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Are the social sciences properly scientific? Will we one day discover a social physics—perhaps a blend of psychology, economics, and algorithms—that allows us to predict and engineer our common life? No one has done more intellectual work to cast doubt on these techno-utopian claims than Catholic philosopher Charles Taylor. In this seminar we will explore […]

Co-presented with the Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies at the University of St. Michael's College Scripture is the soul, shape, and content of early Christian theology. This week-long seminar will offer an intensive exploration of the foundational texts, concepts, and movements in Early Christian Old Testament exegesis from 100-700 AD. LOCATION AND FORMAT · […]

Apply here We are pleased to announce the fourth annual seminar on "Business and Catholic Social Thought: A Primer." During the seminar, graduate students and faculty members in business schools will cover foundational principles in Catholic social thought and apply them to their own field of research and teaching. This seminar aims at widening epistemological preconceptions […]

This seminar will be a five-day, intensive discussion aimed at understanding and evaluating St. Thomas Aquinas’ account of liberum arbitrium and of the psychological and metaphysical principles that underlie it. The sessions will center on passages from the Summa Theologiae, but we will also refer to other works of Aquinas, such as the De Malo and the Commentary on Aristotle’s Metaphysics, and to […]

Now in its eleventh year, this intensive seminar will examine the achievements of Saint John Henry Newman as a theologian, philosopher, educator, preacher, and writer. Remarkably, in each of these areas Newman produced works that have come to be recognized as classics: An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, The Grammar of Assent, The Idea […]

The last few years have seen the rapid advance of artificial intelligence (AI), bearing potentially great benefits for the common good but also many dangers. AI applications are shaping society and individual life, leaving governments, businesses, and individuals struggling to address the effects of this powerful technology. This five-day seminar will explore how the Catholic […]

Apply here COLLIS Institute for Catholic Thought and Culture at Cornell University, the In Lumine Network, and the Lumen Christi Institute partner to organize "Faith on the Frontiers: Origins, Cosmos, and Extraterrestrial Life" a weeklong intensive summer seminar for undergraduates exploring questions at the frontiers of science and theology. Where do we come from? Are […]

One of the most influential 20th century Catholic thinkers, René Girard transformed our understanding of culture, religion, and human behavior. His “mimetic theory" builds on the demystifying power of the Old and New Testaments to illuminate the religious history of mankind. Through an intensive reading of his more accessible works, in conjunction with the fiction of […]

What is a good human life? What are the virtues and community types that enable us to live well?  This seminar will explore the nature of virtue and happiness by putting philosophical and theological perspectives on eudaimonia in dialogue with the empirical findings and theoretical frameworks of contemporary psychology, especially the field of positive psychology […]

In this seminar, students will read, analyze, and discern continuities and discontinuities in Catholic social thought from the late 19th century to the present. Lectures, seminar reports, and discussion will focus on original sources (encyclicals and other magisterial documents), beginning with Rerum novarum (1892) and concluding with Caritas in veritate (2009) and Evangelii Gaudium (2013). This intensive course is multi-disciplinary, since […]