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This master class is open to graduate students and faculty. Undergraduates or others interested in participating should contact us. PDFs of the readings will be made available online for all participants. Complimentary copies of Early Christian Mystics (Crossroads, 2003) will be provided at the seminar. This one-time Seminar will study selected writings of the great Cistercian theologian and mystic, Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1157). Bernard was one of the most remarkable figures of the twelfth century—monastic leader, ecclesiastical politician, and noted theologian. His most important legacy, however, was as a mystic and mystical writer. His mystical treatises, such as On Loving...

REGISTER HERE Cosponsored by the History Department and the Medieval Studies Workshop The lecture will focus on the extraordinary millennial career of the sacral kingship down through the ages and across the globe as the most common form of government known to humankind. It will trace its survival down into the early modern era and highlight the unexpected turn whereby it drew the papacy itself into its ideological orbit and helped transform the popes into the last of the great sacral monarchs. You can read more about Prof. Oakley's book on Kingship HERE.

REGISTER HERE Cosponsored by the History Department and the Medieval Studies Workshop In the early fifteenth century, the general council assembled at Constance and, representing the universal Church, put an end to the scandalous schism which for almost forty years had divided the Latin Church between rival lines of claimants to the papal office. It did so by claiming and exercising an authority superior to that of the pope, an authority by virtue of which it could impose constitutional limits on the exercise of his prerogatives, stand in judgment over him, and if need be, depose him for wrongdoing. This...

REGISTER HERE This master class is open to graduate and undergraduate students, including non-University of Chicago students. Space is limited and offered on a first-come, first-served basis. A masterpiece of early Christian apologetic literature (about 200), this short anonymous writing gives a vivid description of the paradoxical way in which Christians live in the pagan world and gives us precious hints about God's ways. The actuality of such an ancient work for our secularized world is amazing. The text can be found HERE.

Cosponsored by the France Chicago Center and the Department of Near East Languages and Civilizations The Near East of today is very much in the center of attention, for obvious political and military reasons. Yet, it is worth while to look at its past cultural history. It was for millennia the hub of the world's higher culture. It was especially fruitful in the Roman Empire and in the first centuries of Islam. Its influence on European culture was real. It is a duty for us all to recall this heritage and to try and save what is left of it.

A half-day seminar discussion of the chapter "Contesting Humanism: Michel Foucault" from the new book by philosopher Rémi Brague. This master class is open to graduate students and faculty. Undergraduates or others interested in participating should contact us. PDFs of the book will be made available online for all participants. ABOUT THE BOOK The Legitimacy of the Human (St. Augustine's Press, 2016) presents itself as a satellite work to a more voluminous effort by Rémi Brague, The Kingdom of Man. The larger book argues the thesis of the increasingly visible failure of the modern project, founded upon a view of...

REGISTER HERE cosponsored by the Committee on Creative Writing and the Seminar Coop Bookstore In this informal conversation, Phil Klay and Scott Moringiello (DePaul University) will discuss how literature helps us reflect on themes of brutality, faith, fear, and morality to deepen our understanding of faith and humanity. In 2014, Phil Klay was awarded the National Book Award Prize for Redeployment, a collection of short stories that takes readers to the frontlines of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, asking us to understand what happened there, and what happened to the soldiers who returned.