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The work of Pierre Hadot and, in his later years, Michel Foucault on the ancient pagan and Christian practices of askesis, or “spiritual exercise,” has proven to be of interest not only to scholars of the late classical and early Christian era, but to a much broader range of humanists working across a variety of disciplines. One reason for this interest is the possibility that religious and non-religious contemporary academics might be able to incorporate the techniques and aims of spiritual exercise into their own scholarly work, thus imbuing their academic teaching and writing with an ethical, if not religious,...

While the parable of the prodigal son has traditionally been read as a story about a wayward son in need of repentance or the conflict of two siblings over their just treatment, Hart will suggest that the father is the central character of the narrative. The phenomenological tradition is employed to shift the theological perspective of the parable toward a vision of the kingdom of God imagined through the forgiveness and unconditional love of the Father. This lecture was co-sponsored by the University of Chicago Theology Workshop.