Lumen Christi Institute

Master Class on Maximus the Confessor
2020-01-17 15:00 - 18:00 (America/Chicago) | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
St. Maximus the Confessor is rapidly becoming one of the most studied of all early Christian theologians; the depths and richness of his writings and theology are being ever more appreciated. This masterclass focused on one specific—and short—text, Ambiguum 41, perhaps the richest of them all and certainly the one for which is best known. It speaks of five fundamental differences or divisions within being, with the vocation of the human being to unite them: Uncreated and created; intelligible and sensible; heaven and earth; paradise and the inhabited world; male and female. We will work through the Greek text (with a parallel edition), and compare his treatment of the male/female distinction to that which we find in Gregory of Nyssa’s De Hominis Opificio.
Reading

Maximus the Confessor, Ambiguum 41 (PDF supplied) from Maximos the Confessor: On Difficulties in the Church Fathers: The Ambigua, ed. and trans. Nicholas Constas, Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library, 2 volumes (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 2014)
Gregory of Nyssa, On the Making of Man (PDF supplied)

Suggested Background Reading:

Paul Blowers, Maximus the Confessor: Jesus Christ and the Transfiguration of the World (Oxford: OUP, 2016).
L. Thunberg, Microcosm and Mediator: The Theological Anthropology of Maximus the Confessor, 2nd edn. (Open Court Publishing Co. 1995).
Torstein Theodor Tollefsen, The Christocentric Cosmology of St. Maximus the Confessor, OECS (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008).
Melchisedec Törönen, Union and Distinction in the Thought of St. Maximus the Confessor, OECS (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007).

Schedule:
1:30pm Coffee, Tea, & Pastries
2:00pm Session I
3:25pm Break
3:35pm Session II
5:00pm End, Wine & Cheese reception
Fr. Behr also gave a lecture on January 16 on Becoming Human in the Light of the Gospel of John.

Becoming Human in Light of the Gospel of John
2020-01-16 18:15 | Breasted Hall, Oriental Institute, 1155 E 58th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
This event was Cosponsored by the Theology and Ethics Workshop, the Orthodox Christian Fellowship, and St. Makarios the Great Orthodox Mission. Fr. Behr also led a master class for students and faculty on January 17 on Maximus the Confessor.
On his way to Rome, Ignatius of Antioch urges the Christians there not to interfere with his impending martyrdom: ‘hinder me not from living, do not wish me to die, allow me to receive the light, when I will have arrived here, I will be a human being’! In this lecture, Fr John Behr will explore how the Gospel of John alludes back to Genesis to show that Christ is the true human being, inviting us also to become human.

About Fr. Behr’s book John the Theologian and his Paschal Gospel: A Prologue to Theology (Oxford University Press, 2019)
This study brings three different kinds of readers of the Gospel of John together with the theological goal of understanding what is meant by Incarnation and how it relates to Pascha, the Passion of Christ, how this is conceived of as revelation, and how we speak of it. The first group of readers are the Christian writers from the early centuries, some of whom (such as Irenaeus of Lyons) stood in direct continuity, through Polycarp of Smyrna, with John himself. In exploring these writers, John Behr offers a glimpse of the figure of John and the celebration of Pascha, which held to have started with him.
The second group of readers are modern scriptural scholars, from whom we learn of the apocalyptic dimensions of John’s Gospel and the way in which it presents the life of Christ in terms of the Temple and its feasts. With Christ’s own body, finally erected on the Cross, being the true Temple in an offering of love rather than a sacrifice for sin. An offering in which Jesus becomes the flesh he offers for consumption, the bread which descends from heaven, so that ‘incarnation’ is not an event now in the past, but the embodiment of God in those who follow Christ in the present.
The third reader is Michel Henry, a French Phenomenologist, whose reading of John opens up further surprising dimensions of this Gospel, which yet align with those uncovered in the first parts of this work. This thought-provoking work brings these threads together to reflect on the nature and task of Christian theology.

Master Class on Yves Simon's "Philosophy of Democratic Government"
2019-12-07 11:00 - 14:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
REGISTER HERE
Open to current students and faculty. Copies of Philosophy of Democratic Government (University of Notre Dame Press, 1993) will be provided for registrants.
The Charles R. Walgreen Foundation for the Study of American Institutions was established in June 1937 to foster greater appreciation of American life and values among University of Chicago students. An important work of the Foundation was the Walgreen Lectures. After the Second World War these lectures were published with a Foreward from the Foundation.
Twice during the first half of the twentieth-century, totalitarian systems have challenged the concept of democracy…. Democracy has been on the defensive; it has been defended more and more often with the pragmatic argument. But this argument has proved no match for the competing systems. Democracy, works, it is true – but so did fascism, until it was destroyed from the outside. The need for a philosophy that show democracy to be grounded firmly on rational principles – this need is apparent.
Especially noteworthy is the fact that the need for philosophical reflection was met by four émigré scholars whose Walgreen lectures are still in print and widely read some seventy later. In 1948 Yves Simon (Philosophy of Democratic Government); in 1949 Leo Strauss (Natural Right and History); in 1950 Jacques Maritain (Man and the State); in 1951 Eric Voegelin (New Science of Politics). In a similar vein, Hannah Arendt would give the 1956 lectures (On the Human Condition).
This masterclass is made possible by a grant from the Our Sunday Visitor Institute.
SCHEDULE
9:30am Coffee & Pastries
10:00am Session I
11:25am Break
11:35am Session II
1:00pm End, lunch
FIRST SESSION
Chap. 1. We can focus on pages 19-71, which cover the functions of authority in any society that has a political common good. For those who have read his two other books on authority, this material can be quickly read as a review of those themes, particularly his distinction between authority exercised to correct a deficiency in the governed and authority made necessary by a plenitude of the good.
Chap. 3. We will read the entire chapter. Here, Simon raises what he calls the “great difficulty”: “it seems to be impossible to account for social life without assuming that man can bind the conscience of his neighbor; on the other hand, it is not easy to see how a man can ever enjoy such power.” We need to discuss his understanding of three theories that account for the origin of legitimate command and obedience: Coach-Driver, Designation, and Transmission.
SECOND SESSION
Chap. 2. Democratic Freedom. We can pick up the conversation at pages 108-149. Is democratic freedom, more or less the same thing as Liberalism? Is democratic freedom, more or less, the same thing as a regime of human rights? (The 1948 U.N. Declaration of Human Rights was issued the year of his Walgreen lecture).
Chap. 4. Democratic Equality. I am eager to get our discussion into the final section, “Equality versus Exploitation” (pp. 230-259).

The Open Question of Church Polity and Governance: Trent, Vatican I, Vatican II
2019-12-04 18:15 | Social Sciences, Room 122, 1126 E 59th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Free and open to the public. Cosponsored by the Theology and Ethics Workshop at the Divinity School and the Midwest Province of the Society of Jesus.
Sexual and financial scandals are prompting Catholics to ask hard and painful questions about church government. Who is in charge? How is responsibility and accountability for governance distributed in the Church? By no means is this the first time that the Catholic Church has reckoned with the letter and the spirit of its own governance. Drawing from his latest book, When Bishops Meet: An Essay Comparing Trent, Vatican I, and Vatican II (Harvard, 2019), Fr. John O’Malley, S.J. retraces how the three modern ecumenical councils grappled with church reform and highlight resources in that tradition that may help us today. A response from Russell Hittinger follows, leading to open discussion moderated by Jennifer Newsome Martin (University of Notre Dame).

Non-Credit Course on Modern Science and Christian Faith
2019-11-26 19:00 - 21:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
6:00 Dinner | 6:30 Lecture
This weekly non-credit course is open to current students and faculty. Registrants are free to attend as many sessions as they choose. Sessions do not presuppose previous attendance or prior knowledge of the subject. This program is made possible by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation and The Our Sunday Visitor Institute.
People of faith have been deeply involved in the pursuit of science throughout the history of the discipline, from pioneering advances like the Big Bang and the building blocks of modern genetics, to the everyday, incremental toil of research. Yet, it is a commonly held belief that there has long been an irreconcilable conflict between science and faith. From where does this proposed conflict emerge? How can faith complement one’s approach towards, and interpretation of, science? How can science complement one’s understanding of the Christian faith? How does one respond to ever new challenges raised by modern science and technology? Through this Autumn non-credit course, visiting Scientists and Theologians will explore some of these questions from within their particular disciplines.
SCHEDULE
Oct. 8: “Science & Faith: Clash or Harmony?
Stephen Barr (University of Delaware)
Oct 15: “Science & Faith: Understanding and Correcting Models of Conflict”
Chris Baglow (McGrath Institute, University of Notre Dame)
Oct 22: “The Evolving Universe”
Dan Fabrycky (University of Chicago)
Oct 29: “How to Engage Mystery: Advice from a Scientist for Nones, Nuns, and All”
Fr. John Kartje (University of Saint Mary of the Lake)
Nov 5: “Materialistic Reductionism and Science”
Stephen Barr (University of Delaware)
Nov 12: “Disease and the Problem of Evil”
Stephen Meredith (University of Chicago)
Nov 19: “Biological Evolution and Christian Faith”
Peter Tierney (Lumen Christ Institute)
Nov 26: “Fate in Science and Religion”
James Donovan (North Central College)

Master Class on "Heidegger & Aquinas on the Question Concerning Technology"
2019-11-16 11:00 - 14:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
REGISTER HERE
Open to current students and faculty. Copies of the readings will be provided for those who register.
SCHEDULE
9:30am Coffee & Pastries
10:00am Session I
11:25am Break
11:35am Session II
1:00pm End, lunch
REQUIRED READINGS

Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, I, Q.47, Art.1-2 (on creation); III, Q.60, Art.2-4 (on sacraments)
Martin Heidegger, The Question Concerning Technology

RECOMMENDED READINGS

Francisco Benzoni. “Thomas Aquinas and Environmental Ethics: A Reconsideration of Providence and Salvation.” The Journal of Religion, Vol. 85, No. 3 (July 2005), pp. 446-476.
Bernard Stiegler, Technics and Time, 1 (Stanford University Press, 1998) pp. 1-27.

The Human Person in an Age of Biotechnology: A Symposium
2019-11-15 15:00 - 19:00 | BSLC 115, 924 E 57th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
We are at the very outset of the Age of Biotechnology. This presses anew questions regarding the limits of the human person. What is the human species from the point of view of evolutionary biology? How malleable is this definition? Is there such a thing as a species? How does this compare to philosophical perspectives on the person? The questions above are not new, but they have acquired new urgency with recent advances in biotechnology. In ths symposium, six distinguished scholars discuss these and other pressing questions in two panels–the first addressing these issues in the practice of science and application of biotechnology in the world, and the second addressing these issues from the point of theory.
Cosponsored by the Program on Religion and Medicine at the University of Chicago,the Martin Marty Center for the Public Understanding of Religion, the Theology and Ethics Workshop, the Society of Catholic Scientists, and McCormick Theological Seminary. This program is made possible by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation and the Our Sunday Visitor Institute.
Schedule:
Panel 1 — Praxis
Gaymon Bennett (Arizona State University): “The Algorithm and the Spirit: Big Tech and the Enchantments of Biotechnology”
John Novembre (University of Chicago): “The expanding scope for genetic discrimination: New genetic predictors and their challenges”
Stephen Meredith (University of Chicago): “Brave New World: Revisited – Revisited.”
Moderator: Victoria Prince (University of Chicago)
Panel 2 — Theoria
Paul Scherz (Catholic University of America): “Being Human as Being at Risk: The Shift from Genetic Determinism to Precision Medicine”
Willemien Otten (University of Chicago): “The dynamics between nature and human nature on perpetration and victimhood”
Jeff Bishop (Saint Louis University): “On the Being of Humans and the Being of Technology”
Moderator: Hille Haker (Loyola University Chicago)

Science and Faith: Non-Overlapping Magisteria?
2019-11-06 18:30 - 20:30 | Faculty House at Columbia University, 64 Morningside Drive, New York, NY
REGISTER HERE
5:30 Reception | 6:00pm Discussion
Co-sponsored by The Columbia University Seminar on Catholicism, Culture and Modernity, the Columbia Catholic Ministry, and the Society of Catholic Scientists. This programming is made possible by a grant from the Templeton Foundation.
A Discussion with Stephen Barr (University of Delaware), Jonathan Lunine (Cornell University), moderated by Carlo Lancellotti (CUNY Staten Island).
In reaction to Pope John Paul II’s 1996 address to the Pontifical Academy of the Sciences, “Truth Cannot Contradict Truth”, Stephen Jay Gould famously published his view on religion and science being non-overlapping magisteria (NOMA). He proposed that religion and science were distinct and separate domains of teaching authority, with no interference between–or influence upon–each other. Gould maintained that science documents the factual character of the natural world and seeks theoretical constructs to explain those facts, while religion operates on the “realm of human purposes, meanings, and values.”
This consensus position proved popular among scientists and people of faith for its diplomacy, but is such a model sufficient for understanding the relationship between faith and science? Can science inform faith? Does religious thinking shape our approach towards science and its application, and does that necessarily contradict NOMA? Come as two Catholic scientists weigh in on the chasms and connections of Science and Religion.

Newman’s Apologetics of the Imagination
2019-10-31 17:00 | Swift Hall, 3rd Floor Lecture, 1025 E 58th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
This event was cosponsored by the Nicholson Center for British Studies.
John Henry Newman famously insisted that “the heart is commonly reached not through the reason, but through the imagination.” As a theologian, apologist, and the 19th century’s most famous convert, Newman was keenly attentive to the foundations of religious belief. His apologetic career is, in some sense, an appeal to the imagination in contradistinction to the prevailing empiricism of Locke and Hume. In his novels, sermons, lectures, and even his philosophical magnum opus, the Grammar of Assent, Newman defends an understanding of the imagination that harmonizes religious faith and rational inquiry.

John Henry Newman's Path to Sainthood
2019-10-30 17:30 - 19:00 | Holy Name Cathedral Auditorium, 730 North Wabash Avenue Chicago, Illinois 60611, River North, IL
This event was cosponsored by Mundelein Seminary, the Sheil Catholic Center at Northwestern University, the Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage at Loyola University Chicago, the Department of Catholic Studies at DePaul University, the Calvert House Catholic Center at the University of Chicago, and the John Paul II Newman Center at UIC.

What makes a modern saint? On October 13th, Cardinal John Henry Newman (1801-1890), English theologian, philosopher and cardinal, was officially canonized a saint of the Roman Catholic Church. This event at Holy Name Cathedral was a presentation on the life and sanctity of John Henry Newman by leading Newman scholar of our time Fr. Ian Ker (Oxford) and Melissa Villalobos, the woman whose miraculous cure led to Newman’s canonization. The event was moderated by Kenneth Woodward, former religion editor of Newsweek and author of Making Saints.

Master Class on "The Life of Teresa of Avila"
2019-10-25 14:00 - 17:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
This program was made possible in part by a grant from the Our Sunday Visitor Institute.
The Life of Saint Teresa of Avila is one of the most remarkable accounts ever written of the human encounter with the divine. This text is not really an autobiography at all, despite the fact that it is widely regarded as such, but rather a confession written for inquisitors by a nun whose raptures and mystical claims had aroused suspicion. Despite its troubled origins, and despite the fact that some clergy continued to condemn it after it was published, the book has had a profound impact on Christian spirituality for five centuries, attracting admiration from readers as diverse as mystics, philosophers, artists, psychoanalysts, and neurologists. How and why did a manuscript once kept under lock and key by the Spanish Inquisition become an iconic text of the Counter-Reformation and an enduring influence on Western culture?
This master class will examine the historical and theological content of Saint Teresa’s audacious mystical theology.
REQUIRED READING

The Life of Teresa of Avila (Penguin Classics, 1988) Chs. 1-2, 7-14, 20-22, 28-40.

RECOMMENDED READING

Eire, Carlos, The Life of Saint Teresa of Avila: A Biography (Princeton University Press, 2019).

SCHEDULE
1:30pm Coffee, tea, and pastries
2:00pm Introduction, Session I
3:20pm Break
3:40pm Session II
5:00pm End, wine and cheese reception
Professor Eire will also participate in a symposium on his new book The Life of Saint Teresa of Avila: A Biography on October 24.

Symposium on "The Life of Teresa of Avila: A Biography"
2019-10-24 17:15 | Social Sciences, Room 122, 1126 E 59th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Free and open to the public. Cosponsored by Martin Marty Center for the Public Understanding of Religion at the Divinity School, the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, and the Medieval Studies Workshop. This program was made possible in part by a grant from the Our Sunday Visitor Institute.
Copies of The Life of Saint Teresa of Avila: A Biography (Princeton University Press, 2019) are available for sale by the Seminary Coop Bookstore.
Saint Teresa of Avila’s Life is among the most remarkable accounts ever written of the human encounter with the divine. The Life is not really an autobiography at all, but rather a confession written for inquisitors by a nun whose raptures and mystical claims had aroused suspicion. Despite its troubled origins, the book has had a profound impact on Christian spirituality for five centuries, attracting admiration from readers as diverse as mystics, philosophers, artists, psychoanalysts, and neurologists. How did a manuscript once kept under lock and key by the Spanish Inquisition become one of the most inspiring religious books of all time?
In The Life of Saint Teresa of Avila: A Biography (Princeton University Press, 2019) National Book Award winner Carlos Eire tells the story of this incomparable spiritual masterpiece, examining its composition and reception in the sixteenth century, the various ways its mystical teachings have been interpreted and reinterpreted across time, and its enduring influence in our own secular age.
Professor Eire also gave a luncheon talk that day at noon at the University of Chicago of Chicago. He also taught a three-hour master class for students and faculty on The Life of Saint Teresa of Avila on Friday, October 25.

The Life of Saint Teresa of Avila
2019-10-24 12:00 - 13:30 | University Club of Chicago, 76 E Monroe St Chicago, IL 60603, Downtown, IL
This program was made possible in part by a grant from the Our Sunday Visitor Institute.
A luncheon talk with Professor Carlos Eire (Yale) on the recent book on the life and many afterlives of one of the most enduring mystical testaments ever written: The Life of Saint Teresa of Avila.
Saint Teresa of Avila’s Life is among the most remarkable accounts ever written of the human encounter with the divine. The Life is not really an autobiography at all, but rather a confession written for inquisitors by a nun whose raptures and mystical claims had aroused suspicion. Despite its troubled origins, the book has had a profound impact on Christian spirituality for five centuries, attracting admiration from readers as diverse as mystics, philosophers, artists, psychoanalysts, and neurologists. How did a manuscript once kept under lock and key by the Spanish Inquisition become one of the most inspiring religious books of all time?
In The Life of Saint Teresa of Avila: A Biography (Princeton University Press, 2019) National Book Award winner Carlos Eire tells the story of this incomparable spiritual masterpiece, examining its composition and reception in the sixteenth century, the various ways its mystical teachings have been interpreted and reinterpreted across time, and its enduring influence in our own secular age.
Prof. Eire also participated in a panel discussion of his book later that afternoon at the University of Chicago.

Waiting for Jesus in Havana
2019-10-23 18:30 | IL
The family is traditionally held to be the first church. Yet, the Latino Catholic home bears diverse local religious and cultural influences. How does one better understand the tapestry of one’s own religious experience and its relation to the Catholic tradition?
Join us in this workshop as Carlos Eire, historian and expert in popular piety, draws from his memoirs “Waiting for Snow in Havana” and “Learning to Die in Miami” to discuss the diversity of religious strands that made up his own Cuban household and analyze the challenges and opportunities it presents to the Hispanic Catholic experience. Participants will walk away with a deeper understanding of the local peculiarities of Catholic culture, as well as of the perilous task of wrestling with one’s own religious beliefs while writing for a broad reading public.
Cosponsored by Cristo Rey Jesuit High School. This event is made possible in part by a grant from the Our Sunday Visitor Institute.

The Making of a Modern Saint: John Henry Newman on Faith and Education in a Secular Age
2019-10-19 09:00 - 16:30 | Swift Hall, 1025 E 58th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Cosponsored by Mundelein Seminary, the Archdiocese of Chicago Vocation Office, and the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame. This program is made possible in part by a gift from the Paluch Family Foundation and a grant from the John Templeton Foundation.
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Have you ever wondered why you go to school? Or what the point of it all is? What goes into making a big decision? And how do you fit together everything you know–or even the past with the future?
John Henry Newman will be canonized on October 13th. On October 19th, we’ll celebrate his life and thought.

In the morning, Dwight Lindley from Hillsdale College will talk about, “Conversion, the Key to Newman’s Life and Thought.” Newman understood his own conversion to be a gradual realization of what his most-deeply held principles required of him–it wasn’t some shallow “emotional” feeling. And Newman’s understanding of conversion helped him to give an account of the Church’s development over time (and how that development is both similar to and different from Darwinian evolution!).

In the afternoon, Dave Deavel from University of St. Thomas will tell us about Newman’s idea of education. He will help us ask what a true education is. What does it mean to seek “knowledge for its own sake”? What does it mean when Newman describes the whole of knowledge as a “circle”? How do all the “subjects”—biology, history, philosophy, theology, and the rest—in the circle fit together? What unites them? Does theology have to be part of true education? How does “being educated” relate to my career? We’ll talk about all this and more in this lecture.

There will also be food, games, outdoor competitions, and a prize for the winners.

SCHEDULE
9:00am Registration and Breakfast
10:00am Welcome & Introductions
10:15am Opening Prayer
10:30am Prof. Lindley lecture on Newman’s life and times
11:45am Lunchtime discussion group
1:00pm Outdoor activity
2:15pm Prof. Deavel lecture on Science, University, and Liberal Education
3:30pm Discussion Groups
4:30pm Mass (optional)
5:45pm Pizza Party (optional)

Genome Editing with CRISPR: Dignity and Other Faith-Based Considerations
2019-10-17 17:00 | BSLC 109, 924 E 57th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
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Cosponsored by the Program on Religion and Medicine at the University of Chicago, McCormick Theological Seminary, and the Society of Catholic Scientists. This program is made possible by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation.
The discovery of CRISPR/Cas9 has revolutionized our ability to edit genomes, the human genome included. How do faith-based ethicists maneuver the landscape of human genetic engineering? What challenges do biotechnological advances pose to the dignity of the human person? Should genetic editing be celebrated? Cautiously advanced? Ruled out? In this lecture, biologist and Dominican Priest Nicanor Austriaco considered the prospects and challenges of CRISPR for the promotion of human dignity.

Master Class on Yves Simon's "A General Theory of Authority"
2019-10-11 14:00 - 17:15 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
REGISTER HERE
Open to current students and faculty. Copies of the book A General Theory of Authority (University of Notre Dame Press, 1980) will be provided for those who register. Professor Hittinger will also give a lecture on October 9 on “What St. Benedict Taught the Dark Ages: His and Ours.”
Yves Simon (1903-1961) was a neo-scholastic philosopher who distinguished himself chiefly for his work in moral and political philosophy. A student of Jacques Maritain in Paris, in 1938 he accepted a visiting position at the University of Notre Dame where he was stranded after the outbreak of WWII. In 1948 he became a member of the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago. Today he is perhaps best remembered and referenced for his work on the nature and functions of authority, a topic that he traversed three times: The Nature and Function of Authority (1940), Philosophy of Democratic Government (1951) based on his Walgreen Lectures at the University of Chicago (1948), and A General Theory of Authority (1962), published a year after his death. Why three times? The simple answer is that he was a meticulous philosopher and therefore he endeavored to get his account just right. Think for example of John Rawls’s multiple revisions of his theory of justice.
But it was also an imperative of his time and place. A neo-scholastic philosopher in the mid-20th century had to account for rapidly changing social and political conditions that made it awkward to defend such basic terms of art as authority and common good. The scholastic tradition had to reckon with the fact that the Catholic appropriation of the perennial philosophy seemed to side with the claims of authority against claims for liberty on a spectrum of social issues – from politics to family and religion. After the rise of totalitarianism and the disaster of two world wars, the claims for liberty were quite insistent and culturally ascendant. The year of Simon’s Walgreen Lectures witnessed the U.N. Declaration on Human Rights and the global process of decolonization, both of which underscored the principle of self-determination over and against more traditional kinds of authority. Standard liberal accounts of authority for the most part were content to ground authority in theories of consent, based on contractual understandings of consent to a utility – a resource-saving device for enhancement of individual choice. This was a one-dimensional account of the function of authority, but it had the advantage of comporting with the expectation that public powers serve and enhance individual liberty. This was the challenge Simon faced in putting forward a more robust account of authority.
SCHEDULE
1:30 welcome, coffee and tea
2:00 first session
3:30 break
3:45 second session
5:15 reception
SYLLABUS
FIRST SESSION (2:00-3:30)
Initial Presentation (30 minutes)

The issue of authority as Simon found it after WWII.
Neo-scholastic problems.
General Theory: Preview of the Main Question, the Main Definition.

Readings, GTA: Chs. 1 (and 5), 2; Thomas Aquinas, S.t. I, 96.4.
Discussion:
The “bad name of authority,” not altogether mistaken? Is the bad name due to philosophical misunderstandings, or to the frame and behavior of institutions, or to the lived experience of modern peoples?
Distinction between law and authority (20, 48 n.11). Does it work in favor of his general theory?
Look carefully at four points that appear constitute the main chassis for his position:

Essential and accidental functions of authority (20-22).
Partnership vs common action (29-33, and the coach-driver 135).
The essential function and the scenario of a multitude without deficiencies (37-47, handout S.t. I, 96.4).
The distinction between formal and material intention of a common good (57-65) – is he grappling with the issue of subsidiarity?

SECOND SESSION (3.45-5.15)
Initial Presentation (15 minutes).

Recapitulation and a few remarks on authority and theoretical knowledge.

Readings, GTA, Chs. 3 and 4.
Discussion:
An authoritative “witness” does not, all else being equal, require the power to give orders and demand obedience (84-87). The authority of a witness presupposes some kind of deficiency in the knower, for it is substitutional (remedial) (93). In the practical domain, both essential and accidental functions of authority have as their end a (social) common good. Does he now suggest a function of authority in theoretical matters that does not have a common good, or “essential” function as its end?
Perhaps the key to that question is his discussion of liberalism – freedom of thought as a “sociological agnosticism” that’s normative rather than merely prudential. (102-109, especially at 110-111). Perhaps his anticipation of Rawls’s Political Liberalism (1993)?
Simon regards philosophy as corrupted once it deliberately aims at winning social consensus (113-115). This is a point that deserves some reflection. Yet in “Truth and Community” (115-131) he wants to affirm that the search for truth is related to what is “fundamental in human sociability.” That would be communion. But social communion depends upon some kind of intellectual and spiritual consensus that serves common action (127).
Is Chapter 3 somehow the core of Simon’s effort in GTA? This is the material that he didn’t treat quite so explicitly in previous treatises on authority.
Chapter 4 reworks the preceding chapters. What difference does Chapter 3 make to this restatement of the functions of authority?

What St. Benedict Taught the Dark Ages: His and Ours
2019-10-09 17:00 | Classics 110, 1010 E 59th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
REGISTER HERE
Free and open to the public. Cosponsored by the John U. Nef Commitee on Social Thought.
Cardinal Newman, who will be canonized on October 13, is well known for his philosophy of education, especially for his masterwork The Idea of University (1853). But his most profound reflections on education are in his minor work “The Mission of St. Benedict” (1858), in which Newman treats the question of how to teach a beginner, even a beginner under the most unfavorable circumstances. Not a novice in dialectic and rhetoric, or in the theoretical or practical sciences, but a beginner in the quotidian flow of life.

In the declining shadows of Roman order in the West, the fifth-century monk St. Benedict authored a “simple Rule for beginners.” How to divide a day, how to honor one’s fellows of different social classes, how to bury the dead, how to distinguish tools and persons, and many other things that bewilder us today. Newman claimed that St. Benedict was the genius of “poetical” education, which directs the first and maybe even final steps of living ordinary life as an integrated whole.

Professor Hittinger will also lead a master class for students and faculty on Yves Simon’s A General Theory of Authority on Friday, October 11.

Master Class on "The Writings of Meister Eckhart"
2019-09-14 09:30 - 13:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
You can view photos of the event HERE.
In this one-off seminar, participants will read and discuss the writings of late medieval German mystic and theologian Meister Eckhart (c. 1260-1327) with Bernard McGinn, Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago Divinity School and leading expert on the history of Christian spirituality and mysticism.
Session 1. An Introduction to Eckhart

“Introductions” in The Essential Sermons, pp. 5-61
German Sermon 52 in The Essential Sermons, pp. 199-203
The Sequence “Granum sinapis” (Handout)

Session 2. Eckhart on Justice

German Sermon 6 in The Essential Sermons, pp. 185-189
Commentary on the Gospel of John, “Prologue” nn. 1-‐‑23 in The Essential Sermons, pp. 122-129

Session 3. Eckhart on Intellect

Latin Sermon XXIX, in Meister Eckhart, Teacher and Preacher, pp. 223-26
Question 1, in Meister Eckhart, Parisian Questions and Prologues, pp. 43-50

SCHEDULE
9:00am Coffee & Tea
9:30am Session 1
10:30am Break
10:45am Session 2
11:45pm Break
12:00pm Session 3
1:00pm End, optional lunch served

Reason, Revelation, Tradition: The Limits of Leo Strauss?
2019-08-06 13:00 - 2019-08-07 18:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
You can view photos of the event HERE.
Leo Strauss is well known for both his critique of modernity and his insistence on the productive (but irreconcilable) tension between reason and revelation. Even if Strauss’ recovery of the pre-modern philosophical life also opened a vista for the life of the saint to re-emerge, Strauss always contended that any synthesis between the two was theoretically untenable. Catholic students of political philosophy have therefore found themselves in an uneasy alliance with Strauss: in accepting his critical project, must they also accept his account of the natures of philosophy and faith?
This two-day master class will investigate what might be called the limits of Strauss. It will begin with an appreciation of his work, especially his critique of historicism. After that it will investigate the problem of reason and revelation by comparing Strauss with fellow-travelers like MacIntyre and Pieper. Central questions will concern Strauss’ insistence that revelation must be conceived of as a totalizing “law,” as well as whether Strauss’ account of reason is purely discursive or open to noetic ascent.
READINGS

Mark Shiffman, “The Limits of Strauss’ Recovery of Pre-modern Political Philosophy”
Leo Strauss, selections from “Reason and Revelation” (sections 4-6, 8; pp. 145-55 and 161-164)
Leo Strauss, “Natural Right and the Historical Approach”
Leo Strauss, selections from “Progress or Return?” (section 2; pp. 267-298)
Alasdair MacIntyre, reflections on the rationality of traditions (Three Rival Versions of Moral Inquiry, pp. 127-157)
​​​​​​​Josef Pieper, “The Negative Element in the Philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas” (The Silence of St. Thomas, pp. 45-74)

SCHEDULE
Tuesday, August 6
1:30pm – Arrival at Gavin House & reception
2pm – First Session: Strauss’ Writings, introduced by Mark Shiffman (Villanova University)
3:15pm – Break
3:30pm – Second Session: Strauss’ Writings, with 10-minute student presentation (Will Wood, University of Chicago)
4:45pm – Conclusion
5:30pm – Informal Dinner at Gavin House
Wednesday, August 7
9:30am – Arrival at Gavin and Coffee
10am – Third Session: MacIntyre on tradition, with 10-minute student presentation (Nathan Pinkoski, University of Toronto)
11:15am – Break
11:30am – Fourth Session: Pieper on Aquinas, with 10-minute presentation (Mark Hoipkemier, University of Virginia)
12:45pm – Conclusion
1pm – Informal Lunch at Gavin House
2:30pm – Final Session: Summation, a discussion of Strauss’ “Reason and Revelation,” with our appraisal of Strauss’ formulation of the problem
3:45pm – Conclusion
Students are responsible for arranging their own travel and lodging. With questions, please contact master class organizer Austin Walker at awalker@lumenchristi.org.

Modern Science and the Catholic Faith for Undergraduates
2019-07-28 12:00 - 2019-08-03 12:00 | Saint Joseph Abbey and Seminary College, 75376 River Road, St. Benedict, LA
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.
Among the topics discussed will be the historical relationship of the Church and science; the relation of faith and reason; evidence for God in the existence and order of the cosmos; God and nature; primary and secondary causality; the supernatural and miracles; modern physics and natural theology; creation and providence; the beginning of the universe and modern cosmology; God and time; human origins and human distinctiveness; rationality, freedom, and the soul; physicalist reductionism and the human mind; Genesis and scriptural interpretation; biological evolution; biology and human nature; and the Fall, original sin and concupiscence.
Preparatory readings will include excerpts from:

Modern Physics and Ancient Faith (Stephen M. Barr)
The Believing Scientist (Stephen M. Barr)
Thomistic Evolution (Fr. Nicanor Austriaco et al.)
Science and Belief in a Nuclear Age (Peter E. Hodgson)
God’s Mechanics (Br. Guy Consolmagno)
God and Reason in the Middle Ages (Edward Grant)
Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths about Science and Religion (ed. Ronald L. Numbers)
Mind and Cosmos (Thomas Nagel)
The Faith of the Early Fathers (William A. Jurgens)
Confessions (St. Augustine)
City of God (St. Augustine)
On the Literal Meaning of Genesis (St. Augustine)
Summa Contra Gentiles (St. Thomas Aquinas)
In the Beginning (Joseph Ratzinger)
addresses and statements on science and religion by Pope St. John Paul II
Communion and Stewardship: Human Persons Created in the Image of God (International Theological Commission)
sections of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

LOCATION AND FORMAT

The seminar will take place at Saint Joseph Abbey and Seminary College in St. Benedict, LA. Admitted students will be required to arrange their own travel to and from the seminar.
Admitted students will be granted a stipend of $350 to offset travel costs in addition to having their lodging and meals covered for the duration of the seminar.
Participants will arrive at Saint Joseph on Sunday, July 28 and depart on Saturday, August 3. The seminar will take place from Monday to Friday, with a lecture and discussion session each morning and afternoon.
Participants will be required read the assigned materials in preparation for the seminar.
In order to receive the $350 stipend, students must participate fully in all seminar activities and complete a survey at the end of the seminar.

APPLICATION INFORMATION

Open to all undergraduate students, including those who graduate in 2019 and recent graduates.
Applicants must submit an online application, including details on their course of study, a statement of interest, and a letter of recommendation.
For full consideration, apply by May 12. After May 12, applications will be evaluated on a rolling basis.
15 applicants will be admitted to the seminar.

This seminar is part of the Lumen Christi Institute’s “Science and Religion: A Dialogue of Cultures” project generously supported by the John Templeton Foundation.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
I am a college student graduating this academic year. Can I still apply? Yes!
Do I have to be Catholic to apply? No. The Lumen Christi Institute exists to promotes the Catholic intellectual tradition and is committed to the integration of the intellectual and spiritual life. The Institute welcomes seminar participants of all or no religious affiliation, and wants to assure all applicants that the opportunities to participate in devotional activities are optional.

Undergraduate Seminar: Augustine on Self, God, and Society
2019-07-28 00:00 - 2019-08-03 00:00 | St. Albert’s Priory, 5890 Birch Ct, Oakland, CA
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
Can I apply for more than one seminar? Yes. You may apply for multiple seminars. Please indicate your order of preference in your statement of purpose for each application. Each applicant may only be admitted to one seminar.
Do I have to be Catholic to apply? No. The Lumen Christi Institute exists to promotes the Catholic intellectual tradition and is committed to the integration of the intellectual and spiritual life. The Institute welcomes seminar participants of all or no religious affiliation, and wants to assure all applicants that the opportunities to participate in devotional activities are optional.
In addition to the travel stipend, are there other funding possibilities? Seminar participation includes an opportunity to give a formal presentation and inclusion in the official program and schedule. We encourage participants to seek funding from their home institutions or other sources to supplement the travel stipend offered by the Lumen Christi Institute.
When do I get my travel stipend? Stipends are distributed as a refund after successful completion of the seminar and seminar evaluations. Exceptions can be made on case by case basis.

POSTPONED: Catholic Social Teaching and Society: An Introduction to the Tradition and Substance of Christian Social Doctrine
2019-07-21 00:00 - 2019-08-03 00:00 | Abtei Michaelsberg, TBD, Siegburg, Germany
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 in responding to the complexities of the contemporary world situation? These represent particularly important questions given the Catholic Church’s revived role as a transnational, global organization whose views have assumed increasing significance in a post-Cold War world with increasingly diffuse sources of recognized authority.
The first week will provide a fundamental introduction to the history, philosophical currents, and theology that informs the Catholic social tradition. The second week features an interdisciplinary and international conversation between American and European participants concentrated on the meaning of social justice and its principles in light of the Christian tradition; a consideration of the Christian sources that inform the “social market economy” and the institutions of the “social-state”; and the challenges that AI and digitalization pose to human work and well-being.
The seminar will feature lectures, discussions, and working groups, but also opportunities to meet with political, social and Church leaders. The program has the special goal of bringing American and German students into conversation to share their perspectives, to build networks and to seek common approaches to addressing both to contemporary crises and unforeseen developments in a way that will keep the human at the center of all our considerations.
Format: coming soon!
Location: The seminar will take place at Abtei Michaelsberg, Siegburg, Germany.
Application Information: This seminar will be open to MA, MTS, MDiv, PhD, JD, Post Doc, and advanced undergraduates in all disciplines.
Applicants will be required to submit:

A completed online application form.
An updated CV.
At least one and as many as two letter(s) of recommendation from a member of the program in which the student is currently enrolled.
A statement of research interest no longer than 750 words, which includes an explanation of how this seminar might bear on the student’s current or future research plans.
One academic writing sample (30 pages maximum).

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Can I apply for more than one seminar? Yes. You may apply for multiple seminars. Please indicate your order of preference in your statement of purpose for each application. Each applicant may only be admitted to one seminar.
I have attended a Lumen Christi Institute seminar in the past. May I still apply? Yes!
Do I have to be Catholic to apply? No. The Lumen Christi Institute exists to promotes the Catholic intellectual tradition and is committed to the integration of the intellectual and spiritual life. The Institute welcomes seminar participants of all or no religious affiliation, and wants to assure all applicants that the opportunities to participate in devotional activities are optional.
In addition to the travel stipend, are there other funding possibilities? Seminar participation includes an opportunity to give a formal presentation and inclusion in the official program and schedule. We encourage participants to seek funding from their home institutions or other sources to supplement the travel stipend offered by the Lumen Christi Institute.
When do I get my travel stipend? Stipends are distributed as a refund after successful completion of the seminar and seminar evaluations. Exceptions can be made on case by case basis.
Contact us with any further questions.

Catholic Social Thought: A Critical Investigation
2019-07-20 00:00 - 2019-07-27 00:00 | University of California, Berkeley, S Hall Rd. Berkeley, CA 94720, Berkeley, CA
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 discussion of the text and the issues at hand. Students will be expected to prepare the readings carefully and participate in the discussions of the material.
Location: The seminar will take place at the University of California, Berkeley. Participants will be provided with lodging and most meals for the duration of the seminar, and a travel stipend of up to $350.
Application Information: This seminar will be open to PhD students, JD students, post docs, and junior faculty in the humanities, social sciences, and relevant fields.
Applicants will be required to submit:

A completed online application form.
An updated CV.
At least one and as many as two letter(s) of recommendation from a member of the program in which the student is currently enrolled.
A statement of research interest no longer than 750 words, which includes an explanation of how this seminar might bear on the student’s current or future research plans.
One academic writing sample (30 pages maximum).

All application materials can be submitted via the online application. Incomplete applications will not be considered. Fifteen students will be admitted to this seminar. Application materials are due March 15.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Can I apply for more than one seminar? Yes. You may apply for multiple seminars. Please indicate your order of preference in your statement of purpose for each application. Each applicant may only be admitted to one seminar.
I am a PhD student graduating this academic year. Can I still apply? Yes!
I am currently an undergraduate or masters student, but have been admitted to a PhD program for the next academic year. Can I still apply?
Yes, please indicate this somehwere in your application.
I have attended a Lumen Christi Institute seminar in the past. May I still apply? Yes!
Do I have to be Catholic to apply? No. The Lumen Christi Institute exists to promotes the Catholic intellectual tradition and is committed to the integration of the intellectual and spiritual life. The Institute welcomes seminar participants of all or no religious affiliation, and wants to assure all applicants that the opportunities to participate in devotional activities are optional.
In addition to the travel stipend, are there other funding possibilities? Seminar participation includes an opportunity to give a formal presentation and inclusion in the official program and schedule. We encourage participants to seek funding from their home institutions or other sources to supplement the travel stipend offered by the Lumen Christi Institute.
When do I get my Travel Stipend? Stipends are distributed as a refund after successful completion of the seminar and seminar evaluations. Exceptions can be made on case by case basis.
Contact us with any further questions.

The Thought of Rene Girard
2019-07-15 09:00 - 2019-07-21 17:00 | Saint-Michel de Frigolet Abbey, La Montagnette, 13150 Tarascon, France, Saint-Michel de Frigolet Abbey, France
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 seminar-style discussion of the text and the issues at hand. Students will be expected to prepare the readings carefully and participate in the discussions of the material.
Location: The seminar will take place at Saint-Michel de Frigolet Abbey near Avignon, France. Participants will be provided with lodging and meals for the duration of the seminar, and a travel stipend of up to $700.
Application Requirements: This seminar is open to PhD students in the humanities and relevant fields.
Applicants will be required to submit:

A completed online application form.
An updated CV.
At least one and as many as two letter(s) of recommendation from a member of the program in which the student is currently enrolled.
A statement of research interest no longer than 750 words, which includes an explanation of how this seminar might bear on the student’s current or future research plans.
One academic writing sample (30 pages maximum).

All application materials can be submitted via the online application. Incomplete applications will not be considered. Fifteen applicants will be admitted to this seminar. Application materials are due March 15.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Can I apply for more than one seminar? Yes. You may apply for multiple seminars. Please indicate your order of preference in your statement of purpose for each application. Each applicant may only be admitted to one seminar.
I am a PhD student graduating this academic year. Can I still apply? Yes!
I am currently an undergraduate or masters student, but have been admitted to a PhD program for the next academic year. Can I still apply?
Yes, please indicate this somehwere in your application.
I have attended a Lumen Christi Institute seminar in the past. May I still apply? Yes!
Do I have to be Catholic to apply? No. The Lumen Christi Institute exists to promotes the Catholic intellectual tradition and is committed to the integration of the intellectual and spiritual life. The Institute welcomes seminar participants of all or no religious affiliation, and wants to assure all applicants that the opportunities to participate in devotional activities are optional.
In addition to the travel stipend, are there other funding possibilities? Seminar participation includes an opportunity to give a formal presentation and inclusion in the official program and schedule. We encourage participants to seek funding from their home institutions or other sources to supplement the travel stipend offered by the Lumen Christi Institute.
When do I get my travel stipend? Stipends are distributed as a refund after successful completion of the seminar and seminar evaluations. Exceptions can be made on case by case basis.
Contact us with any further questions.

The Thought of John Henry Newman
2019-07-06 00:00 - 2019-07-13 00:00 | Merton College, Oxford, Merton St, Oxford OX1 4JD, UK, Oxford, United Kingdom
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 presentations by Professor Ker and by participants on the readings assigned, followed by seminar-style discussion.
Location: The seminar will take place at Merton College at the University of Oxford. Participants will be provided with lodging and most meals for the duration of the seminar, and a travel stipend of up to $700.
Application Information: This seminar is open to PhD students, post docs, and junior faculty in the humanities and relevant fields.
Applicants will be required to submit:

A completed online application form.
An updated CV.
At least one and as many as two letter(s) of recommendation from a member of the program in which the applicant is currently enrolled.
A statement of research interest no longer than 750 words, which includes an explanation of how this seminar might bear on the student’s current or future research plans.
One academic writing sample (30 pages maximum).

All application materials can be submitted via the online application. Incomplete applications will not be considered. Fifteen applicants will be admitted to this seminar. Application materials are due March 15.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Can I apply for more than one seminar? Yes. You may apply for multiple seminars. Please indicate your order of preference in your statement of purpose for each application. Each applicant may only be admitted to one seminar.
I am a PhD student graduating this academic year. Can I still apply? Yes!
I am currently an undergraduate or masters student, but have been admitted to a PhD program for the next academic year. Can I still apply?
Yes, please indicate this somehwere in your application.
I have attended a Lumen Christi Institute seminar in the past. May I still apply? Yes!
Do I have to be Catholic to apply? No. The Lumen Christi Institute exists to promotes the Catholic intellectual tradition and is committed to the integration of the intellectual and spiritual life. The Institute welcomes seminar participants of all or no religious affiliation, and wants to assure all applicants that the opportunities to participate in devotional activities are optional.
In addition to the travel stipend, are there other funding possibilities? Seminar participation includes an opportunity to give a formal presentation and inclusion in the official program and schedule. We encourage participants to seek funding from their home institutions or other sources to supplement the travel stipend offered by the Lumen Christi Institute.
When do I get my Travel Stipend? Stipends are distributed as a refund after successful completion of the seminar and seminar evaluations. Exceptions can be made on case by case basis.
Contact us with any further questions.

Modern Science and the Catholic Faith for Graduate Students
2019-06-30 12:00 - 2019-07-06 12:00 | Providence College, 1 Cunningham Square, Providence, RI
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.
Among the topics discussed will be the historical relationship of the Church and science; the relation of faith and reason; evidence for God in the existence and order of the cosmos; God and nature; primary and secondary causality; the supernatural and miracles; modern physics and natural theology; creation and providence; the beginning of the universe and modern cosmology; God and time; human origins and human distinctiveness; rationality, freedom, and the soul; physicalist reductionism and the human mind; Genesis and scriptural interpretation; biological evolution; biology and human nature; and the Fall, original sin and concupiscence.
Preparatory readings will include excerpts from:

Modern Physics and Ancient Faith (Stephen M. Barr)
The Believing Scientist (Stephen M. Barr)
Thomistic Evolution (Fr. Nicanor Austriaco et al.)
Science and Belief in a Nuclear Age (Peter E. Hodgson)
God’s Mechanics (Br. Guy Consolmagno)
God and Reason in the Middle Ages (Edward Grant)
Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths about Science and Religion (ed. Ronald L. Numbers)
Mind and Cosmos (Thomas Nagel)
The Faith of the Early Fathers (William A. Jurgens)
Confessions (St. Augustine)
City of God (St. Augustine)
On the Literal Meaning of Genesis (St. Augustine)
Summa Contra Gentiles (St. Thomas Aquinas)
In the Beginning (Joseph Ratzinger)
addresses and statements on science and religion by Pope St. John Paul II
Communion and Stewardship: Human Persons Created in the Image of God (International Theological Commission)
sections of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

This seminar is made possible by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation.
LOCATION AND FORMAT

The seminar will take place at Providence College in Providence, RI. Admitted students will be required to arrange their own travel to and from the seminar.
Admitted students will be granted a stipend of $350 to offset travel costs in addition to having their lodging and meals covered for the duration of the seminar.
Participants will arrive at Providence College on Sunday, June 30 and depart on Saturday, July 6. The seminar will take place from Monday to Friday, with a lecture and discussion session each morning and afternoon.
Participants will be required read the assigned materials in preparation for the seminar.
In order to receive the $350 stipend, students must participate fully in all seminar activities and complete a survey at the end of the seminar.

APPLICATION INFORMATION

Open to graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in STEM fields, medicine, the history of science, philosophy, theology, and relevant fields.
Applicants must submit an online application, including details on their course of study, a statement of interest, and a letter of recommendation (optional).
For full consideration, apply by May 12. After May 12, applications will be evaluated on a rolling basis.
15 applicants will be admitted to the seminar.

This seminar is part of the Lumen Christi Institute’s “Science and Religion: A Dialogue of Cultures” project generously supported by the John Templeton Foundation and is cosponsored by the Society of Catholic Scientists.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
I am a PhD student graduating this academic year. Can I still apply? Yes!
I am currently an undergraduate or but have been admitted to a graduate program for the next academic year. Can I still apply? Yes, please indicate this in the statement of purpose in your application.
I have attended a Lumen Christi Institute seminar in the past. May I still apply? Yes!
Do I have to be Catholic to apply? No. The Lumen Christi Institute exists to promotes the Catholic intellectual tradition and is committed to the integration of the intellectual and spiritual life. The Institute welcomes seminar participants of all or no religious affiliation, and wants to assure all applicants that the opportunities to participate in devotional activities are optional.

Metaphysics and the Soul in Thomas Aquinas
2019-06-27 12:00 - 2019-07-03 00:00 | University of Chicago, 5801 S. Ellis Ave., University of Chicago, IL
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 will take up related issues, such as Aquinas’s understanding of the relation between metaphysics and theology, his handling of the Augustinian tradition, his reaction to the Averroists, and how his account of the soul relates to later philosophical developments such as Cartesianism and personalism.
Format: There will be two 2 ½ hour sessions each day. Each session will include an opening lecture and seminar-style discussion of the text and the issues at hand. Students will be expected to prepare the readings carefully and participate in the discussions of the material.
Location: The seminar will take place at the University of Chicago. Students will be provided with lodging and meals for the duration of the seminar, and a travel stipend of up to $350.
Application Information: This seminar will be open to doctoral students in the humanities and relevant fields.
Applicants will be required to submit:

A completed online application form.
An updated CV.
At least one and as many as two letter(s) of recommendation from a member of the program in which the student is currently enrolled.
A statement of research interest no longer than 750 words, which includes an explanation of how this seminar might bear on the student’s current or future research plans.
One academic writing sample (30 pages maximum).

All application materials can be submitted via the online application. Incomplete applications will not be considered. Fifteen students will be admitted to this seminar. Application materials are due March 15.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Can I apply for more than one seminar? Yes. You may apply for multiple seminars. Please indicate your order of preference in your statement of purpose for each application. Each applicant may only be admitted to one seminar.
I am a PhD student graduating this academic year. Can I still apply? Yes!
I am currently an undergraduate or masters student, but have been admitted to a PhD program for the next academic year. Can I still apply?
Yes, please indicate this in the statement of purpose in your application.
I have attended a Lumen Christi Institute seminar in the past. May I still apply? Yes!
Do I have to be Catholic to apply? No. The Lumen Christi Institute exists to promotes the Catholic intellectual tradition and is committed to the integration of the intellectual and spiritual life. The Institute welcomes seminar participants of all or no religious affiliation, and wants to assure all applicants that the opportunities to participate in devotional activities are optional.
In addition to the travel stipend, are there other funding possibilities? Seminar participation includes an opportunity to give a formal presentation and inclusion in the official program and schedule. We encourage participants to seek funding from their home institutions or other sources to supplement the travel stipend offered by the Lumen Christi Institute.
When do I get my travel stipend? Stipends are distributed as a refund after successful completion of the seminar and seminar evaluations. Exceptions can be made on case by case basis.
Contact us with any further questions.

Monastic Wisdom Seminar
2019-06-16 12:00 - 2019-06-21 12:00 | New Melleray Abbey, 6632 Melleray Cir Peosta, IA 52068, New Melleray Abbey, IA
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 all-powerful and righteous arms of obedience to fight under the true King, the Lord Jesus Christ.”
– St. Benedict of Nursia, Rule, Prologue
The Lumen Christi Institute and New Melleray Abbey have partnered to organize a retreat aimed at exploring the monastic wisdom tradition. The Trappist community at New Melleray Abbey in Iowa represents an ancient and continual tradition of Christian monasticism with roots in the early Church. Students with an interest in theology or spirituality may be familiar with some of the major figures in this tradition—St. John Cassian, St. Benedict of Nursia, St. Bernard of Clairvaux. It is less likely they have spent time putting into practice the lessons of prayer, spiritual reading, and silence in an organized manner.
The contention of the Monastic Wisdom Seminar is that monastic disciplines must be practiced to be understood. Participants will spend a week praying, conferencing, reading, and working with the monks of New Melleray Abbey. The goals of the retreat are fourfold:

Introduce participants to monastic life, the Divine Office, and the history and theology of monasticism.

Introduce participants to monastic practices, including the discipline of silence, the principle of ora et labora and lectio divina.

Provide an opportunity for participants to reflect on Catholic practices of daily prayer and their relation to monastic life.

Study of texts of major figures of the monastic tradition.

PRINCIPAL TEXTS FOR DISCUSSION

Jean Leclercq, The Love of Learning and the Desire for God, trans. Catharine Misrahi (New York: Fordham University Press, 1982).

St. Athanasius, “The Life of Antony,” in Athanasius: The Life of Antony and the Letter to Marcellinus, trans. Robert C. Gregg (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1979).

John Cassian, Conferences, trans. Colm Luibheid, Classics of Western Spirituality (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1985).

St. Benedict of Nursia, The Rule of St. Benedict, trans. Carolinne White (London: Penguin Classics, 2008).

St. Bernard of Clairvaux, “On Loving God” in Bernard of Clairvaux: Selected Works, trans. G.R. Evans, Classics of Western Spirituality (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1987).

LOCATION AND FORMAT

The seminar will take place at New Melleray Abbey in Peosta, Iowa.

Travel stipends will be available for currently enrolled students.

Lodging, meals, and books will be provided.

Participants will arrive at New Melleray on Sunday, June 16 and depart on Friday, June 21.

Participants will be required read the assigned materials in preparation for the seminar.

APPLICATION INFORMATION

Open to men aged 18 through 35. Catholics and non-Catholics are invited to apply.

Applicants must submit an online application including a statement of interest, a CV or resume, and a letter of recommendation from a professor or pastor.

Applications will be evaluated on a rolling basis. Apply no later than May 17th to receive full consideration.

A maximum of 15 applicants will be admitted to the seminar.

Saving Darwin's Soul and Science's Life
2019-06-11 17:30 - 19:30 | Kasbeer Hall, 15th Floor Philip H. Corboy Law Center 25 East Pearson Street, Downtown, IL
$25 General / Free for current students with ID
$500 Host Committee (includes 10 tickets) / $2,500 Event Vice-Chair (includes 10 tickets) / $5,000 Event Chair (includes 10 tickets). This program is made possible by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation and is cosponsred by the Society of Catholic Scientists.
5:30pm Hors d’oeuvres reception
6:30pm Talk and Q&A
7:30pm Close
The late 19th century witnessed the invention of what is now a well-worn trope: Science versus Religion. From this contrived construction modern fundamentalism was born: Scientific, Religious, and Philosophical. Such fundamentalisms spawned artificial ghettos of specialization that encouraged ambitions for totalizing disciplines. Darwinism was itself an example and victim of such blinkered vanity. Only by realizing the intrinsic marriage of all modes of knowledge can humanity’s most creative efforts flourish; otherwise, nihilism ensues.

Economics & Catholic Social Thought: A Primer
2019-06-11 09:00 - 2019-06-14 17:00 | Notre Dame Global Gateway, Ha-Rosmarin St, Jerusalem, Israel
APPLICATIONS FOR THIS SEMINAR ARE CLOSED
Now in its fourth year, this seminar is designed as an introduction and immersion into Catholic social thought for graduate students and junior faculty in economics, finance, or related fields. Participants will cover foundational principles in Catholic social thought, starting with the human person, dignity, freedom, subsidiarity, solidarity, and the common good, and moving toward applications of these principles to conceptual understandings and ethical considerations involving economic topics such as utility theory, firm and business ethics, wages, markets, globalization, poverty, and development. Participants will delve into social encyclicals, secondary sources, and relevant economics texts.
This seminar is sponsored by the Lumen Christi Institute; the Catholic Research Economists Discussion Organization; the De Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture; the Kellogg Institute for International Studies; and the he Institute for the Scholarship in the Liberal Arts, College of Arts and Letters, University of Notre Dame.
*Dates reflect the days of seminar sessions. Participants should expect to arrive on June 10 and depart on June 15.

Format: There will be ten sessions over the course of four days, featuring a different instructor. Each instructor will open with a lecture, and then we will turn to a seminar style discussion of the texts and issues at hand. In the final sessions, we will discuss how the material can be applied to each student’s particular area of interest. There will also be opportunities for mass and several outings to important religious sites.
Location: The seminar will take place at the Notre Dame Global Gateway outside of Jerusalem. Participants will be provided with accommodations and meals, and a limited number of travel stipends are available on a need basis.
Application Information: This seminar will be open to Ph.D. students and faculty in Economics, Finance and related fields.
Applicants will be required to submit a completed online application form, including:

An updated CV.
A brief statement of research interest no longer than 750 words.
One academic writing sample.

All application materials can be submitted via the online application. Incomplete applications will not be considered. 15 applicants will be admitted to this seminar.
Application materials are due March 1.
Please direct any further questions to contact@credo-economists.org.

A New 'Scientia': Can Theology Unify the Sciences and Humanities?
2019-06-07 12:00 - 13:30 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
REGISTER HERE
Open to current students and faculty. Lunch will be served. A PDF of the reading will be provided when you register. Cosponsored by the Morris Fishbein Center for the History of Science and Medicine.
a luncheon discussion with philosopher Conor Cunningham (University of Nottingham) on his current research project, which will be published as Soul and the Marriage of Discourse: Theology as Effective Theory.
The question of the relation between the sciences and that of the Humanities has been a source of tension ever since the advent of Modernity. Over the last hundred years this has only grown more pronounced, not only between the Humanities and the sciences (both social and natural), but within the natural sciences, as there has been an internecine jostling for priority, especially considering high-energy physics’ pursuit of a Theory of Everything, a ‘master science’.
Wittgenstein warned us of such temptation: ‘A main cause of philosophical disease—a one sided diet: one nourishes one’s thinking with only one kind of example’. More powerfully, Dostoevsky in his own inimitable manner warns: ‘Half-knowledge is a tyrant without precedent, one that has its own priests and slaves; a tyrant that is worshipped with unprecedented awe and adulation and before which science itself fawns and cringes’.
Against such apartheid, and its concomitant ‘theocracy’, this research project develops an original, expansive and mutually beneficial understanding of the relation between different modes of knowledge (scientia) that eliminates such conflicts, whilst concurrently encouraging synthetic engagements with existence that do not discourage specialisms; rather they provide space for them.
REQUIRED READING
“Theology as Effective Theory: A Metaphysics of Mixt”
SUGGESTED READING
“Soul and the Marriage of Discourse”
Prof. Cunningham will also give a talk on June 11 at Loyola University Chicago’s Water Tower Campus on “Saving Darwin’s Soul and Science’s Life.”

Business and Catholic Social Thought: A Primer
2019-06-02 00:00 - 2019-06-05 00:00 | University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, Notre Dame, IN
APPLICATIONS FOR THIS SEMINAR ARE CLOSED
We are excited to announce our newly created seminar designed as an introduction and immersion into Catholic social thought for graduate students and faculty in business schools. Participants 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 and showing practical implications of Catholic social thought for business in a way that affirms the goodness of business directed toward the common good. Participants will delve into social encyclicals, secondary sources, and relevant business texts that show the path for principled entrepreneurship.
This seminar is cosponsored by the John A. Ryan Institute for Catholic Social Thought at the University of St. Thomas (MN); the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame; the Ciocca Center for Principled Entrepreneurship at the Catholic University of America; the Lumen Christi Institute; and the Markets, Culture and Ethics Research Centre at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome.

Format: There will be four sessions each day, featuring a different instructor. Each instructor will open with a lecture, and then we will turn to a seminar-style discussion of the texts and issues at hand.
Location: The seminar will take place at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. A limited number of travel stipends are available on a per need basis (see the application form). All participants will be provided with accommodations and meals.
Application Information: This seminar will be open to graduate students and faculty of any specialization in business schools.
Applicants will be required to submit a completed online application, including:

An updated CV/resume.
A brief statement of research interest related to Catholic social thought no longer than 750 words.
One academic writing sample.

All application materials can be submitted via the online application. Incomplete applications will not be considered. Fifteen students will be admitted to this seminar. Application materials are due March 1.
Please direct any further questions HERE

Mary at the Art Institute
2019-05-30 16:00 | Art Institute of Chicago, 111 S Michigan Ave. Chicago, IL 60603, Downtown
REGISTER HERE

Open to all university students. Registration Required. Cosponsored with Calvert House.
Mary is the most-depicted woman in the history of Western art, which means that images of her are both ubiquitous and bewildering in their variety. Marian images are used in the Christian liturgy, for private devotion, for political statements, and for pushing boundaries—and for almost everything else as well.

Join University of Chicago graduate students Fr. Gabriel Torretta, OP, and Lauren Beversluis for a visit to the Chicago Art Institute as they explain the building blocks of Marian images by discussing works that span both Mary’s own life and its living history in painting.

SCHEDULE

3:30pm Meet at Gavin House, take rideshare to the museum
4:00pm Meet in the South Garden at the Chicago Art Institute to pray the rosary
4:30pm Museum visit (free admission with student ID)
6:00pm Dinner at Terzo Piano

Humanistic Liberal Arts Education, the University, and the Catholic Tradition: ﻿from the Age of Van Doren and Hutchins to Today
2019-05-24 15:30 - 17:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Open to current students and faculty

a colloquium discussion with an introductory presentation by Professor F. Russell Hittinger, William K. Warren Professor Emeritus of Catholic Studies at the University of Tulsa, and a response by J. Columcille Dever, PhD Candidate in the History of Christianity at the University of Notre Dame
3:00PM Coffee & Tea
3:30PM Colloquium Discussion
5:00PM Close, Wine & Cheese Reception

Today with the emphasis on STEM and business education, the tradition of liberal arts education in America (and elsewhere in the world) faces a challenging environment. The recent abolition of several humanities departments at the University of Tulsa sparked protest from faculty and students who value the liberal arts tradition at that institution. Hittinger will report on the lessons to be drawn from the situation in Tulsa.

In facing this challenge, one can learn from the case made for a liberal arts education by figures such as Robert Maynard Hutchins and Mark Van Doren at The University of Chicago and Columbia University in the first half of the 20th century. At the same time, the current situation is radically different, given the loss of piety for the values of the “West” and its civilization in our multi-cultural, globalized society. In a similar way, the academic disciplines of the humanities are less able to make a case for themselves. And the Catholic intellectual tradition would be interpreted in a different manner from how it was seen in the first half of the 20th century.

One would expect leading Catholic universities to make the liberal arts tradition central to their mission and to be in a position to play a leading role in contemporary discussion of the relevance of a curriculum of humanistic education in a democratic society. Indeed this is done in a creative way on the margins of Catholic higher education, but not by the most prestigious or leading Catholic colleges.

Ironically, in an address to Catholic educators (cited by Msgr. John Tracy Ellis in his seminal article “American Catholics and the Intellectual Life”), Robert Maynard Hutchins urged Catholic colleges to emphasize the “the longest intellectual tradition of any institution in the contemporary world” and, in the words of Ellis, to “make it come alive in American intellectual circles.”

Catholic colleges seem to have missed the pearl of great price pointed to by Hutchins, while they took up his second order challenge of matching the best secular universities in terms of “high academic standards, development of habits of work, and research….”

The colloquium discussion will focus on the question of how scholars at Catholic and secular universities might make a case for a humanistic liberal arts education in today’s culture and how they see its relation to “the longest intellectual tradition of any institution in the contemporary world.”

The article of John Tracy Ellis can be found HERE.

Symposium on "The Cross: History, Art, and Controversy"
2019-05-23 17:00 | Swift Hall, 3rd Floor Lecture, 1025 E 58th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Listen to the symposium as a podcast episode. You can subscribe to the Lumen Christi Institute Podcast via our Soundcloud page, iTunes channel, Stitcher, TuneIn, ListenNotes, Podbean, Pocket Casts, and Google Play Music.
To view photos of the symposium, visit Lumen Christi’s Facebook page.
Cosponsored by the Martin Marty Center for the Public Understanding of Religion, the Medieval Studies Workshop, the Early Christian Studies Workshop, and the Research in Art and Visual Evidence Workshop. Free and open to the public. Copies of the book will be available for sale at the event by the Seminary Coop Bookstore. Persons with disabilities who may need assistance should contact us at 773-955-5887 or by email.
Join us for a symposium discussion of the recent book by Robin Jensen, The Cross: History, Art, and Controversy (Harvard University Press, 2017).
In The Cross, Robin Jensen takes readers on an intellectual and spiritual journey through the two-thousand-year evolution of the cross as an idea and an artifact, illuminating the controversies—along with the forms of devotion—this central symbol of Christianity inspires. Her wide-ranging study focuses on the cross in painting and literature, the quest for the “true cross” in Jerusalem, and the symbol’s role in conflicts from the Crusades to wars of colonial conquest. The Cross also reveals how Jews and Muslims viewed the most sacred of all Christian emblems and explains its role in public life in the West today.

Weekly Non-Credit Course: "The Prophets and Christian Prayer"
2019-05-21 18:00 - 20:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
REGISTER HERE
6:00 Dinner | 6:30 Lecture
This weekly non-credit course is open to current students and faculty. Registrants are free to attend as many sessions as they choose. Sessions do not presuppose previous attendance or prior knowledge of the subject.
In its broadest sense, biblical prophecy—in both the Old and New Testaments—includes the activities and utterances of seers, dreamers, ecstatics, diviners, mystics, and declaimers of unmediated divine discourse: oracles, instruction, admonition, consolation. This course will examine literary and non-literary prophecy as a supernaturally accomplished conduit of God’s will, along with the various instruments by which that will is communicated. In addition, we will look at the ways in which prophetic action and discourse shaped the contemplative and liturgical life of the early Church, as well as the prayer of the later centuries.
April 9 | Introduction to Biblical Prophecy
April 16 | Amos & Hosea & the nəbîʾîm
April 23 | Isaiah
April 30 | Jeremiah
May 7 | Elijah & Elisha
May 14 | Ezekiel & Daniel
May 21 | New Testament Prophets & Prophecy

Notre Dame de Paris : Devastation and Reconstruction
2019-05-20 18:30 | Alliance Française de Chicago, 54 West Chicago Avenue Chicago, IL 60610, Downtown
To watch the video of the discussion, visit the Alliance Française’s Facebook page here (first half) and here (second half).
To view photos of the discussion, visit Lumen Christi’s Facebook page.
Organized by the Lumen Christi Institute with co-sponsor and host the Alliance Française de Chicago.

Free for Alliance Française members/ $10 for non-members.
Notre Dame de Paris in flames. Smartphone and television screens across the world light up one after the other, sending shockwaves as the heart of Paris burns. What is it about the old stones, the stained glass rosette, and the 800 year old charpente (wood roof frame) called “the forest” that brought people together for a few hours?
Artifact of a medieval faith; icon immortalized by Victor Hugo and turned into a hit on Broadway; haut-lieu of the most touristic city in the world; pawn in renewed political and architectural high stakes. What does the cathedral in the heart of Paris mean for them, and for each of us?
To sort out the history, the meaning, and most of all, the future of Notre Dame de Paris, the Alliance Francaise de Chicago welcomes Jean-Luc Marion, theologian, member of the Académie Française and an active participant in the founding of the Lumen Christi Institute. Jean-Luc Marion will be in conversation with Thomas Pavel, professor at the Department of Romance Languages of the University of Chicago.

"The Spirit of the Liturgy" at the Monastery of the Holy Cross
2019-05-18 16:30 - 20:00 | The Monastery of the Holy Cross, 3111 South Aberdeen St. Chicago, IL 60608, Chicago, IL
Transportation will be provided from Hyde Park. Open to current university students and faculty. Cosponsored by Calvert House.
Join us for an edifying evening of prayer, dinner, and conversation with Benedictine monks at the Monastery of the Holy Cross on the south side of Chicago. Attendees will participate in prayer of the Divine Office (Vespers and Compline), have dinner, and discuss Romano Guardini’s classic work The Spirit of the Liturgy with Prior Peter Funk. Following the monastic tradition of the oral reading of a text during meals, the students will listen to selections from The Spirit of the Liturgy while they eat, then discuss what they’ve heard, relating it to their own experiences and to the liturgy at the monastery.
More information about the monastery can be found HERE.
SCHEDULE
4:15pm Meet at Gavin House (1220 E. 58th St.)
4:30pm Depart from Hyde Park
5:00pm Arrive at the Monastery, welcome by Prior Funk
5:15pm Office of Vespers
6:00pm Dinner & Discussion
7:15pm Office of Compline
8:00pm Arrive back in Hyde Park
Students are also invited to a discussion with Fr. Peter on May 15 on “What is Contemplation?”

What is Contemplation? Reflections of a Monk
2019-05-15 18:30 - 20:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
6:30pm Dinner | 7:00pm Discussion
Open to current students and faculty. Dinner will be served. Cosponsored by Calvert House and the Catholic Students Association. Made possible by a grant from the Our Sunday Visitor Institute.
From mindfulness while brushing one’s teeth, to Yoga at Rockefeller, to new meditation apps, there is a renewed interest today in the contemplative life as a counterbalance to the active life. But what exactly is contemplation and how is it relevant to the life of a student? Come and join University of Chicago alumnus and Benedictine Monk Fr. Peter Funk, OSB, for a conversation about why he was drawn to a life as a contemplative monk and how the monastic vision of the interior life can enrich our busy lives.
We will also organize a trip to Fr. Peter’s Benedictine Monastery of the Holy Cross on Saturday, May 18.

Hans Urs von Balthasar on Mystical Theology and “The Metaphysics of the Saints”
2019-05-10 14:00 - 17:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
To view photos of the master class, visit Lumen Christi’s Facebook page.
Open to current students and faculty. Copies of the readings will be provided for registrants.
Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905–1988) was one of the most prolific and controversial Catholic theologians of the twentieth century. Responses to his work have ranged from the effusive to the dismissive. Instead of favoring any such one-sided judgments, however, I invite participants in this seminar to focus on two tasks that require considerably more scholarly effort. First, there is the task simply of understanding Balthasar—that is, making sense of his claims, their historical and intellectual contexts, the arguments that he offers in support of them, the style in which he expresses them, and the current debates surrounding them. Second, there is the task of evaluating his work—that is, clarifying what critiques may be warranted within the space of a sufficiently charitable interpretation and what positions theologians attuned to contemporary needs and realities ought to take on various aspects of his thought.
In particular, this seminar considers Balthasar in connection with the Christian tradition of mystical theology. Like many great figures in this tradition, Balthasar believes that theology and sanctity, thought and prayer, contemplation and action, knowledge and love ought to go together. As a mystical theologian, he is not content merely to comment on Christian doctrine (though it remains absolutely essential). He seeks to clarify the conditions under which the creature can be drawn into union with God through Christ and the Holy Spirit. He is interested as much in the lived experience of grace as in its theorization. The first part of the seminar offers some important context for understanding Balthasar (with help from Peter Henrici, S.J.) and highlights Balthasar’s famous essay, “Theology and Sanctity,” which offers a more or less adequate snapshot of his mystical theology. The second part of the seminar delves a bit deeper to study his complex genealogical arguments in the section of The Glory of the Lord, volume 5, called “The Metaphysics of the Saints.” Here Balthasar both exposes the mystical theological roots of certain modern conceptual and practical maladies and attempts to identify their mystical theological antidotes.
The recommended readings may be helpful to seminar participants who are interested in the question of Balthasar’s gender essentialism (see Corinne Crammer’s “One Sex or Two?”) or in the ecumenical potential of Balthasar’s mystical theology in the midst of debates between Karl Barth and Erich Pryzwara, and their intellectual descendants, about the analogia entis (see my “Dialectic and Analogy”).
REQUIRED READINGS
For session 1:
Henrici, Peter, S.J. “Hans Urs von Balthasar: A Sketch of His Life.” In Hans Urs von Balthasar: His Life and Work. Edited by David L. Schindler. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1991. 7–43.
Balthasar, Hans Urs von. “Theology and Sanctity.” In Explorations in Theology, volume 1, The Word Made Flesh. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1989. 181–209.
For session 2:
Balthasar, Hans Urs von. “The Metaphysics of the Saints.” In The Glory of the Lord: A Theological Aesthetics, volume 5, The Realm of Metaphysics in the Modern Age. Translated by Oliver Davies, et al. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1991. 48–140.
SUGGESTED READINGS
Crammer, Corinne. “One Sex or Two? Balthasar’s Theology of the Sexes.” In The Cambridge Companion to Hans Urs von Balthasar. Edited by Edward Oakes, S.J. and David Moss. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004. 93–112.
Prevot, Andrew. “Dialectic and Analogy in Balthasar’s ‘The Metaphysics of the Saints.’” Pro Ecclesia: A Journal of Catholic and Evangelical Theology 26, no. 3 (Summer 2017): 261–77.
Andrew Prevot also gave a lecture on The Hope of Exodus in Black Theology on May 9.

The Hope of Exodus in Black Theology
2019-05-09 17:00 | Swift Hall, First Floor Common Room, 1025 E 58th St,Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Listen to the panel discussion as a podcast episode. You can subscribe to the Lumen Christi Institute Podcast via our Soundcloud page, iTunes channel, Stitcher, TuneIn, ListenNotes, Podbean, Pocket Casts, and Google Play Music.
To view photos of the lecture, visit Lumen Christi’s Facebook page.
To listen to Prevot’s podcast interview with the Archdiocese of Chicago’s Black Catholic Initiative podcast hosted by Deacon John Cook, click here.
Free and open to the public. Part of the Lumen Christi Institute’s Black Catholic Initiative. Cosponsored by the Martin Marty Center for the Public Understanding of Religion, the Center for the Study of Race, Politics & Culture, Alchemy in Color at the Divinity School, the Theology Club at the Divinity School, and the Ethics Club at the Divinity School. Persons with disabilities who may need assistance should contact us at 773-955-5887 or by email.
For generations, black Christians in the United States have found hope in the biblical story of Exodus. Refusing the white supremacist interpretation of Christianity as a religion requiring obedience to masters, black Christians have used the Exodus narrative to develop an interpretation of Christianity as a religion promising deliverance from slavery and oppression. This was a central motif in James Cone’s black theology, as it emerged from the late 1960s struggles for black liberation. In subsequent decades, black scholars of Christianity such as Delores Williams, Eddie Glaude, Kelly Brown Douglas, and Willie Jennings have approached the story of Exodus in critical new ways that both complicate and renew the hope that it offers. In his lecture, Prevot will sketch this recent history of black Christian interpretation of Exodus and considers its implications for Christian theology today.
Andrew Prevot also taught a master class on Hans Urs von Balthasar on Mystical Theology and “The Metaphysics of the Saints” on May 10.

The Legacy of Fr. Theodore Hesburgh, CSC
2019-05-02 17:30 - 19:30 | Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, 28th Floor, 155 North Wacker Drive, Chicago, IL 60606, Downtown, IL
Listen to the panel discussion as a podcast episode. You can subscribe to the Lumen Christi Institute Podcast via our Soundcloud page, iTunes channel, Stitcher, TuneIn, ListenNotes, Podbean, Pocket Casts, and Google Play Music.
To view photos of the discussion, visit Lumen Christi’s Facebook page.
To read the National Catholic Reporter‘s coverage of the event, click here.
A reception and panel discussion on the occasion of the publication of American Priest: The Ambitious Life and Conflicted Legacy of Notre Dame’s Father Ted Hesburgh by Fr. Wilson D. Miscamble, C.S.C.
Copies of the book will be available for purchase by the Seminary Coop Bookstore.
According to the great University of Chicago President Robert Maynard Hutchins, Fr. Hesburgh’s record at Notre Dame in the 1950’s and 1960’s was “one of the most spectacular achievements in higher education in the last 25 years.”
Considered for many decades to be the most influential priest in America, Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, CSC, played pivotal roles in higher education, the Catholic Church, and national and international affairs. In American Priest, historian and Notre Dame priest-professor Wilson D. Miscamble, CSC, tracks how Hesburgh transformed Catholic higher education in the postwar era and explores how he became a much-celebrated voice in America at large.
Understanding Hesburgh’s life and work illuminates the journey that the Catholic Church traversed over the second half of the twentieth century. Exploring and evaluating Hesburgh’s importance, then, contributes not only to the colorful history of Notre Dame but also to make sense of the American Catholic experience.
SCHEDULE
5:00pm Registration
5:30pm Welcome & Introduction
5:35pm The Legacy of Fr. Ted Hesburgh, CSC
6:45pm Open bar & Hors d’oeuvres Reception
7:30pm End

On Bones and Genomes: What Can Science Tell Us About Being Human?
2019-04-25 19:00 | Kent Hall, Room 107, 1020 E 58th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
To view photos of the conversation, visit Lumen Christi’s Facebook page.
Free and open to the public. Part of the Lumen Christi Institute’s “Science and Religion: A Dialogue of Cultures” project generously supported by the John Templeton Foundation.
Presented by the Veritas Forum at the University of Chicago, the Martin Marty Center, Cana, Cru, the Graduate Christian Fellowship, Holy Trinity Church, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, Living Hope Church, the Lumen Christi Institute, the Program on Medicine and Religion, and the Zygon Center for Religion and Science.
Recent advances in science and technology have made great strides in addressing some of our deepest questions about being human. These advances help us to have a better understanding of who we are, where we came from, and what humanity’s place in nature might be. But are there limits to what science can tell us about being human? And does religious belief have anything to contribute to answering such questions? Join us for a conversation between two world-class professors as they discuss what makes us human.

Symposium on "Revolutionary Saint: The Theological Legacy of Oscar Romero"
2019-04-11 17:00 | Swift Hall, 3rd Floor Lecture, 1025 E 58th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Cosponsored by the Theology Club at the University of Chicago Divinity School and Orbis Books. This program was made possible in part by a grant from the Our Sunday Visitor Institute.
Join us for a symposium of the recent book Revolutionary Saint: The Theological Legacy of Óscar Romero (Orbis Books, 2018) by Michael Lee. Copies of the book will be available for sale by the Seminary Coop Bookstore at the event.
About the book
Many years after his death in 1980, the world is still absorbing the witness of Óscar Romero, the archbishop of San Salvador, martyred for his commitment to the poor and social justice. In this work, Michael E. Lee offers a profound reflection on the theological implications of Romero’s life and ministry.
Drawing on Romero’s biography as well as his homilies and other writings, Lee considers specifically how Romero’s witness challenges Christians in the U.S. to reimagine a robust Christian spirituality that is at once a mystical encounter with God and a prophetic engagement in the struggle for justice. In light of Romero’s beatification and canonization, Lee reflects on the implications of the archbishop’s recognition as a martyr and on the model of holiness he offers for the wider Church today.
Prof. Lee also gave a luncheon talk in downtown Chicago earlier on the 11th on “The Life and Legacy of Saint Oscar Romero.”

The Life and Legacy of Saint Oscar Romero
2019-04-11 12:00 - 13:30 | University Club of Chicago, 76 E Monroe St Chicago, IL 60603, Downtown, IL
Listen to the address as a podcast episode. You can subscribe to the Lumen Christi Institute Podcast via our Soundcloud page, iTunes channel, Stitcher, TuneIn, ListenNotes, Podbean, Pocket Casts, and Google Play Music.
To view photos of the talk, visit Lumen Christi’s Facebook page.
This program was made possible in part by a grant from the Our Sunday Visitor Institute.
Join us for a luncheon talk on the recently canonized Óscar Romero. Since his death in 1980, the world is still absorbing the witness of Óscar Romero, the Archbishop of San Salvador, martyred for his commitment to the poor and social justice. Prof. Lee will consider how Romero’s witness challenges Christians in the U.S. to reimagine a robust Christian spirituality that is at once a mystical encounter with God and a prophetic engagement in the struggle for justice. He will also reflect on the implications of the archbishop’s recognition as a martyr and on the model of holiness he offers for the wider Church today.
Prof. Lee also participated in a panel discussion of his book later that afternoon at the University of Chicago.

The Preferential Option for the Poor Today
2019-04-10 18:00 | IL
One of the most important ideas in Catholic Social Teaching of the last half century is the “preferential option for the poor.” It is a phrase that describes the Church’s ethical positions in the world, but it also conveys important theological notions about God. Though utilized across a range of magisterial texts of recent memory, the idea finds its most substantial development from theologians on Latin American soil. It is no wonder then that the preferential option is a crucial idea that runs through the encyclicals of Pope Francis.
This seminar will elaborate an understanding of the phrase, “preferential option for the poor,” describe how it developed historically, and suggest ways that it remains central to Catholic faith today. In particular, it will focus on two Latin American figures who have powerfully given meaning to this phrase in their teaching and their lives: Fr. Gustavo Gutiérrez, OP (Peru) and St. Óscar Romero (El Salvador).
Through a study of their writing and lived example of these important Latin American witnesses, participants will be encouraged to reflect on how their legacies and the preferential option represent an important resource for U.S. Latinx Catholics.
READINGS
Gustavo Gutiérrez, “Liberation Theology for the Twenty First Century,” in Romero’s Legacy: The Call to Peace and Justice, Pilar Hogan Closkey and John P. Hogan, eds. (Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007), p. 45-59.
Óscar A. Romero, “The Church’s Mission Today,” a selection from his 2nd pastoral letter, The Church, the Body of Christ in History, in Voice of the Voiceless: The Four Pastoral Letters and Other Statements (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1985), p. 65-75.
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This event is part of a series on the Hispanic Catholic experience, made possible by a generous grant from the Our Sunday Visitor Institute.

Master Class on Romano Guardini's "The End of the Modern World"
2019-04-06 10:00 - 13:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
To view photos of the master class, visit Lumen Christi’s Facebook page.
Open to current students and faculty. Copies of the book will be provided for registrants.
Romano Guardini (1885-1968)—Italian-born German priest—was one of the greatest Catholic minds of the 20th century. He helped shape Catholic theology between the two world wars and after, as well as the thinking of many non-Catholics of the period. He contributed to the Liturgical Movement and influenced the reforms of the Second Vatican Council. His legacy continues to be felt through Pope Benedict, who studied with him, and Pope Francis, who researched Guardini’s work as part of his graduate study. In the classic work The End of the Modern World Guardini presents a historical, philosophical, and theological inquiry into the nature of the modern age.
Background on Fr. Romano Guardini’s importance can be found HERE.
SCHEDULE
9:30am Coffee & Pastries
10:00am Session I
11:25am Break
11:35am Session II
1:00pm End, Optional Lunch

Symposium on "Catholicism and Democracy"
2019-04-05 16:00 | Breasted Hall, Oriental Institute, 1155 E 58th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Listen to the symposium as a podcast episode. You can subscribe to the Lumen Christi Institute Podcast via our Soundcloud page, iTunes channel, Stitcher, TuneIn, ListenNotes, Podbean, Pocket Casts, and Google Play Music.
To view photos of the symposium, visit Lumen Christi’s Facebook page.
Free and open to the public. Persons with disabilities who may need assistance should contact us at 773-955-5887 or by email. Copies of the book will be available for sale by the Seminary Coop Bookstore at the event.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Looking at leading philosophers and political theologians—among them Joseph de Maistre, Alexis de Tocqueville, and Charles Péguy—Perreau-Saussine shows how the Church redefined its relationship to the state in the long wake of the French Revolution.
Disenfranchised by the fall of the monarchy, the church in France at first embraced that most conservative of ideologies, “ultramontanism” (an emphasis on the central role of the papacy). Catholics whose church had lost its national status henceforth looked to the papacy for spiritual authority. Perreau-Saussine argues that this move paradoxically combined a fundamental repudiation of the liberal political order with an implicit acknowledgment of one of its core principles, the autonomy of the church from the state. However, as Perreau-Saussine shows, in the context of twentieth-century totalitarianism, the Catholic Church retrieved elements of its Gallican heritage and came to embrace another liberal (and Gallican) principle, the autonomy of the state from the church, for the sake of its corollary, freedom of religion. Perreau-Saussine concludes that Catholics came to terms with liberal democracy, though not without abiding concerns about the potential of that system to compromise freedom of religion in the pursuit of other goals.

“Many people think that the reconciliation of the Catholic Church and liberal democracy consummated at Vatican II represents a sudden shift. Perreau-Saussine shows to the contrary that it has deep roots in the history of the church, and in particular in the Gallicanism of ancien regime France. Even Vatican I can be seen as a stage on this long march. This rich and fascinating book sheds much light on what this reconciliation means—and what it couldn’t mean.”—Charles Taylor, professor emeritus, McGill University

“The modest title of this erudite and thoughtful book belies its actual achievement. It makes an important contribution to understanding a topic that seems likely to occupy thinking people in the West for some time to come: the general relation between politics and religion in the modern world.”—Raymond Geuss, author of Philosophy and Real Politics

“Catholicism and Democracy is a wonderfully fresh interpretation of the fascinating and tortuous path of Catholic political theology over the last two hundred years. With its strong narrative, this original book required me to turn the historical frame upside down and look at issues in a new way.”—F. Russell Hittinger, University of Tulsa

“Catholicism and Democracy looks at some of the ironies and paradoxes inherent in the relationship of the Catholic Church to modern politics. Deftly weaving together political history and literary interpretations of that history, Perreau-Saussine tells an important story with persuasion and brilliant insight.”—James B. Murphy, Dartmouth College

Financial Markets and Moral Inquiry
2019-03-20 17:15 | Ida Noyes Hall, Max Palevsky Cinema, 1212 E 59th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Listen to these events as podcast episodes. You can subscribe to the Lumen Christi Institute Podcast via our Soundcloud page, iTunes channel, Stitcher, TuneIn, ListenNotes, Podbean, Pocket Casts, and Google Play Music.
To view photos of the symposium, visit Lumen Christi’s Facebook page.
To read the National Catholic Reporter‘s coverage of the public symposium, click here.
Free and open to the public. Cosponsored by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development and Committee on International Justice and Peace, Catholics at Booth, and the Catholic Students Association. This event is made possible in part by a grant from the Our Sunday Visitor Institute. Persons with disabilities who may need assistance should contact us at 773-955-5887 or by email.
Part of the Lumen Christi Institute’s Ninth Conference on Economics & Catholic Social Thought.

Symposium on "Science and Wonder"
2019-03-13 17:00 | BSLC 115, 924 E 57th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Listen to the symposium as a podcast episode. You can subscribe to the Lumen Christi Institute Podcast via our Soundcloud page, iTunes channel, Stitcher, TuneIn, ListenNotes, Podbean, Pocket Casts, and Google Play Music.
To view photos of the symposium, visit Lumen Christi’s Facebook page.
Free and open to the public. Cosponsored by the Zygon Center for Religion and Science, the Seminary Coop Bookstore, and the Society of Catholic Scientists. Persons with disabilities who may need assistance should contact us at 773-955-5887 or by email. This program is made possible by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation and a Lemaître grant from the Magi Project. Copies of Prof. Sideris’s recent book Consecrating Science: Wonder, Knowledge, and the Natural World (University of California Press, 2017) will be available for sale by the Seminary Coop Bookstore at the event.
How is science related to mystery? What role does wonder play in inquiry and discovery? What are the best means of sharing and communicating wonder? Has scientific inquiry become itself a kind of religious practice? If so, does the study of theology or religion shed light on it? Join us for a discussion with an astrophysicist, a poet, an evolutionary biologist, and a religious ethicist on the experience and nature of wonder in science.

Weekly Non-Credit Course: "Who Do You Say That I Am? Visions of Christ in the Christian Tradition"
2019-03-05 19:00 - 21:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
REGISTER HERE
6:00 Dinner | 6:30 Lecture
This weekly non-credit course is open to current students and faculty. Registrants are free to attend as many sessions as they choose. Sessions do not presuppose previous attendance or prior knowledge of the subject.
“But what about you? Who you say that I am?” (Lk 9.20) The Christian tradition arose in response to the question of the person of Jesus Christ, and in every generation Christians have struggled, debated, and developed answers to that question. This course will feature a selection of biblical, ancient, and medieval Christian thinkers who gave distinctive and highly influential answers to this question. The texts of the New Testament itself present Jesus Christ in various modes and forms, and early Christians struggled to articulate Christ’s humanity, divinity, incarnation, and his response to the question of evil.
Language, Truth & Logos
January 15 | Fr. Paul Mankowski, SJ (Lumen Christi Institute)
The Gospel of Mark
January 22 | Fr. Don Senior, CP (Catholic Theological Union)
POSTPONED DUE TO WEATHER | The Gospel of John
January 29 | Fr. Andrew Liaugminas (Calvert House Catholic Center)
Letter to the Hebrews
February 5 | Cameron Ferguson (University of Chicago)
Irenaeus of Lyon
February 12 | Scott Moringiello (DePaul University)
Athanasius
February 19 | Scott Moringiello (DePaul University)
Mary, Mother of God
February 26 | Rachel Fulton Brown (University of Chicago)
Julian of Norwich
March 5 | Bernard McGinn (University of Chicago)

Master Class on "Bernard Lonergan’s Christian Realism and the Word of God as True"
2019-03-02 11:00 - 14:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Open to current university students and faculty. Others interested in participating should contact us. Copies of the readings will be provided to those who register.
Bernard Lonergan, SJ (1904-1984), is widely praised as a giant of twentieth century theology and perhaps the most brilliant philosophical thinker of his generation. Still, he is an outlier in a firmament that includes such figures as Hans Urs von Balthasar, Karl Rahner, Henri de Lubac, and others. His best known works are not in theology itself but in philosophy (Insight: A Study of Human Understanding, 1957) and method (Method in Theology, 1972). Though a professor in Rome, he was mostly on the sidelines at Vatican II. His contemporaries were largely jaded by neo-Thomist revival and zealous to return to the Fathers, but Lonergan’s return was to Aquinas himself. The ferment of his generation would burst the old wineskins of neo-Scholasticism, but Lonergan was obliged to pour his theological ideas into them: two giant textbooks for his students at the Gregorian University in Rome (De Deo Trino, De Verbo Incarnato). They appeared in their last editions in 1964, which may have been the least propitious year on record for the presentation of a Latin manual to the theological public.
Lonergan stood apart from the currents of the day partly because he aimed to play a longer game. The renovation of Christian thought, he felt, required an intervention at the fundamental level of theological and philosophical method. In Insight he studied how understanding develops in mathematics, the natural sciences, common sense, and philosophy. His ulterior aim was to bring to light the principles of scientific progress in theology and so promote more effective collaboration and coherence in theology.
This seminar focuses on the relationship of Lonergan’s philosophical work to his project in theology, not in its entirety but in one key dimension. Our topic will be realism and the Word of God as true. The first session will focus on Lonergan’s philosophical articulation of cognitional structure, his realism, and his conception of the contemporary role of philosophy in Christian thought. The second session will consider his approach to the development and meaningfulness of Christian doctrine as an engagement with the truth-intention of God’s word to us.
REQUIRED READINGS

Bernard J.F. Lonergan, “Cognitional Structure,” in Collection, Collected Works 4, pp. 205-221.
Bernard J.F. Lonergan, “Questionnaire on Philosophy,” in Philosophical and Theological Papers, 1965-1980, Collected Works 17, pp. 352-383.
Bernard J.F. Lonergan, “The De-hellenization of Dogma,” in A Second Collection, pp. 11-32.
Bernard J.F. Lonergan, “The Origins of Christian Realism,” in A Second Collection, 239-261.

SUGGESTED READINGS

Bernard J.F. Lonergan, “Christology Today: Methodological Reflections,” in A Third Collection, pp. 74-99.
Jeremy D. Wilkins, Before Truth: Lonergan, Aquinas, and the Problem of Wisdom (Washington, D.C.: The CUA Press, 2018). Chapter 3, “A ‘Wisdom of the Concrete’,” introduces Lonergan’s fundamental project.
Chapter 7, “Doctrine and Meaning,” explores his approach to the development and meaningfulness of Christian doctrine.

SCHEDULE
9:30am Coffee & Pastries
10:00am Session I, “Cognitional Structure” and “Questionnaire on Philosophy”
11:25am Break
11:35am Session II, “The De-hellenization of Dogma” and “Origins of Christian Realism”
1:00pm End, Optional Lunch

Being, Nature, Grace: Clashing Visions in Milbank and Aquinas
2019-02-28 17:00 | Swift Hall, 3rd Floor Lecture, 1025 E 58th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
To view photos of the lecture, visit Lumen Christi’s Facebook page.
Free and open to the public. Cosponsored by the Martin Marty Center for the Public Understanding of Religion at the University of Chicago Divinity School and the Theology Club of the University of Chicago Divinity School. Persons with disabilities who may need assistance should contact us at 773-955-5887 or by email.
Drawing from a chapter taken from a book in draft, in this talk DeHart will critically evaluate John Milbank’s understanding of the relationship between creation and divine grace and offer an alternative, sourced in Aquinas, that he considers more adequate.

Science, Creation, & the Catholic Imagination
2019-02-23 10:00 - 19:30 | Swift Hall, 1025 E 58th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Listen to the lectures as podcast episodes. You can subscribe to the Lumen Christi Institute Podcast via our Soundcloud page, iTunes channel, Stitcher, TuneIn, ListenNotes, Podbean, Pocket Casts, and Google Play Music.
To view photos of the conference, visit Lumen Christi’s Facebook page.
Have you ever wondered if science and religion can co-exist? Or whether it is rational (or irrational) to believe in God? How can the story of Adam and Eve in the Book of Genesis be reconciled with the Big Bang? Or with evolution? What does The Lord of the Rings have to do with Jesus? And what exactly is hillbilly thomism?
The intellectual tradition of the Catholic Church has been asking (and answering!) questions of this kind for two thousand years. If you are interested in discussing these questions with college professors, graduate students, and other high schoolers from all over Chicagoland, register below.
Sponsored by the Lumen Christi Institute, the Archdiocese of Chicago Vocation Office, Relevant Radio, St. Ignatius College Prep, the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame, Fenwick High School, and the Theology Club. This program is made possible by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation.
Open to current high school students. Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner are included. For any parents and chaperones who will be present, an optional lunchtime event will be held nearby at Gavin House (1220 East 58th Street) at 12:00pm. Lunch will be provided. If you are interested in participating in this lunchtime event, please indicate it on the registration page. Need-based scholarships are available upon request. Please contact us with any questions about this program.
A day-long conference for high school students to provide an introduction to the Catholic vision of intellectual life and culture. Students will listen to lectures by expert scholars, participate in break-out group discussions, meet and socialize with other high school students, and attend mass. More info, including a detailed schedule will be available soon.
TENTATIVE SCHEDULE

9 – 9:45 | Registration and Breakfast in Swift Common Room
9:45 – 10 | Opening Prayer
10 – 11 | Session 1: Lecture on Faith and Reason with Prof. Meghan Sullivan
11 – 11:15 | Break
11:15 – 12:15 | Session 2: Lecture on Cosmology and Creation with Fr. John Kartje
12:30 – 1:15 | Lunchtime discussion session
1:30 – 2:30 | Session 3: Lecture on the Catholic Imagination with Prof. Michael Murphy
2:45 – 3:15 | Scavenger Hunt*
3:15 – 4:15 | Afternoon discussion session
4:30 – 5:30 | Mass in Bond Chapel (this anticipatory mass fulfills the Sunday obligation)
5:30 – 6:30 | OPTIONAL closing reception
Parents and chaperones are invited to a lunchtime discussion with Dr. Chris Baglow of Notre Dame’s Mcgrath Institute for Church Life, to be held at Gavin House (1220 E. 58th St).

Lumen Christi Institute - Young Catholic Professionals Great Books Seminar: The Novel and the Crisis of Faith
2019-02-20 01:00 | Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, 28th Floor, 155 North Wacker Drive, Chicago, IL 60606, Downtown, IL
REGISTRATION IS FULL.
The Lumen Christi Institute is proud to announce a new program in partnership with the Chicago chapter of Young Catholic Professionals (YCP). The 2019 Lumen Christi Institute – Young Catholic Professionals Great Books Seminar is an adult educational initiative aimed at equipping Catholic professionals 40 and under with a deeper understanding of the Catholic intellectual and literary traditions. Participants will gather monthly downtown for guided discussions on excerpts from celebrated texts as they work through a syllabus crafted by seminar leader Fr. Paul Mankowski, SJ, Lumen Christi’s scholar-in-residence.
This year’s theme is “The Novel and the Crisis of Faith.” The late 19th and 20th century novel provided Christian authors with a genre through which to examine the conflict of faith in Christ with vastly strengthened anti-Christian forces in politics, culture, and society. The examination of the fictional depiction of the dynamics of salvation and damnation will aim at deepening our own understanding of the ways in which faith simultaneously engages the world while it disentangles itself from worldliness. The discussions are to focus on relatively short selections (40 – 90 pages) from the assigned novels, although participants are encouraged to read the works in their entirety.
To view the syllabus, which you will also receive upon registering, click here.
The cost of seminar registration covers refreshments, drinks, and course materials for the eight seminar meetings from February to September. Registration will close when 35 participants have signed up and is is available on a first-come, first-served basis; 20 seats will be reserved for members of YCP Chicago. Registrants need not attend every session in order to register; they must still pay the full cost of registration. Registrants may choose to purchase books on their own rather than via Lumen Christi (see pricing below).
Dates:
February 20
March 21
April 25
May 22
June 26
July 24
August 21
September 25
Schedule:
5:30pm – beer, wine, and heavy hors d’oeuvres social
6pm – seminar begins
7pm – seminar ends
Price:
With books, for YCP Chicago members or those who sign up for membership: $100
With books, for non-YCP Chicago members: $380
Without books, for YCP Chicago members or those who sign up for membership: $50
Without books, for non-YCP Chicago members: $280
With any additional inquiries please contact Michael Bradley at mbradley@lumenchristi.org.

CANCELLED: Master Class on "Thomas Merton at Columbia: On the Love of Learning and the Desire for God"
2019-02-16 11:00 - 14:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Due to unforseen circumstances, Professor Inchausti has to cancel his visit to Chicago and unfortnately this event has been cancelled.
Open to current university students and faculty. Others interested in participating should contact us. Copies of the readings will be provided to those who register.
Thomas Merton is one of the most influential spiritual writers of the 20th century. His autobiography, Seven Storey Mountain, tells the story of a restless and brilliant young man who goes from a literature student at Columbia University to taking vows as a Trappist monk. In this two-part, one day master class, we will look at Merton’s education at Columbia leading up to his conversion to Roman Catholicism and then pick up his intellectual journey twenty years later by examining the content and continuing relevance of his “Cold War Prophecies.”
Readings

Seven Storey Mountain, Part One: Chapter 4 “Children of the Marketplace pp. 145-182 and Part Two: Chapter 1 “With a Great Price” pp.185-246.
Conjectures of a Guilty By-Stander, Part Two: Truth and Violence: An Interesting Era pp. 65-128.

Schedule
9:30am Coffee & Pastries
10:00am Session I
11:25am Break
11:35am Session II
1:00pm End, Optional Lunch

Symposium on "Action versus Contemplation: Why an Ancient Debate Still Matters"
2019-02-15 16:00 - 18:00 | Swift Hall, 3rd Floor Lecture, 1025 E 58th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Listen to the symposium as a podcast episode. You can subscribe to the Lumen Christi Institute Podcast via our Soundcloud page, iTunes channel, Stitcher, TuneIn, ListenNotes, Podbean, Pocket Casts, and Google Play Music.
To view photos of the symposium, visit Lumen Christi’s Facebook page.
A symposium on the recent book Action versus Contemplation: Why an Ancient Debate Still Matters (University of Chicago Press, 2018) by Jennifer Summit and Blakey Vermeule. Free and open to the public. Persons with disabilities who may need assistance should contact us at 773-955-5887 or by email.
Cosponsored by the English Department, the Seminary Coop Bookstore, the University of Chicago Press, the Our Sunday Visitor Institute, and the Theology Club at the Divinity School. Copies of the book will be available for purchase at the event.
“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone,” Blaise Pascal wrote in 1654. But then there’s Walt Whitman, in 1856: “Whoever you are, come forth! Or man or woman come forth! / You must not stay sleeping and dallying there in the house.”
It is truly an ancient debate: Is it better to be active or contemplative? To do or to think? To make an impact, or to understand the world more deeply? With Action versus Contemplation, Jennifer Summit and Blakey Vermeule address the question in a refreshingly unexpected way: by refusing to take sides. Rather, they argue for a rethinking of the very opposition. The active and the contemplative can—and should—be vibrantly alive in each of us, fused rather than sundered. Writing in a personable, accessible style, Summit and Vermeule guide readers through the long history of this debate from Plato to Pixar, drawing compelling connections to the questions and problems of today.

“Though the book will be valuable to a wide readership, the recurring theme of current trends in education makes it particularly important within the academy. This engaging and clever book will generate important conversations. Highly recommended.”
Choice

“A fascinating and inspiring tour of big ideas–worth both contemplating and acting on.“
Sarah Bakewell, author of At the Existentialist Cafe

“Action versus Contemplation brings a cooling sense of balance to a whole range of important and often highly polarized arguments about technology, work, education, and more. How liberating to discover that we don’t need to choose between nostalgia and philistinism, Captain Ludd and Dr. Pangloss. Even better, the authors give us not just historical elaborations of the theoretical complementarity of action and contemplation, but actual, already-existing examples of the middle position at work today. They show us that, no matter how ‘soulless’ society seems to become, meaning-seeking behavior does and always will continue.”
William Deresiewicz, author of Excellent Sheep

“This is a very subtle and surprising book that nevertheless goes down easy because you expect it to take a side in a binary (i.e., to take your side), but instead it seeks to transcend that binary. There’s great generosity of spirit in their writing and thinking, and that generosity will have a salutary effect on all those whose thinking this book will touch. Action versus Contemplation is itself a contemplative document meant to intervene in the world it addresses, to get us to rethink practical matters, and to act in ways that will promote thinking. It urges action as a way of thinking, and thinking as a way of acting, and is a model of what it advocates for.”

William Flesch, Brandeis University

Mass for Candlemas with Schola Antiqua and Symposium on Sacred Music in Context and Practice
2019-02-02 10:00 - 13:30 | Swift Hall, 3rd Floor Lecture, 1025 E 58th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Listen to the symposium as a podcast episode. You can subscribe to the Lumen Christi Institute Podcast via our Soundcloud page, iTunes channel, Stitcher, TuneIn, ListenNotes, Podbean, Pocket Casts, and Google Play Music.
To view photos of the Mass and symposium, visit Lumen Christi’s Facebook page.
Registration required. $15 for general audience/FREE for current students and faculty/FREE for those only attending the Mass.
In honor of Fr. Willard Jabusch (1930-2018), former Chaplain of Calvert House, Priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago, writer, and composer. Cosponsored by Calvert House Catholic Center. Persons with disabilities who need an accommodation in order to participate in this event should email us or call 773-955-5887.
This Mass for the Feast of the Presentation (Candlemas) will feature chant by Schola Antiqua of Chicago. Following the Mass—for those registered—there will be a breakfast reception and a symposium, which will consider historical perspectives on music for the feast from the medieval period and early modern Italy. In addition it will reflect on modern incorporations of the plainchant and polyphonic tradition in contexts such as a contemporary monastic community and a degree program in Sacred Music at the University of Notre Dame.

SCHEDULE
9:00-10:15am | Bond Chapel
Mass
Prior Peter Funk, OSB, Celebrant
Michael Alan Anderson, Director, Schola Antiqua of Chicago
10:15-11:00am | Swift Common Room (1st Floor)
Continental Breakfast and Registration
11:00am-12:30pm | Swift Lecture Hall (3rd Floor)
Symposium “Sacred Music in Context and Practice”
Michael Anderson, University of Rochester
Margot Fassler, University of Notre Dame
Prior Peter Funk, OSB, Monastery of the Holy Cross
Peter Jeffery, University of Notre Dame
Robert Kendrick, University of Chicago

Pluralism In A Polarized Age: Navigating Our Deepest Differences Together
2019-01-31 20:30 | International House at the University of Chicago, 1414 E 59th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Listen to the conversation as a podcast episode. You can subscribe to the Lumen Christi Institute Podcast via our Soundcloud page, iTunes channel, Stitcher, TuneIn, ListenNotes, Podbean, Pocket Casts, and Google Play Music.
To view photos of the discussion, visit Lumen Christi’s Facebook page.
Free and open to the public. Persons with disabilities who need assistance should contact the Office of Programs and External Relations in advance at 773-753-2274 or i-house-programs@uchicago.edu.
Presented by the Veritas Forum at the University of Chicago: Cana, Cru, the Christian Legal Society, Hyde Park Church (UBF), Intervarsity, Living Hope Church, the Lumen Christi Institute, Navigators Chicago, and the Vineyard Church.
Cosponsored by the Institute of Politics, the International House Global Voices Program, the Office of Spiritual Life, the Law School, the Martin Marty Center for the Public Understanding of Relgion, the Department of Political Science, the St Thomas More Society, the Seminary Coop Bookstore, and the University of Chicago Press.
In our increasingly polarized society, how do we speak to one another about our deepest beliefs? Can we even bring our personal religious and political convictions to bear in the university and other public spaces? And how does pluralism contribute to greater flourishing in our society? Join us as two of our nation’s leading voices on pluralism discuss their own beliefs and what it means to bring one’s whole person (including one’s religious, political, and ethical convictions) into the public square with confidence and humility.
For more information about the Veritas Forum at the University of Chicago, visit HERE.

CANCELLED Master Class on the Song of Songs
2019-01-25 11:00 - 13:15 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
DUE TO WEATHER, DOM MARK SCOTT HAS HAD TO POSTPONE HIS VISIT TO CHICAGO. THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED.
Registration required. Open to current students and faculty.
Dom Mark Scott, OCSO, will lead students through a Cistercian reading of the Song of Songs with reference to sermons of Bernard of Clairvaux.
SCHEDULE
9:30am Coffee, tea, and pastries
10:00am Session I
11:00am Break
11:15am Session II
12:15pm Close
OPTIONAL PREPARATORY READINGS

Song of Songs
Bernard of Clairvaux, Collected Works (Paulist Press, 1987). Sermons 1, 2, 3, 8, 50, 74, 80, 83, 84. (PDF link provided when you register.)

Dom Mark will also give a talk on the history of the Trappists on January 24. More info HERE.

CANCELLED Monks, Silence, God: The History of the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance
2019-01-24 18:15 | Swift Hall, First Floor Common Room, 1025 E 58th St,Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
DUE TO WEATHER, DOM MARK SCOTT HAS HAD TO POSTPONE HIS VISIT TO CHICAGO. THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED.
Free and open to the public. Cosponsored by the Theology Club and the Calvert House Catholic Center. Persons with disabilities who may need assistance should contact us at 773-955-5887 or by email.
At this talk Dom Mark Scott, OCSO, abbot of New Melleray Abbey, will give an overview of the history and spirituality of the contemplative monastic order known as the Trappists.
Dom Mark will also lead a master class for students on the Song of Songs on January 25. More info HERE.

CANCELLED New Melleray Abbey: A Chapter in the Story of Cistercian Trappist Monks in America
2019-01-23 18:30 - 20:30 | Loyola University of Chicago – Water Tower Campus, Schreiber Center 16 East Pearson Street Chicago, IL 60611, River North, IL
DUE TO WEATHER, DOM MARK SCOTT HAS HAD TO POSTPONE HIS VISIT TO CHICAGO. THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED.
Cosponsored by the Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage at Loyola University Chicago
$500 Host Committee (includes 8 tickets) / $40 General / $10 students
5:30pm Hors d’oeuvres reception
6:30pm Talk and Q&A
7:30pm Close
Christian monasticism began in the 3rd century when St. Anthony sought God (and battled demons) outside of Alexandria. In a sense, the story of New Melleray Abbey begins there with the “Desert Fathers” and continues through St. Benedict and his Rule (5th century), the Cistercian reform led by St. Bernard of Clairvaux (12th century), the austere reforms of La Trappe in Normandy (17th century), and, in the 19th century, the planting of Trappist Cistercian monasticism at Gethsemani Abbey in Kentucky by monks from France and at New Melleray in Iowa by Irish monks . In a rare public talk, the Abbot of New Melleray will tell the story of the abbey in light of this longer history.

What do We Mean When We Speak of Revelation?
2019-01-16 18:15 | Swift Hall, First Floor Common Room, 1025 E 58th St,Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Listen to the lecture as a podcast episode. You can subscribe to the Lumen Christi Institute Podcast via our Soundcloud page, iTunes channel, Stitcher, TuneIn, ListenNotes, Podbean, Pocket Casts, and Google Play Music.
To view photos of the lecture, visit Lumen Christi’s Facebook page.
Free and open to the public. Cosponsored by the John U. Nef Committee on Social Thought and The Philosophy of Religions Workshop. Persons with disabilities who may need assistance should contact us at 773-955-5887 or by email.
In this lecture, philosopher Jean-Luc Marion will draw on reflections from his recent book Givenness and Revelation to develop a new concept of revelation. Traditionally, the idea of revelation seems to oppose knowledge acquired through the use of reason and knowledge given by revelation. If revealed knowledge comes from elsewhere, then it is of an entirely different order than the rational. Likewise, if revelation merely makes something known that would be accessible to reason in other circumstances, then revelation remains something superfluous to rationality. Is it possible to have a concept of revelation that overcomes this tension with reason and, ultimately, expands the limits of rationality?

"The Mystery of Hope: A Monk’s Reading of Spe Salvi" at the Benedictine Monastery of the Holy Cross
2018-12-01 17:30 - 21:00 | The Monastery of the Holy Cross, 3111 South Aberdeen St. Chicago, IL 60608, Chicago, IL
Transportation will be provided from Hyde Park. Open to current university students and faculty.
Join us for an evening of prayer and conversation with Benedictine monks at the Monastery of the Holy Cross on the south side of Chicago. Attendees will participate in prayer of the Divine Office (vespers and compline), and have dinner and discussion with Prior Peter Funk on Benedict XVI’s encyclical on the theological virtue of hope, Spe Salvi. Fr. Peter will emphasize the need for hope in the life of the Church today.
More information about the monastery can be found HERE.
SCHEDULE
4:15pm Meet at Gavin House (1220 E. 58th St.)
4:30pm Depart from Hyde Park
5:00pm Arrive at the Monastery, welcome by Prior Funk
5:15pm Office of Vespers
6:00pm Dinner & Discussion of Spe Salvi
7:15pm Office of Compline
8:00pm Arrive back in Hyde Park

Non-Credit Course on "Faith, Crisis, Christ"
2018-11-20 19:00 - 21:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
6:00 Dinner | 6:30 Lecture
This weekly non-credit course is open to current students and faculty. Registrants are free to attend as many sessions as they choose. Sessions do not presuppose previous attendance or prior knowledge of the subject.
The project of fides quaerens intellectum (faith seeking understanding) is not reserved to professional theologians but is the prerogative of every thinking person, and can be especially pressing when the claims of religion—and rationality itself—are viewed with suspicion or contempt. The twentieth century and the first decades of our own have erected formidable systems of skepticism yet also brought into the field notable creativity in addressing the problems of belief. This course will make use of classic works of anglophone Christian writers concerned to demonstrate how it is that faith permits the human person to see farther and to understand the world more deeply.
SCHEDULE
OCT 9: G.K. Chesterton, The Everlasting Man.
OCT 16: J.R.R. Tolkien, On Fairy-Stories.
OCT 23: C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity.
OCT 30: J. Budziszewski, The Line Through the Heart.
NOV 6: Ronald A. Knox, The Hidden Stream & In Soft Garments.
NOV 13: C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters.
NOV 20: J.R.R. Tolkien, Selected Letters.

The Catholic Church in Crisis: A Panel Discussion
2018-11-15 17:30 | Ida Noyes Hall, Library, 1212 E 59th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
You can subscribe to the Lumen Christi Institute Podcast via our Soundcloud page, iTunes channel, Stitcher, TuneIn, ListenNotes, Podbean, Pocket Casts, and Google Play Music.
To read Daniels’ contribution to this panel discussion in the Notre Dame McGrath Institute for Church Life’s Church Life Journal, click here.
To view photos of the panel, visit Lumen Christi’s Facebook page.
You can view and download the poster for the event here.
Free and open to the public. Cosponsored by the Theology Club and the Catholic Students Association.
Since questions of sexual abuse emerged in the Church, and in other institutions, in the 1980s, some dioceses have (including Chicago) demonstrated leadership in dealing with the issue. After the “Spotlight” investigation by the Boston Globe, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops established a “zero tolerance” policy toward the commission and cover-up of abuse. This panel of Catholic scholars and professionals will review the Church’s attempt to face this issue and will consider why it has reemerged in 2018, relating that question to broader issues of clericalism and governance in the Catholic Church.
Fr. Sweeney also gave a downtown lunch address on November 15 on a related topic, the challenge to lay Catholics to realize the fullness of their lives as Christians.

How Catholics Can Realize the Royal Priesthood of the Laity and Rebuild a Church in Crisis
2018-11-15 13:00 - 14:30 | University Club of Chicago, 76 E Monroe St Chicago, IL 60603, Downtown, IL
You can subscribe to the Lumen Christi Institute Podcast via our Soundcloud page, iTunes channel, Stitcher, TuneIn, ListenNotes, Podbean, Pocket Casts, and Google Play Music.
To view photos of the address, visit Lumen Christi’s Facebook page.
To read the published version of the address in Commonweal, click here.
You can download the event poster here.
$30 Student (with ID) / $60 General / $600 Host Committee
Registration includes lunch.
The Church has long taught that all baptized Christians share in Christ’s royal priesthood, and that we are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people,” who should “declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”
The current crisis in which the American Church finds herself lies in a failure to realize this common priestly vocation, and has led to clericalism, the cover-up of sexual abuse, lack of lay discipleship, and a dearth of vocations. Fr. Michael Sweeney, OP, has developed a theology of the laity that addresses this theological misunderstanding. He has applied this theology of the laity both as co-founder of the St. Catherine of Siena Institute and as the co-founder of the Lay Mission Project of the Western Dominican Province.
Fr. Sweeney will speak to the suggestion of then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger that we ought to recognize a lay office in the Church in order to promote the full participation of the laity in the Church’s mission, with a view to enabling a real collaboration between the laity and the hierarchy.
Fr. Sweeney also participated on a panel discussion on similar topics on the afternoon of November 15.

Christian Citizenship: A Paradox?
2018-11-12 17:30 | Classics 110, 1010 E 59th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
You can subscribe to the Lumen Christi Institute Podcast via our Soundcloud page, iTunes channel, Stitcher, TuneIn, ListenNotes, Podbean, Pocket Casts, and Google Play Music.
To view photos of the lecture, visit Lumen Christi’s Facebook page.
To read Tardivel’s lecture in essay form in the Notre Dame McGrath Institute for Church Life’s Church Life Journal, click here.
You can download the event poster here.
Free and open to the public. Cosponsored by the France Chicago Center.
Does Christian faith imply a political doctrine such as a Christian political regime? Drawing on Justin, Tertullian, and Augustine, Prof. Tardivel argues that even as Christian citizenship does not refer to a political doctrine, it nonetheless demands a certain manner of living in the city, presenting a paradox to classical political thinking. This lecture focuses on the paradox of Christian citizenship and its implications.

Master Class on "Jacques Maritain, Étienne Gilson, and the Thomist Renewal in the 20th Century: Academic and Spiritual Approaches"
2018-11-10 11:00 - 14:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Open to current university students and faculty. PDFs of the assigned readings will be provided for those who register.
For the Blessed Paul VI, Jacques Maritain (1882-1973) was a master “in the art of thinking and praying”. In 1975, Paul VI sent a letter to Etienne Gilson (1884-1978) to thank him for his whole life devoted to the search of truth and wisdom. In “Fides et Ratio” (1998, n.74), Saint John Paul II suggested Maritain and Gilson, among other names, as models of thinkers to reconcile philosophy and theology, reason and the word of God. What are the lessons taught by Maritain and Gilson that could be fruitful for the Catholics of the XXI century?
SCHEDULE
9:30am Coffee & tea
10:00am Session I
11:25am Break
11:35am Session II
1:00pm End, Lunch

The Collapse of Lehman Brothers: An Inside Story
2018-11-01 16:30 | Saieh Hall 021, 5757 S. University Ave. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
You can subscribe to the Lumen Christi Institute Podcast via our Soundcloud page, iTunes channel, Stitcher, TuneIn, ListenNotes, Podbean, Pocket Casts, and Google Play Music.
To view photos of Freidheim’s talk, visit Lumen Christi’s Facebook page. This event was cosponsored by Catholics at Booth.
What it was like to be inside the executive suite of Lehman Brothers during the financial crisis of 2008? Scott Freidheim—former Lehman Brothers Chief Administrative Officer and Executive Vice President—will offer a first-hand account of what happened in 2008, why Lehman Brothers did not need to fail, and how the fall of Lehman Brothers and great personal financial loss affected his sense of meaning as a person of faith.
You may also be interested in our event from 2011 on “Decision-Making in the Pressure Cooker: Lessons Learned from the Collapse of Lehman Brothers.”

Georges Lemaître: His Science, Faith, and Why “Hubble’s Law” Ought to be Renamed
2018-10-31 19:00 - 20:00 | Kent Hall, Room 107, 1020 E 58th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
You can subscribe to the Lumen Christi Institute Podcast via our Soundcloud page, iTunes channel, Stitcher, TuneIn, ListenNotes, Podbean, Pocket Casts, and Google Play Music.
To read an adapted version of Lunine’s lecture as an article published by the Notre Dame McGrath Institute for Church Life’s ​​​​​​​Church Life Journal, click here.
To view photos of the lecture, visit Lumen Christi’s Facebook page.
Free and open to the public. Cosponsored by the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics.
Georges Lemaître—a Belgian priest and cosmologist—proposed what came to be known as the “Big Bang” model of the origin of the cosmos. What is less well known is that Lemaître discovered and published Hubble’s law—the first observational basis for the expansion of the universe—in 1927—well before Edwin Hubble did. Lemaître also treated Einstein’s cosmological constant as a vacuum energy, in 1933, foreshadowing work done a half-century later. Lemaître is less well known as a pioneering cosmologist than as a chimeric figure with both a scientific and religious career. Thus he has been treated by historians differently from other scientists. In this talk Lunine will argue that renaming the “Hubble law” the “Hubble-Lemaître law” (resolution B4 2018 of the International Astronomical Union) is a reasonable solution to the dilemma posed by history’s treatment of the Belgian cosmologist.

Can Transcendence be Organized? The Catholic Church Between Universalism and Establishment
2018-10-24 16:30 | Swift Hall, First Floor Common Room, 1025 E 58th St,Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Free and open to the public. Cosponsored by the Committee on Social Thought and the Theology Club.
If a religion differentiates itself from the culture of specific peoples, states, or empires and represents the ideal of moral universalism and an understanding of transcendence, it cannot evade the problem of self-organization. While this is true of all “post-axial” religions, this lecture restricts itself to the Christian Church and other forms of the social organization of Christians (sect, denomination etc.). A comparison between the Catholic Church and these other forms and an understanding of their interaction in the history of Christianity is instructive with regard to the current debates about reforms in the Catholic Church.

Faith and Politics: Reflections of a Catholic Legislator
2018-10-22 12:00 - 13:20 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Open to current university students and faculty. Lunch will be served.
Join the Lumen Christi Institute and the Center for Latin American Studies for a lunch discussion with Ignacio Walker, academic and former Chilean Secretary of State (2004-2006), on his current project entitled “Faith and Politics.” He will share reflections from his experience on negotiating faith commitments as a Catholic politician in a modern, secular, democratic, pluralistic society.

Schola Antiqua Concert "La Rue @ 500"
2018-10-21 16:00 - 17:30 | Emmanuel Episcopal Church, 203 S Kensington Ave, La Grange
$25 general/$10 student
Schola Antiqua commemorates the quincentennial of the death of Pierre de la Rue (d. 1518), one of the most talented and highly-prized composers of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. In the service of the wealthy and influential Habsburg-Burgundian court, La Rue actively wrote in all of the major musical genres of his time, and this is echoed in the program’s design. Highlights from his carefully constructed masses include music for very low voices at the composer’s disposal. Some of his beloved motets and songs complete the program. This program is sponsored in part by the Lumen Christi Institute and by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council.
Schola Antiqua performed the same concert on October 20 in Chicago.

Vatican I: Loss and Gain with Papal Governance of the Catholic Church
2018-10-13 13:30 - 15:30 | Swift Hall, 3rd Floor Lecture, 1025 E 58th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
You can subscribe to the Lumen Christi Institute Podcast via our Soundcloud page, iTunes channel, Stitcher, TuneIn, ListenNotes, Podbean, Pocket Casts, and Google Play Music.
To read O’Malley’s contribution to this panel discussion in the Notre Dame McGrath Institute for Church Life’s Church Life Journal, click here.
To view photos of the symposium, visit Lumen Christi’s Facebook page.
Free and open to the public. Cosponsored by the Theology Club.
A symposium and reception on the occasion of the publication of Vatican I: The Council and the Making of the Ultramontane Church (Harvard University Press, 2018) by Fr. John O’Malley, SJ. Copies of the book will be available for sale by the Seminary Co-op.
Vatican Council I (1869-1870) lasted barely eight months and produced only two documents. The document Pastor Aeternus deeply reconfigured the government of the Church on the basis of the universal jurisdiction of the pope. As we are now approaching the 150th anniversary of that event we can ask: How has the papal-centered government fared over the centuries? Did Vatican II initiate significant changes in the ecclesiastical government? In light of these councils, how should we evaluate the scandals and the fragmentation of episcopal governance in the Church?
Fr. O’Malley also gave a lecture on October 11 and taught a master class on October 12.

Master Class on "Councils and Popes: Who's in Charge?"
2018-10-12 14:00 - 17:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Registration is required. Open to current university students and faculty. A PDF of the assigned readings will be provided.
The purpose of the seminar is to deepen understanding of the historical course of the relationship between councils and popes through an examination of four key texts published at four key moments in the ongoing dialectic between these two institutions. Our time together will be spent on a close reading and discussion of the texts, trying to understand them in their historical contexts. We will read them also with an eye to their possible relevance to the situation of the Catholic Church today. In recent years, for instance, the word synodality has entered our ecclesiastical vocabulary. Synod is the Greek form of the Latin word for council. The two words are, therefore, synonyms. What should this mean for us?
PRIMARY READINGS

The Council of Constance, 1415
The Four Gallican Articles, 1652
Pastor Aeternus, Vatican Council I, 1870
Lumen Gentium (Chapter three), Vatican Council II, 1964

BACKGROUND READINGS

Council of Constance: Francis Oakley, The Conciliarist Tradition (Oxford, 2003).
Gallican Articles: Richard F. Constigan, The Consensus of the Church and Papal Infallibility (Catholic UP, 2005).
Pastor Aeternus: Austin Gaugh, Paris and Rome: The Gallican Church and the Ultramontane Campaign (Oxford, 1986). John W. O’Malley: Vatican I: The Council and the Making of the Ultramontane Church (Harvard, 2018).
Lumen Gentium: John W. O’Malley, What Happened at Vatican II (Harvard, 2008).

SCHEDULE
1:30pm Coffee & Tea
2:00pm Session I
3:25pm Break
3:35pm Session II
5:00pm Wine & cheese reception
6:00pm End
John O’Malley also gave a lecture on October 11 and participated in a symposium on October 13.

Comparing Trent, Vactican I, and Vatican II
2018-10-11 16:30 | Classics 110, 1010 E 59th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
To view photos of the lecture, visit Lumen Christi’s Facebook page.
Free and open to the public.
Based on a forthcoming book entitled When Bishops Meet: An Essay Comparing Trent, Vatican I, and Vatican II that bears the fruit of decades of scholarship, this lecture by one of the greatest living experts of modern Church history will compare the three modern ecumenical councils of the Catholic Church.
John O’Malley also taught a master class on October 12 and participated in a symposium on October 13.
To view photos of the lecture, visit Lumen Christi’s Facebook page.

Judging as Judgment
2018-10-04 17:30 - 19:00 | Jenner & Block, 45th Floor, 353 N Clark St. Chicago, IL 60654, Downtown, IL
You can subscribe to the Lumen Christi Institute Podcast via our Soundcloud page, iTunes channel, Stitcher, TuneIn, ListenNotes, Podbean, Pocket Casts, and Google Play Music.
To view photos of the event, visit Lumen Christi’s Facebook page.
Free and open to the public. Registration is required.
Cosponsored by the Catholic Lawyers Guild of Chicago, the Decalogue Society of Lawyers, the Christian Legal Society, the Jewish Judges Association, and Jenner & Block LLP.
When a case is easy, judges can act like umpires. But when a case is hard, judges cannot simply apply the rules – they have to exercise judgment. We pretend that judges don’t make law in order to ensure that they are sufficiently responsive to social and political norms and to elected representatives. But contrary to popular belief, the rule of law does not require judges to refrain from judgment. What the rule of law requires is that judges give impartial reasons for their decisions. And judges can only do that if they attend carefully to the normative arguments on both sides of hard cases and give reasons that could or should be accepted by the losing side.
SCHEDULE
5:00pm Registration & Refreshments
5:30pm Welcome & Introduction
5:35pm “Judging as Judgment”
6:20pm Audience Q&A
6:30pm Reception
7:30pm End

Master Class on "Dark Night and Flame of Love: The Mysticism of John of the Cross"
2018-09-22 14:00 - 17:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Registration is required. Open to current university students and faculty. A copy of John of the Cross: Selected Writings (Paulist Press, 1987) will be provided for registrants.
The Discalced Carmelite friar, Juan de la Cruz (1542-91), is one of the most famous of Catholic mystics. This one-time Master Class will present a synopsis of John’s mystical teaching as found in some of his noted poems, as well as the four prose works he composed as commentaries on these allusive and beautiful verses. John’s use of both poetry and prose raises issues about the relation of these two literary forms in mystical teaching (some of which will be addressed). The concentration, however, will be on the prose treatises as comprising one of the most influential summaries (summae) of mystical theology in the history of Christianity. In the popular mind, John is most famous for his treatment of the “dark night” (noche oscura) of the senses and spirit, the negative (apophatic) dimension of his doctrine; but for the Carmelite the suffering of the dark night was meant to lead to the positive (kataphatic) stage where the “living flame of love” (llama de amor viva) consumes and transforms the soul in God.
The Class will use the anthology of John’s writings found in Kieran Kavanaugh and Ernest Larkin, eds., John of the Cross. Selected Writings (New York: Paulist Press, 1987. It is advisable for the participants to try to read the whole of this, but pages for special attention will be singled out in the syllabus. In addition, some outlines and charts will be handed out at the beginning of the class.
SCHEDULE
1:30: Welcome with Coffee and Tea
2:00-3:30: First Session
3:00-3:15: Break
3:15-5:15: Second Session
5:15-5:30: End with Reception

Truth and Authority in Augustine's City of God
2018-07-21 00:00 - 2018-07-28 00:00 | University of California, Berkeley, S Hall Rd. Berkeley, CA 94720, Berkeley, CA
You can download the poster here.
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 discussion of the text and the issues at hand. Students will be expected to prepare the readings carefully and participate in the discussions of the material.
Location: The seminar will take place at the University of California, Berkeley. Students will be provided with lodging, meals, and a travel stipend of up to $350.
Application Information: This seminar will be open to PhD students in the humanities and relevant fields (such as philosophy, theology, english, classics, and history).
Applicants will be required to submit:

A completed online application form.
An updated CV.
At least one and as many as two letter(s) of recommendation from a member of the program in which the student is currently enrolled.
A statement of research interest no longer than 750 words, which includes an explanation of how this seminar might bear on the student’s current or future research plans.
One academic writing sample (30 pages maximum).

All application materials can be submitted via the online application. Incomplete applications will not be considered. Fifteen students will be admitted to this seminar.

Frequently Asked Questions:
Can I apply for more than one seminar?
Yes. You may apply for multiple seminars. Please indicate your order of preference in your statement of purpose for each application. Each applicant may only be admitted to one seminar.
I am a PhD student graduating this academic year. Can I still apply?
Yes!
I am currently an undergraduate or masters student, but have been admitted to a PhD program for the next academic year. Can I still apply?
Yes, please indicate this somewhere in your application.
I have attended a Lumen Christi Institute seminar in the past. May I still apply?
Yes!
Do I have to be Catholic to apply?
No. The Lumen Christi Institute exists to promote the Catholic Intellectual Tradition and is committed to the integration of the intellectual and spiritual life. The Institute welcomes seminar participants of all or no religious affiliation, and wants to assure all applicants that the opportunities to participate in devotional activities are optional.
Contact us with any further questions.

The Thought of John Henry Newman
2018-07-07 00:00 - 2018-07-14 00:00 | Merton College, Oxford, Merton St, Oxford OX1 4JD, UK, Oxford, United Kingdom
You can download the poster here.
Now in its sixth 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 presentations by Professor Ker and by participants on the readings assigned, followed by seminar-style discussion.
Location: The seminar will take place at Merton College at the University of Oxford. Students will be provided with lodging and meals while at Oxford, and a travel stipend of up to $700.
Application Information: This seminar will be open to PhD students in the humanities and relevant fields (such as philosophy, theology, English, classics, & history).
Applicants will be required to submit:

A completed online application form.
An updated CV.
At least one and as many as two letter(s) of recommendation from a member of the program in which the student is currently enrolled.
A statement of research interest no longer than 750 words, which includes an explanation of how this seminar might bear on the student’s current or future research plans.
One academic writing sample (30 pages maximum).

All application materials can be submitted via the online application. Incomplete applications will not be considered. Fifteen students will be admitted to this seminar.

Frequently Asked Questions:
Can I apply for more than one seminar?
Yes. You may apply for multiple seminars. Please indicate your order of preference in your statement of purpose for each application. Each applicant may only be admitted to one seminar.
I am a PhD student graduating this academic year. Can I still apply?
Yes!
I am currently an undergraduate or masters student, but have been admitted to a PhD program for the next academic year. Can I still apply?
Yes, please indicate this somehwere in your application.
I have attended a Lumen Christi Institute seminar in the past. May I still apply?
Yes!
Do I have to be Catholic to apply?
No. The Lumen Christi Institute exists to promotes the Catholic intellectual tradition and is committed to the integration of the intellectual and spiritual life. The Institute welcomes seminar participants of all or no religious affiliation, and wants to assure all applicants that the opportunities to participate in devotional activities are optional.
Contact us with any further questions.

St. Thomas Aquinas on Free Choice
2018-06-27 00:00 - 2018-07-04 00:00 | University of Chicago, 5801 S. Ellis Ave., University of Chicago, IL
You can download the poster here.
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 pertinent texts from other philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, Kant, and Anscombe. We will want to address some of the more controversial questions about Thomas’ views, such as the following: Does he differ from Aristotle on the will, and if so, how? Did he change his own mind about the will? To what extent, in Aquinas’ account, does the freedom of the will depend upon the distinction between the will and the intellect? Does St. Thomas’ apparent intellectualism commit him to some kind of determinism with regard to choice? Does he offer an adequate account of the choice of evil? In comparison with modern thinkers, does he sufficiently appreciate the value of freedom?
Format: There will be two 2 ½ hour sessions each day. Each session will include an opening lecture and seminar-style discussion of the text and the issues at hand. Students will be expected to prepare the readings carefully and participate in the discussions of the material.
Location: The seminar will take place at the University of Chicago. Students will be provided with lodging, meals, and a travel stipend of up to $350.
Application Information: This seminar will be open to PhD students in the humanities and relevant fields (such as philosophy, theology, english, classics, & history).
Applicants will be required to submit:

A completed online application form.
An updated CV.
At least one and as many as two letter(s) of recommendation from a member of the program in which the student is currently enrolled.
A statement of research interest no longer than 750 words, which includes an explanation of how this seminar might bear on the student’s current or future research plans.
One academic writing sample (30 pages maximum).

All application materials can be submitted via the online application. Incomplete applications will not be considered. Fiften students will be admitted to this seminar.

Frequently Asked Questions:
Can I apply for more than one seminar?
Yes. You may apply for multiple seminars. Please indicate your order of preference in your statement of purpose for each application. Each applicant may only be admitted to one seminar.
I am a PhD student graduating this academic year. Can I still apply?
Yes!
I am currently an undergraduate or master’s student, but have been admitted to a PhD program for the next academic year. Can I still apply?
Yes, please indicate this somewhere in your application.
I have attended a Lumen Christi Institute seminar in the past. May I still apply?
Yes!
Do I have to be Catholic to apply?
No. The Lumen Christi Institute exists to promotes the Catholic intellectual tradition and is committed to the integration of the intellectual and spiritual life. The Institute welcomes seminar participants of all or no religious affiliation, and wants to assure all applicants that the opportunities to participate in devotional activities are optional.
Contact us with any further questions.

Undergraduate Seminar on Happiness and Freedom
2018-06-17 00:00 - 2018-06-30 00:00 | Kylemore Abbey, Kylemore Abbey, Galway, Ireland
APPLY HERE
THE APPLICATION DEADLINE FOR AMERICAN STUDENTS HAS PASSED. IRISH STUDENTS ARE STILL WELCOME TO APPLY UNTIL APRIL 16.
Undergraduate students from Ireland and the US are invited to apply for this two-week seminar on “Happiness & Freedom.” Explore themes of nationalism, modernity, community, and stability while being immersed in Irish culture and history.
Presented by the Lumen Christi Institute and the University of Notre Dame.
You can download the poster here.
ABOUT THE SEMINAR
Human beings want to be happy. And they often see freedom as a necessary component in their happiness. What, though, should human beings be free from in order to be happy? Should human beings instead be free for certain things? In this two-week seminar, we will explore philosophical, theological, and historical answers to the question of human freedom and happiness. Because of our location in Ireland, we will focus on how the Irish have answered these questions throughout their history. We will pay special attention to the role that Christianity has played in contributing to (or perhaps detracting from) one’s freedom and happiness.
FORMAT AND SCHEDULE
Week one will be held at the O’Connell House, the Notre Dame Global Gateway in Dublin, and week two will be held at Kylemore Abbey, a Benedictine community in Connemara, County Galway. The seminar readings and discussions will be supplemented by field trips around significant historical places in Dublin and County Galway.
Students will be provided with lodging, transportation, and most meals during the course of the seminar. Students will be responsible for arranging their own transportation to and from the seminar. Travel grants may be available on a need basis.
GUEST LECTURERS
Maria Cahill, Lecturer, University College Cork
Siobhán Garrigan, Loyola Chair of Theology, Trinity College Dublin
Cyril O’Regan, Huisking Professor of Theology, University of Notre Dame
Declan Kiberd, Donald and Marilyn Keough Professor of Irish Studies, University of Notre Dame
READINGS
Iris Murdoch, The Sovereignty of the Good
Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue
R.F. Foster, Modern Ireland 1600-1970
William Cavanaugh, Being Consumed
James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
T. M. Charles-Edwards, Early Christian Ireland
Rule of St Benedict
Herbert McCabe, “God” and “Prayer”
Servais Pinckaers, OP, The Pursuit of Happiness
Benedict XVI, Deus caritas est and Veritas in caritate
HOW TO APPLY
This seminar is open to current undergraduate students from the US and Ireland (including those graduating in spring 2018). All application materials can be submitted via the online application. Incomplete applications will not be considered. Twenty students will be admitted to this seminar.
Application materials must be received by 11:59pm on MARCH 15, 2018.
The Lumen Christi Institute exists to promote the Catholic intellectual tradition and is committed to the integration of the intellectual and spiritual life. The Institute welcomes seminar participants of all or no religious affiliation, and wants to assure all applicants that the opportunities to participate in devotional activities are optional.
Contact us if you have any further questions.

Economics and Catholic Social Thought: A Primer
2018-06-10 09:00 - 2018-06-13 17:00 | University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, Notre Dame, IN
You can download the poster here.
Now in its third year, this seminar is designed as an introduction and immersion into Catholic social thought for graduate students and faculty in economics, finance, or related fields. Participants will cover foundational principles in Catholic social thought, starting with the human person, dignity, freedom, subsidiarity, solidarity, and the common good, and moving toward applications of these principles to conceptual understandings and ethical considerations involving economic topics such as utility theory, firm and business ethics, wages, markets, globalization, poverty, and development. Participants will delve into social encyclicals, secondary sources, and relevant economics texts.
This seminar is cosponsored by the Catholic Research Economists Discussion Organization, the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture, the Kellogg Institute for International Studies, and the Notre Dame Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts.
Format: There will be two sessions each day, featuring a different instructor. Each instructor will open with a lecture, and then we will turn to a seminar-style discussion of the texts and issues at hand. In the final sessions, we will discuss how the material can be applied to each student’s particular area of interest.
Location: The seminar will take place at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. A limited number of travel stipends are available on a need basis. All participants will be provided with accommodations and meals.
Application Information: This seminar will be open to PhD students and faculty in economics, finance and related fields.
Applicants will be required to submit a completed online application form, including:

An updated CV.
A brief statement of research interest no longer than 750 words.
One academic writing sample.

All application materials can be submitted via the online application. Incomplete applications will not be considered. Fifteen students will be admitted to this seminar.
Please direct any further questions to contact@credo-economists.org.

What is Freedom? Some Reflections on Augustine
2018-05-25 15:00 | Swift Hall, 3rd Floor Lecture, 1025 E 58th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
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To view photos of the symposium, visit Lumen Christi’s Facebook page.
A lecture by Olivier Boulnois with responses by Jean-Luc Marion and Willemien Otten, and moderated by Ryan Coyne.
Free and open to the public. Cosponsored by the Theology Club at the Divinity School.
This lecture will be audio and video recorded and accessible via this webpage shortly after the event. Persons with disabilities who need an accommodation in order to participate in this event should contact us by email or call 773-955-5887.

The Hillbilly Thomist: Flannery O'Connor's Catholic Imagination
2018-05-22 18:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
REGISTER HERE
6:00 Dinner | 6:30 Lecture
This weekly non-credit course is open to current students and faculty. Registrants are free to attend as many sessions as they choose. Sessions do not presuppose previous attendance or prior knowledge of the subject.
The fiction writer and essayist Flannery O’Connor (1925-1964) once complained that she was pegged as “a hillbilly nihilist,” whereas she viewed herself as “a hillbilly Thomist.” Her profound Catholic faith served in many respects to detach her from the rural Georgia in which she lived and worked, and at the same time gave her a sympathy for and insight into the radical non-conformists of the Protestant South, such that her often grotesque characters are conveyed by convincing human portraits that at the same time rise above the particulars of time and place so as to speak to the Big Questions of faith and unbelief, salvation and damnation.
This course will examine in detail seven of O’Connor’s short stories, as well as the theology and artistic convictions from which they come to be, supplemented by letters selected from her published correspondence. Volunteers will be recruited to prepare and read aloud brief excerpts from the stories. No previous acquaintance with the works of O’Connor is required or presumed.
April 3rd
The Hillbilly Thomist: An introduction to O’Connor and her work.
April 10th
“The Enduring Chill”
April 17th
“A Temple of the Holy Ghost”
April 24th
“A Late Encounter with the Enemy”
May 1st
“The Life You Save May Be Your Own”
May 8th
“Parker’s Back”
May 15th
“A Good Man Is Hard to Find”
May 22nd
“Revelation”
You can watch a profile of Flannery O’Connor HERE.

Staged Reading of "Shakeshafte" by Rowan Williams
2018-05-19 15:00 | International House at the University of Chicago, 1414 E 59th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
To view photos of the performance, visit Lumen Christi’s Facebook page.
You are invited to join the Shakespeare Project of Chicago for a special staged reading of a new play by Rowan Willams, a “fantasia” on the possible relationship between William Shakespeare and Edmund Campion.
Free and open to the public. Online registration is recommended but not required. Refreshments will be served. Sponsored by the Lumen Christi Institute and the International House Global Voices Program. Persons with disabilities who may need assistance should contact the Office of Programs & External Relations in advance at 773-753-2274 or email HERE.
You can read about the Shakespeare Project of Chicago’s previous performance of “Shakeshafte” at the Chicago Reader. More information about the play can be found HERE.
SCHEDULE
2:30pm Doors open, refreshments & reception
3:00pm Introduction, Professor Regina Schwartz (Northwestern University)
3:10pm Staged reading of “Shakeshafte” (with 15 minute intermission)
5:00pm Audience Q&A with cast and Professor Schwartz
5:15pm End
Rowan Williams was the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury, holding that office from 2002 to 2012. He is currently master of Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he teaches Theology. A noted poet and translator of poetry, Dr. Williams speaks or reads nine other languages, and has published books on a wide range of theological, historical, and political themes.

The Book of Job and the Transmission of Biblical Wisdom
2018-05-18 13:00 - 14:30 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Open to current students and faculty. Lunch will be served.
All too often, reading Scripture is merely an exercise in self-flattery and reinforcing our own preconceptions. But reading Scripture cross-culturally draws us more deeply into the text and undoes some of those preconceptions. Reading Job, one of Scripture’s most enigmatic books, in Lomwe with Lomwe-speakers can surprise a North American reader, illuminating what is present and what is absent. This presentation will center on a close-reading of passages from the text of Job.
Image: Job and His Friends, Ilya Repin via Wikimedia Commons.

Elizabeth Anscombe on Living the Truth
2018-05-10 19:00 | Classics 110, 1010 E 59th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Elizabeth Anscombe was one of the most important and influential analytic philosophers of the twentieth century. One of the last lectures she delivered was titled “Doing the Truth.” In it, she set out to identify and clarify a specifically practical mode of truth as the proper goal of a specifically practical mode of reasoning and knowledge. This talk will explore how Anscombe understands practical truth by relating it to her influential theory of the intentionality of action; its ultimate suggestion is that “doing the truth” just is living a good human life–i.e., knowingly performing actions in accordance with true judgments of right practical reasoning. The person who achieves this truth is virtuous, someone who can stand as an exemplar (or rule and measure) for those who seek the truth but have not yet realized it in their lives.
To view photos of the lecture, visit Lumen Christi’s Facebook page.
You can subscribe to the Lumen Christi Institute Podcast via our Soundcloud page, iTunes channel, Stitcher, TuneIn, ListenNotes, Podbean, Pocket Casts, and Google Play Music.

Prayer, Dinner, and Discussion at the Benedictine Monastery of the Holy Cross
2018-05-05 16:30 - 20:00 | The Monastery of the Holy Cross, 3111 South Aberdeen St. Chicago, IL 60608, Chicago, IL
REGISTER HERE
Transportation will be provided from Hyde Park. Open to current university students and faculty.
Cosponsored by the Hildegard of Bingen Society.
Join us for an evening of prayer with Benedictine Monks at the Monastery of the Holy Cross. Students will participate in the prayer of the Divine Office (including Solemn Vespers and Compline), and have dinner and discussion with Fr. Peter Funk, OSB, prior of the monastery and alumnus of the University of Chicago. This evening will feature a special Solemn Vespers, in which the monks will be accompanied by Schola Laudis.
More information about the monastery can be found HERE.
SCHEDULE
4:15pm Meet at Gavin House (1220 E. 58th St.)
4:30pm Depart from Hyde Park
5:00pm Arrive at the Monastery, welcome by Fr. Funk
5:15pm Office of Solemn Vespers
6:00pm Dinner & Discussion
7:15pm Office of Compline
8:00pm Arrive back in Hyde Park

Master Class on Paul Claudel's "The Muse Called Grace"
2018-05-04 15:00 - 17:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Open to current students and faculty. A copy of the poem with English translation will be circulated to those who RSVP.
Paul Claudel can be described as the greatest French Catholic poet of the 20th century. His ode The Muse Called Grace celebrates the deep links between human and divine love, between poetry and faith. Join Professors Rémi Brague and Thomas Pavel for a master class on the poem. Previous familiarity with Paul Claudel is not required.
SCHEDULE:
2:30pm Coffee & Tea
3:00pm Seminar
5:00pm Wine & Cheese
The Franke Institute for the Humanities will host a conference on Paul Claudel for the 150th anniversary of his birth on May 18 & 19, 2018.

Athens, Jerusalem—and Alexandria: Christian Wisdom between the Bible and Greek Philosophy
2018-05-03 17:00 | Breasted Hall, Oriental Institute, 1155 E 58th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
A lecture by Rémi Brague with a response by Jean-Luc Marion. Free and open to the public. Cosponsored by the Ethics Club at the Divinity School. This lecture will be audio and video recorded and accessible via this webpage shortly after the event. Persons with disabilities who need an accommodation in order to participate in this event should contact us by email or call 773-955-5887.
Christian wisdom could work its way through the Hebrew Bible and Greek philosophy and produce some sort of “Alexandrian” synthesis by focusing on the Logos, a concept explicitly central to Greek philosophy and implicitly fundamental to Biblical revelation.
You can read about Professor Brague’s previous visit HERE.
To view photos of the event, visit Lumen Christi’s Facebook page.
You can subscribe to the Lumen Christi Institute Podcast via our Soundcloud page, iTunes channel, Stitcher, TuneIn, ListenNotes, Podbean, Pocket Casts, and Google Play Music.

Master Class on "Karl Rahner’s Distinctive Theology of the Symbol"
2018-04-21 10:00 - 13:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Open to current university students and faculty. A link to the readings will be provided for registrants.
In an era of outstanding theologians who made the teachings of the second Vatican Council possible, Karl Rahner (1904-84) stands out as a titan. A German Jesuit, he studied under Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) in Freiburg (among others). He taught on the faculties of Innsbruck, Munich, and Münster; served as a peritus at the Council and as a member of the International Theological Commission. His chief works include Spirit in the World (1957), a study of Thomas Aquinas’s theory of knowledge; Hearer of the Word (1941), which seeks to justify humanity’s natural ability to receive and assent to a divine revelation; Foundations of Christian Faith (1976), a systematic exposition of Catholic belief and practice; and the renowned Theological Investigations (1954-84), sixteen volumes on a wide range of topics written over the course of his career.
As a systematic theologian, Rahner understood his role as using some criterion according to which the revealed doctrines of Christianity could be shown to be coherent, even while they remain mysteries not fully comprehensible to reason. His distinctive criterion is called the Realsymbol. Our Master Class will study what it is, how Rahner develops it, and how he uses it better to understand the realities that we know both by reason and by faith.
READINGS
Karl Rahner, SJ, “The Theology of the Symbol,” in Theological Investigations (TI), vol. 4, 221-52; “Oneness and Threefoldness of God in Discussion with Islam,” TI 18, 105-21; “On the Theology of the Incarnation,” TI 4, 105-20. [23 vols, various places, publishers, and dates; originally Schriften zur Theologie (Einsiedeln: Benzinger, 1954-84)].
Stephen Fields, SJ, “Realsymbol as Sacramental,” in Being As Symbol: On the Origins and Development of Karl Rahner’s Metaphysics (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2001), 38-54.
SCHEDULE
9:30am Coffee & Pastries
10:00am Session I
11:25am Break
11:35am Session II
1:00pm Lunch
Professor Fields also gave a lecture on “The Future of Liberalism: Relativism Confronts St. Augustine” on Thursday, April 19.

The Future of Liberalism: Relativism Confronts St. Augustine
2018-04-19 17:00 | Harper Memorial Library 130, 1116 East 59th Street, Hyde Park, IL
Free and open to the public. Cosponsored by the Theology Club at the Divinity School.
The future of political liberalism is a topic much discussed in recent scholarly books and popular journals. This lecture will integrate the recent argument of Patrick Deneen in Why Liberalism Failed, beginning where the book leaves off by addressing the following question: If it is true, as many have argued, that liberalism has become morally corroded, then can reasonable people still make a case for our continued cooperation with it? Discussing thinkers like Richard Rorty and John Rawls, this lecture will critically examine efforts to ground contemporary liberalism in relativist views of goodness and truth. These views will be brought into dialogue with St Augustine’s reflections on Rome. It will thereby develop a perspective on how Catholics should coexist with liberalism, which retains value as a political framework.
Professor Fields also led a master class seminar on “Karl Rahner’s Distinctive Theology of the Symbol” on Saturday, April 21.
To view photos of the lecture, visit Lumen Christi’s Facebook page.
You can subscribe to the Lumen Christi Institute Podcast via our Soundcloud page, iTunes channel, Stitcher, TuneIn, ListenNotes, Podbean, Pocket Casts, and Google Play Music.

"Behold How Good and How Pleasant": A Memorial Concert for Theodore C. Karp
2018-04-15 16:00 | Millar Chapel, Northwestern University 1870 Sheridan Rd, Evanston
$25 General / $10 Students
Schola Antiqua celebrates the life and contributions of musicologist and Northwestern University professor emeritus Theodore “Ted” C. Karp (1926-2015) with a program of music that reflects the wide-ranging areas of early music study that he touched in his fruitful career. One of the titans of plainchant scholarship, Karp can be found in debates about the genre in its early and late stages. The ensemble explores not only plainsong but also other areas of Karp’s investigations from music of the troubadours to some of the earliest surviving polyphony in western music history. The program concludes with a full performance of Orlande de Lassus’s sonorous Prophetiae Sibyllarum.
Schola Antiqua of Chicago also performed the same concert on Saturday, April 14 at 8:00pm at Rockefeller Memorial Chapel at the University of Chicago.
To view photos of the April 14 performance, visit Lumen Christi’s Facebook page.

Perseverance in the Parish? Religious Attitudes from a Black Catholic Perspective
2018-04-12 17:00 | Swift Hall, 3rd Floor Lecture, 1025 E 58th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Free and open to the public. Cosponsored by Catholic Theological Union and the Ethics Club at the Divinity School.
Do African-American Catholics perceive or experience aspects of racial intolerance and marginalization in their parishes? Does racial marginalization in the Church compel African-American Catholics to disengage and leave their parish? Darren Davis’ provocative new book, Perseverance in the Parish? Religious Attitudes from a Black Catholic Perspective, examines data from the first national survey of African American Catholics. He finds that African-American respondents, though small in number, are among the strongest religious identifiers in the Church. In contrast to narratives that stress the “double consciousness” of African-American Catholic churchgoers, Davis suggests that the contemporary experiences and perspectives of black Catholics do not support this framework for understanding faith in the African-American Catholic community. His lecture will deal with the results of his survey and its implications for conversations about marginalization and racial bias in the Church.
To view photos of the lecture, visit Lumen Christi’s Facebook page.
You can subscribe to the Lumen Christi Institute Podcast via our Soundcloud page, iTunes channel, Stitcher, TuneIn, ListenNotes, Podbean, Pocket Casts, and Google Play Music.

Master Class on "Bishop Bartolomé de las Casas, OP: Christian Faith and Amerindian Rights"
2018-04-06 14:00 - 17:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Open to current university students and faculty. A link to the readings will be provided for registrants.
This class offers an in-depth overview of the life and writings of the irrepressible friar Bishop Bartolomé de las Casas, O.P. (1484-1566), identified by friend and foe as the “Protector of the Indians.” Since youth, Las Casas was intimately bound to the old and new worlds of Europe and the Indies, traversing the Atlantic at least a half dozen times during his life. He was a Renaissance churchman par excellence, inhabiting the various duties and roles of missionary preacher, theologian, bishop, historian, political philosopher, and canon lawyer. Incredibly, his legal advocacy and literary output was wholly dedicated to accounting for the injustices perpetrated by Spaniards against the native peoples of the Indies while defending their freedom and rights against European political domination and religious coercion to the faith.
In order to facilitate class discussion, each session will focus on a distinct yet interrelated theme that generally corresponds to two phases of the friar’s life: before his appointment to the episcopate of Chiapa in New Spain (1484-1543) and after (1544-1566). Session I chiefly considers the transformation of Las Casas from priest-encomendero to a Dominican theorist and practitioner of peaceful evangelization. Session II focuses on his advocacy on behalf of Amerindian rights as bishop of Chiapa in the New World and back in Spain.
REQUIRED READINGS
Bartolomé de las Casas, The Only Way, eds. Helen Rand Parish and Francis Patrick Sullivan (Paulist Press, 1992), pp. 63-84; 112-116; 120-125
—–. Indian Freedom, ed. Francis Patrick Sullivan, S.J. (Sheed and Ward, 1995), selections
SUGGESTED READINGS
Gustavo Gutiérrez, Las Casas: In Search of the Poor of Jesus Christ (Orbis Books, 1993), trans. Robert Barr, pp. 363-395
David Lantigua, “Faith, Liberty, and the Defense of the Poor: Bishop Las Casas in the History of Human Rights,” in Christianity and Freedom: Historical Perspectives, eds. Timothy Shah and Allen Hertzke (Cambridge Press, 2016), pp. 176-202
On April 5, David Lantigua gave a lecture on “Early Modern Catholic Social Thought and World Order.”

Early Modern Catholic Social Teaching and World Order
2018-04-05 17:00 | Swift Hall, First Floor Common Room, 1025 E 58th St,Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Free and open to the public. Cosponsored by the Center for Latin American Studies, the Early Modern and Mediterranean Worlds Workshop, and the Ethics Club at the Divinity School.
Western distrust in liberal internationalism offers an opportunity for renewed theological reflection on the moral foundations of world order. After the Second World War, transitional popes and Thomistic philosophers articulated a Christian vision of supranational society to quicken the support of universal human rights. Their personalist global ethic outlines the contribution of sixteenth-century Spanish theologians who promoted a conception of world order that affirmed the basic rights of believers and nonbelievers against the violent excesses of colonial expansion in el Nuevo Mundo.
The turn to early modern Catholic social teaching among Spanish theologians associated with the School of Salamanca represents an effort to break out of the Westphalian world system that dominates modern thinking about international relations. This lecture retrieves early modern Spanish theological voices to expose the colonialist underbelly of Westphalian rights discourse, typified by Thomas Hobbes and John Locke, and its radical domestication of the Church and human nature. Going beyond Westphalia and its anarchical view of global society enables a reconsideration of the Church’s moral witness of world order anew and the ongoing struggle for justice among dispossessed peoples besieged by aggressive forms of neocolonialism.
On April 6, David Lantigua also led a Master Class on “Bishop Bartolomé de las Casas, OP: Christian Faith and Amerindian Rights.”
To view photos of the lecture, visit Lumen Christi’s Facebook page.
You can subscribe to the Lumen Christi Institute Podcast via our Soundcloud page, iTunes channel, Stitcher, TuneIn, ListenNotes, Podbean, Pocket Casts, and Google Play Music.

The Dignity of Politics: A Panel Discussion
2018-03-27 17:30 - 19:00 | Jenner & Block, 45th Floor, 353 N Clark St. Chicago, IL 60654, Downtown, IL
Cosponsored by the Catholic Lawyers Guild of Chicago and Jenner & Block, LLP
A panel discussion featuring James R. Stoner and respondents Justice Mary Jane Theis, Dan Cronin, and Larry Suffredin.
A dynamic society accords respect to political activities and the choice of a career in politics, and it needs to do so for society to thrive. Politics is held in low repute today, breeding contempt for the day-to-day activities of citizens and politicians involved in the making of law and public policy. Self-government is a great achievement; both rare and fragile, it is only achieved by the virtue of those who participate in it. Contempt for politics and politicians imperils our republic by dissuading virtuous men and women from assisting in the making of law and public policy.
To view photos of the event, visit Lumen Christi’s Facebook page.
You can subscribe to the Lumen Christi Institute Podcast via our Soundcloud page, iTunes channel, Stitcher, TuneIn, ListenNotes, Podbean, Pocket Casts, and Google Play Music.
