Latin Vulgate Reading Group
2025-04-11 10:30 - 11:30, 2025-04-18 10:30 - 11:30, 2025-04-25 10:30 - 11:30, 2025-05-02 10:30 - 11:30, 2025-05-09 10:30 - 11:30, 2025-05-16 10:30 - 11:30, 2025-05-23 10:30 - 11:30 (America/Chicago) | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
REGISTER HERE
Open to current students and faculty at the University of Chicago. Participants can come to whichever sessions they choose. Others interested in participating should contact Emily Barnum at ebarnum@uchicago.edu. Coffee, tea, and pastries will be provided.
St. Jerome’s Latin translation of the Bible was used exclusively by the Western Church for centuries; its significance for the Roman Catholic tradition cannot be overstated. In this group, we will work through sections of the Vulgate in order to appreciate its beauty and practice our Latin. For the first session, no preparation is necessary; we will decide together which texts we will read. Please come with a desire to grow in Latin Bible knowledge with St. Jerome and friends!
SCHEDULE:
This group will meet every Friday (beginning January 24th) from 10:45am – 11:45am over coffee, tea, and pastries.

God-Talk: The Heart of Judaism Reading Course
2025-04-14 18:00 - 19:30, 2025-04-21 18:00 - 19:30, 2025-04-28 18:00 - 19:30 (America/Chicago) | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
REGISTER HERE
Open to current students at the University of Chicago. Participants can come to whichever sessions they choose. Dinner will be provided.
David Novak, one of the most distinguished Jewish theologians in the world, offers a new interpretation of how the Jewish people and the Jewish tradition talk about God. What does the Torah say about God? How does the God of the Torah talk about Himself? And how does the God of the Torah talk about human beings? The book traces the history and theology of God-talk in Judaism, and how it remains relevant, now more than ever, and speaks directly to contemporary issues such as human rights.
In this reading course over dinner, Fr. Andrew Summerson (University of Toronto) will lead a group through Novak’s book at a leisurely pace. Syllabus forthcoming
SCHEDULE:
This group will meet weekly on Mondays (beginning April 7th) from 6:00pm – 7:30pm over dinner.
A copy of God-Talk: The Heart of Judaism will be provided to all participants. The reading may be picked up at Gavin House (1220 E 58th street) during business hours at the start of the fall quarter.

April 7th:

Chapter 1: “Introduction: Speaking on Strange Ground”

April 14th:

Chapter 2: “What is Jewish Theology?: Two Views of Jewish Theology?

April 21st:

Chapter 3: “The Inner Life of God: God’s Thoughts”

April 28th:

Chapter 4 and 5: “Seeing God: Desiring the Vision of God” and “Natural Law and Natural Theology: Two Approaches to Natural Law”

Non-Credit Course | Experience of Grace
2025-04-15 18:00 - 19:30, 2025-04-22 18:00 - 19:30, 2025-04-29 18:00 - 19:30, 2025-05-06 18:00 - 19:30, 2025-05-13 18:00 - 19:30 (America/Chicago) | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
REGISTER HERE
This event is in-person only. Intended for university students, faculty, and staff. Others interested in attending please contact dstrobach@lumenchristi.org. Registrants are free to attend as many sessions as they choose. Sessions do not presuppose previous attendance or prior knowledge of the subject.
Christian faith proclaims that we are saved by divine grace. What is “grace” and how do we experience it? What is special about the Catholic understanding of grace? What major controversies have clarified the understanding of grace? This class will draw on Scripture, short autobiographical accounts, and film to show the transformative power of grace in the lives of men and women such as Paul of Tarsus, Augustine of Hippo, Ignatius of Loyola, Edith Stein, Dorothy Day, and Bernard Nathanson who were enabled by grace to flourish beyond what they could “ask or imagine” [Ephesians 3:20].

Tuesdays, April 1-May 14
6:00pm: Dinner
6:30pm: Presentation

April 1: “Immortal Longings”: The Exigence for Transcendence and the Gift of Grace.
April 8: Paul of Tarsus’s Encounter with the Risen Christ.
April 15: Do We Earn Grace? The Pelagian Controversy
April 22: Reformation Grace Controversies: Martin Luther and Ignatius of Loyola
April 29: The Sacramentality of Grace: Jesus Christ, the Church, and the Seven Sacraments
May 6: Autobiographical Testimonies to the Experience of Grace
May 13: “Don’t Call Me a Saint”: “The Long Loneliness” of Dorothy Day.

The Tragic Sense of Life in Men and Nations
2025-04-16 18:00 - 19:30, 2025-04-30 18:00 - 19:30, 2025-05-14 18:00 - 19:30 (America/Chicago) | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
This event is sponsored by the Lumen Christi Institute’s Nicklin Fellows Program, which supports and encourages University of Chicago undergraduate students to develop their intellectual maturity. Jordan Gabriel, who designed this program, is a 2023-2024 Nicklin Fellow. This program is for undergraduate students only.
REGISTER HERE
“Wherefore my destiny? Why do I possess such a thirst for eternity?” For Spanish existentialist philosopher, Miguel de Unamuno, awareness of these two fundamentally human questions is to possess a “tragic sense of life.” By understanding it, we find the answers to our lives, navigating the conflict between faith and reason, our longing for immortality, and the interplay of faith, hope, and love in the tragicomic nature of life itself.
SCHEDULE:
SESSION 1, April 2nd
Chapter I: “The Man of Flesh and Bone” (Pages 4-23) – This chapter sets the stage for Unamuno’s exploration of the human condition, focusing on the conflict between faith and reason.’
(Optional) Chapter 2: “The Point of Departure” (Pages 24-42) – This chapter delves deeper into Unamuno’s exploration of the human condition and sets a strong foundation for understanding his tragic sense of life.
SESSION II, April 16th
Chapter V: “The Hunger for Immortality” (Pages 43-64) – In this chapter, Unamuno discusses the human desire for immortality and the existential anguish that arises from our awareness of mortality.
(Optional) Chapter VII: “Love, Pain, Compassion, and Personality” (Pages 146-71) – This chapter further explores Unamuno’s existential themes, focusing on the interplay between love, suffering, and the development of personal identity.
SESSION III, April 30th
Chapter IX: “Faith, Hope, and Charity” (Pages 204-235) – This chapter explores Unamuno’s views on religion and the role of faith, hope, and love in the human experience.
SESSION IV, May 7th
Chapter XI: “Don Quixote in the Contemporary European Tragi-Comedy” (Pages 322-360) – Unamuno uses the figure of Don Quixote to illustrate his existentialist ideas and the tragicomic nature of life.
Viewing of While at War (Mientras dure la guerra)

Christianity, Culture, and Sport: From Play to Virtue - A Catholic Vision of Culture in the 21st Century | West Suburban Catholic Culture Series
2025-04-24 18:30 - 20:30 (America/Chicago) | Butterfield Country Club, 2800 Midwest Rd, Oak Brook, IL, 60523, United States
REGISTER HERE
(Business casual attire encouraged. For questions, please email Marial Corona at mcorona@lumenchristi.org).
Schedule: 6:30 p.m. Drinks | 7:00 p.m. Dinner, Lecture, & Q&A | 8:30 p.m. End
April 24: Christianity, Culture, and Sport: From Play to Virtue
Clark Power (University of Notre Dame)
I was his delight day by day,
Playing before him every moment,
playing in his inhabited world,
delighting in Adam’s offspring.
Proverbs 8:30-32 (trans. Brown, 2012: 28-29)
Drawing on Brown’s exegetical exploration of Wisdom’s paideia in the Book of Wisdom, I explore the relationship between Christianity and culture (following Remi Brague) with a focus on sports and more specifically youth sports. I argue that sports is play and as such fosters children’s development of the theological and cardinal virtues. In childhood as well as adulthood, sports should lead us to a transcendent joy that is rooted in freedom, love, and hope for the future of the human community.
SERIES DESCRIPTION
Western culture owes a great deal to Christianity, but Christianity does not require any culture, as a culture, to be built with Christian materials. This does not reflect a weakness or defect in Christianity. It is a consequence of its genius. Christianity can and should inform every human undertaking. In this series, we’ll explore various arenas where human existence is played out and discover how Christianity can transform them. Our point of departure is Remi Brague’s reflection “From What is Left Over,” which takes as its inspiration Pope Benedict’s “The Roots of European Culture.”
SPRING SCHEDULE
May 14th at Ruth Lake Country Club (6200 S Madison St, Hinsdale, IL 60521):
A Catholic Vision of Art: Beauty – The Highway to God
Sarah Crow (University of St. Xavier | St. Gregory’s Hall)

“In everything which gives us the pure authentic feeling of beauty there is really the presence of God…all art of the highest order is religious in essence”
– Simone Weil

Beautiful art reflects the glory of the living, incarnate God, Jesus Christ, whether or not explicitly religious in subject matter. Art is not only an instrument and expression of culture, but also has a prophetic capacity to “prepare the way for the Lord” and transform the hearts of those who encounter it. This lecture will look at great works of art, both sacred and secular, and demonstrate how they can lead us to God.

Confederacy of Dunces Graduate Reading Group
2025-04-24 20:00 - 21:00, 2025-05-01 20:00 - 21:00, 2025-05-08 20:00 - 21:00, 2025-05-15 20:00 - 21:00 (America/Chicago) | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
REGISTER HERE
Open to current graduate students at the University of Chicago. Participants can come to whichever sessions they choose. Drinks and Snacks will be provided.
Take a journey with us through the vibrant streets of New Orleans’ French Quarter as we read A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole’s masterpiece of humor and a character study of one of the giants of literature, Ignatius J. Reilly. In this group, we will explore the book’s cadre of distinctive characters and Toole’s synthesis of New Orleans’ contradictory gumbo of vice, race, and French Catholicism. We hope we’ll be able to balance the belly laughs with the thoughtful insights the book offers into the absurdity of the modern world, the struggle to live an authentic life, and whether a Medieval tome works better as a guide to living a good life or a doorstop.
SCHEDULE:
This group will meet weekly on Thursdays (beginning April 10th) from 8:00pm – 9:00pm over drinks and snacks.
A copy of the book will be provided to all participants. The reading may be picked up at Gavin House (1220 E 58th street) during business hours at the start of the fall quarter.

4/10: Chapter 1: pp. 1-27
4/15: Chapters 2-3: pp. 28-81
4/24: Chapters 4-6: pp. 82-151
5/1: Chapters 7-9: pp. 152-234
5/8: Chapters 10-11: pp. 235-302
5/15: Chapters 12-14: pp. 303-394

On the Nature of Angels: Thomas Aquinas Reading Course
2025-05-01 18:00 - 19:30, 2025-05-15 18:00 - 19:30 (America/Chicago) | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
REGISTER HERE
Open to current students and faculty. Food, beverages, and readings will be provided.
One of Saint Thomas Aquinas’s very last projects was a treatise On Angels. He did not finish it, but the part that he did carry out is exceptionally brilliant, even by his standards. It is a work of theology, but the title under which it came to circulate reflects how philosophical it also is: On Separate Substances. With a more historical approach than that of either Summa on the subject, it addresses such topics the immateriality of angels, their origin, their knowledge, and the distinctions among them, including the distinction between the good ones and the bad ones. Along the way, it offers some of Thomas’s most sophisticated discussions of the metaphysics of creation, hylomorphism, and participation. We will work through it at a leisurely pace.
SCHEDULE:
This group will meet bi-weekly on Thursdays (beginning April 3rd) from 6:00pm – 7:30pm over dinner.
The text can be accessed online HERE in a Latin and English side-by-side. Participants who prefer a bound copy of the English text can request one from dstrobach@lumenchristi.org.

"Listening in on 'The Great Conversation'" | The University of Chicago in the 1940s — 1960s
2025-05-07 | IL
PRIVATE EVENT, BY INVITE ONLY
For questions, please email David Strobach at dstrobach@lumenchristi.org.

What was college life like at the University of Chicago at mid century? Atomic fission was being achieved under Stagg Field; the intensive four-year Core Curriculum was in full swing; and world-historical scholars like Friedrich Hayek, Leo Strauss, and Hannah Arendt were on faculty. The eminent political philosopher (AB ’47) Ralph Lerner and renowned theologian David Novak (AB ’61) will reflect on their undergraduate years at the college, the role the University played in their intellectual journeys, and the place of religious belief in the life of the mind.
They will be joined by John Boyer, longtime Dean of the College, professor of history, and author of The University of Chicago: A History; and Danny Wasserman, Executive Director of the Lumen Christi Institute and College alumnus (’05). Boyer and Wasserman will provide historical and contemporary perspective to the evening’s discussion.

Maimonides on Christianity and Islam
2025-05-08 16:30 - 18:00 (America/Chicago) | Kent Hall, Room 120, 1020 E 58th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
REGISTER HERE
For questions, please email David Strobach at dstrobach@gmail.com.
Cosponsored by the Regenstein Foundation, University of Chicago Medieval Studies Workshop, University of Chicago Divinity School, The Catholic-Muslim Studies Program at Catholic Theological Union, and Seldon Institute.
What did Maimonides say about Christianity and Islam? How would Al-Ghazali or Thomas Aquinas have responded to him?
This symposium will be a thought-experiment in interreligious dialogue.
David Novak (University of Toronto) will begin by explicating Maimonides’ position. Yousef Casewit (University of Chicago) will put on the persona of Al-Ghazali to reply. And Matthew Levering (University of St. Mary of the Lake) will reply as if he were Thomas Aquinas. A conversation moderated by James Robinson (University of Chicago) and an audience Q-and-A will follow.
In biblical times, the religious divide between the Jews and the Gentiles was straightforward: the Gentiles worship a variety of “other gods” (polytheism); the Jews alone worship the One and Only God, the Creator of the universe (monotheism). But with the rise of Christianity and Islam, there are now two peoples claiming to worship the same God as do the Jews. How did Maimonides accept these claims, yet cogently affirm the superiority of Judaism?

What Can We Say About God? An Interview with David Novak on God-Talk
2025-05-09 11:30 - 13:00 (America/Chicago) | University Club of Chicago, 76 E Monroe St Chicago, IL 60603, Downtown, IL
11:15am Doors Open | 11:45am Welcome, Blessing, Lunch is Served | 12:00pm Interview | 1:00pm End
REGISTER HERE
The dress code and parking information for the University Club is here.
For questions, please email Marial Corona at mcorona@lumenchristi.org.
This event is copresented by the Regenstein Foundation. It is cosponsored by Public Discourse, the Tikvah Fund, and Spertus Institute.

David Novak, one of the most distinguished Jewish theologians in the world, offers a new interpretation of how the Jewish people and the Jewish tradition talk about God. What does the Torah say about God? How does the God of the Torah talk about Himself? And how does the God of the Torah talk about human beings? The book traces the history and theology of God-talk in Judaism, and how it remains relevant, now more than ever, and speaks directly to contemporary issues such as human rights.

Join us over lunch as Melanie Barrett, professor of moral theology at the University of Saint Mary of the Lake, interviews David Novak on his new book on God-talk in Judaism.

A Catholic Vision of Art: Beauty - The Highway to God - A Catholic Vision of Culture in the 21st Century | West Suburban Catholic Culture Series
2025-05-14 18:30 - 20:30 (America/Chicago) | Ruth Lake Country Club, 6200 South Madison Street, Hinsdale, IL
REGISTER HERE
(Business casual attire encouraged. For questions, please email Marial Corona at mcorona@lumenchristi.org).
Schedule: 6:30 p.m. Drinks | 7:00 p.m. Dinner, Lecture, & Q&A | 8:30 p.m. End
May 14: A Catholic Vision of Art: Beauty – The Highway to God
Sarah Crow (Saint Xavier University | St. Gregory’s Hall)

“In everything which gives us the pure authentic feeling of beauty there is really the presence of God…all art of the highest order is religious in essence”
– Simone Weil

Beautiful art reflects the glory of the living, incarnate God, Jesus Christ, whether or not explicitly religious in subject matter. Art is not only an instrument and expression of culture, but also has a prophetic capacity to “prepare the way for the Lord” and transform the hearts of those who encounter it. This lecture will look at great works of art, both sacred and secular, and demonstrate how they can lead us to God.
SERIES DESCRIPTION
Western culture owes a great deal to Christianity, but Christianity does not require any culture, as a culture, to be built with Christian materials. This does not reflect a weakness or defect in Christianity. It is a consequence of its genius. Christianity can and should inform every human undertaking. In this series, we’ll explore various arenas where human existence is played out and discover how Christianity can transform them. Our point of departure is Remi Brague’s reflection “From What is Left Over,” which takes as its inspiration Pope Benedict’s “The Roots of European Culture.”

The Vocation of the Patristic Theologian: Teaching Nicaea
2025-05-24 15:00 - 17:00 (America/Chicago) | Lewis Towers, Loyola University of Chicago Water Tower Campus, 111 E Pearson St, Chicago, 60611, United States
This event is open to graduate students and faculty. For more information and to receive the registration link contact gzokal@lumenchristi.org
This forum invites graduate students and scholars of patristics to reflect on the nature of the craft and its relationship to contemporary theological studies, the academy, and church today. A panel of scholars will speak to this topic in reference to the teaching of Nicaea in commemoration of the 1700th anniversary. What does the teaching of this council, its creed, its attendant historical context and reception, communicate about the essential character of the Patristic theologian?
This reception and forum, following the annual meeting of the North American Patristics Society, is co-organized by the Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage at the Loyola University of Chicago, the Pappas Patristic Institute, Baylor Institute for Faith and Learning, the Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies, and The Lumen Christi Institute.
Featured Speakers
Khaled Anatolios
University of Notre Dame
Lewis Ayres
Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas – Angelicum, Rome
Paul Blowers
Milligan University
Michael C. Magree, S.J.
Boston College
Erin Walsh
University of Chicago

The Thought of René Girard
2025-06-15 - 2025-06-21 | University of Southern California, University Park Campus 3551 Trousdale Pkwy, Los Angeles, CA, 90007
Apply here
Description:

One of the most influential 20th century Catholic thinkers, René Girard transformed our understanding of culture, religion, and human desire. Through an intensive reading of Girard’s works, in conjunction with the fiction of the greatest writers, this five-day seminar will explore imitation, conflict, and scapegoating, connecting them to central themes of Christian theology.
The seminar is co-sponsored by the Nova Forum for Catholic Thought.
Location and Format:
This seminar will be held at University of Southern California in Los Angeles.
Students will meet twice daily during 2.5 hr sessions in seminar style lecture and discussion. Students will be expected to prepare the readings carefully, submit study questions in advance, and participate in each session.
Application Information

This seminar is open to all undergraduate students (including 2025 graduates) interested in understanding the thought of one of the great modern Christian apologists.
Applicants will be required to submit an online application form including:

A list of completed coursework.
At least one and as many as two letter(s) of recommendation from a professor at the school in which the student is currently enrolled.
A statement of interest no longer than 750 words, which includes an explanation of how this seminar might bear on the student’s current intellectual interests.

All application materials can be submitted through the online application interface. Incomplete applications will not be considered. Fifteen applicants will be admitted to this 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.

Application Deadline is February 2, 2025

Cynthia L. Haven is an American literary scholar, author, critic, Slavicist, and journalist.
While at the University of Michigan, she studied with Nobel poet Joseph Brodsky. Her books include Evolution of Desire: A Life of René Girard, which the San Francisco Chronicle named one of the best books of 2018. The biography was also named a 2019 CHOICE Magazine Outstanding Academic Title. Her Czesław Miłosz: A California Life was a finalist for a Northern California Book Award. She is a National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholar.
Her Penguin Modern Classics anthology for the selected writings of René Girard was published in June 2023, and a short German anthology was published in 2022 with the Leipzig publisher Reclam, for its popular “Was bedeutet das alles?” series.
She has been a Milena Jesenská Journalism Fellow with the Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen in Vienna and a visiting scholar at Stanford University’s Division of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages while researching her book on French theorist René Girard. She was a Voegelin fellow at the Hoover Institution while working on her book on Nobel poet Joseph Brodsky and his translator, George L. Kline.

Grant Kaplan is professor of historical and systematic theology at Saint Louis University (USA). He is the author of three monographs, including René Girard, Unlikely Apologist: Mimetic Theory and Fundamental Theology (University of Notre Dame Press, 2016), Answering the Enlightenment: The Catholic Recovery of Historical Revelation (Crossroad/Herder, 2006), and Faith and Reason through Christian History: A Theological Essay (Catholic University of America Press, 2022). He is the author of many scholarly articles, essays, and reviews in such venues as Theological Studies, America Magazine, Modern Theology, Pro Ecclesia, Newman Studies Journal, and First Things.

Trevor Cribben Merrill teaches French and French literature at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). He is the author of The Book of Imitation and Desire (Bloomsbury, 2013) and The Situation of the Catholic Novelist (Wiseblood Books, 2021). He collaborated with Jean-Michel Oughourlian on Psychopolitics: Conversations with Trevor Cribben Merrill (Michigan State University Press, 2012) and co-edited René Girard’s La Conversion de l’art (Grasset, 2023) with Benoît Chantre. He is co-producer of the documentary film Things Hidden: The Life and Legacy of René Girard.

Catholic Social Thought in Business Education
2025-06-16 - 2025-06-19 | University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, Notre Dame, IN
Apply here
We are pleased to announce the fifth annual seminar on “Business and Catholic Social Thought: A Primer.” During the seminar, graduate students and faculty members in business schools 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 in order to gain knowledge, exchange experiences, receive help with their syllabi and consider how best to integrate Catholic social thought into business education.

The seminar is co-sponsored by the Terrence J. Murphy Institute for Catholic Thought, Law, and Business, 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.

Location: The seminar will take place at the University of Notre Dame between Monday June 16 (day of Arrival) and Thursday June 19 (Departure after lunch).

A limited number of travel grants are available. To apply for financial assistance, please complete and submit the attached request for funds to murphyinstit@stthomas.edu by May 5, 2025

Click for the Attachment

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 interface. Incomplete applications will not be considered. Fifteen students will be admitted to this seminar.

Application materials are due March 16, 2025.

This seminar will be led by:

James Otteson, University of Notre Dame

Lloyd Sandelands, University of Michigan

Msgr. Martin Schlag, University of St. Thomas

Andreas Widmer, The Catholic University of America

Dionysius the Areopagite: The Corpus and Its Legacy
2025-06-22 - 2025-06-27 | University of St. Michael’s College, 81 St. Mary's Street Toronto, ON M5S 1J4, Toronto, ON
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Co-presented with the Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies at the University of St. Michael’s College, University of Toronto.
Dionysius the Areopagite is a figure who is as elusive as his prose is powerful. The course will involve a close reading of his entire corpus and situating his writings in the intellectual and historical context of the first millennium. We will further outline the indelible marks he leaves on subsequent Christian theology, liturgy, and the broader philosophical tradition.

LOCATION AND FORMAT

The seminar will be held at Sheptytsky House at the University of St. Michael’s College in the University of Toronto. Admitted students will be required to arrange their own travel to and from the seminar
Participants will receive a stipend of up to $350 to offset travel expenses.
Lodging will be provided to participants.

Meals will also be provided, although students will be responsible for meals when on their own outside the seminar

Participants will arrive on Sunday, June 22 and depart on Friday, June 27.
Participants will be provided with the relevant books.
There will be two sessions each day in the morning and in the afternoon. Each session will include lectures and seminar-style discussions. Students will be expected to prepare the readings carefully and participate in the discussions of the material.

APPLICATION INFORMATION

This seminar is open to graduate students. Working knowledge of relevant ancient languages will be helpful, but not essential. Preference will be given to Ph.D. students in theology, philosophy, classics, and other relevant fields of study, though advanced M.A. students will be considered.
Applicants will be required to submit an online application form including:

A list of completed coursework.
At least one and as many as two letter(s) of recommendation from a professor at the school in which the student is currently enrolled.
A statement of interest no longer than 750 words, which includes an explanation of how this seminar might bear on the student’s current intellectual interests.

All application materials can be submitted through the online application interface. Incomplete applications will not be considered.
Fifteen applicants will be admitted to this seminar.
Application Deadline is February 2, 2025

This seminar will be led by:

Lewis Ayres, Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas/Durham University

Paul Blowers, Milligan University

Fr. Andrew Summerson, Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies

Self Knowledge as "First Philosophy:" Introducing Bernard Lonergan
2025-06-22 - 2025-06-28 | Boston College, 140 Commonwealth Avenue, Chestnut Hill, MA, 02467, United States
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The seminar is co-presented by the Lonergan Institute.
This graduate seminar is designed as an advanced introduction to the thought of Bernard Lonergan, SJ. The seminar will examine Lonergan’s approach to self-knowledge and “self-appropriation,” epistemology, and method in metaphysics and theology. The main text for the course will be Lonergan’s seminal Insight: A Study of Human Understanding. Upon first publication in 1957, Insight was greeted by reviewers as “probably… one of the great philosophical treatises of the century,” “a profound book… evincing an extraordinary sense for the persistent significance of ancient and medieval thought in the light of modern science,” “a Catholic Phenomenology of Mind with a personalist orientation.”
Our principal objectives will be to understand the fundamental ideas animating Lonergan’s project, to facilitate the personal “philosophic experience” Insight was intended to provoke, and to introduce a critique of methods to help participants begin to make sense of the deep sources of disagreement in the humanities, particularly philosophy and theology. Although it would be impossible to communicate the whole of Lonergan’s thought in a week, the seminar will attempt to give a sense of the whole “in” Lonergan’s thought, that is, of the through-line linking the project of Insight to his theological work and to the framework for methodical collaboration he proposed in Method in Theology, his sequel to Insight.
Application Information:
This seminar will be of interest to students in philosophy, theology, and other disciplines that address foundational questions in the humanities and human sciences, including law, economics, politics, and history. Although primarily intended for doctoral students, advanced master’s degree candidates will be considered. Previous familiarity with Lonergan is not required.
Please submit the following:

A completed online application form.
An updated CV.
At least one and no more than two letter(s) of recommendation.
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.
Application deadline is February 2, 2025

The seminar will take place at Boston College between June 22 and June 28, 2025
Admitted students will be provided housing and most meals during the seminar. They can submit for up to $350 travel reimbursement after the conclusion of the seminar.
For full consideration, applications should be submitted by February 2.

Jeremy D. Wilkins is Associate Professor of Systematic Theology at Boston College, and Director of the Lonergan Institute. He is the author of Before Truth: Lonergan, Aquinas, and the Problem of Wisdom (The Catholic University of America, 2018). In addition to the philosophy and theology of Bernard Lonergan, his research focuses on Thomas Aquinas, Trinitarian theology, Christology, and grace.
Roberto J. De La Noval is Assistant Professor of Theology at Mount St. Mary’s University (Emmitsburg, MD). A systematic and historical theologian, his research concerns Russian religious thought, eschatology, and the thought of Bernard Lonergan.

Truth and Authority in Augustines City of God
2025-07-27 - 2025-08-02 | University of California, Berkeley, S Hall Rd. Berkeley, CA 94720, Berkeley, CA
Apply here
This seminar is an intensive week-long course in how to read, analyze, and discern the many themes in Augustine’s most ambitious and sprawling work. The City of God tells the history of two societies, and their respective origins, progress, and appointed ends. The story is engaged first from the evidence of profane history (I-XI) and then from the evidence of revelation (XII-XXII). In this seminar, participants will discuss how Augustine reckons with the crisis of the ancient and the human city, and whether it is possible to reconcile truth and authority across the competing domains of polity, religion, and philosophical wisdom. These themes will be approached from an interdisciplinary perspective, addressing questions pertinent to students in political science, philosophy, law, theology, religious studies, and history.
The Seminar will be led by Prof. Russel Hittinger and Fr. Michael Sherwin OP.
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 JD, PhD students, postdoctoral fellows, and junior faculty in the humanities and relevant fields (such as philosophy, theology, English, classics, law and history).
Applicants will be required to complete and submit an online application form including:

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 interface. Incomplete applications will not be considered. Fifteen students will be admitted to this seminar.
The applications is due on February 2, 2025.

Any further questions can be directed to seminars@lumenchristi.org.

Economics and Catholic Social Thought - A Primer
2025-07-28 - 2025-08-01 | Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, Av. Vicuña Mackenna 4860, Macul, Santiago de Chile, Chile
Apply here
Now in its eight 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 the Institute for the Scholarship in the Liberal Arts, College of Arts and Letters, University of Notre Dame.
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 Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, between July 28 and August 1. Partial travel reimbursement funds 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.
The application deadline is March 16, 2025.

Please direct any further questions to contact@credo-economists.org or seminars@lumenchristi.org

Newman Forum Summer Institute | Encountering Transcendence: Truth, Beauty, and Goodness in the Catholic Intellectual Tradition
2025-08-06 - 2025-08-10 | IL
APPLY HERE
Registration for the Newman Forum Summer Institute is currently full. All new applications will be placed on a waitlist.
Registration Deadline: June 15th, 2025 | $450
Attendance Fee: EXTENDED to May 22nd, Early Bird Registration | $250
This project was made possible through the support of In Lumine Tuo: Expanding and Sustaining the Catholic Intellectual Tradition Nationwide (grant #63614) from the John Templeton Foundation and the generous support of our donors.
Cosponsored by the Archdiocese of Chicago Vocations Office and The University of Saint Mary of the Lake at Mundelein Seminary.

“Wherefore if the goodness, beauty, and sweetness of creatures are so alluring to the minds of men, the fountainhead of the goodness of God Himself, in comparison with the rivulets of goodness which we find in creatures, will draw the entranced minds of men wholly to itself.”
-Thomas Aquinas, Summa Contra Gentiles, II.2.3.
“A test of what is real is that it is hard and rough. Joys are found in it, not pleasure. What is pleasant belongs to dreams.”

–Simone Weil, Gravity and Grace
What is Real? Where might we look to find it? And if we do find it, what will it be like to experience it?
In this 5-Day Summer Institute, high school students are introduced to college-level philosophy and theology through an investigation of the three “transcendentals” (truth, goodness, and beauty). Notre Dame professors Jay and Jennifer Newsome Martin will lead students through a discussion of Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Bonaventure, Aquinas, Newman, Ratzinger, von Balthasar, and relevant biblical texts. Throughout, we will investigate the role Truth, Goodness, and Beauty play in the life of the Christian.
We balance academic excellence with spiritual formation. Students learn how to pray the Liturgy of the Hours together, attend Daily Mass, and reflect on the vocation to which God is calling us. We also balance work and play. Mornings are for lectures and discussion; afternoons and evenings for excursions including an art tour and workshop at St. Gregory’s in Andersonville
Draft itinerary may be found HERE.
Testimonies
“I now have an entire community backing me up, and I feel empowered to set forth into college strong in my Faith and bring it into my everyday life.”
“Even if I don’t know exactly where I am on my pilgrimage, I know that I’m on my way to Christ.”
“Lumen Christi’s Newman Forum has created and developed a program that we wish every Catholic high school student could attend, not only to help begin them on their own intellectual and spiritual journeys, but also to have a staggering amount of fun, too. The thoughtful balance of intellectual, spiritual, and social activities in the gorgeous natural setting of the Mundelein Seminary campus made this event the highlight of our son’s year…”
-Jenny and Jay Martin, Professors of Theology at Notre Dame (and high school parents!)

Vocation of the Catholic Scholar
2025-08-10 - 2025-08-15 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
The Vocation of the Catholic Scholar seminar was catalyzed by LCI’s Postdoctoral Fellows Program in Catholic Studies, which launched this fall. For the inaugural cohort of fellows, the institute was only able to accept two out of a pool of nearly seventy, highly-qualified candidates. This week-long seminar was born out of the interest of so many talented young Catholic scholars, seeking intellectual community and greater connection with the Church’s rich tradition. The seminar made it possible to bring an additional eleven of these young scholars for a week of formation, friendship, and discussion about the meaning of the role in the Church to which God has called them.
Each morning, Fr. Stephen Fields, SJ (Georgetown University) led a conversation on the seminar’s primary text: St. John Henry Newman’s The Idea of a University. Each afternoon, senior scholars shared their own reflections on research and teaching in the university in the light of their faith. They encouraged seminar participants to consider how the Catholic tradition enriches the scholarly vocation.

"In the One, we are One": Christian Unity and the City of God - Ever Ancient, Ever New: The Sources of Pope Leo XIV | West Suburban Catholic Culture Series
2025-09-10 18:30 - 20:30 (America/Chicago) | Ruth Lake Country Club, 6200 South Madison Street, Hinsdale, IL
The West Suburban Catholic Culture Series

Ever Ancient, Ever New:
The Sources of Pope Leo XIV
REGISTER HERE

September 10th:
“In the One, we are One”: Christian Unity and the City of God
Schedule: 6:30 p.m. Drinks | 7:00 p.m. Dinner, Lecture, & Q&A | 8:30 p.m. End
LECTURE DESCRIPTION
In the City of God, Augustine eloquently speaks about “two cities” that are divided by their two loves. In God’s city, there are angels and humans united in their love of God. In the earthly city, there are demons and humans united in their devotion to their own wills. For Augustine, the city of God on earth is the Church, but in this life it is a church which intermingles citizens of the two cities. It is a church on pilgrimage which longs to be fully united and secure with the heavenly city of God. But even now, in the Eucharist and in the miraculous intercession of the saints, the Church can achieve a foretaste of the unity it will experience in heaven.

(Business casual attire encouraged. For questions, please email Margaux (Killackey) Taffet at mkillackey@lumenchristi.org).

SERIES DESCRIPTION
Since the election of Pope Leo XIV on May 8, 2025, Catholics and non-Catholics alike have wondered what kind of a Pope he would be. Perhaps the best perspective on that question may be found in two of his most consequential decisions, both of which were highlighted in his first remarks from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.
First, at the age of 22, Robert Prevost entered the Augustinian order. As “a son of St. Augustine,” he is guided by the spirituality of that great 5th century Western Doctor of the Church whose thought has shaped Catholic doctrine and philosophy since that time. Augustine lived in a time of intense political upheaval as the mighty Western Roman Empire was falling. Old things of seemingly invincible splendor were collapsing. And the new thing of Christianity was transforming the world at an astonishing pace.
Secondly, in choosing the name Leo, our new Pontiff consciously placed himself in the line of several consequential popes of that name. The most recent, Leo XIII, Pope from 1878 through 1903, is celebrated for his seminal writings on contemporary Catholic social doctrine. The best known of these, Rerum Novarum, references the “new things” facing the Church and the world in the wake of decades of technological, political, intellectual and religious revolution.
The new Pope’s first remarks following his election hinted at the trajectory of his papacy by tapping into two deep wells of patristic and papal teaching. In this, the sixth season of the West Suburban Catholic Culture Series, our speakers will explore some of the most significant writings of St. Augustine and Pope Leo XIII in light of the influence they may have on the new Pope’s priorities. Like both of these men, this Pope faces a time of roiling social change. Like them, he faces a world in which old things are passing and new things are afoot. These sources may help us understand how Pope Leo seeks to carry the Church forward in a world such as ours.

CALENDAR
September 10: “In the One, we are One”: Christian Unity and the City of God
Jared Ortiz (Van Kley Professor of Religion and Department Chair, Hope College; Founder and Executive Director, St. Benedict Institute at Hope College)
October 15: Our Hearts are Restless: Augustine’s Confessions and Modern Anxiety
Scott Moringiello (Associate Professor in Catholic Studies, DePaul University; Scholar-in-Residence at St. Gregory Hall)
November 12: Unless You Believe, You Will Not Understand: Augustine’s Theory of Education
Erika Kidd (Associate Professor, Catholic Studies, University of St. Thomas)
March 18, 2026: On New Things: Rerum Novarum and the Foundations of Catholic Social Thought
Speaker To Be Announced
April 15, 2026: The Kingdom of Heaven is like a Mustard Seed: Development in Catholic Social Thought
Speaker To Be Announced
May 13, 2026: The Gospel’s Response to the “Fatigue of Living”
Speaker To Be Announced

A Spiritual Manual for the Technological Age: A Discussion of Paul Kingsnorth's Against the Machine
2025-09-25 17:00 - 19:30 (America/Chicago) | University Club of Chicago, 76 E Monroe St Chicago, IL 60603, Downtown, IL
This event is full. You can register for the livestream below. To inquire about the waiting list for the in-person event, please email Margaux (Killackey) Taffet: mtaffet@lumenchristi.org.

“A Spiritual Manual for the Technological Age” is the Lumen Christi Institute’s 2025 Kolber Lecture.

REGISTER HERE (Online Only)
5:00 Cocktail and Hors d’Oeuvres | 6:00 Dialogue and Q&A | 7:30 End
“Our culture is not in danger of dying; it is already dead, and we are in denial. This, now, is the reality we have to wrestle with—and transcend.”
We all experience how the rapid advance of technology, especially AI, has affected the way we live, think, and experience the world. But has it also changed who we are? In his new book, Against the Machine: on the Unmaking of Humanity, Paul Kingsnorth explores the consequences of hyper-technologized society. With the deftness of an essayist who is also a poet, Kingsnorth takes us through the historical and theological roots of post-Industrial Revolution advancement. He ultimately suggests that the dangers we face have a spiritual cause, and spiritual consequences. “If you knock out the pillars of a sacred order,” he writes, “the universe itself will change shape.” This technological reshaping will lead man to become the machine—unless we can learn to transcend it.
Paul Kingsnorth is a poet, novelist, and essayist. He wrote his first book after traveling around the world to study the effects of globalization on culture; since then, he has written five other works of nonfiction, three novels, two collections of poetry, and has contributed essays to numerous journals, including First Things, The Guardian, London Review of Books, and The Ecologist. He also writes a popular Substack, “The Abbey of Misrule,” with a following of over 70,000 subscribers. Kingsnorth resides in Ireland with his family.
We at the Lumen Christi Institute are excited to host Paul Kingsnorth at the University Club as he takes his book tour for Against the Machine. The evening will begin at 5:00pm with cocktails and appetizers. At 6:00pm, Kingsnorth will bring us into the major themes of his book in dialogue with another great contemporary poet and cultural critic, James Matthew Wilson, followed by an audience Q&A, and a book signing. You may pre-order a signed copy of the book when you register.
Registration for the livestream will go live on September 1st.

The Part The Muses Give Us
2025-09-26 12:00 - 17:30 (America/Chicago) | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
REGISTER BELOW
(Note: The schedule below has been pushed back)
Lunch 12:00 | Master Class 1:00-4:30 | Wine & Cheese 4:30-5:30
This master class is intended for graduate and advanced undergraduate students. Others interested in attending should contact William Hurley at whurley@lumenchristi.org for more details.
The nature, form, and purpose of poetry was called radically into question in the last century, and yet even now this art form remains a paradigm for what it means to make for the sake of beauty.
In this master class, we will consider an account of poetry grounded in the four essential M’s (making, memory, metaphor, and meter) to see what it discloses about the function of the art in general. We shall then study and savor a handful of poems that bring particular clarity to each of these essential qualities. Preparation includes reading the final chapter of The Fortunes of Poetry in an Age of Unmaking; a small anthology of poems will be distributed for consideration during the class itself.
Participants will receive a copy of The Fortunes of Poetry in an Age of Unmaking.

Welcome Back Ice Cream Social With Pizza
2025-10-01 18:00 - 20:00 (America/Chicago) | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
REGISTRATION BELOW
6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Open to all students at the University of Chicago. This event is co-sponsored by Calvert House.
Welcome back! As school starts up again, the Lumen Christi Institute and Calvert House would like to invite all students to a welcome back social. Meet other Catholics and friends of LCI to kick off the year! Pizza and an ice cream bar will be available. All students are welcome. Grad students are invited to bring spouses and children.
For those bringing a spouse and/or children, please DO NOT include them in “Persons registering.” Please mark them in the field called “How many children/spouse will attend with you? (If applicable).”

The Works and Legacy of St. Augustine
2025-10-07 18:00 - 19:30, 2025-10-14 18:00 - 19:30, 2025-10-21 18:00 - 19:30, 2025-10-28 18:00 - 19:30, 2025-11-04 18:00 - 19:30, 2025-11-11 18:00 - 19:30, 2025-11-18 18:00 - 19:30 (America/Chicago) | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
REGISTER BELOW
6:00 Dinner | 6:30 Lecture (last 20 Q & A) | 7:30 End
This event is designated for current University of Chicago graduate and undergraduate students. University of Chicago faculty and staff are also welcome to attend. Others interested in auditing should contact William Hurley at whurley@lumenchristi.org.
In his first public address, Pope Leo XIV declared himself “a son of St. Augustine, who once said, ‘With you I am a Christian, and for you I am a bishop.’” This moment served as an ode to the Augustinian order, of which he is a member, and marked St. Augustine as a central influence to his papacy.
In order to understand Pope Leo XIV, we must return to St. Augustine.
St. Augustine of Hippo (A.D. 354–430) was a North African bishop and theologian whose writings, like The Confessions and The City of God, shaped Christian thought. After a life of searching and struggling with what is true, he embraced the Christian faith. His philosophy ultimately centers on the idea of the restless soul finding rest in God.
Join us as we survey one of the most prominent theologians in the history of Christianity and explore his enduring legacy on the Church today.

Schedule:
Oct 7 – Week 1: City of God pt 1
Willemien Otten (Dorothy Grant Maclear Professor of Theology and the History of Christianity; also in the College; Associate Faculty in the Department of History, Social Sciences Division, The University of Chicago)
The City of God is a major historical-theological work that gives both a macrohistory of the world but also a microhistory of Adam and Eve folded within it. The first two sessions of the class will deal respectively with the dynamics of the macro- and the microhistorical view.
To focus on City of God, books 1, 5 and 11-13. See also the article by James Wetzel, “Augustine on the Origin of Evil: Myth and Metaphysics.”
Oct 14 – Week 2: City of God pt 2
Willemien Otten
The City of God is a major historical-theological work that gives both a macrohistory of the world but also a microhistory of Adam and Eve folded within it. The first two sessions of the class will deal respectively with the dynamics of the macro- and the microhistorical view.
To focus on City of God, books 14-15 and 19. See also the article by Willemien Otten, “Between Exegesis and Naturalization: Gender and Creation in Augustine.”
Oct 21 – Week 3: Confessions
Ryan Coyne (Associate Professor of the Philosophy of Religions and Theology; also in the College, The University of Chicago)
Oct 28 – Week 4: On The Trinity
Bernard McGinn (Naomi Shenstone Donnelley Professor Emeritus of Historical Theology and of the History of Christianity in the Divinity School and the Committees on Medieval Studies and on General Studies, The University of Chicago)
Augustine’s “De Trinitate” is one of his longer and most difficult writings. The book makes three significant contributions to Christian theology of the Trinity: (1) sorting out the biblical basis for the Trinity; (2) establishing a “grammar” of correct speaking about the doctrine, and (3) exploring the inner appropriation of the Trinity into the life of the believer.
Nov 4 – Week 5: On Christian Teaching
Scott Moringiello (Chair of the Department of Catholic Studies, Associate Professor, DePaul University)
Augustine’s On Christian Teaching (De Doctrina Christiana) is in some ways an overlooked classic. But this book gets to the heart of Augustine’s theological vision. In explaining the proper way to interpret the Scriptures and to preach Augustine offers a vision of how to do theology. If you read the Scriptures, and love does not increase in you, you’re misreading them.
Nov 11 – Week 6: Augustine and the Sociology of the Self
Cassandra Sever (Postdoctoral Fellow, The Lumen Christi Institute)
What if the key to understanding today’s cultural crises is hidden in an ancient vision of the self? This lecture explores Augustine’s idea of the self as ordered to the sacred and meaning-seeking—and shows how this vision can illuminate the sociology of who we are, what we long for, and the fractures of the contemporary world.
Nov 18 – Week 7: History of the Augustinian Order
Fr. Peter Funk, O.S.B. (Prior of the Monastery of the Holy Cross)

The Vice of Curiosity
2025-10-13 18:00 - 19:30, 2025-10-20 18:00 - 19:30, 2025-10-27 18:00 - 19:30, 2025-11-03 18:00 - 19:30, 2025-11-10 18:00 - 19:30 (America/Chicago) | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
REGISTER BELOW
6:00 – 7:30 p.m. | Dinner Provided
This event is designated for University of Chicago graduate students. Other students interested in attending should contact William Hurley at whurley@lumenchristi.org. Students will receive a copy of the texts.
This project is made possible through the support of In Lumine Tuo: Expanding and Sustaining the Catholic Intellectual Tradition Nationwide (grant #63614) from the John Templeton Foundation and the generous support of our donors.
In our Information Age, we are constantly bombarded by a deluge of new knowledge, whether it be academic works, social media alerts, or 24/7 news blasts. In the academy in particular, we are taught from an early age that the ideal student is the one with insatiable curiosity – a never-ending appetite for knowledge in whatever guise it may come. And yet if we are honest, this ceaseless quest for total knowledge often leaves us more distracted and anxious than ever before. St. Augustine would have a surprising diagnosis for our age – we suffer from the vice of curiositas, a kind of malformed appetite for knowledge that prizes novelty and control over the intrinsically true, good, and beautiful.
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. In this five week reading group, we will dive into the thought of both St. Augustine and Griffiths as we seek to understand what a properly catechized intellectual appetite looks like and how we can rightly desire knowledge as students.
Schedule:

Oct 13 – Week 1: Introduction (Optional Reading, Intellectual Appetite: 9-18 of Introduction)
Oct 20 – Week 2: The Vice of Curiosity, p. 1-21 (Optional: I.A. p. 19-22 & 75-91)
Oct 27 – Week 3: V.C., p. 22-41 (Optional: I.A. p. 139-162)
Nov 3 – Week 4: V.C., p. 41-59 (Optional: I.A. p. 163-186)
Nov 10 – Week 5: V.C., p. 60-79 (Optional: I.A. p. 125-138)

Religion, Politics, and Revolution in The Ancient City
2025-10-15 18:00 - 19:30, 2025-10-29 18:00 - 19:30, 2025-11-12 18:00 - 19:30 (America/Chicago) | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
REGISTER BELOW
6:00 p.m. Dinner | 6:15 p.m. Discussion | 7:30 p.m. End
This event is designated for current University of Chicago undergraduate students. All registrants will be provided with a free copy of the text.
This seminar and the Nicklin Fellows are made possible by the First Analysis Institute. This seminar is co-sponsored by the Seldon Institute and is made possible through the support of In Lumine Tuo: Expanding and Sustaining the Catholic Intellectual Tradition Nationwide (grant #63614) from the John Templeton Foundation and the generous support of our donors.
Description:
Nothing could be stranger than life in the cities of ancient Greece and Rome:

Property is private, but its sale is forbidden
Celibacy is illegal
Marriage ceremonies combine ritualized force and denunciation of ancestors
Politics is all-consuming

The more one looks at the ancient world, the odder it appears–until one realizes that ancient religion was the key to the social state.
The Ancient City is the great masterpiece of the 19th century French historian, Numa Denis Fustel de Coulanges. By turning an incisive eye towards the primary sources of Ancient Greece and Rome, supplemented by comparisons to ancient Hindu texts, Coulanges reconstructed the basis of ancient Greek and Roman society. At the root of this society was ancient religion and the domestic cult. Only by understanding ancient religion could one begin to understand the nature of ancient law, property relations, and political organization.
Coulanges traced the origin and development of the ancient city, its transformation among various social and political revolutions, and its demise. Coulanges’ new approach to old things paved the way for 20th century developments in anthropology and the sociology of religion.
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.
Schedule:
Each session will have about 15 pages of assigned reading. An additional 30 pages of recommended reading are suggested as well.

Oct 15 – Week 1: The Family and the Domestic Cult
Oct 29 – Week 2: The City
Nov 12 – Week 3: Revolutions

Please click here for the syllabus with more detailed reading assignments. PDFs of readings for the first session can be found here.

Series Description:
Fundamental Questions Seminar
This event is part of Lumen Christi’s Fundamental Questions program, a quarterly seminar designed for undergraduate students at the University of Chicago. By fostering intellectually rigorous conversation around culturally resonant texts, we aim to allow students to experience the force of the deep existential concerns which animate our lives: “Where do my values come from? What is the good life? How can I become happy?” Our aim is not to answer such fundamental questions, but rather to equip students with the intellectual skills needed to recognize and articulate them for themselves. This group welcomes students from all religious and philosophical backgrounds because existential questions of being are of concern to all.
In addition, undergraduate students who participate in this seminar are eligible to become “Nicklin Fellows.” These fellows will have exclusive access to research and development grant funds to pursue their intellectual interests. Grants can be used to do things like the following:

Organize a reading group
Bring a speaker to campus
Organize a movie night
Develop and plan future fundamental questions seminars
Write a paper for a journal
And more!

Our Hearts Are Restless: Augustine’s Confessions and Modern Anxiety - Ever Ancient, Ever New: The Sources of Pope Leo XIV | West Suburban Catholic Culture Series
2025-10-15 18:30 - 20:30 (America/Chicago) | Ruth Lake Country Club, 6200 South Madison Street, Hinsdale, IL
The West Suburban Catholic Culture Series

Ever Ancient, Ever New:
The Sources of Pope Leo XIV
REGISTER HERE

October 15th:
Our Hearts Are Restless: Augustine’s Confessions and Modern Anxiety
Co-sponsored by St. Gregory’s Hall
Schedule: 6:30 p.m. Drinks | 7:00 p.m. Dinner, Lecture, & Q&A | 8:30 p.m. End
LECTURE DESCRIPTION
The twentieth century philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein said that Augustine’s Confessions was possibly the most serious book ever written. There’s good reason to think he was right. In the book – equal parts memoir, prayer, philosophical treatise, and theological masterpiece – Augustine explores the nature of goodness, the puzzle of sin, and the necessity of friendship. He savors the love of God that is offered in Christ and his Church. He even realizes (as we all do eventually) that his mother was right all along.
In this lecture, Prof. Moringiello will introduce the Confessions, one of the greatest books in the Western canon, and one especially dear to Pope Leo’s heart. He will talk about his experience teaching it to undergraduates at Villanova University and DePaul University. And he will focus on how one of the most famous lines in the book — “our hearts are restless until the find rest in You, Lord” (1.1.5) – speaks to his students and to all of us who live in a world dominated by restlessness and who continually search for the rest that God’s love provides.
Business casual attire encouraged. For questions, or if you would like to request a comped ticket as a priest, religious, or high school teacher, please email Margaux (Killackey) Taffet at mtaffet@lumenchristi.org.

MacIntyre’s Dependent Rational Animals
2025-10-16 17:00 - 18:30, 2025-10-23 17:00 - 18:30, 2025-10-30 17:00 - 18:30, 2025-11-06 17:00 - 18:30, 2025-11-13 17:00 - 18:30, 2025-11-20 17:00 - 18:30 (America/Chicago) | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
REGISTER BELOW
5:00-6:30 p.m. | Dinner Provided
This event is designated for current University of Chicago graduate and undergraduate students. University of Chicago faculty and staff are also welcome to attend. Others interested in auditing should contact William Hurley at whurley@lumenchristi.org.
“What is ‘in your character’ (NOT ‘in your wallet’)?” Who is your guide to a happy, fulfilled life–Nietzsche or Aristotle? Given the ethical confusion, indeed meltdown, afflicting our society, who offers the most reliable “moral compass” to help us find our way?
This reading course will read and discuss Dependent Rational Animals by Alisdair MacIntyre. Drawing on Aristotle, MacIntyre describes our biologically rooted condition and the need to cultivate the virtues that take account of our shared human condition. Macintyre criticizes Aristotle’s ideal of the “great souled” man; he argues for the cultivation of virtues that acknowledge our inescapable dependence and inter-dependency.
A midlife convert from atheistic Marxism to Catholicism, MacIntyre is considered by many to be the most important moral philosopher of the past 50 years. He died in the spring of 2025, making a re-assessment of his life’s work all the more timely.
Copies of Dependent Rational Animals will be provided to all participants. Weekly meetings are held over dinner. Weekly reading assignments are kept at or below 40 pages.

SCHEDULE

Oct. 16 Introduction (readings available in class Google Folder)
Oct. 23 DRA, preface + chapters 1-4, pp. 1-41
Oct. 30 DRA, chapters 5-7, pp. 43-80.
Nov. 6 DRA, chapters 8-9, pp. 81-118.
Nov. 13 DRA, chapters 10-11, pp. 119-146
Nov. 20 DRA, chapter 12-13, pp. 147-166

The Silmarillion
2025-10-16 19:00 - 20:30, 2025-10-23 19:00 - 20:30, 2025-10-30 19:00 - 20:30, 2025-11-06 19:00 - 20:30, 2025-11-13 19:00 - 20:30 (America/Chicago) | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
REGISTER BELOW
7:00 – 8:30 p.m. | Dinner Provided
This event is designated for University of Chicago graduate students. Other students interested in attending should contact William Hurley at whurley@lumenchristi.org. Students will receive a copy of the texts.
Peter Thiel wants to live forever, and he’s cited the works of JRR Tolkien as a justification: “why can’t we be elves?” But a careful reader of Tolkien’s works, especially the cosmological and mythic stories in The Silmarillion, knows that the answer to that question is very complicated. In this group, we will discuss what Tolkien has to say about death, mortality, and suffering, along with his rich worldbuilding and epic tales.
Schedule:

Oct 16 – Week One (52 pages): Ainulindalë (pages 13-23), Quenta Silmarillion chapters 1-8 (pages 35-77)
Oct 23 – Week Two (52 pages): QS chapters 9-16 (78-130)
Oct 30 – Week Three (56 pages): QS chapters 17-19 (131-187)
Nov 6 – Week Four (49 pages): QS chapters 20-22 (188-237)
Nov 13 – Week Five (45 pages): QS chapters 23-24 (238-257), Akallabêth (257-283)

Greek New Testament
2025-10-17 10:00 - 11:00, 2026-01-30 10:00 - 11:00 (America/Chicago) | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
REGISTER BELOW
10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. | Refreshments Provided
*Note: winter sessions have been shifted forward by one week
This event is designated for University of Chicago graduate and undergraduate students. Students will receive a copy of the texts.
“In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets; but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.” This dramatic opening salvo of the Letter to the Hebrews, summarizing salvation history, is one of the most famous and consequential one-liners in the New Testament. But who is this Son? How is he “appointed heir of all things”? What is the relationship between God’s message through him and His message through the prophets? In this reading group, we will examine, through careful study of the Koine Greek text, how the Letter to the Hebrews answers these questions and more, with an eye to the authorship, audience, and genre of this mysterious text. All levels of Greek proficiency are encouraged to join. Advance preparation is recommended but not required.
Schedule:

Oct. 17: Introduction; Hebrews 1.1-4: God’s Son
Oct. 24: Hebrews 1.5-14: The Son’s Superiority to the Angels
Oct. 31: Hebrews 2.1-9,:The Son’s Abasement
Nov. 7: Hebrews 2.10-18: The Son, the Pioneer of Our Salvation
Nov. 14: Hebrews 3: The Son and Moses
Nov. 21: Hebrews 4.1-13: God’s Promised Rest

Jan. 30: Hebrews 4.14–5.14

Feb. 6: Hebrews 6.1–20

Feb. 13: Hebrews 7.1–22

Feb. 20: Hebrews 7.23–8.13

Feb. 27: Hebrews 9.1–14

March. 6: Hebrews 9.15–28

Doing Justice and Loving Mercy: A Michigan Conversation on Criminal Justice
2025-10-21 17:00 - 20:30 (America/Detroit) | Saint Mary Cathedral Parish Hall, 220 N Walnut St, Lansing, MI, 48933, 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.

A History of the Impossible: Carlos Eire on They Flew
2025-10-29 17:30 - 19:00 (America/Chicago) | Swift Hall 3rd Floor Lecture Hall, 1025 E 58th Street, Chicago, IL
REGISTER BELOW
5:30 Lecture | 6:20 Response | 6:45 Audience Q & A | 7:00 End
This event is open to the public, registration is required, please contact William Hurley at whurley@lumenchristi.org for any questions.

This event is co-sponsored by the University of Chicago Divinity School and the Workshop on the Early Modern World.
Levitation. Bilocation. Witchcraft. Demonic Possession.
Europe in the early modern era was simultaneously the site of Kepler, Newton, Copernicus–and of eyewitness accounts of levitating saints and nocturnal witches’ sabbats.
In his history of the impossible, award-winning historian Carlos Eire mines the firsthand accounts and archival evidence of the miraculous and demonic. 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?
In this lecture, Carlos Eire will explore the major themes of They Flew and ask: what makes something impossible? And is there more to reality than meets the eye?
University of Chicago Divinity School professor Kirsten Macfarlane will offer a response and engage Eire in a conversation about They Flew. Audience Q&A will follow.

This project is made possible through the support of In Lumine Tuo: Expanding and Sustaining the Catholic Intellectual Tradition Nationwide (grant #63614) from the John Templeton Foundation and the generous support of our donors.

Magis Lecture | Why Do We Need Saints and Miracles?
2025-10-30 17:00 - 19:30 (America/Chicago) | Saint Ignatius College Prep, 1076 W Roosevelt Rd, Chicago, IL
REGISTER HERE
5:00 Mass | 5:30 Drinks & Hors d’Oeuvres | 6:30 Lecture | 7:30 Close
Cosponsored by the Bollandist Society, St. Ignatius College Prep. Supported by the Fr. Paul V. Mankowski, S.J., Memorial Fund for Jesuit Scholarship at Lumen Christi. This project is made possible through the support of In Lumine Tuo: Expanding and Sustaining the Catholic Intellectual Tradition Nationwide (grant #63614) from the John Templeton Foundation and the generous support of our donors.
Free and open to the public. Registration required. For questions, please contact Margaux (Killackey) Taffet mtaffet@lumenchristi.org.
Lecture Description
Two of the most significant features of Catholic Christianity are its focus on holy men and women and the miracles ascribed to them. What is it that makes saints and miracles so significant? What difference does this characteristic of Catholicism make, not just for its history, but for us, here and now? Asking such questions is absolutely necessary for Catholics, and in this talk we will explore why this is so. Please join the Lumen Christi Institute, the Bollandist Society, and St. Ignatius College Preparatory School for this lecture delivered by Yale scholar, Carlos Eire.
About the Magis Series
The Magis Series on Faith and Reason is a partnership between the Lumen Christi Institute, St. Ignatius College Prep, and Loyola Academy to bring accessible yet sophisticated lectures on the Church’s intellectual tradition to the broad lay public. The event is open to everyone from high school students to retirees. Anyone who desires a lively entrée into the mind of the Church is welcome and encouraged to attend; no affiliation with either high school is needed.

Faculty Colloquium on They Flew by Carlos Eire
2025-10-31 09:00 - 12:00 (America/Chicago) | The Catholic Theological Union, 5416 S Cornell Ave, Chicago, IL, 60615, United States
This event is by invitation only. For more information contact Geoffrey Zokal gzokal@lumenchristi.org
The Lumen Christi Institute will host a faculty colloquium with Carlos Eire on his book They Flew: A History of the Impossible. Remarks will be given by Richard Kieckheffer (Northwestern University) and Barbara Newman (Northwestern University) with responses followed by Carlos Eire. The colloquium will be moderated by Father Andrew Summerson.

Augustine the Teacher – Ever Ancient, Ever New: The Sources of Pope Leo XIV | West Suburban Catholic Culture Series
2025-11-12 18:30 - 20:30 (America/Chicago) | Ruth Lake Country Club, 6200 South Madison Street, Hinsdale, IL
The West Suburban Catholic Culture Series

Ever Ancient, Ever New:
The Sources of Pope Leo XIV
REGISTER HERE

November 12th:
Augustine the Teacher
Schedule: 6:30 p.m. Drinks | 7:00 p.m. Dinner, Lecture, & Q&A | 8:30 p.m. End
LECTURE DESCRIPTION
Doctor of the Church, Saint Augustine of Hippo, has a lot to say about teaching. He writes memorably about the way his early teachers failed him, teaching him to love praise and worldly success. He writes too about the vocation of the teacher, a vocation he lived in many different ways as rhetorician, father, priest, and bishop. In his early work “On the Teacher” he insists teaching is not a matter of passing along information. Instead, he writes, true teaching is an invitation to attend to the voice of Christ. Join Dr. Erika Kidd to learn more about Augustine’s timeless teaching wisdom and its continued relevance today.
Business casual attire encouraged. For questions, or if you would like to request a comped ticket as a priest, religious, or high school teacher, please email Margaux (Killackey) Taffet at mtaffet@lumenchristi.org.

Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life
2025-11-14 18:00 - 21:30 (America/Chicago) | 5554 S. Woodlawn Ave., Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
REGISTER BELOW
6:00 – Dinner | 6:30 Film | 9:30 End
Please reach out to Graham Certain (gtcertain@uchicago.edu) with any questions.
Widely considered Terrence Malick’s masterpiece, The Tree of Life is a meditation on the transcendent order of creation and the place of man in it. The film tells the story of Jack O’Brien and his family as he grows up in 1950s suburban Texas, interwoven with scenes from his adulthood and from the dawn of the universe. It is a glimpse into how nature and grace, suffering and beauty, strife and love all come together in a cosmic whole which surpasses understanding.
The event will consist of dinner beginning at 6pm, some brief introductory remarks beginning at 6:30, the film itself immediately following, and a discussion to conclude. Runtime is 139m.
The movie screening will be held at the Woodlawn House, a Victorian mansion located at 5554 S Woodlawn Ave. It is the site of the Lumen Christi Institute’s residential student community.

Conversion in the Modern Church: The World, the Flesh, and the Devil
2025-11-15 17:00 - 19:30 (America/Chicago) | The Monastery of the Holy Cross, 3111 South Aberdeen St. Chicago, IL 60608, Chicago, IL
REGISTER BELOW
This event is primarily designated for current University of Chicago students. This event is co-sponsored by the Calvert House. Please reach out to William Hurley (whurley@lumenchristi.org) with any questions.
Experience the silence, prayer, and chant with the monks at the Monastery of the Holy Cross. In addition to a taste of the contemplative life, join a conversation hosted by the Prior of the Monastery, Fr. Peter Funk. He will lead a discussion on “Conversion in the Modern World,” with a focus on “The World.”
Lumen Christi will coordinate rides to and from the monastery for those without transportation.
SCHEDULE:

5pm – Arrival
5:15pm – Vespers
6:00pm – Dinner (with reading)
6:20pm – Silent Prayer
6:40pm – Discussion
7:05pm – End Discussion
7:15pm – Compline
7:30pm – End

Winter Social
2026-01-08 17:00 - 19:00 (America/Chicago) | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
REGISTER BELOW
5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. | Dinner Provided
Join us at Gavin House for a night of pizza, hot chocolate and fellowship as you settle back into the quarterly routine! Learn more about the programs that the Lumen Christi Institute will hold during the winter quarter and reconnect with friends after the Christmas break.
Students, faculty, and staff of the University of Chicago are welcome to attend. Spouses and children are welcome (and encouraged) to join, too.

Virtual Masterclass: The Thought of John Henry Newman
2026-01-09 13:00 - 14:30 (America/Chicago) | IL
Recently canonized as the first English saint since the Reformation and declared the 38th Doctor of the Universal Church and Co-patron of Catholic Education (along with St. Thomas Aquinas), John Henry Newman (1801-1890) stands as the most important Catholic thinker between the Council of Trent of the sixteenth century and the second Vatican Council (1962-65).
Newman’s intellectual autobiography (Apologia pro Vita Sua), treatise on higher education (Idea of a University), theory of knowledge (Grammar of Assent), and major work of theology (Development of Doctrine) stand as classics in their genres. In addition, his prolific sermons cover both his Anglican career at Oxford and Catholic career in Birmingham.
We will discuss two sermons from his Anglican years, delivered as “University Sermons” on the relation between faith and reason. In them, Newman offers creative insights that deepen the classic Catholic position put forth by Aquinas.
This masterclass will provide a glimpse of the 2026 intensive summer seminar on Newman’s thought. A full syllabus of the masterclass can be found here.
The Zoom link will be distributed in advance of the seminar.
This program is restricted to graduate students from any university or discipline.
This program is part of the project “In Lumine Tuo: Expanding and Sustaining the Catholic Intellectual Tradition Nationwide” (Grant #63614) supported by the John Templeton Foundation.
Times are central standard time.
For more information contact Geoffrey Zokal at gzokal@lumenchristi.org

The Miraculous and the Supernatural
2026-01-13 18:00 - 19:30, 2026-01-20 18:00 - 19:30, 2026-01-27 18:00 - 19:30, 2026-02-03 18:00 - 19:30 (America/Chicago) | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
REGISTER BELOW
Meets weekly on Tuesdays: Jan. 13, Jan. 20, Jan. 27, Feb. 3, Feb. 10.
6:00 Dinner | 6:30 Lecture (last 20 Q & A) | 7:30 End
This event is designated for current University of Chicago graduate and undergraduate students. University of Chicago faculty and staff are also welcome to attend. Others interested in auditing should contact William Hurley at whurley@lumenchristi.org.
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy”…or acknowledged by materialistic naturalism! [Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” act 1 sc.5]
This 5-session course will study Jesus’s miracles and miracles performed in Jesus’s name, the Eucharistic miracle in which bread and wine are transformed into his Body and Blood, and his miraculous Resurrection whereby he was raised body and soul from the dead. If the Shroud of Turin is the actual burial cloth of Jesus, it is both a relic of his tortured death and a witness to his heavenly transformation! The course will also investigate the mystical experiences of saints such as Francis of Assisi, Ignatius of Loyola, and Theresa of Avila. Supernatural reality also includes the demonic, so exorcisms will be studied.
Schedule:

Jan. 13: The miraculous & the supernatural. Jesus the Miracle Worker and miraculous healings. The dogmatic limits of philosophical materialism.
Jan. 20: The Miracle of the Eucharist and eucharistic miracles.
Jan. 27: “They Flew”: mystical experiences of the saints.
Feb. 3: The reality of evil, the demonic and exorcisms.
Feb. 10: Near death experiences and the Shroud of Turin: experiential evidence for Life after death.

Why Think? Hannah Arendt and the Life of the Mind
2026-01-14 18:00 - 19:30, 2026-01-28 18:00 - 19:30 (America/Chicago) | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
REGISTER BELOW
Meets Bi-Weekly on Wednesdays: Jan. 14, Jan. 28, Feb. 11, Feb. 25
6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. | Dinner Provided
This event is designated for University of Chicago undergraduate students. Students will receive a copy of the texts. Please reach out to William Hurley for any questions (whurley@lumenchristi.org).
This seminar and the Nicklin Fellows are made possible by the First Analysis Institute, the support of In Lumine Tuo: Expanding and Sustaining the Catholic Intellectual Tradition Nationwide (grant #63614) from the John Templeton Foundation, and the generous support of our donors.
Description:
What is “thinking”? This question attracts Hannah Arendt’s attention in her later works. Though Arendt claims that thinking is utterly without purpose and leaves no trace behind, she also proposes that it can provide a protective effect against certain forms of evil-doing in our time.
With that said, what is the practical relevance of thinking, today? Given the destructive, resultless nature of this activity, why bother? In short: Why think? In this seminar led by Prof. Magnus Ferguson, we will investigate what it means to ‘think’ in an Arendtian sense through close readings of key excerpts from Hannah Arendt’s final work, The Life of the Mind, as well as several short essays.
Copies of The Life of the Mind will be provided to all participants. Bi-weekly meetings are held on Wednesday evenings over dinner. Weekly reading assignments are kept at or below 30 pages.
Schedule:

Jan. 14: “Thinking and Moral Considerations”
Jan. 28: Life of the Mind Vol I (p. 69–98)
Feb. 11: Life of the Mind Vol I (p. 141–151, 166–182, 187–193)
Feb. 25: Life of the Mind Vol. I (p. 197–216), and “Karl Jaspers: A Laudatio”

Series Description:
Reading Course
Each quarter, the Lumen Christi Institute hosts a student-centered reading course at Gavin House (1220 E 58th St.). The reading course is usually held over a shared meal and all participants are provided a copy of the text. Any undergraduate interested in a shared reading of a great text is welcome to join. No religious affiliation is necessary.

Image Credit: Samuel Bak, “In Search of a Roof of One’s Own” (2017)

Mythmaking and the Epic Tradition in Tolkien's Silmarillion
2026-01-15 19:30 - 21:00, 2026-01-22 19:30 - 21:00, 2026-01-29 19:30 - 21:00 (America/Chicago) | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
REGISTER BELOW
Meets Weekly on Thursdays: Jan. 15, Jan. 22, Jan. 29, Feb. 5, Feb 12
*Note: Start Date has Been Moved Back a Week from Jan. 8 to Jan. 15
7:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. | Dinner Provided
This event is designated for University of Chicago undergraduate students. Students will receive a copy of the texts. Please reach out to William Hurley for any questions (whurley@lumenchristi.org).
There are few figures as foundational to the epic fantasy genre as J.R.R. Tolkien, and few works as wide-ranging in that genre as The Silmarillion. Written over the course of nearly 60 years and inspired by the folk traditions of northern Europe, Greece, and the personal ethical and historical philosophies of Tolkien himself, The Silmarillion is a story of morality, greed, bliss, and tragedy. We invite you to join us in a discussion of The Silmarillion’s most dramatic tales, from the creation of the world to the forging of the One Ring.
Copies of The Silmarillion will be provided to all participants. Weekly meetings are held over dinner. Weekly reading assignments are kept at or below 30 pages.
Schedule:

Jan. 15: Ainulindalë and Valaquenta (p. 15-32)
Jan. 22: The story of Fëanor and the Silmarils (p. 63-90, 106-107)
Jan. 29: The story of Beren and Lúthien (p. 162-187)
Feb. 5: The story of Túrin Turambar and Nienor Níniel (p. 198-226)
Feb. 12: Akallabêth

Series Description:
Graduate Reading Group
Each quarter, the Lumen Christi Institute hosts a number of student-led reading groups at Gavin House (1220 E 58th St.). The reading groups are usually held over a shared meal and all participants are provided a copy of the text. Any undergraduate interested in a shared reading of a great text is welcome to join. No religious affiliation (or prior knowledge of Tolkien!) is necessary.

Hemingway’s Short Stories
2026-01-19 17:30 - 19:00, 2026-01-26 17:30 - 19:00, 2026-02-02 17:30 - 19:00 (America/Chicago) | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
REGISTER BELOW
Meets Weekly on Mondays: Jan. 26, Feb. 2, 9, 16, 23
5:30 – 7:00 p.m. | Dinner Provided
This event is designated for University of Chicago students. Students will receive a copy of the texts.
In this reading group we will read a selection of Ernest Hemingway’s short stories that will illuminate his ingenious writing style through his lesser-known works. We will be reading from the Finca Vigia Complete Short Stories collection, which features many previously unfinished works. Discussions will revolve around themes of masculinity, femininity, life, and love, all of which are saturated in his works writ large. Some of the texts that will be discussed include the Nick Adams stories, Men Without Women, and the First Forty-Nine. This will be an exciting way to get to know Hemingway’s writings or dive deeper into his work, while engaging with peers and discussing ideas that are just as relevant today as they were when he wrote them.
Schedule:

Jan. 26: Deeper Dive into Hemingway’s Writing. Readings will include stories where the immediate meaning of the story is not explicitly stated and requires some deeper analysis. Readings will include Hills Like White Elephants and The Sea Change. These are both readings where there is a meaning that must be arrived to through subtle hints in the stories themselves (though there are varying degrees of subtlety). Discussion will center on getting at what these stories are conveying.

Hills Like White Elephants (4 Pages)
The Sea Change (4 Pages)
Wine of Wyoming (13 Pages)
A Clean, Well-Lighted Place (4 Pages)

Feb. 2: Nick Adams Stories Pt. I. This week will focus on the first part of the Nick Adams stories, some of Hemingway’s most famous, and enjoyable, short stories. I’ve divided the collection into two weeks for the sake of doing justice to the collection while remaining under 30 pages. These stories express much about a man’s experience of life and is semi-autobiographical. This week will focus on Nick’s youth in Michigan, his adolescence, and his time at war. Discussion will focus on what Hemingway is conveying through his stories of youth and masculinity, particularly regarding how Nick conceives himself and how he views his father.

Indian Camp (6 Pages)
The Doctor and the Doctor’s Wife (6 Pages)
The Battler (10 Pages)
The Killers (8 Pages)

Feb. 9: Nick Adams Stories Pt. II. As we continue to read the stories, we will turn to Nick’s adulthood and marriage. This will bring together ideas of masculinity, maturity, life, and fatherhood.

Big Two-Hearted River Pt I (10 Pages)
Now I Lay Me (7 Pages)
Fathers and Sons (10 Pages)

Feb. 16: Men Without Women Pt. I. Readings from this week will seek to synthesize what we’ve discussed so far. Bringing together the themes Hemingway often discusses with his writing style. Men Without Women is a collection of short stories that discuss how men act without women. Discussion will revolve, again, on ideas of masculinity and the “natural” state of man.

In Another Country (5 Pages)
The Undefeated (25 Pages)

Feb. 23: Men Without Women Pt. II. This week will conclude this collection, and we will finish up our discussion of the themes present in them. I would also like to add The Last Good Country, however, it is 41 pages long. I think I may add it as optional reading and discuss it if time allows. This is a personal favorite of his short stories, but not a necessary addition. There is not enough substance in the text to devote an entire week to the text, though it is a fun read.

A Banal Story (2 Pages)
Today is Friday (3 Pages)
An Alpine Idyll (5 Pages)
A Pursuit Race (4 Pages)
Ten Indians (5 Pages)
My Old Man (12 Pages)

Series Description:
Graduate Reading Group
Each quarter, the Lumen Christi Institute hosts a number of student-led reading groups at Gavin House (1220 E 58th St.). The reading groups are usually held over a shared meal and all participants are provided a copy of the text. Any graduate interested in a shared reading of a great text is welcome to join. No religious affiliation (or prior knowledge of Tolkien!) is necessary.

Léon Bloy: Martyr or Madman?
2026-01-22 17:00 - 18:30, 2026-01-29 17:00 - 18:30, 2026-02-05 17:00 - 18:30 (America/Chicago) | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
REGISTER BELOW
Meets Weekly on Thursdays: Jan. 22, 29, Feb. 5, 12, 19
5:00 – 6:30 p.m. | Dinner Provided
This event is designated for University of Chicago graduate students. Other students interested in attending should contact William Hurley at whurley@lumenchristi.org. Students will receive a copy of the texts.
“My anger is the effervescence of my pity,” declared writer, polemicist, and literary brigand Léon Bloy. Bloy played a leading role in the French Catholic Revival (c. 1885-1915), though he also influenced thinkers from Cèline to Grahame Greene to the controversial Michel Houellebecq. A remarkable wordsmith, Bloy cut his teeth on Gothic Romanticism, Counter-Enlightenment philosophy, and the Vulgate. Styling himself “the Ungrateful Beggar,” he picked fights with popular writers Émile Zola and Victor Hugo, got himself banned from the press, and lived in destitution all his days. Nonetheless, throughout his life, he cultivated a group of intellectual devotés who ended up making a tremendous mark on French literature and philosophy. This winter, Lumen Christi is hosting a reading group on The Pilgrim of the Absolute, (Le Pèlerin de L’Absolu) a remarkable compilation sampling widely from Bloy’s works on mystery, money, and the modern world. Please join us if you are interested in discovering and discussing one of the few writers who “knew how to administer the sacrament of literature…”
Schedule:

Jan. 22: Dolorism

Introduction to the 1947 Edition by Jacques Maritain
“Suffering, Faith, Sanctity”

Jan. 29: Money

“The Wisdom of the Bourgeois”
“The Poor Man”

Feb. 5: Mystery

“The Sense of Mystery”

Feb. 12: Art

“Art and the Pilgrim of the Holy Sepulchre”

Feb. 19: Christianity and Modernity

“The Hurler of Curses”
“Modern Christians”

Series Description:
Graduate Reading Group
Each quarter, the Lumen Christi Institute hosts a number of student-led reading groups at Gavin House (1220 E 58th St.). The reading groups are usually held over a shared meal and all participants are provided a copy of the text. Any graduate interested in a shared reading of a great text is welcome to join. No religious affiliation (or prior knowledge of Tolkien!) is necessary.

Glimpses of Wonder: Faith, Reason, and Technology in the University Today
2026-01-23 09:00 - 10:30 (America/Chicago)
One great challenge in the modern research university is the siloing of information and of knowledge. While specialized knowledge is valuable, pressing questions confronting the contemporary world require that diverse forms of knowing be integrated, both in the heart of the knower and in society. A Catholic Institute is uniquely poised to speak to this challenge since the Catholic intellectual tradition has sought to embrace and integrate five intellectual virtues as presented in Aristotle (NE, VI:3) and St. Thomas Aquinas (ST, 1a-IIae, q. 57): wisdom, science, art, prudence, and mind or understanding. The Franciscan tradition has also emphasized the importance of wonder at the beauty of creation in this synthesis. In this class, we will engage the unity of these virtues under the guidance of wonder and discuss specific applications to new technologies in artificial intelligence and ecological engineering. True human flourishing is not necessarily about slowing down or accelerating the advance of progress as finding a new measure that allows one to see epiphanies of beauty and learn from them about oneself, the world, and the creator of the beauty of the world.
This masterclass will provide an engagement with topics related to the 2026 Summer Seminar “Glimpses of Wonder: Epiphanies of Beauty in the Midst of Technological Change” and will help students explore in advance related themes.
The Zoom link will be distributed in advance of the seminar.
This program is restricted to graduate students from any university or discipline.
The syllabus and readings can be found here.
This program is part of the project “In Lumine Tuo: Expanding and Sustaining the Catholic Intellectual Tradition Nationwide” (Grant #63614) supported by the John Templeton Foundation.
All times are Central Standard Time.
For more information email Geoffrey Zokal at gzokal@lumenchristi.org

Myth, Patterns & the Promise of a Quest - An Evening with Martin Shaw
2026-02-03 17:00 - 19:30 (America/Chicago) | Private Home, 1501 Oriole Dr, Munster, IN, 46321, United States
REGISTER BELOW
5-6:00pm: Welcome reception | 6-6:45pm: Storytelling/presentation | 6:45-7:15pm: Discussion | 7:30pm Close and Book Signing
Cosponsored Dr. Torie’s Dental Shoppe and Manic Meadery/Gnosis Brewery
Open to the public. Registration required (includes a copy of Martin Shaw’s newest book). For questions, please contact Margaux Taffet mtaffet@lumenchristi.org.
Lecture Description

The stories we remember do not begin with a day that was like the one before. They begin most often with an abrupt break from familiar patterns. They disrupt stagnation and suddenly we are in the grip of a new and sometimes startling adventure.
In this talk acclaimed mythographer Martin Shaw will balance both theory and experience, whilst exploring the inner-rhythm of an old story and how they relate to traditional rites of passage. In fact he will argue that Christianity is itself fundamentally initiatory, and designed to bring vocation and quest crashing into the life of believer. Have we subdued its challenging invitation?
Join the Lumen Christi Institute and St. Mary’s Byzantine Catholic Church as they welcome Dr. Martin Shaw for an event celebrating the release of his new book Liturgies of the Wild.

Mythopoetics and Faerie Stories: Theory and Practice of Mythmaking
2026-02-04 17:00 - 19:30 (America/Chicago) | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
REGISTER BELOW
5:00 p.m. Dinner | 5:30 p.m. Lecture with Q&A | 6:15 p.m. Story-Telling on The Patio By The Fire | 7:00 p.m. Audience Q & A | 7:15 p.m. Event End, Book Signing, Smores
This event is designated for current University of Chicago students. All registrants will be provided with a free copy of the text.
There’s an old Irish belief that if you aren’t wrapped in a cloak of story you will be unprepared for what the world will hurl at you. In his newly published Liturgies of the Wild, acclaimed mythographer and storyteller Martin Shaw argues that we live in a myth-impoverished age and that such poverty has left us vulnerable to stories that may not wish us well. Drawing on the “ancient technologies” of myths and initiatory rites, Shaw provides a road to wholeness, maturity and connection.
In this event for UChicago students, Dr. Shaw will explore both the theory and practice of mythmaking. In the first section Shaw will guide us through myth’s relationship to initiation rites and oral storytelling, explaining these “ancient technologies.”
In the second we tilt directly into the telling of an Irish fairy tale, The Birth of Ossian. Drawing on his experience as a professor and widely respected storyteller, Shaw will locate us in the deeper dimensions of how a modern person approaches an ancient story.
The theory of mythopoetics will take place in the Gavin House seminar room. But because any good story requires the proper setting, The Birth of Ossian will be told in the Gavin House back yard, where fire pits will blaze, patio heaters will burn, and hot chocolate will be served to all.
An optional pre-event dinner will be served at 5pm. Copies of Liturgies of the Wild are included for all registrants. This event is open to current UChicago undergraduate and graduate students. Registration is free but will be capped at 40 students.

Mythmaking and the True Myth - A Conversation with Martin Shaw
2026-02-05 17:00 - 19:30 (America/Chicago) | The Graduate in Evanston, 1625 Hinman Ave, Evanston, IL, 60201, United States
THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT. PLEASE CONTACT MARGAUX TAFFET (MTAFFET@LUMENCHRISTI.ORG) IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO BE PUT ON THE WAIT LIST.
5:00pm: Cocktail reception | 6:00pm: Dr. Shaw’s presentation & storytelling | 6:45pm: Audience Q&A and conversation | 7:15pm: Book signing and close
Open to the public. Registration required (includes a copy of Martin Shaw’s newest book). For questions, please contact Margaux Taffet mtaffet@lumenchristi.org.
Lecture Description

There’s an old Irish belief that if you aren’t wrapped in a cloak of story you will be unprepared for what the world will hurl at you. You remain adolescent at just the moment a culture worth its salt requires you to become a real, grown, human being.
We live in a myth-impoverished age and that such poverty has left us vulnerable to stories that may not wish us well. Myths from antiquity are vivid in describing the conditions of life.
Christianity goes a step further in providing the most extraordinary example of how to live that life. Working out of examples from Arthurian and fairy tale motifs, acclaimed mythographer Martin Shaw will show how, if ‘all true is God’s truth’, profound Christian resonances can be found in many mythic traditions.
How do stories assist us in the making of a real human being? In troubled times how could we forge a deeper life? Join the Lumen Christi Institute as it welcomes Dr. Martin Shaw for an event celebrating the release of his new book Liturgies of the Wild.
