Our Events

Lewis Ayres (University of Durham) To understand the exegetical culture that nurtured and formed classical Patristic exegesis, we must attend to some understudied features of the generation of Irenaeus and Clement of Alexandria. This generation, in response to the exegetical cultures of ‘Gnostic’ thinkers, developed the exegetical practice that became fundamental for all later Christian doctrinal disputes and for Christian speculative thought. Bringing this historical moment into clearer focus helps us think about the character of Christian thought today.

Brian Daley, S.J. (University of Notre Dame) REGISTER HERE This master class seminar will cover the theological and doctrinal issues surrounding the First Council of Nicaea, focusing on the Arian controversy over the nature of Christ in relation to the Father. Participants will read and discuss primary texts from the early Nicene controversy with one of the world’s leading scholars of the Patristic period. Readings: The Controversy over Arius of Alexandria: Letters by Arius, Alexander of Alexandria, and Eusebius of Ceasaraea: Rusch, William G. (ed.), The Trinitarian Controversy (Fortress, 1980) pp. 29-44. Hardy, Edward R. (ed.), Christology of the Later Fathers (Westminster, 1954) pp. 329-340. From...

Saturday, April 18, 3:00pm Le Jardin at the First Division Museum, Cantigny Park, Wheaton, IL $5 Parking; Free concert admission. DETAILS HERE Sunday, April 19, 2:00pm Art Institute of Chicago Concert included with museum admission. DETAILS HERE Schola Antiqua celebrates the fascination with arms and battle in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, particularly in the realm of sacred music, in which the notions of the Christian soldier and Christ as warrior played significant roles. Schola Antiqua of Chicago is currently the Artists-in-Residence at the Lumen Christi Institute. More information can be found HERE.

Due to the funeral of our friend, supporter, and Episcopal Moderator His Eminence Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I. taking place on Thursday, we will unfortunately have to cancel the event with Giuseppe Mazzotta on “Dante’s Theology of the Future.” If you have already paid a registration fee, you will be refunded in the coming days. We also plan to reschedule the event for sometime in the near future. …so did I strive with this new mystery:    I yearned to know how could our image fit    into that circle, how could it conform; but my own wings could not take...

Giuseppe Mazzotta (Yale University) Keynote Lecture for the Graduate Student Conference on “Amor Vincit Omnia: Love as a Destructive Force in Italian Arts and Literature” Sponsored by: The Franke Institute for the Humanities, the Norman Waite Harris Fund, the Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Chicago, the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, the Department of Art History, the Center for Study of Gender and Sexuality, the Western Mediterranean Workshop, and the Lumen Christi Institute. For more information, please contact: Taylor Dimke at tdimke uchicago.edu.

How does today’s economy impact the modern family? Several trends link mounting burdens on family life to economics: children are raised amid familial and fiscal instability, young people are delaying or forgoing marriage, the elderly are made increasingly vulnerable with a growing distance between generations and rising health care costs, and the families of economic refugees are often divided across national borders or go legally unrecognized. Yet families form us as persons and are integral both to society and the economy. Situated between the 2014 and 2015 Synod Of Bishops On The Family, this symposium will feature dialogue among Bishop...

Jean-Luc Marion (University of Chicago) cosponsored by the Philosophy Department How is it possible to admit a rational truth that at the same moment could not be achieved by mere rationality? This implies a revision of the definition of knowing, and of the relation between will and understanding. Saint Augustine and Pascal – with some others – may give a clue.

Gary A. Anderson (University of Notre Dame; author of Charity: The Place of the Poor in the Biblical Tradition) It has long been acknowledged that Jews and Christians distinguished themselves through charity to the poor. Though ancient Greeks and Romans were also generous, they funded theaters and baths rather than poorhouses and orphanages. How might we explain this difference? In this significant reappraisal of charity in the biblical tradition, Gary Anderson argues that the poor constituted the privileged place where Jews and Christians met God. Though concerns for social justice were not unknown to early Jews and Christians, the poor achieved...

Jean-Luc Marion (University of Chicago) REGISTER HERE Nicholas of Cusa, in a famous essay on The Vision of God, explained how and why experiencing God does not mean first seeing an image of the divine, but to be under the gaze of Christ. This difference leads one to distinguish very clearly the icon from the idol. Participants will read The Vision of God in preparation for this discussion. Copies of the book Nicholas of Cusa: Selected Spiritual Writings (Paulist Press, 1997) will be provided free of charge for participants. This master class is open to all graduate and undergraduate students, including non-University of Chicago students. Space...

REGISTER HERE Intended for Booth School of Business and other University of Chicago students. Sponsored by the Lumen Christi Institute, Booth Catholic Students, the Christians in Business Group, and the Private Equity Group. Lunch will be served.