key passages in De docta ignorantia (1440) and De visione dei (1453) that continue to draw the attention of philosophers and theologians today.
Readings: (all from CWS book; I might bring an extra one-page handout with selected paragraphs from later works)

On Learned Ignorance, Book I (I.1-4, I.11-I.17, I.24-26), pp. 87-92, 100-110, 121-127 (21 pages)
On Learned Ignorance, Book II (II.1-3, II.13), pp. 127-137, 166-169 (13 pages)
On Learned Ignorance, Book III (III.1-4), pp. 169-180 (11 pages)
Optional: On the Vision of God: Preface, Chs. 1-6, Ch. 15 (pp. 235-245, 262-265) (13 pages)

Schedule:

1:30pm – Optional Coffee and Pastries
2:00pm – Session I begins
3:20pm – Break
3:40pm – Session II begins
5:00pm – End / Wine & Cheese Reception

Event Type:
Master Class
Each quarter, the Lumen Christi Institute hosts a master class at Gavin House (1220 E 58th St.). A master class is a seminar in miniature, in which top scholars introduce students to a major figure or concept in the Catholic intellectual tradition. The two eighty-minute sessions contain a mixture of lecture, seminar discussion, and close reading. All participants are provided a copy of the text under consideration. Any student interested in a shared reading of a great text is welcome to join. No religious affiliation is necessary.
