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APPLICATIONS ARE NOW CLOSED “Understanding is wholly useless if it is not based upon wisdom, in that while it penetrates the higher mysteries without the counterpoise of wisdom, its own lightness is only lifting it up to meet with the heavier fall." - St. Gregory the Great, Moralia in Job, 1.32.45 “Idleness is an enemy of the soul. Therefore, the brothers should be occupied according to schedule in either manual labor or holy reading.” - St. Benedict of Nursia, Rule, Chapter 48 “My words are meant for you, whoever you are, who laying aside your own will, take up the...

APPLICATIONS FOR THIS SEMINAR ARE CLOSED This seminar will be a five-day, intensive discussion of St. Thomas Aquinas's account of the nature of the soul, with particular attention paid to the metaphysical principles on which it rests. The sessions will center on Summa Theologiae, I, qq. 75-77, concerning the soul in itself, its essential relation to the body, and its role as the primary principle of vital activity. Participants will also discuss relevant passages from other works of St. Thomas, as well as his historical influences (such as Plato, Aristotle, and Augustine) and some contemporary literature on the topic. Finally, the seminar...

Applications are now closed. The goal of this seminar is to provide students with the background knowledge and conceptual tools necessary to understand and think clearly about the relation of science and faith. This will help them to integrate scientific and theological ways of understanding in their own thinking, and make it possible for them to help others (including their future colleagues and students) to achieve such integration. The overarching goal is to help develop a cadre of people with a broad and informed understanding of these issues who can be the nucleus from which wider outreach efforts might grow....

APPLICATIONS ARE CLOSED FOR THIS SEMINAR Now in its seventh consecutive year, this intensive seminar will examine the achievements of Blessed 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 of a University, The Parochial and Plain Sermons, and the Apologia Pro Vita Sua. This seminar will approach Newman’s thought through a critical engagement with these texts. Format: There will be two 2-hour sessions each day. The seminar will include...

APPLICATIONS FOR THIS SEMINAR ARE CLOSED 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 major works of literary analysis, religious anthropology, and Biblical exegesis, this five-day seminar will explore Girard’s key insights into imitation, conflict, and scapegoating, connecting them to central themes of Christian theology. Format: There will be two 2.5-hour sessions each day. Each session will include an opening lecture and...

APPLICATIONS FOR THIS SEMINAR ARE CLOSED 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 this tradition of social thought overlaps several disciplines in the contemporary university including political science, political philosophy, law, economics, theology, and history. Format: There will be two 2.5-hour sessions each day. Each session will include an opening lecture and seminar-style...

THIS SEMINAR HAS BEEN POSTPONED TO SUMMER 2020 The manifold and deepening social, political, and economic crises that people and their governments face have called forth a strongly renewed interest in the Christian social teaching tradition, and the contributions that insights from the tradition might make to responding to these exigencies. This revival of interest brings several thorny problems in its wake: Why does the Church speak on these matters, and based on what authority? What role does the Church properly have in this context? What contributions can she make to such worldly concerns? What does the Church have to offer...

APPLICATION COMING SOON Augustine is one of the great minds of the Church and of western history. In this week-long intensive seminar, undergraduates and recent graduates will learn how to read, analyze, and discern the theme of the self in relation to God and society across Augustine’s corpus. The seminar is anchored in an in-depth reading of Augustine’s Confessions, one of the great masterpieces of literature that continues to speak across the centuries even as it is rooted in antiquity. This will be supplemented by selections from The City of God and On the Trinity.  Application materials are due March 1. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS...

Applications are now closed. The goal of this seminar is to provide students with the background knowledge and conceptual tools necessary to understand and think clearly about the relation of science and faith. This will help them to integrate scientific and theological ways of understanding in their own thinking, and make it possible for them to help others (including their future colleagues and students) to achieve such integration. The overarching goal is to help develop a cadre of people with a broad and informed understanding of these issues who can be the nucleus from which wider outreach efforts might grow....