Name: The Silmarillion
Start: 2025-10-30T19:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-10-30T20:30:00-05:00
Location: Gavin House

List
Month

October 2025
Conference

October 21st @ 5:00 pm - 8:30 pm

Doing Justice and Loving Mercy: A Michigan Conversation on Criminal Justice

Saint Mary Cathedral Parish Hall 220 N Walnut St, Lansing, MI, United States

In partnership with the Diocese of Lansing and the Michigan Catholic Conference, the Catholic Criminal Justice Reform Network is hosting an evening event entitled "Doing Justice and Loving Mercy: A Michigan Conversation on Criminal Justice." Rooted in Catholic Social Teaching, this program brings together individuals actively working within the criminal justice system and those directly impacted by it--returning citizens and survivors of crime. Registration Link For more information, contact CCJRN@Lumenchristi.org This event is intended for those working in or impacted by the criminal justice system.
Non-Credit Courses

October 21st @ 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm The Works and Legacy of St. Augustine

The Works and Legacy of St. Augustine

Gavin House 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL

Cassandra Sever | Scott Moringiello, DePaul University | Ryan Coyne, University of Chicago | Willemien Otten, University of Chicago | Fr. Peter Funk, OSB, Monastery of the Holy Cross | Bernard McGinn, University of Chicago

Each quarter, the Lumen Christi Institute hosts a Tuesday evening non-credit course. Survey-style lectures are given over dinner.

This fall, faculty from the University of Chicago and beyond will investigate the works and legacy of St. Augustine. The fifth-century North African bishop stands as a giant in the history of theology and philosophy. He is also cited as an influence by Pope Leo XIV.

Join us over dinner to learn more about the City of God, On The Trinity, the Confessions, and more!
Reading Groups

October 23rd @ 5:00 pm - 6:30 pm Macintyre’s Dependent Rational Animals

MacIntyre’s Dependent Rational Animals

Gavin House 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL

Fr. Peter Bernardi, SJ, Lumen Christi Institute

Lumen Christi Institute reading courses are faculty-led explorations of an important text. The reading courses are held over a shared meal and all participants are provided a copy of the text.

Fr. Peter Bernardi SJ, LCI’s scholar-in-residence, will lead an exploration of Alisdair MacIntyre’s important late-20th century work, Dependent Rational Animals. MacIntyre both draws from and critiques Aristotle in order to describe our biologically rooted condition and the need to cultivate the virtues that acknowledge our inescapable dependence and inter-dependency.
Reading Groups

October 23rd @ 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm The Silmarillion

The Silmarillion

Gavin House 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL

Each quarter, the Lumen Christi Institute hosts a number of student-led reading groups. The reading groups are usually held over a shared meal and all participants are provided a copy of the text.

InThe Silmarillion, JRR Tolkien spins out the cosmological and mythic stories that undergird The Lord of the Rings. In this group, we will discuss what Tolkien has to say about death, mortality, and suffering, along with his rich worldbuilding and epic tales.
Reading Groups

October 24th @ 10:00 am - 11:00 am Greek New Testament

Greek New Testament

Gavin House 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL

Each quarter, the Lumen Christi Institute hosts a number of student-led reading groups. The reading groups are usually held over a shared meal and all participants are provided a copy of the text.

This quarter, the Greek New Testament reading group will take up the Letter to the Hebrews. All levels of Greek proficiency are encouraged to join. Advance preparation is recommended but not required.
Reading Groups

October 27th @ 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm The Vice of Curiosity

The Vice of Curiosity

Gavin House 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL

Each quarter, the Lumen Christi Institute hosts a number of student-led reading groups. The reading groups are usually held over a shared meal and all participants are provided a copy of the text.

In the Vice of Curiosity and Intellectual Appetite, esteemed theologian Paul J. Griffiths outlines an Augustinian critique of the modern academy’s ways of knowing, including the history of how modernity turned curiosity from vice into virtue, a theological criticism of patent law, and analysis of why plagiarism is not in fact theft.

Each week, a short essay from Vice of Curiosity will be read and discussed, with optional supplementary readings from Intellectual Appetite.
Non-Credit Courses

October 28th @ 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm The Works and Legacy of St. Augustine

The Works and Legacy of St. Augustine

Gavin House 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL

Cassandra Sever | Scott Moringiello, DePaul University | Ryan Coyne, University of Chicago | Willemien Otten, University of Chicago | Fr. Peter Funk, OSB, Monastery of the Holy Cross | Bernard McGinn, University of Chicago

Each quarter, the Lumen Christi Institute hosts a Tuesday evening non-credit course. Survey-style lectures are given over dinner.

This fall, faculty from the University of Chicago and beyond will investigate the works and legacy of St. Augustine. The fifth-century North African bishop stands as a giant in the history of theology and philosophy. He is also cited as an influence by Pope Leo XIV.

Join us over dinner to learn more about the City of God, On The Trinity, the Confessions, and more!
Lectures & Symposia

October 29th @ 5:30 pm - 7:00 pm

A History of the Impossible: Carlos Eire on They Flew

Swift Hall 3rd Floor Lecture Hall 1025 E 58th Street, Chicago, IL

Kirsten Macfarlane | Carlos Eire

In his history of the impossible, They Flew, award-winning historian Carlos Eire mines the firsthand accounts and archival evidence of the miraculous and demonic in early modern Europe. How did an increasingly skeptical and scientific culture account for events deemed impossible by its leading intellectuals? What does this say about the supposed boundaries between the natural and supernatural that marked the transition to modernity?

Prof. Eire will lecture on the major themes of They Flew. University of Chicago Divinity School professor Kirsten Macfarlane will offer a response and engage Eire in a conversation. Audience Q&A will follow.
Fundamental Questions Seminar

October 29th @ 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm Religion, Politics, and Revolution in The Ancient City

Religion, Politics, and Revolution in The Ancient City

Gavin House 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL

Eric DeVilliers | Yousef Casewit, University of Chicago

The Fundamental Questions seminar is the Lumen Christi Institute’s flagship undergraduate program. This three-session seminar meets over dinner to read a great text together and discuss questions of existential importance. Participants will be provided a copy of the text and will be eligible for consideration as Nicklin Fellows.

This fall, Eric DeVilliers (LCI Postdoctoral Scholar) and Yousef Casewit (Chair of Islamic Studies, University of Chicago Divinity School) will lead students through The Ancient City, Numa Fustel de Coulange’s dramatic re-consideration of the ancient world.

Join us as we read selections of The Ancient City and discuss Fustel’s theses about the beginnings of religion, the birth of political life, and the nature of human society.
Reading Groups

October 30th @ 5:00 pm - 6:30 pm Macintyre’s Dependent Rational Animals

MacIntyre’s Dependent Rational Animals

Gavin House 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL

Fr. Peter Bernardi, SJ, Lumen Christi Institute

Lumen Christi Institute reading courses are faculty-led explorations of an important text. The reading courses are held over a shared meal and all participants are provided a copy of the text.

Fr. Peter Bernardi SJ, LCI’s scholar-in-residence, will lead an exploration of Alisdair MacIntyre’s important late-20th century work, Dependent Rational Animals. MacIntyre both draws from and critiques Aristotle in order to describe our biologically rooted condition and the need to cultivate the virtues that acknowledge our inescapable dependence and inter-dependency.
Magis Lectures

October 30th @ 5:00 pm - 7:30 pm

Magis Lecture | Why Do We Need Saints and Miracles?

Saint Ignatius College Prep 1076 W Roosevelt Rd, Chicago, IL

Carlos Eire

Please join the Lumen Christi Institute, the Bollandist Society, and St. Ignatius College Preparatory School as we welcome the acclaimed Yale scholar, Carlos Eire. Eire's 2023 book, They Flew: A History of the Impossible, explores how historians have grappled with evidence of miracles during the early modern period, a time marked by scientific advancement and rejection of the supernatural. In this lecture, Eire will take a closer look at the human person - what is it about these supernatural accounts that speaks to the human heart so powerfully?
Reading Groups

October 30th @ 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm The Silmarillion

The Silmarillion

Gavin House 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL

Each quarter, the Lumen Christi Institute hosts a number of student-led reading groups. The reading groups are usually held over a shared meal and all participants are provided a copy of the text.

InThe Silmarillion, JRR Tolkien spins out the cosmological and mythic stories that undergird The Lord of the Rings. In this group, we will discuss what Tolkien has to say about death, mortality, and suffering, along with his rich worldbuilding and epic tales.

Our Events

Featured Events & News

Conference

Doing Justice and Loving Mercy: A Michigan Conversation on Criminal Justice

Non-Credit Courses

The Works and Legacy of St. Augustine

Reading Groups

MacIntyre’s Dependent Rational Animals

Reading Groups

The Silmarillion

Reading Groups

Greek New Testament

Reading Groups

The Vice of Curiosity

Non-Credit Courses

The Works and Legacy of St. Augustine

Lectures & Symposia

A History of the Impossible: Carlos Eire on They Flew

Fundamental Questions Seminar

Religion, Politics, and Revolution in The Ancient City

Reading Groups

MacIntyre’s Dependent Rational Animals

Magis Lectures

Magis Lecture | Why Do We Need Saints and Miracles?

Reading Groups

The Silmarillion

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