Lumen Christi Institute

The Silmarillion
2025-11-06 19:00 - 20:30, 2025-11-13 19:00 - 20:30 (America/Chicago) | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
REGISTER BELOW
7:00 – 8:30 p.m. | Dinner Provided
This event is designated for University of Chicago graduate students. Other students interested in attending should contact William Hurley at whurley@lumenchristi.org. Students will receive a copy of the texts.
Peter Thiel wants to live forever, and he’s cited the works of JRR Tolkien as a justification: “why can’t we be elves?” But a careful reader of Tolkien’s works, especially the cosmological and mythic stories in The Silmarillion, knows that the answer to that question is very complicated. In this group, we will discuss what Tolkien has to say about death, mortality, and suffering, along with his rich worldbuilding and epic tales.
Schedule:

Oct 16 – Week One (52 pages): Ainulindalë (pages 13-23), Quenta Silmarillion chapters 1-8 (pages 35-77)
Oct 23 – Week Two (52 pages): QS chapters 9-16 (78-130)
Oct 30 – Week Three (56 pages): QS chapters 17-19 (131-187)
Nov 6 – Week Four (49 pages): QS chapters 20-22 (188-237)
Nov 13 – Week Five (45 pages): QS chapters 23-24 (238-257), Akallabêth (257-283)

The Vice of Curiosity
2025-11-10 18:00 - 19:30
REGISTER BELOW
6:00 – 7:30 p.m. | Dinner Provided
This event is designated for University of Chicago graduate students. Other students interested in attending should contact William Hurley at whurley@lumenchristi.org. Students will receive a copy of the texts.
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.
In our Information Age, we are constantly bombarded by a deluge of new knowledge, whether it be academic works, social media alerts, or 24/7 news blasts. In the academy in particular, we are taught from an early age that the ideal student is the one with insatiable curiosity – a never-ending appetite for knowledge in whatever guise it may come. And yet if we are honest, this ceaseless quest for total knowledge often leaves us more distracted and anxious than ever before. St. Augustine would have a surprising diagnosis for our age – we suffer from the vice of curiositas, a kind of malformed appetite for knowledge that prizes novelty and control over the intrinsically true, good, and beautiful.
In the Vice of Curiosity and Intellectual Appetite, esteemed theologian Paul J. Griffiths outlines an Augustinian critique of the modern academy’s ways of knowing, including the history of how modernity turned curiosity from vice into virtue, a theological criticism of patent law, and analysis of why plagiarism is not in fact theft. In this five week reading group, we will dive into the thought of both St. Augustine and Griffiths as we seek to understand what a properly catechized intellectual appetite looks like and how we can rightly desire knowledge as students.
Schedule:

Oct 13 – Week 1: Introduction (Optional Reading, Intellectual Appetite: 9-18 of Introduction)
Oct 20 – Week 2: The Vice of Curiosity, p. 1-21 (Optional: I.A. p. 19-22 & 75-91)
Oct 27 – Week 3: V.C., p. 22-41 (Optional: I.A. p. 139-162)
Nov 3 – Week 4: V.C., p. 41-59 (Optional: I.A. p. 163-186)
Nov 10 – Week 5: V.C., p. 60-79 (Optional: I.A. p. 125-138)

MacIntyre’s Dependent Rational Animals
2025-11-13 17:00 - 18:30, 2025-11-20 17:00 - 18:30
REGISTER BELOW
5:00-6:30 p.m. | Dinner Provided
This event is designated for current University of Chicago graduate and undergraduate students. University of Chicago faculty and staff are also welcome to attend. Others interested in auditing should contact William Hurley at whurley@lumenchristi.org.
“What is ‘in your character’ (NOT ‘in your wallet’)?” Who is your guide to a happy, fulfilled life–Nietzsche or Aristotle? Given the ethical confusion, indeed meltdown, afflicting our society, who offers the most reliable “moral compass” to help us find our way?
This reading course will read and discuss Dependent Rational Animals by Alisdair MacIntyre. Drawing on Aristotle, MacIntyre describes our biologically rooted condition and the need to cultivate the virtues that take account of our shared human condition. Macintyre criticizes Aristotle’s ideal of the “great souled” man; he argues for the cultivation of virtues that acknowledge our inescapable dependence and inter-dependency.
A midlife convert from atheistic Marxism to Catholicism, MacIntyre is considered by many to be the most important moral philosopher of the past 50 years. He died in the spring of 2025, making a re-assessment of his life’s work all the more timely.
Copies of Dependent Rational Animals will be provided to all participants. Weekly meetings are held over dinner. Weekly reading assignments are kept at or below 40 pages.

SCHEDULE

Oct. 16 Introduction (readings available in class Google Folder)
Oct. 23 DRA, preface + chapters 1-4, pp. 1-41
Oct. 30 DRA, chapters 5-7, pp. 43-80.
Nov. 6 DRA, chapters 8-9, pp. 81-118.
Nov. 13 DRA, chapters 10-11, pp. 119-146
Nov. 20 DRA, chapter 12-13, pp. 147-166

Mythmaking and the Epic Tradition in Tolkien's Silmarillion
2026-01-15 19:30 - 21:00, 2026-01-22 19:30 - 21:00, 2026-01-29 19:30 - 21:00, 2026-02-05 19:30 - 21:00, 2026-02-12 19:30 - 21:00
REGISTER BELOW
Meets Weekly on Thursdays: Jan. 15, Jan. 22, Jan. 29, Feb. 5, Feb 12
*Note: Start Date has Been Moved Back a Week from Jan. 8 to Jan. 15
7:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. | Dinner Provided
This event is designated for University of Chicago undergraduate students. Students will receive a copy of the texts. Please reach out to William Hurley for any questions (whurley@lumenchristi.org).
There are few figures as foundational to the epic fantasy genre as J.R.R. Tolkien, and few works as wide-ranging in that genre as The Silmarillion. Written over the course of nearly 60 years and inspired by the folk traditions of northern Europe, Greece, and the personal ethical and historical philosophies of Tolkien himself, The Silmarillion is a story of morality, greed, bliss, and tragedy. We invite you to join us in a discussion of The Silmarillion’s most dramatic tales, from the creation of the world to the forging of the One Ring.
Copies of The Silmarillion will be provided to all participants. Weekly meetings are held over dinner. Weekly reading assignments are kept at or below 30 pages.
Schedule:

Jan. 15: Ainulindalë and Valaquenta (p. 15-32)
Jan. 22: The story of Fëanor and the Silmarils (p. 63-90, 106-107)
Jan. 29: The story of Beren and Lúthien (p. 162-187)
Feb. 5: The story of Túrin Turambar and Nienor Níniel (p. 198-226)
Feb. 12: Akallabêth

Series Description:
Graduate Reading Group
Each quarter, the Lumen Christi Institute hosts a number of student-led reading groups at Gavin House (1220 E 58th St.). The reading groups are usually held over a shared meal and all participants are provided a copy of the text. Any undergraduate interested in a shared reading of a great text is welcome to join. No religious affiliation (or prior knowledge of Tolkien!) is necessary.

Hemingway’s Short Stories
2026-01-19 17:30 - 19:00, 2026-01-26 17:30 - 19:00, 2026-02-02 17:30 - 19:00, 2026-02-09 17:30 - 19:00, 2026-02-16 17:30 - 19:00, 2026-02-23 17:30 - 19:00
REGISTER BELOW
Meets Weekly on Mondays: Jan. 26, Feb. 2, 9, 16, 23
5:30 – 7:00 p.m. | Dinner Provided
This event is designated for University of Chicago students. Students will receive a copy of the texts.
In this reading group we will read a selection of Ernest Hemingway’s short stories that will illuminate his ingenious writing style through his lesser-known works. We will be reading from the Finca Vigia Complete Short Stories collection, which features many previously unfinished works. Discussions will revolve around themes of masculinity, femininity, life, and love, all of which are saturated in his works writ large. Some of the texts that will be discussed include the Nick Adams stories, Men Without Women, and the First Forty-Nine. This will be an exciting way to get to know Hemingway’s writings or dive deeper into his work, while engaging with peers and discussing ideas that are just as relevant today as they were when he wrote them.
Schedule:

Jan. 26: Deeper Dive into Hemingway’s Writing. Readings will include stories where the immediate meaning of the story is not explicitly stated and requires some deeper analysis. Readings will include Hills Like White Elephants and The Sea Change. These are both readings where there is a meaning that must be arrived to through subtle hints in the stories themselves (though there are varying degrees of subtlety). Discussion will center on getting at what these stories are conveying.

Hills Like White Elephants (4 Pages)
The Sea Change (4 Pages)
Wine of Wyoming (13 Pages)
A Clean, Well-Lighted Place (4 Pages)

Feb. 2: Nick Adams Stories Pt. I. This week will focus on the first part of the Nick Adams stories, some of Hemingway’s most famous, and enjoyable, short stories. I’ve divided the collection into two weeks for the sake of doing justice to the collection while remaining under 30 pages. These stories express much about a man’s experience of life and is semi-autobiographical. This week will focus on Nick’s youth in Michigan, his adolescence, and his time at war. Discussion will focus on what Hemingway is conveying through his stories of youth and masculinity, particularly regarding how Nick conceives himself and how he views his father.

Indian Camp (6 Pages)
The Doctor and the Doctor’s Wife (6 Pages)
The Battler (10 Pages)
The Killers (8 Pages)

Feb. 9: Nick Adams Stories Pt. II. As we continue to read the stories, we will turn to Nick’s adulthood and marriage. This will bring together ideas of masculinity, maturity, life, and fatherhood.

Big Two-Hearted River Pt I (10 Pages)
Now I Lay Me (7 Pages)
Fathers and Sons (10 Pages)

Feb. 16: Men Without Women Pt. I. Readings from this week will seek to synthesize what we’ve discussed so far. Bringing together the themes Hemingway often discusses with his writing style. Men Without Women is a collection of short stories that discuss how men act without women. Discussion will revolve, again, on ideas of masculinity and the “natural” state of man.

In Another Country (5 Pages)
The Undefeated (25 Pages)

Feb. 23: Men Without Women Pt. II. This week will conclude this collection, and we will finish up our discussion of the themes present in them. I would also like to add The Last Good Country, however, it is 41 pages long. I think I may add it as optional reading and discuss it if time allows. This is a personal favorite of his short stories, but not a necessary addition. There is not enough substance in the text to devote an entire week to the text, though it is a fun read.

A Banal Story (2 Pages)
Today is Friday (3 Pages)
An Alpine Idyll (5 Pages)
A Pursuit Race (4 Pages)
Ten Indians (5 Pages)
My Old Man (12 Pages)

Series Description:
Graduate Reading Group
Each quarter, the Lumen Christi Institute hosts a number of student-led reading groups at Gavin House (1220 E 58th St.). The reading groups are usually held over a shared meal and all participants are provided a copy of the text. Any graduate interested in a shared reading of a great text is welcome to join. No religious affiliation (or prior knowledge of Tolkien!) is necessary.

Greek New Testament
2026-01-30 10:00 - 11:00, 2026-02-06 10:00 - 11:00, 2026-02-13 10:00 - 11:00, 2026-02-20 10:00 - 11:00, 2026-02-27 10:00 - 11:00, 2026-03-06 10:00 - 11:00
REGISTER BELOW
10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. | Refreshments Provided
*Note: winter sessions have been shifted forward by one week
This event is designated for University of Chicago graduate and undergraduate students. Students will receive a copy of the texts.
“In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets; but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.” This dramatic opening salvo of the Letter to the Hebrews, summarizing salvation history, is one of the most famous and consequential one-liners in the New Testament. But who is this Son? How is he “appointed heir of all things”? What is the relationship between God’s message through him and His message through the prophets? In this reading group, we will examine, through careful study of the Koine Greek text, how the Letter to the Hebrews answers these questions and more, with an eye to the authorship, audience, and genre of this mysterious text. All levels of Greek proficiency are encouraged to join. Advance preparation is recommended but not required.
Schedule:

Oct. 17: Introduction; Hebrews 1.1-4: God’s Son
Oct. 24: Hebrews 1.5-14: The Son’s Superiority to the Angels
Oct. 31: Hebrews 2.1-9,:The Son’s Abasement
Nov. 7: Hebrews 2.10-18: The Son, the Pioneer of Our Salvation
Nov. 14: Hebrews 3: The Son and Moses
Nov. 21: Hebrews 4.1-13: God’s Promised Rest

Jan. 30: Hebrews 4.14–5.14

Feb. 6: Hebrews 6.1–20

Feb. 13: Hebrews 7.1–22

Feb. 20: Hebrews 7.23–8.13

Feb. 27: Hebrews 9.1–14

March. 6: Hebrews 9.15–28
