"The Second Vatican Council and the Church's Engagement with the Modern World"
2012-10-11 19:00 (America/Chicago) | Rosenwald 405, 1101 East 58th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Cosponsored by the University of Chicago Ethics Club
After decades of ideological upheaval that often placed the Catholic Church in conflict with modernity, Pope John XXIII convened the Second Vatican Council in part to open a dialogue with modern culture. This lecture will reflect on the theological developments that led to Vatican II’s Pastoral Constitution on the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes, the document’s text itself, and the history of its reception, and offer a perspective on the current health of the Church and its prospects for bringing the light of Christ to the world.

"The Book of Psalms" Non-Credit Course
2012-10-15 18:00 - 2012-11-19 19:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Lecture: 7:00PM
Informal Dinner: 6:30PM
October 16: The Prayer Book of Jesus
What are the psalms and how did they become a psalter? The introductory class will address the nature of Jewish prayer and Hebrew poetry, lay out the various genres of psalms, and discuss the compilation of psalms into a book of the Old Testament and a keystone of the Churchâ€™s liturgy. Particular attention will be given Psalms 6, 19, and 27.
October 23: Songs of Wrath
Godâ€™s anger and manâ€™s find full-throated expression in the Psalms, often in ways that shock or bewilder us. In coming to grips with the cursings in the Psalms we come to a deeper understanding of the blessings that are their contraries, and the nature of the injuries that prompt them. Particular attention will be given Psalms 2, 49, 53, 58, 109, and 137.
October 30: Songs of Joy
The Psalmistâ€™s capacity for delight exceeded even his capacity for rage. Discussion of various examples of exultation will show how enraptured contemplation of the created order was to be extended into the Churchâ€™s sacramental theology.Â Particular attention will be given Psalms 16, 23, 66, 92, 96, 119, and 139.
November 6: Songs of Entreaty & Assent
The desires of the Psalmist were always present to him, and entreaty is a constant force in his prayer. Â At the same time the psalms take delight in affirming the hand of God in the history of His people. Â Particular attention will be given Psalms 22, 42, 57, 106, and 110.
November 13: Songs of Pain
Lament, sorrow and remorse are part of every human life, and consequently part of the prayer offered by every believer. Â A discussion of some of the penitential psalms and psalms of lament will examine the moral self-understanding of ancient Israel and way in which it is and is not continued by Christian belief and prayer. Particular attention will be given Psalms 51, 55, 69, 73, 79, and 88.
November 20: Songs of Praise
It is a striking fact about Israel that it was willing, even delighted, to give praise and thanks to God simply for who He is in Himself, and not only in response for those benefits He had conferred upon His people.Â The psalm of praise is the psalm par excellence.Â Particular attention will be given Psalms 8, 65, 104, 68, 84, 117, 148, and 150.

"What Makes Music Sacred?"
2012-10-18 19:00 | Social Sciences, Room 122, 1126 E 59th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Cosponsored by the Department of Music and the Medieval Studies Workshop
While it is easy to recognize traditional forms of sacred music: Gregorian chant, classical polyphony, organ music, choral music, and vernacular hymns it is difficult to pinpoint what it is that makes music sacred? This lecture will reflect upon the relation of the sacred and the beautiful in the liturgy. It will consider what is meant by sacred, as distinguished from holy and place those things considered sacred in the context of their reception and intrinsic suitability.

"Gregorian Chant as Splendor Formae of the Liturgy"
2012-10-19 16:00 | Classics 110, 1010 E 59th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Cosponsored by the Department of Music and the Medieval Studies Workshop
A principal Medieval definition of beauty is splendor formae, the manifesting of the very nature or form of a thing. While the liturgy can be described as a great divine action, it is also comprised of a variety of discrete chants. Being entirely sung, its Gregorian chants differentiate the character and function of each action and thus express a purposeful variety. This lecture will illustrate the beauty of the liturgy by comparing these chants particularly the gradual and alleluia in relation to the responsories of the Divine Office.

"The Dialogue of Economics and Catholic Social Thought"
2012-10-24 19:00 | Social Sciences, Room 122, 1126 E 59th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Cosponsored by the University of Chicago Ethics Club
The presence of two Catholic candidates for vice-president have raised questions about Catholic social thought and American free market economics. In this symposium, an economist and a theologian consider how the Church’s teaching bears on contemporary economic questions. The questions to be explored will include: What does the Catholic social thought developed by popes from Leo XIII and Pius XI to John Paul II and Benedict XVI say about economic issues? How can economists engage the principles of Catholic Social Thought and reflect on questions such as the just wage, social solidarity and the market economy? How can economists assist the Church to develop and implement its social teaching?

"Vatican II's Declaration on Religious Liberty, 50 Years Later"
2012-11-01 16:30 | Goodspeed Hall, Fulton Recital Hall, 1010 East 59th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Cosponsored by The Department of History and The St. Thomas More Society
At the third plenary session of Vatican II, Fr. John Courtney Murray said that the issue of religious liberty [is] the American issue at the Council. Yet it took the longest to write, and, after undergoing thousands of comments and corrections over four years, it was signed by Pope Paul VI less than twenty-four hours before the Council was adjourned. This lecture will consider, (1) the reasons for this Declaration on Religious Liberty and the difficulties and debates at the Council, and (2) how the doctrine of religious liberty has fared a generation later.

"Shakespeare, Identity, and Religion"
2012-11-07 20:00 | Swift Hall, 3rd Floor Lecture, 1025 E 58th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Cosponsored by The Nicholson Center for British Studies
Whether Shakespeare was Catholic has long been a point of speculation. Recent research into the life of Oxford philosopher and double agent William Sterrell has revealed a neglected group of Catholics connected to Shakespeare at and around the courts of Queen Elizabeth and King James. The potential influence of these crypto-Catholics practicing their faith in animo while outwardly complying with the legally enforced state religion offers a new understanding of Shakespeare’s works and audience.

A Conversation on Faith and Science, with Mark Wyman and Minyoung Wyman
2012-11-10 17:30 - 19:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
This event is intended for college students.
Dinner will be served.
Contemporary culture is built in part on a mythology of the natural sciences. This mythology characterizes Christianity, particularly Catholicism, as a reactionary force clinging to a pre-modern worldview that brave men and women have replaced with a modern, scientific one. Two postdoctoral researchers at the University of Chicago’s theoretical cosmologist and an evolutionary biologist will explain why this myth is false. Each will give a brief account of their own experience as scientists and reflect on the compatibility of faith and modern science. Ample time for questions and discussion will follow.

"Augustine and the Doctrine of Universal Restoration"
2012-11-20 17:30 | Swift Hall, Room 106, 1025 E 58th St, Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Cosponsored by the History of Christianity Club
The great theologian Augustine of Hippo (354-430) is known to have condemned the doctrine of universal restoration and salvation (apokatastasis) devised by Origen of Alexandria (255ca.) as heretical. But in his earlier defense of Christian Orthodoxy against Manicheism, Augustine adhered to this doctrine. This lecture will show how Augustine’s later polemic against the Pelagians and his ignorance of Greek played a significant role in his eventual rejection of Origen’s doctrine.

“Tidings True: Advent Music from Long Ago”
2012-12-07 20:00 - 2012-12-09 15:00 | Sacred Heart Parish, 1077 Tower Rd. Winnetka, IL 60093, Winnetka, IL
December 7, 8pm
Sacred Heart Parish
1077 Tower Road
Winnetka, IL 60093
December 9, 3pm
St. James Chapel at Quigley Center of the Archdiocese of Chicago
835 North Rush Street
Chicago, IL 60611
BBC Music Magazine has placed Schola Antiqua’s “Tiding True” concert seriesamong the top 20 recommended concertsin the United States during the month of December.
The centerpiece of this Schola Antiqua program will be Pierre de la Rue’s Missa Conceptio tua. This extensive work for extremely low voices was very much in demand in the early sixteenth century, but has not seen the light of day in modern performances or recordings. La Rue’s mass will be complemented by other diverse songs for the Advent season, including the traditional “O antiphons” and several medieval English carols, including Nova, Nova andThere is no rose of sywch vertue. This program is sponsored by the Lumen Christi Institute, with supplemental grants from the Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation, the Illinois Arts Council, and the Sage Foundation.
Schola Antiqua of Chicago, Artist in Residence at the Lumen Christi Institute since 2008, is a professional vocal ensemble dedicated to western liturgical chant and polyphonic music before the year 1600. The ensemble is the 2012 winner of the Noah Greenberg Award, given by the American Musicological Society for outstanding contributions to historical performing practice.
General admission will be $25 at the door; $10 students/seniors (cash or check only).
There will be a 20% discount available for those that order online.
Groups of 10 or more, please call 773-955-5887 to get an additional 20% discount on tickets.

Conference on Christian Legal Thought, New Orleans
2013-01-05 13:00 - 18:15 | Wyndham Riverfront, New Orleans, 701 Convention Center Blvd. New Orleans, LA 70130, New Orleans, LA
Saturday, January 5, 2013, 1 PM to 6:15 PM
Wyndham Riverfront New Orleans
701 Convention Center Boulevard
New Orleans, LA 70130

Conference Topic: The Statement on the Nature of Law from Evangelicals and Catholics
Conference Schedule
1:00 PM: Registration (coffee available)
1:15 PM – 2:45 PM: Session One: Christian Perspectives on the Nature of Law
Chair: Michael Moreland (Villanova University School of Law)
William Brewbaker III (University of Alabama School of Law)
Nora O’Callaghan (Loyola University Chicago School of Law)
David Skeel (University of Pennsylvania Law School)
2:45 PM – 3:00 PM: Coffee Break
3:00 PM – 4:30 PM: Session Two: Non-Christian Perspectives on the Nature of Law
Chair: Zachary R. Calo (Valparaiso University Law School)
Bruce Ledewitz (Duquesne University School of Law)
Dan Markel (Florida State University College of Law)
Seval Yildirim (Whittier Law School)
4:45 PM – 5:15 PM: Vespers
5:15 PM: Reception
This conference is intended for legal scholars and law students. Others interested in attending, please contact info@lumenchristi.org or 773-955-5887.

“Reason and Wisdom in Medieval Christian Thought,” Non-Credit Course
2013-01-08 00:00 - 2013-03-11 23:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Informal Dinner: 6:00PM
Lecture: 6:30PM
Intended for University students, faculty, and recent graduates. Others interested in attending, contact info@lumenchristi.org.
With the recovery of the works of Aristotle in the Latin West, the development of the scholastic method of reasoning, and the creation of the universities, a style of academic philosophy and theology developed in the late medieval period in which the practice of reasoning about Christian revelation was developed independent of spirituality and, often, the search for wisdom. Previously, in the works of the Church Fathers and the great monastic writers, theology was rooted in a spiritual life uniting prayer and the search for understanding.
This course will consider the practice of dialectic reason within philosophy and theology and the potential consequences of scholastic method when loosed from spirituality, the interior life, and a life of wisdom.
PAST SESSIONS:
Tuesday, January 8:
Shameful Curiosity? Dialectics and Wisdom in the
Thought of Abelard and Bernard of Clairvaux
James DeFrancis, University of Notre Dame
Tuesday, January 15:
Reason in the Service of Faith: Anselm of Canterbury
Willemien Otten, University of Chicago
Tuesday, January 24, 7:00PM
Francis of Assisi: Lost Between Myth and History
Swift Hall, 3rd Floor Lecture Hall, 1025 East 58th Street
Augustine Thompson, O.P.,Â Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology, Berkeley
Tuesday, January 29, 7:00PM
The Capacious Mind of St. Thomas Aquinas
Swift Hall, Common Room, 1025 East 58th Street
Kevin Flannery, S.J., Gregorian University
Tuesday, February 5:
Wisdom in 12th Century Paris: Richard and Hugh of St. Victor
Willemien Otten, University of Chicago
Tuesday, February 12
The Meaning of Wisdom in St. Thomas Aquinas
Bernard McGinn, University of Chicago
Tuesday, February 19:
St. Bonaventure on Reason and Wisdom
Peter Casarella, DePaul University
Tuesday, February 26, 4:30PM
The Careful Rationality of Monotheism: Thomas Aquinas on Analogical Knowledge of God
Swift Hall, Common Room, 1025 East 58th Street
Thomas Joseph White, O.P., Dominican House of Studies
Tuesday, March 5:
The Many Sides of Jean Gerson
Ralph Keen, University of Illinois Chicago
Tuesday, March 12:
Thomas à Kempis‘s The Imitation of Christ in the Christian Spiritual Tradition
Ralph Keen, University of Illinois Chicago

Sacred Study Circle, Introduction to the Devout Life by St. Francis de Sales
2013-01-14 00:00 - 2013-02-25 00:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Sacred study is the prayerful and attentive reading of a work with the initial goal of understanding it, the intermediate goal of reflectively appropriating it, and the final goal of making its teaching concrete in a life devoted to God. Sacred study is study because it puts questions to the text, as an apprentice questions the master, so as to come to grips with the deeper meanings. With these aims we will study St. Francis de Sales’s Introduction to the Devout Life this winter quarter. In this classic work of spirituality the reader is presented with counsels and practices to aid him in deepening his hunger for God while overcoming the obstacles that impede his progress in moral integrity and spiritual wisdom.
The Sacred Study Circle will meet weekly, covering a minimal amount of text each week. Fr. Paul Mankowski, S.J., scholar-in-residence at the Lumen Christi Institute, will guide participants in a reflective discussion of the text. Each session will meet at Gavin House, 1220 East 58th Street on Mondays from 4-5PM. While participants are encouraged to attend every session, this is not required. Copies of the book will be provided. We will be using the 400th Anniversary Edition, Eremitical Press, 2009.
REGISTER HERE
Schedule
January 14: Counsels concerning the soul’s first aspiration to the devout life.
(Pt.1, Ch.6-22, pp.26-51)
January 21: Counsels concerning the soul’s firm resolution to pursue the devout life.
(Pt.2, Ch.1-9, pp.55-66)
January 28: Counsels concerning the practice of virtue.
(Pt.3., Ch.1-5, pp.91-106,119-126)
February 4: Counsels concerning poverty of spirit amid riches.
(Pt.3, Ch.14-16, 37-38, pp.127-133, 175-178)
February 11: Counsels concerning true and false friendship. (Pt.3, Ch.17-22, pp.133-146)
February 18: Counsels concerning commonly experienced temptations.
(Pt.4, Ch.1-10, 13-14, pp.191-204, 209-219)
February 25: Counsels concerning renewal of the soul in devotion.
(Pt.5, Ch.1-6, 18, pp.223-230, 240-241)
Sacred study is intended for university students and faculty. Please contact Mark Franzen at mfranzen@lumenchristi.org with any questions.

“Benedict XVI on the Liturgy”
2013-01-19 18:30 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) has long cherished Catholic liturgy, and his writings on the subject illuminate the man as well as the meaning of Christian ritual. This talk is intended as an introduction to the concept of liturgy as understood by Catholics and of the contributions Ratzinger-both as theologian and as worshiper-has made to its authentic development and reception within the Church.

This event is intended for University students. An informal dinner will be served. Please contact mfranzen@lumenchristi.org with any questions.

Book Symposium on "Francis of Assisi: A New Biography
2013-01-23 17:30 | Swift Hall, 3rd Floor Lecture, 1025 E 58th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Cosponsored by the Department of History and the Medieval Studies Workshop
with
Augustine Thompson, O.P., Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology, Berkeley
Karen Scott, DePaul University
Lawrence Cunningham, University of Notre Dame
In this authoritative and engaging new biography, Augustine Thompson, O.P., sifts through the surviving evidence for the life of Francis using modern historical methods. The result is a complex yet sympathetic portrait of the man and the saint. Francis emerges from this account as very much a typical thirteenth-century Italian layman, but one who, when faced with unexpected crises in his personal life, made decisions so radical that they challenge his own society and ours. Unlike the saint of legend, this Francis never had a unique divine inspiration to provide him with rules for following the teachings of Jesus. Rather, he spent his life reacting to unexpected challenges, before which he often found himself unprepared and uncertain. The Francis who emerges here is both more complex and more conflicted than that of older biographies.

"Francis of Assisi: Lost Between Myth and History"
2013-01-24 20:00 | Swift Hall, 3rd Floor Lecture, 1025 E 58th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Cosponsored by the Department of History and the Medieval Studies Workshop
Among the most beloved of saints, Francis of Assisi is celebrated for his dedication to poverty, his love of nature, and his desire to follow perfectly the teachings and example of Christ. His followers compiled numerous, often legendary, accounts. The man and his own concerns seem lost to view. Fr. Augustine Thompson, O.P. will speak on the “Quest for the Historical Francis” and attempt to portray beyond the legends the man who was Francis of Assisi.

Master Class on St. Francis of Assisi: “How to Write a Biography of a Medieval Saint”
2013-01-25 15:00 - 18:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Cosponsored by the Medieval Studies Workshop
In his new book, Francis of Assisi: A New Biography, Augustine Thompson, O.P., sifts through the surviving evidence for the life of Francis using modern historical methods. The Francis who emerges here is both more complex and more conflicted than that of older biographies. This one-day master class will consider whether the historical Francis can be recovered from countless modern and medieval appropriations and compare Fr. Thompson’s biography on Francis’s early life with a variety of biographical sources.
Among the most beloved saints in the Catholic tradition, Francis of Assisi (c. 1181-1226) is popularly remembered for his dedication to poverty, his love of animals and nature, and his desire to follow perfectly the teachings and example of Christ. During his lifetime and after his death, followers collected, for their own purposes, numerous stories, anecdotes, and reports about Francis. As a result, the man himself and his own concerns became lost in legend.
Participants are also encouraged to attend the symposium on Francis of Assisi: A New Biography (Wednesday, January 23 at 4:30PM) and lecture on Francis of Assisi: Lost between Myth and History (Thursday, January 24 at 7:ooPM ) by Fr. Thompson, both of which will take place in Swift Hall, 3rd Floor Lecture Hall, 1025 East 58th Street.
Reading List:

“The Franciscan Question” (pp. 153-70)
“Chapter 1: When I was in my sins, 1181-1205” (pp. 3-18)
“Sources and Debate on Chapter 1” (pp. 189-206)

“The Capacious Mind of St. Thomas”
2013-01-29 20:00 | Swift Hall, 3rd Floor Lecture, 1025 E 58th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Co-Sponsored by the Medieval Studies Workshop
The thought of Thomas Aquinas, especially as it bears upon human action, leads one to make difficult choices. Aquinas insists that a lie even to save the life of another is always a sin. He also insists that one ought not ever by means of a direct act to take the life an innocent human being. Understanding Thomas’s capacious mind” and the nature of the acts in question held us to understand why we should follow him in these matters.

“The Theologico-Political Problem Today”
2013-02-07 17:30 | Rosenwald 405, 1101 East 58th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Co-sponsored by the History of Christianity Club
For three hundred years the modern nation-state appeared to determine the relationship between politics and religion. Indeed, the modern state was devised to solve this troubled relation. This is no longer the case. The present weakness of nations in discerning matters religious and theological, along with its cool disinterest in religion, presents a particular crisis for the Church. This lecture will consider the history of the theologico-political problem and address the condition of three essential institutions: marriage, polity and church.

Monastery Visit and Talk on "Spirituality and the Liturgy"
2013-02-16 17:00 - 21:00 | The Monastery of the Holy Cross, 3111 South Aberdeen St. Chicago, IL 60608, Chicago, IL
Intended for University Students. Transportation from Hyde Park will be provided. Registration required as space is limited.

SCHEDULE:
4:00 Depart from Hyde Park.
4:30 Talk on Spirituality and the Liturgy by Fr. Peter Funk, OSB.
5:15 Chanted Office of Vespers.
5:40 Silent Prayer.
6:00 Dinner.
6:30 Discussion and Questions.
7:15 Chanted Office of Compline.
8:00 Arrival back in Hyde Park.
A link to the monastery website can be found here.
Click here to watch a short documentary about life in the Monastery.

Philosophy and Martyrdom: Tertullian and Justin Martyr
2013-02-21 20:00 | Kent Hall, Room 120, 1020 E 58th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Co-sponsored by the Department of Philosophy and Philosophy of Religions Club
During the first two centuries of Christianity believers were led to confess their faith before a pagan world and endure persecution and trial, often leading to martyrdom. One might expect from them the posture and tactics of an irrational and “prophetic” theology. But in fact they chose to make arguments for the consistency and rationality of faith under the literary genre of the apology. They even claimed that this rational confession of faith deserves the title of philosophy. This paradox sheds light on our contemporary situation.

“The Careful Rationality of Monotheism: Thomas Aquinas on Analogical Knowledge of God”
2013-02-26 17:30 | Swift Hall, First Floor Common Room, 1025 E 58th St,Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Co-sponsored by the Medieval Studies Workshop
How can philosophers speak about God in a reasonable fashion? Does speech about God exceed the capacities of human reason? In responding to these questions, Thomas Aquinas develops a path between the extremes of apophaticism (rejecting the applicability of human language to God) and rationalistic optimism. This lecture will argue for the validity of Thomist doctrine of divine naming and its relevance to contemporary debates in analytic theism and to Heidegger’s critique of onto-theology (the theology of being).

"The Virgin Mary as Model of the Church: From Vatican II to Thomas Aquinas"
2013-02-27 20:00 | Swift Hall, 3rd Floor Lecture, 1025 E 58th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Co-sponsored by the History of Christianity Club

The Second Vatican Council insisted that the Virgin Mary is to be understood in light of the Church, and the Church is to be understood in light of the Virgin Mary. Why should the Church seek to recover today a greater emphasis on Marian devotion? How is the Virgin Mary a model of the faith and spiritual life of Christians? Thomas Aquinas provides the basis for a contemporary interpretation of the Council’s Marian teachings.

Pacem in terris After 50 Years
2013-04-04 16:00 - 18:00 | Ida Noyes Hall, Max Palevsky Cinema, 1212 E 59th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
A Public Symposium in Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Pope John XXIII’s Encyclical on Establishing Universal Peace on Earth
KEYNOTE:
Roland Minnerath, Archbishop of Dijon
RESPONDENTS:
Mary Ann Glendon, Harvard Law School
Joseph Weiler, New York University Law School
Russell Hittinger, University of Tulsa
On April 11, 1963, amid the global tensions of the Cold War, and shortly after the erection of the Berlin Wall, Pope John XXIII addressed his famous encyclical Pacem in terris to all people of good will. He invites them to consider the conditions for establishing universal peace on earth in truth, justice, charity, and liberty. On the 50th Anniversary of this event, this symposium will examine the affirmations of Pacem in terris as they bear on human rights, religious freedom, and the international political and economic order today.
Co-sponsored by the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago and the Center for Civil and Human Rights at the University of Notre Dame Law School

“Modern Christian Writers” Non-Credit Course
2013-04-08 23:00 - 2013-05-27 23:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Informal Dinner: 6:00PM
Lecture: 6:30PM
Intended for University students, faculty, and recent graduates. Others interested in attending, contact info@lumenchristi.org.
Addressing his fellow Christians, the author of the Letter to the Hebrews said, “Here we have no abiding city.” Christian writers characteristically view the societies in which they live both from the inside and as strangers or sojourners. This series will treat of a variety of modern authors whose faith made them aliens in their own homelands while giving them insight and sympathy into the dilemmas of their own time. No prior acquaintance with the writers on the part of attendees is required or presumed.
Past Sessions:
Tuesday, April 9:
Evelyn Waugh
Paul Mankowski, S.J., Lumen Christi Institute
Tuesday, April 16:
Hilaire Belloc
Paul Mankowski, S.J., Lumen Christi Institute
Tuesday, April 23
A Study in Greene: Charting the 20th Century Catholic Literary Revival
Mark Bosco, S.J., English and Theology, Loyola University
Tuesday, April 30
Charles Péguy – A Lonely Fighter
Thomas Pavel, Romance Languages & Literatures, Committee on Social Thought, University of Chicago
Tuesday, May 7:
Paul Claudel: a Poet at the Foot of the Cross
Lauren Bergier, Committee on Social Thought, University of Chicago
Tuesday, May 14:
Flannery O’Connor’s Fictional Habitus
Richard Rosengarten, Religion & Literature at the Divinity School, University of Chicago
Tuesday, May 21:
Dostoyevsky: Dreams and Demons
Robert Bird, Slavic Languages & Literatures, University of Chicago
Tuesday, May 28:
Ronald Knox
Paul Mankowski, S.J., Lumen Christi Institute

"Shameless": The Sense of a Pejorative, from St. Augustine until Now
2013-04-25 16:30 | Swift Hall, First Floor Common Room, 1025 E 58th St,Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Co-sponsored by the Medieval Studies Workshop
Readers interested in the history of Christian writing are often surprised and nonplussed by the uninhibited polemic they find; scholarship often treats such polemics as obviously pathological. This talk takes one common form of medieval denunciation “the habit of calling” certain opinions and practices “shameless,”as a sort of laboratory specimen, showing what it meant, how it worked, and why serious thinkers took to it. It will suggest that the same judgment, in different words, is still part of scholarly discourse today.

Master Class on The Cloud of Unknowing
2013-04-26 14:00 - 18:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Co-sponsored by the Medieval Studies Workshop
This master class is intended for graduate and advanced undergraduate students. If you have any questions, please contact Mark Franzen at mfranzen@lumenchristi.org.
The Cloud of Unknowing is a work of spiritual counsel, a guide to a kind of contemplation, by a fourteenth-century English author, now unnamed but with several other works to his credit. It is a recognized masterpiece: serious, brilliant intellectually, and in literary terms cunning and audacious. It is easy to understand but hard to explain: making sense of its doctrine is not difficult, but making sense of what is means by that doctrine, how it should be used, and what it should be interpreted as part of, is not. This seminar will discuss both sides of this coin, exploring that doctrine (and, if we have time, the literary devices by which it is expounded), but also exploring the conundra the work poses for intellectual and cultural history. For the benefit of those whose Middle English is rusty, we will use a modernized edition, but I will bring along some Middle English passages for inspection.
Reading List
The Cloud of Unknowing, Paulist Press, ISBN 0809123320
(Other versions are acceptable)
Schedule
2:00pm Welcome
2:15pm Session I
3:30pm Coffee Break
3:45pm Session II
5:00pm Reception

Machaut's Musical Monuments
2013-04-28 16:00 | Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, 5850 S Woodlawn Ave. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Schola Antiqua presents some of the most notable works by the fourteenth century’s most celebrated composer, Guillaume de Machaut. Program highlights include a complete performance of Machaut’s Mass for Our Lady, as well as a sampling of the composer’s enigmatic motets and playful song repertory.

The Interior Castle of St. Teresa of Avila: A Map for our Spiritual Journey
2013-05-01 19:00 | Swift Hall, 3rd Floor Lecture, 1025 E 58th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Long before developmental psychologists charted the seasons and passages of our human journey, St. Teresa of Avila mapped the transformation of her personality under the impact of God’s love in 16th century Spain. At age 62, this Carmelite nun wrote The Interior Castle, a classic summary of her prayer experience. She images the soul’s journey through a crystal castle to its center, culminating in intimate union with God.
This lecture is cosponsored by the History of Christianity Club and made possible by a grant from the Carmelite Friars at St. Thomas the Apostle.

The Spirit's Bond: Gregory of Nyssa on the Inseparable Trinity
2013-05-16 16:30 | Swift Hall, First Floor Common Room, 1025 E 58th St,Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
The creed recited by Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, and many Protestant Christians every Sunday originated from the first two ecumenical councils of the Church, Nicea (325) and Constantinople (381), which affirmed the divinity of Christ and the unity of the Trinity. Among the Cappadocian Fathers who developed and defended the affirmations of the creed, Gregory of Nyssa (c. 335-395) is known for his contribution to the doctrine of the Trinity. Although he was cited by the Emperor Theodosius as an exemplar of Trinitarian orthodoxy, the exact nature of his doctrine remains a matter of dispute. He has been accused of every heresy from modalism to tritheism. This lecture will attempt to sort out Gregory’s teaching by focusing on his discussion of the Spirit’s inseparable connection with the Father and the Son.

Toward A Moral Economy: Globalization and the Developing World
2013-05-23 15:00 - 17:00 | Ida Noyes Hall, Max Palevsky Cinema, 1212 E 59th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Part of the Lumen Christi Institute Program in Economics and Catholic Social Thought, a continuing exchange between research economists, bishops, and scholars, this symposium will address poverty and economic development; social, cultural, and economic integration; and emigration and its impact on developing countries.

Keynote address:
Peter Cardinal Turkson, President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace
Presentations by:
Robert Lucas, University of Chicago Economics Department
Luigi Zingales, University of Chicago Booth School of Business
Joseph Kaboski, University of Notre Dame Economics Department
Sponsored by The Lumen Christi Institute at the University of Chicago, the John U. Nef Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago, and the Seng Foundation Endowment for Market-Based Programs & Catholic Values, Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts, College of Arts and Letters, University of Notre Dame.

Bernard of Clairvaux, the Last of the Fathers and the End of the Middle Ages
2013-05-29 16:30 | Swift Hall, First Floor Common Room, 1025 E 58th St,Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Cosponsored by The Medieval Studies Workshop
and The Theology Workshop
The 12th century monastic reformer Bernard of Clairvaux recruited hundreds of young men to the cloister or claustrum (enclosure) of Cistercian monastic life. The rhythm of life in the monastic enclosure not only rules the structured existence of the monks but also alters their experience of time from linear to circular while maintaining the goal of the world to come. Bernard’s eloquent insistence on this way of life represents the end of an era and, to an extent, the end of the Middle Ages.

Exile and the canzone in Dante's Earthly Paradise
2013-05-30 16:30 | Classics 110, 1010 E 59th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Cosponsored by the Department of Romance Languages & Literatures and the Medieval Studies Workshop
Often considered the greatest work of Italian literature, Dante’s Divine Comedy depicts the exiled soul’s journey to God. At the end of thePurgatorio, Dante reaches the Garden of Eden. But, despite the setting of earthly paradise and the reappearance of the poet’s youthful love Beatrice, the protagonist finds remorse in Eden rather than triumph. The Earthly Paradise cantos can be understood as a reclaiming of Dante’s former identity of spiritually exiled lyric poet, wherein both poet and poem exist in a relationship of exile to the world that receives them.

The Spiritual Nature of Man
2013-06-05 16:30 | Classics 110, 1010 E 59th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
“The Spiritual Nature of Man”
Anselm Muller, University of Trier
Cosponsored by the Department of Philosophy
Are human beings essentially spiritual creatures or can human life be explained entirely by material principles? The great twentieth century philosopher, Elizabeth Anscombe, suggests that we are essentially spiritual beings because we are naturally and consciously oriented beyond our material life toward transcendent norms of truth and goodness. This is the ground of our dignity and value over other, non-spiritual animals.

The Thought of John Henry Newman
2013-06-17 23:00 - 2013-06-21 23:00, 2014-07-06 23:00 - 2014-07-11 23:00, 2015-07-11 23:00 - 2015-07-16 23:00 | Merton College, Oxford, Merton St, Oxford OX1 4JD, UK, Oxford, United Kingdom
APPLY HERE
Now in its third consecutive year, this seminar is an intensive five-day course for graduate students on the thought of Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman. It will examine Newman’s achievement as theologian, philosopher, educator, preacher, and writer. Remarkably, in each of these areas Newman produced works that have come to be recognized as classics: An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, The Grammar of Assent, The Idea of a University, The Parochial and Plain Sermons, and the Apologia Pro Vita Sua. This seminar will approach Newman’s thought through a critical engagement with these texts.
Format: There will be two 2-hour sessions each day. The seminar will include presentations by Prof. Ker and by participants on the readings assigned, followed by seminar style discussion.
Location: The seminar will be held at Merton College at the University of Oxford. Students will be provided with a travel stipend, accommodations, and meals.
Application Information:   This seminar will be open to Ph.D. students in the humanities and social sciences (such as philosophy, theology, english, classics, & history). Applicants will be required to submit:

A completed online application form found HERE.
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 except for letters of recommendation, which can be emailed to mfranzen@lumenchristi.org or mailed to: Lumen Christi Institute, Graduate Seminars, 1220 East 58th Street, Chicago, IL 60637. Incomplete applications will not be considered. 15 students will be admitted to this seminar.
Application materials must be received by 11:59pm CST on FEBRUARY 15, 2015.
The Lumen Christi is an institute for the promotion of the Catholic Intellectual Tradition and is committed to the integration of the intellectual and spiritual life. The Institute welcomes seminar participants of all or no religious affiliation, and wants to assure all applicants that the opportunities to participate in devotional activities are optional.
Any further questions can be directed to Mark Franzen at mfranzen@lumenchristi.org

Christianity, The Unity of Knowledge, and the Secularized Academy
2013-07-22 23:00 - 2013-07-26 23:00 | University of Chicago, 5801 S Ellis Ave Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
The pursuit and transmission of knowledge in the contemporary academy is highly specialized, secular, and regarded as separable from the social circumstances and beliefs of scientists, scholars, and students. This seminar analyzed the historical and intellectual reasons for the secularization and specialized fragmentation of knowledge characteristic of the contemporary academy. Through reading and discussion of scholarship pertaining to the historical processes through which knowledge was secularized, participants explored ways in which knowledge has been alternatively understood within a unifying philosophical and theological framework, and how such a framework might remain intellectually viable today.
In addition to primary sources, this seminar included discussion of the works of Pierre Hadot, Jean LeClerq, Alasdair MacIntyre, John Paul II, George Mardsen, Mark Knoll, and Christian Smith.
Seminar Leader: Brad Gregory is professor of history and the Dorothy G. Griffin collegiate chair at the University of Notre Dame. He received his Ph.D. from Princeton University (1996) and was a Junior Fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows (1994-96). Before joining the faculty at Notre Dame in 2003, Gregory taught at Stanford University, where he received early tenure in 2001. Gregory has two degrees in philosophy as well, both earned at the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium. Gregory’s research focuses on Christianity in the Reformation era, the long-term effects of the Reformation, secularization in early modern and modern Western history, and methodology in the study of religion. He most recently published The Unintended Reformation: How a Religious Revolution Secularized Society.
Location: The seminar will be held at the University of Chicago, home of the Lumen Christi Institute.

Catholic Social Thought: A Critical Investigation
2013-08-05 00:00 - 2013-08-09 23:00, 2015-08-02 23:00 - 2015-08-08 23:00 | University of California, Berkeley, S Hall Rd. Berkeley, CA 94720, Berkeley, CA
In this seminar, students will read, analyze, and discern continuities and discontinuities in Catholic Social Thought from the late 19th century to the present. Lectures, seminar reports, and discussion will focus on original sources (encyclicals and other magisterial documents), beginning with Rerum novarum (1892) and concluding with Caritas in veritate (2009). This intensive course is multi-disciplinary, since this tradition of social thought overlaps several disciplines in the contemporary university including political science, political philosophy, law, economics, theology, and history. This will be the third time Prof. Hittinger has led this seminar.
Format: There will be two 2 ½ hour sessions each day. Professor Hittinger will open each session with a lecture, and then we will turn to general, seminar-style discussion of the text and the issues at hand. Students will be expected to make seminar presentations of the material under discussion.
Location: The seminar will take place at the University of California, Berkeley. Students will be provided with a travel stipend, accommodations, and meals. . Students will be provided with a travel stipend, accommodations, and meals.
Application Information:  This seminar will be open to Ph.D. students in the humanities and social sciences (such as philosophy, theology, political science, history & medieval studies).
Applicants will be required to submit:

A completed online application form found HERE.
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 except for letters of recommendation, which can be emailed to mfranzen@lumenchristi.org or mailed to: Lumen Christi Institute, Graduate Seminars, 1220 East 58th Streeet, Chicago, IL 60637. Incomplete applications will not be considered. 15 students will be admitted to this seminar.
Application materials must be received by 11:59pm CST on MARCH 1, 2013.
The Lumen Christi is an institute for the promotion of the Catholic Intellectual Tradition and is committed to the integration of the intellectual and spiritual life. The Institute welcomes seminar participants of all or no religious affiliation, and wants to assure all applicants that the opportunities to participate in devotional activities are optional.
Any further questions can be directed to Mark Franzen at mfranzen@lumenchristi.org.

The Divine is Everywhere
2013-08-31 16:30 | University of Chicago, 5801 S Ellis Ave Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Read the Chicago Maroon article about Dana Gioia’s visit to the University of Chicago HERE.
Dana Gioia—award-winning poet (American Book Award, 2002; Notre Dame’s Laetare Medal Recipient, 2010) and former Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts—takes the faith seriously. During his career as a businessman and later when living in Washington D.C., he drew strength from rereading Augustine’s City of God, helping him resist the lust for wealth, power, and status that tempts many who find themselves in corporate America and the nation’s capital.
Gioia eschews an understanding of the faith that is glib and glossy, that doesn’t explore the dark and squalid aspects of human nature, as well as the terrifyingly beautiful. In a recent interview for the literary journal Image, Gioia says: “I am not drawn to the stage business of Catholicism—its pomp and circumstance.” Furthermore, he says of his own writing: “I write from the daily particulars of real life. You shouldn’t have to visit the Vatican to sense the divine. It is everywhere if you know how to look.”
Indeed, Gioia has an uncanny ability to see the hand of the divine everywhere: in shopping malls, in ghost stories, even in the horoscope column of a newspaper.
In sorrow and suffering, too, Gioia finds the hand of God waking the soul to the spiritual.
Blessed is the pain that humbles us.
Blessed is the distance that bars our joy.
Blessed is this shortest day that makes us long for light.
Blessed is the love that in losing we discover.
Of his poem “Prayer at Winter Solstice” published in his latest book Pity the Beautiful, he says: “It is a set of beatitudes that praise the suffering and renunciation necessary to make us spiritually alert… .It is also a poem about facing the hard realities of our existence. Our feel-good society tries to deny suffering.”
Beauty, suffering—everything offers the opportunity for grace.
“The notion of suddenly being ‘saved’ feels alien to a Catholic who sees life as a pilgrimage in which each step forward can easily be followed by a fall backward from grace. For that reason the great Catholic writers characteristically write about the experience of sinners rather than the saints, often people of great spiritual capacity who have lost their way,” he says, arguing for a faith that embraces the realities of damnation and salvation. “The great theme of Catholic imaginative literature is the violent and painful struggle for redemption in a fallen world.”
******************************

On October 17, 2013, Dana Gioia gave a luncheon talk on “Why Beauty Matters: Not Just to Artists But to Everyone, Even Politicians” at the University Club of Chicago.
Later that evening, he gave a poetry reading at Gavin House, home of the Lumen Christi Institute in Hyde Park.
On October 18, 2014, Gioia taught a seminar on “What is Catholic Poetry?” to students at the University of Chicago.

John of the Cross: A Mystic's Poetry
2013-11-14 20:00 | Swift Hall, 3rd Floor Lecture, 1025 E 58th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
John of the Cross (1542-1591), saint and doctor of the church, is known for his mystical doctrine and his theme of the “dark night.” This lecture explores John’s stunningly beautiful poetry and makes a claim for the primacy of this poetry which was shaped by the erotic poetry of the Song of Songs and which John requested be sung for him as he lay dying.
This lecture is made possible in part by a grant from the Carmelite Friars at St. Thomas the Apostle Parish.

Who Was Saint Patrick?
2014-03-13 12:00 - 13:30 | University Club of Chicago, 76 E Monroe St Chicago, IL 60603, Downtown, IL
a luncheon address by
Philip Freeman (Luther College)
with an introduction by
The Hon. Edward M. Burke (Alderman, 14th Ward; Chairman, Finance Committee, Chicago City Council)
Sponsored by the Boshell Family Foundation
Everyone knows about St. Patrick, the man who drove the snakes out of Ireland, defeated fierce druids in contests of magic, and used the shamrock to explain the Christian Trinity to the pagan Irish. It’s a great story, but none of it is true. Not only were there never any snakes in Ireland, but Patrick wasn’t even Irish. The real story of this saint—pirates, murder, slavery, escape, and the struggles of faith against all odds—is even better.

Jewish & Catholic Approaches to Property & Social Justice
2014-03-20 17:00 | Jenner & Block, 45th Floor, 353 N Clark St. Chicago, IL 60654, Downtown, IL
Eduardo Peñalver (University of Chicago Law School)
Joseph William Singer (Harvard Law School)
REGISTRATION IS CLOSED FOR THIS EVENT
1.5 hours Ethics/Professionalism CLE credit CA, IL and NY.
SCHEDULE:
5:00 PM: Registration and Refreshments
5:15 PM: Welcoming Remarks by Craig Martin (Partner, Jenner & Block)
5:20 PM: Introduction by the Hon. Thomas More Donnelly (Associate Judge, Circuit Court of Cook County)
5:25 PM: Presentation by Eduardo Peñalver  (University of Chicago Law School)
5:45 PM: Presentation by Joseph William Singer  (Harvard Law School)
6:05: Panel Discussion
6:25 PM: Q&A
6:55 PM: Wine and Cheese Reception
Both Jewish and Catholic traditions teach that each human being is obliged to attend to the needs of the vulnerable and use property for the common good. The obligation to the vulnerable attaches to each person; it even is imposed on the poor oddly enough who are obligated to give something to others (even if what they do is exchange with each other) because the experience of giving to help others is part of what is crucial to human life and something the poor should not be deprived of. The traditional language also understands this to be a commandment from God, which really means part of the structure of the world.
Additionally, both rights and obligations flow from possessing property according to both Catholic and Jewish social justice teaching. The obligation to provide for the poor also forms a core social obligation attaching to the possession of property. From this obligation may arise certain entitlements–these entitlements are a subject of much controversy in our country today. However, there can be no dispute that both religious traditions espouse the subordination of private property to the common good. This discussion will examine the legal, religious, and philosophical grounding for this common belief and consider the legal and political implications that follow.
Hosted by Jenner & Block.
Cosponsored by The Advocates Society, The Catholic Lawyers Guild, The Decalogue Society of Lawyers, The Jewish Judges Association of Illinois, and the National Center for the Laity

"Pacem in Terris after Fifty Years: Lessons for the Middle East?" at Harvard Law School
2014-03-28 16:00 - 18:00 | Austin Hall, Room 100 North, 1515 Massachusetts Ave. Cambridge, MA 02138, Harvard University
Presenter:
Russell Hittinger (University of Tulsa)
Respondents:
Andrew Bacevich (Boston University)
Habib Malik (Lebanese American University)
Moderator:
Mary Ann Glendon (Harvard Law School)
REGISTER HERE
On April 11, 1963, amid the tensions of the Cold War, and shortly after the erection of the Berlin Wall, Pope John XXIII addressed his encyclical Pacem in terris to all people of good will. He invites them to consider the conditions for establishing universal peace on earth in truth, justice, charity, and liberty. This symposium will examine the affirmations of Pacem in terris as they bear today on human rights, religious freedom, and the international political and economic order with special consideration of the situation of Christians in the Middle East.
This event is the inaugural event of the New England Forum for Catholic Social Thought, part of the Lumen Christi Institute’s Program in Catholic Social Thought.

The Human Person, Economics & Catholic Social Thought
2014-04-03 16:00 - 18:00 | International House at the University of Chicago, 1414 E 59th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
“The current financial crisis can make us overlook the  fact that it originated in a profound human crisis:  the denial of the primacy of the human person!”
– Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium

The human person is a contested terrain. Within the fields of Economics and Catholic Social Thought, each maintain distinct conceptions of and emphases on the human person that impact their respective diagnoses of contemporary crises and proposed solutions. Drawing together economists, bishops and scholars, this symposium will explore fundamental convergences and divergences in the conception of the human person in Economics and Catholic Social Thought.
This program is part of the Lumen Christi Institute’s Sixth Annual Conference in Economics and Catholic Social Thought, a continuing exchange between research economists, bishops, and scholars.
Co-sponsored by the John U. Nef Committee on Social Thought, The International House Global Voices Program, The Seng Foundation Program for Market-Based Programs and Catholic Values, & The Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts at the University of Notre Dame.

Francis the Jesuit: The Sources of Thought of Pope Francis Non-Credit Course
2014-04-07 18:00 - 2014-05-12 18:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
The course will examine selected discourses of Pope Francis against a background of classical and recent Jesuit spiritual writings, beginning with the founder of the Jesuit order, St. Ignatius Loyola, and his contemporaries. No prior familiarity with the subject matter will be presumed.
6:00PM Informal Dinner
6:30PM Presentation
Intended for university students and recent graduates. Others interested in attending please contact info@lumenchristi.org.

The Holiness of John XXIII
2014-04-23 16:30 | Kent Hall, Room 120, 1020 E 58th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Lawrence Cunningham (University of Notre Dame)
REGISTER HERE
cosponsored by Calvert House
Just days before his canonization in the Catholic Church, this lecture will meditate on the spiritual life of Pope John XXIII (Angelo Roncalli) with special attention to the posthumous publication of his The Journal of a Soul. It will argue that his long pastoral ministry, including those few years in the papal office, derived its energy from a sustained life of prayer seeking the “face of Christ.” The seamless weaving of action and contemplation explains why in his own lifetime he was familiarly known as “Good Pope John.”

After Huizinga: The Low Countries as Cradle of Spiritual Innovation in the Late Middle Ages
2014-04-25 14:00 | Swift Hall, 3rd Floor Lecture, 1025 E 58th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Frits van Oostrom (Ultrecht University)
This public lecture is presented by the University of Chicago Divinity School. Cosponsored by the Martin Marty Center for the Advanced Study of Religion, the Medieval Studies Workshop, and the Lumen Christi Institute.
Free and open to the public. Reception to follow.

Saint John Paul II and the Polish Catholic Experience
2014-05-01 18:00 | Swift Hall, 3rd Floor Lecture, 1025 E 58th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Fr. Raymond Gawronski, S.J. (Dominican School of Philosophy & Theology, Berkeley)
cosponsored by The Copernicus Foundation, Calvert House, and the Polish American Student Association
Often referred to as “The Polish Pope,” John Paul II is better described as a global pope. The Polish experience offers a unique perspective that bore fruit in the person of Pope John Paul II, who held the world’s attention for decades and offered a way to be Catholic in the Church’s new situation of worldly powerlessness. Through the lens of the Polish experience in Europe and America – the “Polish hermeneutic” – this talk will explore the contribution of the person and work of St. John Paul II to the Church and world.

This lecture commemorates the April 27 canonization of Pope John Paul II.

Master Class on "Thinking on One's Knees: Von Balthasar and Nasr on Theology and Sanctity"
2014-05-02 14:00 - 17:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Fr. Raymond Gawronski, S.J. (Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology, Berkeley)
REGISTER HERE
Open to all graduate and undergraduate students (including non-University of Chicago students). Copies of the readings will be provided. Registration is required as space is limited. Please contact Mark Franzen with any questions.
Hans Urs von Balthasar’s distinction between “sitting” and “kneeling” theologies has become paradigmatic. He also thought the split between thinking (dogmatic) and praying (mystical/spiritual) theologies has been the worst tragedy to befall Christianity in its long history. In his Gifford Lectures of 1980-81, Persian born scholar and “perennialist” Seyyed Hossein Nasr surveyed the sweep of Western intellectual history, tracing the separation of sacred/initiatory knowledge from abstract conceptualization. While both identify a historic break, von Balthasar’s account differs profoundly in being radically Christocentric, centering on the Logos that is Jesus Christ.
In this three-hour seminar session, participants will discuss von Balthasar’s programmatic essay “Theology and Sanctity” (Explorations in Theology I, pp. 181-209) and then attempt a dialogue with Nasr’s “Knowledge and Its Desacralization” (Knowledge and the Sacred, ch. 1), with an eye toward healing what many see has been a catastrophic rupture.

Pope Francis and the New Evangelization
2014-05-08 12:00 - 13:30 | University Club of Chicago, 76 E Monroe St Chicago, IL 60603, Downtown, IL
Fr. Robert Barron
(Rector, Mundelein Seminary/University of Saint Mary of the Lake; founder, Word on Fire)
Cosponsored by Word on Fire
In this lecture, Fr. Robert Barron discussed how to put faith into action in today’s increasingly secular world. With Pope Francis as a model of how to present “the joy of the Gospel,” Barron argued that Catholics have a duty to awaken the faith of the baptized and bring back those who have drifted. While the message has remained unchanged since the first century, Catholics are called to share the beauty, goodness, and truth of the faith with new ardor, new expressions, and new methods that will reach the disenchanted and bring people closer to Christ and to his Church.

David Dancing Before the Ark: The Liturgical Theology Implicit in 2 Samuel 6
2014-05-08 16:30 | University of Chicago, 5801 S Ellis Ave Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Fr. Robert Barron
(Rector of Mundelein Seminary/University of Saint Mary of the Lake;
founder of Word on Fire)
David danced before the Ark as an image of humanity dancing with the Lord, recovering the effortless harmony of Eden. In this lecture, Robert Barron will explore the role of King David as a new Adam and cite the solemn protection God extends to the Ark of the Covenant as an example of the importance of proper worship. Throughout the Scriptures, God attempts to “Eden-ize” man — that is, to return him to harmony with Himself, his fellow men and women, and nature — by teaching him “right praise,” culminating in the Lamb’s Supper as foretold in the Book of Revelation.

A Mother's Mother: Music for St. Anne
2014-05-09 18:30 - 2014-05-10 19:00 | Bond Chapel & Swift Hall, 1025 E. 58th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
“A Mother’s Mother: Music for St. Anne”
Friday, May 9: 7:30pm
Bond Chapel, University of Chicago (northeast of Ellis Ave. and 59th St.)
Saturday, May 10: 8:00pm
St. Clement Church, 642 West Deming Place
A concert Featuring Schola Antiqua of Chicago
Tickets available online or at the door (cash or credit)
$25 adults / $10 student or senior
The late Middle Ages was a high water mark of devotion to the Virgin Mary. The proliferation of liturgies, literature, iconography, and music for Mary spilled over to works in honor of her apocryphal mother, St. Anne. Schola Antiqua explores chant and polyphonic music for the legendary grandmother of Christ in this program of chant and rich polyphony, including works by Pierre de la Rue and Jean Mouton. Schola Antiqua’s concert series coincides with the release of Artistic Director Michael Alan Anderson’s book St. Anne in Renaissance Music: Devotion and Politics, published by Cambridge University Press in 2014.

Symposium on The Sacredness of the Person
2014-05-14 16:30 | Swift Hall, 3rd Floor Lecture, 1025 E 58th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Michael Geyer (University of Chicago), Moderator
Hans Joas (University of Chicago)
John D. Kelly (University of Chicago)
Ben Laurence (University of Chicago)
William Schweiker (University of Chicago)
cosponsored by the Human Rights Program at the University of Chicago
REGISTER HERE
This symposium will discuss The Sacredness of the Person, a recent book by Professor Hans Joas.
What are the origins of the idea of human rights and universal human dignity? How can we most fully understand—and realize—these rights going into the future? In The Sacredness of the Person, internationally renowned sociologist and social theorist Hans Joas tells a story that differs from conventional narratives by tracing the concept of human rights back to the Judeo-Christian tradition or, alternately, to the secular French Enlightenment. While drawing on sociologists such as Émile Durkheim, Max Weber, and Ernst Troeltsch, Joas sets out a new path, proposing an affirmative genealogy in which human rights are the result of a process of “sacralization” of every human being.

Baudelaire and Maistre: the Weight of Original Sin
2014-05-22 16:30 | Social Sciences, Room 122, 1126 E 59th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
By 1851, the poet Charles Baudelaire had become obsessed — in contrast to his previous anarchist position — with the views of the reactionary and fiercely Catholic Joseph de Maistre. Maistre argued that Original Sin “explains everything,” a perspective that Baudelaire was to adopt, and which markedly changed his poetry. This lecture will consider Baudelaire’s preoccupation with sin in light of Kierkegaard’s treatment of anxiety and sin in The Concept of Anxiety.

Music of the Hours
2014-06-14 18:30 - 2014-06-15 13:00 | St. Anthony of Padua Church, 85 Harrison St. West Harrison, NY 10604, West Harrison, NY
June 14, 2014, 7:30pm
St. Anthony of Padua Church
West Harrison, NY
June 15, 2014, 2:00pm
The Morgan Library & Museum
Gilder Lehrman Hall
New York City, NY.
Order tickets.
Schola Antiqua debuts on the East Coast, presenting concerts inspired by prayer books of the late Middle Ages, including the Book of Hours. Roger Wieck, Curator of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts at The Morgan Library & Museum, shares stunning devotional art of the early sixteenth century, while the ensemble divulges a sound world prompted by these precious volumes. The Sunday performance at The Morgan Library is given in connection with the exhibit “Miracles in Miniature: The Art of the Master of Claude de France.”
Sponsored in part by The Morgan Library & Museum, the Lumen Christi Institute, and the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester.

St. Thomas Aquinas on Free Choice
2014-06-22 23:00 - 2014-06-26 23:00 | Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, Piazza Santa Apollinare, 49, 00186 Roma, Italy, Rome, Italy
APPLY HERE
This seminar will be a five-day, intensive discussion of St Thomas Aquinas’ philosophical account of liberum arbitrium and the psychological and metaphysical principles underlying it. The sessions will focus on passages from the Summa theologiae (including ST, I, 19, 59-60, 82-83; ST, I-II, 6, 9, 10, 13) and will refer to other works of Aquinas (such as the De Malo and the Commentary on Aristotle’s Metaphysics) and to pertinent texts from other philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, Kant, and Anscombe. Controversies in the interpretation of St Thomas’s thought will be considered, especially regarding his understanding of the relation between intellect and will, and particular attention will be given to how he deals with the questions of causal determinism and of the choice between good and evil.
The seminar will address the following questions: How does Aquinas differ from Aristotle on the will? Did Aquinas change his mind about the will? To what extent does the freedom of the will depend upon the distinction between the will and the intellect? Does St Thomas’ apparent intellectualism run the risk of a kind of determinism with regards to choice? Does Aquinas offer an adequate account of the choice of evil? In approaching these questions, the seminar’s objectives will be, first, to understand the thought of St Thomas, and, second, to relate his teaching to contemporary philosophical debates.
Format: There will be two 2 ½ hour sessions each day. Each session will include an opening lecture and seminar-style discussion of the text and the issues at hand. Students will be expected to prepare the readings carefully and participate in the discussions of the material.
Seminar Leader: Fr. Stephen L. Brock is Professor of Medieval Philosophy at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome. He is a member of the Pontifical Academy of St Thomas Aquinas and is the author of Action & Conduct: Thomas Aquinas and the Theory of Action. He has written numerous articles on various aspects of the thought of Thomas Aquinas, and he has edited several collections including Thomas Aquinas and the Subject of Metaphysics.
Location: The seminar will take place at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome. Students will be provided with a travel stipend, accommodations, and meals.
Application Information:  This seminar will be open to Ph.D. students in the humanities and social sciences (such as philosophy, theology, & medieval studies).
Applicants will be required to submit:

A completed online application form.
An updated CV.
At least one and as many as two letter(s) of recommendation from a member of the program in which the student is currently enrolled.
A statement of research interest no longer than 750 words, which includes an explanation of how this seminar might bear on the student’s current or future research plans.
One example of written, academic work (25-30 pages maximum).

All application materials can be submitted via the online application except for letters of recommendation, which can be emailed to mfranzen@lumenchristi.org or mailed to: Lumen Christi Institute, Graduate Seminars, 1220 East 58th Streeet, Chicago, IL 60637. Incomplete applications will not be considered. 15 students will be admitted to this seminar.
Application materials must be received by FEBRUARY 1, 2014.
The Lumen Christi is an institute for the promotion of the Catholic Intellectual Tradition and is committed to the integration of the intellectual and spiritual life. The Institute welcomes seminar participants of all or no religious affiliation, and wants to assure all applicants that the opportunities to participate in devotional activities are optional.
Any further questions can be directed to Mark Franzen at mfranzen@lumenchristi.org

A Crisis of Community: Catholic School Closures and Urban Neighborhoods
2014-06-26 17:00 | University Club of Chicago, 76 E Monroe St Chicago, IL 60603, Downtown, IL
A book event with the authors of Lost Classroom, Lost Community: Catholic Schools’ Importance in Urban America Margaret Brinig and Nicole Stelle Garnett moderated by Fr. Tim Scully (Hackett Family Director, Institute for Educational Initiatives, University of Notre Dame)
In the past two decades in the United States, more than 1,600 Catholic elementary and secondary schools have closed, and more than 4,500 charter schools—public schools that are often privately operated and freed from certain regulations—have opened, many in urban areas. With a particular emphasis on Catholic school closures, Lost Classroom, Lost Communityexamines the implications of these dramatic shifts in the urban educational landscape.
More than just educational institutions, Catholic schools promote the development of social capital—the social networks and mutual trust that form the foundation of safe and cohesive communities. Drawing on data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods and crime reports collected at the police beat or census tract level in Chicago, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles, Margaret F. Brinig and Nicole Stelle Garnett demonstrate that the loss of Catholic schools triggers disorder, crime, and an overall decline in community cohesiveness, and suggest that new charter schools fail to fill the gaps left behind.
This book shows that the closing of Catholic schools harms the very communities they were created to bring together and serve, and it will have vital implications for both education and policing policy debates.
cosponsored by the Alliance for Catholic Education, Notre Dame Law School, and the Archdiocese of Chicago’s Catholic Schools Office

Truth and Authority in Augustine's City of God
2014-07-27 23:00 - 2014-08-01 23:00 | University of California, Berkeley, S Hall Rd. Berkeley, CA 94720, Berkeley, CA
APPLICATION DEADLINE IS NOW FEBRUARY 15
APPLY HERE
This seminar is an intensive five-day 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.
Format: There will be two 2 ½ hour sessions each day. Professor Hittinger will open each session with a lecture, and then we will turn to general, seminar-style discussion of the text and the issues at hand. Students will be expected to make seminar presentations of the material under discussion.
Location:  The seminar will take place at the University of California Berkeley. Students will be provided with a travel stipend, accommodations, and meals.
Application Information:   This seminar will be open to Ph.D. students in the humanities and social sciences (such as Philosophy, Theology, Political Science, History, and Medieval Studies).
Applicants will be required to submit:

A completed online application form.
An updated CV.
At least one and as many as two letter(s) of recommendation from a member of the program in which the student is currently enrolled.
A statement of research interest no longer than 750 words, which includes an explanation of how this seminar might bear on the student’s current or future research plans.
One example of written, academic work (25-30 pages maximum). Incomplete applications will not be considered.

All application materials can be submitted via the online application except for letters of recommendation, which can be emailed to mfranzen@lumenchristi.org or mailed to: Lumen Christi Institute, Graduate Seminars, 1220 East 58th Streeet, Chicago, IL 60637. Incomplete applications will not be considered. 15 students will be admitted to this seminar.
The Lumen Christi is an institute for the promotion of the Catholic Intellectual Tradition and is committed to the integration of the intellectual and spiritual life. The Institute welcomes seminar participants of all or no religious affiliation, and wants to assure all applicants that the opportunities to participate in devotional activities are optional.
Any further questions can be directed to Mark Franzen at mfranzen@lumenchristi.org.

Spousal Vision: Seeing the Church with Lumen Gentium
2014-09-16 19:00 | St. Procopius Abbey Church, 5601 College Rd. Lisle, IL 60532, Lisle, IL
John Cavadini (University of Notre Dame)
The Lumen Christi Institute is pleased to cosponsor this lecture, which is part of an annual lecture series on “The Documents of the Second Vatican Council” sponsored by St. Procopius Abbey & Benedictine University. Previous lecturers in this series include Fr. Robert Barron and Francis Cardinal George.
This event is free and open to the public. Please contact Fr. Becket Franks, O.S.B. with any questions at bfranks@procopius.org or (630) 829-9253.

"Isaiah: Prophet & Poet" Non-Credit Course
2014-10-06 18:00 - 2014-11-24 19:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Tuesdays, Oct. 7-Nov. 25
Gavin House, 1220 East 58th Street
6:00PM Informal Dinner
6:30PM Presentation
Fr. Paul Mankowski, S.J.
REGISTER HERE
He left a powerfully personal and enduring stamp on his and subsequent civilizations, while almost nothing is known of the man himself. Isaiah was not Israel’s first prophet, yet can be said to have created once-for-all the terms of prophetic expression. The vigor, clarity and assurance with which he conveyed his oracles imposed a characteristic shape on prophecy that to this day remains unbroken. As a poet, further, he brought into being a family of images so vital as to penetrate not only his own language but every language into which they have been translated. In this course, Fr. Mankowski will examine the prophet, and his post-Exilic acolytes, in the light of Israelite religion and the traditions of Hebrew poetry.
Tuesday, October 7
Zion Agonistes — Chapter 1
Tuesday, October 14
The Song of the Lord’s Vineyard — Chapters 2-5
Tuesday, October 21
The Call of the Prophet — Chapters 6-12
Tuesday, October 28
Oracles and Apocalypse — Chapters 13-27
Tuesday, November 4
Defeat and Restoration — Chapters 28-39
Tuesday, November 18
The Song of the Suffering Servant — Chapters 40-55
Tuesday, November 25
The Song of the Glorious Zion — Chapters 55-66
Intended for university students and recent graduates. Others interested in attending please contactinfo@lumenchristi.org.

A Guide to the Thought of Pope Francis
2014-10-16 12:00 - 13:30 | University Club of Chicago, 76 E Monroe St Chicago, IL 60603, Downtown, IL
Anna Bonta Moreland (Villanova University)
In this luncheon presentation, Argentinian-born theologian Anna Bonta Moreland employs Pope Francis’s Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (Joy of the Gospel) as a roadmap to the Pope’s vision for the Church and the Christian life as a call to evangelization. She shows how the Apostolic Exhortation is representative of how Pope Francis thinks through most issues.

Monastic Silence and a Visual Dialogue
2014-10-23 18:00 | Film Studies Center, Cobb 307, 5811 S Ellis Ave. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
A book talk and screening of documentary film-in-progress with Abbie Reese
cosponsored by the Department of Cinema and Media Studies and Calvert House

Abbie Reese will share the process entailed in a long-term oral history and visual arts project that is the basis for her recent book, Dedicated to God: An Oral History of Cloistered Nuns (Oxford University Press, 2014) and her documentary film in-progress, Chosen (Custody of the Eyes).
Set within the insular realm of the Corpus Christi Monastery, Chosen (Custody of the Eyes) is a collaborative ethnographic and documentary film in-progress that emerges from research starting in 2005 and an ongoing relationship with members of the Poor Clare Colettine nuns.Chosen will form a filmic portrait of a young woman in the liminal phase, evolving from “Heather” (a blogger, painter, and graphic design student) to a new identity within a cloistered order. Now renamed, “Sister Amata” is in the process of becoming; she is assimilating into the community and the enclosure, a 25,000-square foot monastery on fourteen-acre gated premises.
One of the strictest religious orders in existence, Poor Clare Colettine nuns follow an 800-year-old religious rule. Family members of the nuns are allowed up to four visits each year; they are always separated by the metal grille. This strict separation from the outside world serves a purpose: As cloistered contemplatives, the nuns intervene on behalf of humanity, observing the Liturgy of the Hours seven times a day and awaking at midnight to pray while the world sleeps. The nuns strive to become saints and “mothers of souls.” The enclosure –– rather than restricting them –– offers freedom; the metal grille keeps the world out.
Abbie will play audio clips from the oral history interviews, shows still photographs she made within the enclosure, and shares clips from the film-in-progress. For more information on the film-in-progress, visit this website.
You can read a write up on her book in the New Yorker HERE.

Schola Antiqua Concert: "Uncloistered: Sounds from the Convent"
2014-10-25 20:00 - 2014-10-26 14:30 | Sacred Heart Parish, 1077 Tower Rd. Winnetka, IL 60093, Winnetka, IL
“Uncloistered: Sounds from the Convent”
Saturday, October 25: 8:00pm
Sacred Heart Parish, Winnetka, IL
Sunday, October 26: 3:30pm
St. Clement Church, Chicago, IL
A concert by Schola Antiqua of Chicago Tickets available online or at the door (cash, check or credit)$25 adults / $10 student and senior
An expanded roster of outstanding female voices presents a wide-ranging program of music heard in convents before the turn of the seventeenth century. The ensemble will lure listeners into the sound world of nuns across medieval and early modern Europe, with soaring chants by Hildegard von Bingen, scintillating early polyphony from the Codex Las Huelgas, and poignant motets by Sulpitia Cesis.

The Modern Scientist as a Palimpsest of Three Fausts
2014-10-29 15:30 | Kent Hall, Room 120, 1020 E 58th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Stephen Meredith (University of Chicago)
cosponsored by the Theology & Religious Ethics Workshop
A palimpsest is a manuscript or painting produced over a previous work. This lecture will treat “the modern scientist” as a palimpsest of three versions of the Faust story: The Faust Chapbook by an unknown author (1586), Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1808/1832), and the late masterpiece by Thomas Mann, Doctor Faustus (1947). While none of these Fausts is purely a scientist (someone who primarily knows or seeks knowledge), the same can be said for those we consider to be scientists today, who deal in various mixtures of science and technology. It will focus on three issues raised by these works: 1) the changing relationship between science and technology 2) the changing relationship between the pursuit of knowledge and technique on one hand, and religion on the other and 3) scientists’ changing view of causality – and in particular, of the final cause (telos).

Solemn Vespers, Dinner, and Discussion at the Monastery of the Holy Cross
2014-11-01 16:30 - 20:00 | The Monastery of the Holy Cross, 3111 South Aberdeen St. Chicago, IL 60608, Chicago, IL
Join us on the Feast of All Saints for Solemn Vespers, dinner, and conversation with Prior Peter Funk at the Monastery of the Holy Cross. For Solemn Vespers, the monks will sing traditional Gregorian chant and be accompanied by its choir-in residence Schola Laudis. This is a rare opportunity to experience prayer with beautiful sacred music in its proper liturgical setting. To read more about Solemn Vespers at the monastery, visit HERE.
SCHEDULE:
4:30pm: Depart from Hyde Park
5:00pm: Welcome and Introduction
5:15pm: Office of Solemn Vespers
6:00pm: Dinner and discussion with Fr. Peter Funk
7:15pm: Office of Compline
8:00pm: Arrive back in Hyde Park
To find out more about liturgy at the monastery, go HERE.
Intended for university students and recent graduates. Others interested in attending please contactinfo@lumenchristi.org.

The Necessity of Goodness
2014-11-05 17:30 | Classics 110, 1010 E 59th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Rémi Brague (Sorbonne/University of Munich)
cosponsored by the France Chicago Center at the University of Chicago
We commonly conceive of the Good as being what we should do, sharing Aristotle’s rejection of Plato’s Idea of the Good and his reduction of the good to what can be done by a free subject. Since this subject is a human being, it must first come to be by being born, a process in which we don’t “do” anything and are radically non-free. To what extent can we call this process “good”? If not, we cannot ensure the perpetuation of humankind. Should humankind go on existing, and doing that for solid reasons, we will have to rehabilitate something like the Idea of the Good.
“Rémi Brague is one of the few scholars alive who is equally an expert on medieval Arabic, Jewish, and Latin philosophy (as well as on ancient Greek philosophy). He is an extraordinary linguist in both ancient and modern languages, which enables a truly subtle analysis of texts and ideas.”
—Kent Emery, Jr. (Professor of Liberal Studies, University of Notre Dame)

Does Christianity Need Metaphysics?
2014-11-06 17:30 | Swift Hall, 3rd Floor Lecture, 1025 E 58th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
a symposium with
Rémi Brague (Sorbonne/University of Munich)
Jean-Luc Marion (University of Chicago)
cosponsored by the France Chicago Center at the University of Chicago

Master Class on "On the God of the Christians" with Rémi Brague
2014-11-07 16:00 - 19:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
A master class discussion on
On the God of the Christians (and one or two others) by Rémi Brague

with Rémi Brague (Sorbonne/University of Munich)
REGISTER HERE
In this one-off seminar, participants will discuss the bookOn the God of the Christians with the author, philosopher Rémi Brague. They will discuss Prof. Brague’s philosophical treatment of the unique character of the Christian conception of God among religions and philosophies. Topics will include the nature of Christian monotheism; revelation; the relation of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism; the Trinity; the Good; and human freedom.
Participants will be provided with a complimentary copy of the book and are required to read in in preparation for the seminar.
“Rémi Brague is one of the few scholars alive who is equally an expert on medieval Arabic, Jewish, and Latin philosophy (as well as on ancient Greek philosophy). He is an extraordinary linguist in both ancient and modern languages, which enables a truly subtle analysis of texts and ideas.”
—Kent Emery, Jr. (Professor of Liberal Studies, University of Notre Dame)
This master class is open to all graduate and undergraduate students, including non-University of Chicago students. Copies of the book can be mailed or picked up at Gavin House. Space is limited and offered on a first-come, first-served basis. If you have any questions, please contact Mark Franzen.

The Myth of Romantic Love: Denis de Rougemont's Love in the Western World
2014-11-13 17:30 | Swift Hall, 3rd Floor Lecture, 1025 E 58th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Mark Shiffman (Villanova University)
cosponsored by the Medieval Studies Workshop
“…is there a notion of love abroad in the world which, although we do not yet realize it, renders the marriage bond intolerable in its very essence?” Denis de Rougemont, Love in the Western World
The celebration of passionate romantic love in the modern West has its cultural roots in the courtly poetry of medieval Provence. In Love in the Western World, Denis de Rougemont argues that this poetic tradition tacitly communicates the religious vision of the Cathars, a Gnostic dualist sect that disdained marriage and the body. His thesis unfolds into a provocative exploration of the sometimes hidden relationships of religion and culture, eros, God, nihilism and the question of a good life.
This lecture celebrates the 75th anniversary of the original publication of L’Amour et l’Occident.

Majoring in Fear: The Decline of the Humanities among College Students Facing an Uncertain Future
2014-11-14 13:00 - 14:30 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
a luncheon discussion with
Mark Shiffman (Villanova University)
REGISTER HERE
More than a decade ago, David Brooks coined “organization kids” to describe a generation of America’s elite university students driven from early childhood toward a nearly certain goal: success. Today, these students are not as confident that success is inevitable. They are often beleaguered by the fear that all of their effort and achievement won’t be enough. This anxiety has led to a steady decline in humanities majors across the country. In this discussion, Prof. Shiffman will make a case for the humanities as an antidote to this anxiety and will discuss the importance of asking life’s fundamental questions in a University education.
Students are encouraged to read Prof. Shiffman’s short piece from First Things as a preface to the discussion. Lunch will be provided.
SCHEDULE:
1:00pm Lunch
1:20pm Remarks by Prof. Shiffman
1:40pm Discussion
2:30pm Adjourn
This event is open to all university students.
Others interested in attending, please contact info@lumenchristi.org.

The Vocation of a Christian Law Professor
2015-01-02 17:00 - 20:00 | University Club of Chicago, 76 E Monroe St Chicago, IL 60603, Downtown, IL
An event for legal scholars and law students cosponsored by the Lumen Christi Institute and the Law Professors’ Christian Fellowship.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 2
4:00-7:00PM
University Club of Washington, DC
1135 16th Street NW
Washington, DC 20036
with
Barbara E. Armacost (University of Virginia Law School)
Robert Vischer (University of St. Thomas School of Law)
REGISTER HERE
This event is intended for legal scholars and law students. Others interested in attending, please contact info@lumenchristi.org or 773-955-5887.
EVENT SCHEDULE:
4:00
“The Vocation of a Christian Lawyer”
with Barbara E. Armacost & Robert Vischer
5:15
Vespers, Fr. Paul K. Rourke, S.J.
5:45
Reception

"Figures of Renaissance, Reform, & Renewal" Non-Credit Course
2015-01-06 00:00 - 2015-03-03 00:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Tuesdays, January 6-March 3
Gavin House, 1220 East 58th Street
6:00pm: Informal Dinner
6:30pm: Presentation
REGISTER HERE
Intended for university students and recent graduates. Others interested in attending please contact info@lumenchristi.org.
SCHEDULE:
Tuesday, January 6
Geert Grote and Devotio Moderna
Aaron Canty, Saint Xavier University
Tuesday, January 13
Julian of Norwich
Scott Moringiello, DePaul University
Tuesday, January 20
A Recipe for Conversion and Reform: St. Catherine of Siena’s Letter 346 to Pope Urban VI
Karen Scott, DePaul University
Tuesday, January 27
The Council of Constance
Scott Moringiello, DePaul University
Tuesday, February 3
Erudition, Education, and Reform:
Erasmus and Renaissance Christian Humanism
Brad Gregory, University of Notre Dame
Tuesday, February 10
Spiritualism in the Reformation
Susan Schreiner, University of Chicago
Tuesday, February 17
Teresa of Ávila
Paul Mankowski, S.J., LCI Scholar-in-Residence
Tuesday, February 24
Dante Alighieri
Ada Palmer, University of Chicago
Tuesday, March 3
The Syncretic, Radical and Hybrid Christianities of Renaissance Humanists
Ada Palmer, University of Chicago

Thomas Merton: the Writing Life and the Contemplative Life
2015-01-16 17:00 | Social Sciences, Room 122, 1126 E 59th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Lawrence Cunningham (University of Notre Dame)
cosponsored by Calvert House and the Chicago Chapter of the International Thomas Merton Society
Among the most well-known spiritual figures of the 20th Century, Thomas Merton (1915-1968) was an aspiring poet and writer before his conversion and eventual entrance into a Trappist Monastery in 1941. It took time for Merton to understand that his writing was not alien to his chosen contemplative vocation but integral to it. This realization helped him to write works such as Thoughts in Solitude and New Seeds of Contemplation and deepened his spiritual development in all of its complexity. Merton helps us to understand how writing might be considered a contemplative act suitable for every state of the writer’s life.
January 31, 2015 marks the 100th anniversary of Thomas Merton’s birth.

Abraham and the Absoluteness of God
2015-01-21 17:30 | Swift Hall, 3rd Floor Lecture, 1025 E 58th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Jon Levenson (Harvard University)
Cosponsored by the University of Chicago Divinity School and the Jewish Studies Workshop
The patriarch Abraham has a central role in the self-understanding of Jews, Christians, and Muslims. He is also widely considered a symbol of common ancestry, moral conviction and future unity among the three “Abrahamic” religions. This lecture will consider the distinct interpretations Judaism, Christianity, and Islam have given to the biblical narratives concerning Abraham, exploring the enduring theological divergences and agreements.

The Interior Life: Literary, Psychoanalytic, and Spiritual Perspectives
2015-01-28 17:30 | Swift Hall, 3rd Floor Lecture, 1025 E 58th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
a symposium with
Jonathan Lear (University of Chicago)
Bernard McGinn (University of Chicago)
Lisa Ruddick (University of Chicago)
Rosanna Warren (University of Chicago)
Thomas Pavel, Moderator (University of Chicago)
cosponsored by the John U. Nef Committee on Social Thought
REGISTER HERE
Many of the cultural products of the world’s civilizations have arisen out of the inner life of religious figures, poets, and philosophers, in which the roots of self-knowledge, creative imagination, or communion with God are found. Without neglecting the interior lives of ordinary people, one can cite as examples Socrates’s mystic trances, St. Teresa of Avila’s discovery of an “interior castle,” Keat’s practice of “negative capability,” or the self-knowledge Freud found in his dreams and self-analysis. What does it mean to have an interior life and to what extent is such a life made more difficult in the busyness of our technological culture?

Master Class on The Interior Castle of Teresa of Ávila
2015-01-30 15:00 - 19:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Bernard McGinn (University of Chicago)
REGISTER HERE
In this three-hour seminar, Prof. McGinn will lead students through the major themes of Teresa of Ávila’s The Interior Castle, a masterpiece of Christian mysticism by one of the most profound spiritual figures in the History of Christianity.
Participants will be provided with a complimentary copy of the book if needed and are required to read it in preparation for the seminar. The Paulist Press version of Teresa of Avila: The Interior Castle is preferred but not required if you already own another version.
This master class is open to all graduate and undergraduate students, including non-University of Chicago students. Copies of the book can be mailed or picked up at Gavin House. Space is limited and offered on a first-come, first-served basis. If you have any questions, please contact Mark Franzen.

Aquinas' Third Way of Proving a God: Logic or Love?
2015-02-05 17:30 | Classics 110, 1010 E 59th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Cosponsored by the Medieval Studies Workshop
Thomas Aquinas’ famous five ways of proving the existence of a God continue to intrigue and perplex his readers. The most troublesome is perhaps the third—the one based on the possible and the necessary—to which all sorts of objections can be heard: logical, scientific, theological, phenomenological, even Thomistic. Contrary to the usual assumption, however, the kind of possibility and necessity that the third way regards does not seem to be the logical kind. In a sense, it has more to do with love than with logic. This reading puts the problems that the third way faces, and also the God that it affirms, in a rather different light.
Fr. Brock will also be leading a summer seminar for graduate students in Rome this summer on “Metaphysics and the Soul in Thomas Aquinas.”

Master Class on "The Causality of Petitionary Prayer: C.S. Lewis, Peter Geach, & Thomas Aquinas"
2015-02-06 15:00 - 18:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Stephen L. Brock (Pontifical University of the Holy Cross)
REGISTER HERE
If, as Christians believe, God is all-wise and all-good, what sense does it make to ask Him for things? He is already perfectly aware of our true needs, and He already wants to provide for them. Many of our petitions, it seems, will be ignorant and misguided; and the others, unnecessary and superfluous. And if He already knows everything that will happen, can our requests really make a difference anyway? Yet petitionary prayer is part of the whole Christian tradition. Jesus himself practiced it, exhorted His followers to do so, and taught them how. In this seminar, we will first look at how petitionary prayer is defended by two 20th-century Christian thinkers, C. S. Lewis and Peter Geach. Then we will examine Thomas Aquinas’s position on the question. The discussion will take us into such thorny topics as time and eternity, divine foreknowledge and human freedom, and even predestination.
This master class is open to all graduate and undergraduate students, including non-University of Chicago students. Copies of the readings will be provided. Space is limited and offered on a first-come, first-served basis. If you have any questions, please contact Mark Franzen.
Fr. Brock will also be leading a summer seminar for graduate students in Rome this summer on “Metaphysics and the Soul in Thomas Aquinas.”

Theology and Evolutionary Naturalism: How Much Can Biology Explain?
2015-02-19 17:30 | BSLC 001, 924 E 57th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Thursday, February 19, 4:30pm
BSLC 001, 924 East 57th Street
John Haught (Georgetown University)
REGISTER HERE
Many scientists and philosophers claim that a Darwinian understanding of life has rendered the idea of God unnecessary. Descent, diversity, design, death, suffering, sex, intelligence, morality, and religion—features of life that had previously been understood theologically—now seem open to a purely natural explanation. This lecture will consider whether the claims of evolutionary naturalists are coherent and whether a theological understanding of life can still be reconciled with biological accounts.
cosponsored by the Program on Medicine and Religion and the Theology and Religious Ethics Workshop

Schola Antiqua Concert: "The Lion's Ear: Music for Leo X"
2015-02-20 19:30 - 2015-02-21 20:00 | Bond Chapel & Swift Hall, 1025 E. 58th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Friday, February 20, 2015, 7:30pm
Bond Chapel, University of Chicago
Saturday, February 21, 8:00pm
St. Clement Church, Chicago
A concert by Schola Antiqua of Chicago
Tickets available online or at the door (cash, check or credit)
$25 adults / $10 student and senior
Schola Antiqua teams up the talented young lutenist Ryaan Ahmed to present music in the milieu of Pope Leo X (r. 1513-21), one of the sixteenth century’s most important patrons of the arts. Part of the program will be devoted to sacred works that Leo “the Lion” would have encountered in the Sistine ]Chapel, an institution known for producing the most luxurious music of the time. The second half of the program will feature secular music from the pontiff’s esteemed lute player, Francesco da Milano. Ahmed will showcase some of the rousing and virtuosic sounds from the pope’s private quarters.

The New Atheism: A Conversation with John Haught
2015-02-21 13:00 - 14:30 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
REGISTER HERE
In this luncheon conversation with students, Prof. John Haught will discuss the New Atheist critiques of religion. Do such arguments live up to a strict adherence to reason? Do they do justice to the religions they rebuke or, for that matter, the atheism they champion?
This event is open to all University of Chicago students. Lunch will be served. Others interested in attending, please contact info@lumenchrisit.org.

Science, Faith, and the New Atheism
2015-02-21 13:00 - 14:30 | University Club of Chicago, 76 E Monroe St Chicago, IL 60603, Downtown, IL
John Haught (Georgetown University
The bestselling books by the “New Atheists” Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett and Christopher Hitchens provide colorful portraits of the evils of religions, especially those that profess belief in a personal God. In their passionate denunciation of faith in God, the New Atheists appeal not only to morality but also to reason to convince readers of the absolute wrongness of belief in God. This lecture will summarize the main claims of the New Atheists and examine whether these claims are themselves reasonable.

Lectio Divina at the Benedictine Monastery of the Holy Cross
2015-02-28 17:00 - 21:00 | The Monastery of the Holy Cross, 3111 South Aberdeen St. Chicago, IL 60608, Chicago, IL
Intended for current university students. Others interested in attending please contact info@lumenchristi.org.

Join us for an evening of prayer with Benedictine Monks at the Monastery of the Holy Cross. Students will participate in the prayer of the Divine Office (Vespers and Compline), dine with the monks, and learn about the Benedectine tradition of Sacred Reading or Lectio Divina with Fr. Peter Funk, O.S.B., prior of the monastery and alum of the University of Chicago. Divine Reading is an ancient Christian practice of reading scripture that includes reading, meditation, prayer, and contemplation (Lectio, Meditatio, Oratio, and Contemplatio). This is an excellent opportunity to get into the prayerful spirit of Lent.
SCHEDULE:
4:00pm: Meet at Gavin House (1220 E. 58th St.)
4:30pm: Depart from Hyde Park
5:00pm: Arrive at the Monastery of the Holy Cross, Welcome and Introduction
5:15pm: Office of Vespers
5:40pm: Dinner
6:20pm: Introduction to Lectio Divina by Fr. Peter Funk
7:15pm: Office of Compline
8:00pm: Arrive back in Hyde Park
To find out more about liturgy at the monastery, go HERE.

John Paul II and the Crisis of Modern Times
2015-03-05 17:30 | Classics 110, 1010 E 59th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Russell Hittinger (University of Tulsa)
This lecture will compare the great pontificates that represented two “modern times”: Leo XIII at the end of the 19th century and John Paul II at the end of the 20th. Between Leo’s birth in 1810 to JPII’s death in 2005, the lived experience of these two men encompass all modern times, both secular and ecclesiastical – from Napoleon to the iPhone. What was at stake for the Church over the course of this rapidly changing century? How did the social teaching of these two popes differ in addressing the modern crises of their day?

Pope Benedict's Jesus of Nazareth Non-Credit Course
2015-04-06 18:00 - 2015-05-18 18:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Tuesdays, April 7-May 19
Gavin House, 1220 East 58th Street
6:00pm: Dinner
6:30pm: Presentation
Paul Mankowski, S.J. (Lumen Christi Institute Scholar-in-Residence)
REGISTER HERE
Open to current university students and recent graduates. Others interested in attending please contactinfo@lumenchristi.org.
“This book is solely an expression of my personal search ‘for the face of the Lord’.” Pope Benedict XVI’s Jesus of Nazareth is the product of a lifetime’s prayerful contemplation of scripture by an eminent theologian, for whom the person of Jesus is the key to understanding both the sacred text and the human person: “Jesus has brought God and with God the truth about our origin and destiny: faith, hope, and love.” The course will provide background for recognizing the several tributaries of Christian theology and scholarship that Benedict brings together in this work, and will examine in detail the chief moments in the life of Jesus on which he throws new light. No prior familiarity with the work of Josef Ratzinger is presumed.

Science and Religion: The Myth of Conflict
2015-04-09 19:00 | University of Chicago, 5801 S Ellis Ave Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
In many ways, the supposed conflict between science and religion is really a conflict between “scientific materialism” and religion. The lecture will review the story of the relation between Christianity and science, discuss several discoveries of the twentieth century (primarily in physics), and argue that these are more consonant with the traditional Judeo-Christian view of the cosmos and of human beings than with scientific materialism.

Is the Human Mind Reducible to Physics?
2015-04-10 12:00 - 13:30 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
a luncheon discussion with
Stephen M. Barr (University of Delaware)
REGISTER HERE
This event is open to University of Chicago students. Lunch will be served. Others interested in attending, please contactinfo@lumenchrisit.org.
Materialism or “physicalism” holds that all things, including human beings, are completely explicable in physical terms. While ancient and medieval thinkers expressed this view, it gained a new power with the success of Newtonian physics, whose laws were universal and deterministic, giving rise to the belief that the entire physical universe is a closed system of cause and effect. Does this reduction of human beings to purely physical factors eliminate the possibility of free will? Is an understanding of the human mind as immaterial made impossible by the discoveries of the natural sciences? In this discussion, Prof. Stephen Barr will argue that there is more to the human mind than physicalism can explain, and that reason and science, including recent discoveries in quantum mechanics, imply that the human mind is immaterial.
Participants are encouraged to read THIS SHORT PAPER by Prof. Barr in preparation for the discussion.

The Emergence of the Church's Culture of Biblical Interpretation and Theology: Rhetoric, Philology, and Gnosticism in the 2nd Century
2015-04-15 16:30 | University of Chicago, 5801 S Ellis Ave Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Lewis Ayres (University of Durham)
To understand the exegetical culture that nurtured and formed classical Patristic exegesis, we must attend to some understudied features of the generation of Irenaeus and Clement of Alexandria. This generation, in response to the exegetical cultures of ‘Gnostic’ thinkers, developed the exegetical practice that became fundamental for all later Christian doctrinal disputes and for Christian speculative thought. Bringing this historical moment into clearer focus helps us think about the character of Christian thought today.

Master Class on "Athanasius and the Struggle for Orthodoxy"
2015-04-17 14:00 - 18:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Brian Daley, S.J. (University of Notre Dame)
REGISTER HERE
This master class seminar will cover the theological and doctrinal issues surrounding the First Council of Nicaea, focusing on the Arian controversy over the nature of Christ in relation to the Father. Participants will read and discuss primary texts from the early Nicene controversy with one of the world’s leading scholars of the Patristic period.
Readings:
The Controversy over Arius of Alexandria: Letters by Arius, Alexander of Alexandria, and Eusebius of Ceasaraea:

Rusch, William G. (ed.), The Trinitarian Controversy (Fortress, 1980) pp. 29-44.
Hardy, Edward R. (ed.), Christology of the Later Fathers (Westminster, 1954) pp. 329-340.

From Athanasius of Alexandria:

Oration Against the Arians, chs. I-X, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers; Second Series (Hendrickson, 1994) vol. 4, pp. 303-326.
On the Decrees of Nicea, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers; Second Series (Hendrickson, 1994) vol. 4, pp. 149-172.

Secondary Reading:

Anatolios, Khaled, Retrieving Nicaea (Baker, 2011) pp. 15-31; 99-133.

This master class is open to all graduate and undergraduate students, including non-University of Chicago students. Copies of the readings will be provided. Space is limited and offered on a first-come, first-served basis. If you have any questions, please contact Mark Franzen.

Schola Antiqua Concert: A Renaissance Call to Arms
2015-04-18 15:00 - 2015-04-19 14:00 | Le Jardin at the First Division Museum, Cantigny Park, 1S151 Winfield Rd. Wheaton, IL 60189, Wheaton, IL, IL
Saturday, April 18, 3:00pm
Le Jardin at the First Division Museum, Cantigny Park, Wheaton, IL
$5 Parking; Free concert admission. DETAILS HERE
Sunday, April 19, 2:00pm
Art Institute of Chicago
Concert included with museum admission. DETAILS HERE
Schola Antiqua celebrates the fascination with arms and battle in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, particularly in the realm of sacred music, in which the notions of the Christian soldier and Christ as warrior played significant roles.

Schola Antiqua of Chicago is currently the Artists-in-Residence at the Lumen Christi Institute. More information can be found HERE.

CANCELLED: Dante's Theology of the Future: Inferno XIX and Paradiso XXXIII
2015-04-23 16:00 | Gallery Ballroom, Hotel Palomar, 505 N State St. Chicago, IL 60654, Downtown, IL
Due to the funeral of our friend, supporter, and Episcopal Moderator His Eminence Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I. taking place on Thursday, we will unfortunately have to cancel the event with Giuseppe Mazzotta on “Dante’s Theology of the Future.”

If you have already paid a registration fee, you will be refunded in the coming days. We also plan to reschedule the event for sometime in the near future.

…so did I strive with this new mystery:
I yearned to know how could our image fit
into that circle, how could it conform;
but my own wings could not take me so high-
then a great flash of understanding struck
my mind, and suddenly its wish was granted.
At this point power failed high fantasy
but, like a wheel in perfect balance turning,
I felt my will and my desire impelled
by the Love that moves the sun and the other stars.
– Dante, The Divine Comedy: Paradise, Canto XXXIII, trans. Mark Musa

Amor Vincit Omnia: Keynote Lecture by Giuseppe Mazzotta
2015-04-24 16:30 | Breasted Hall, Oriental Institute, 1155 E 58th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Giuseppe Mazzotta (Yale University)
Keynote Lecture for the Graduate Student Conference on “Amor Vincit Omnia: Love as a Destructive Force in Italian Arts and Literature”

Sponsored by: The Franke Institute for the Humanities, the Norman Waite Harris Fund, the Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Chicago, the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, the Department of Art History, the Center for Study of Gender and Sexuality, the Western Mediterranean Workshop, and the Lumen Christi Institute.
For more information, please contact: Taylor Dimke at tdimke [at] uchicago.edu.

The Family in the Changing Economy
2015-04-30 16:00 - 21:00 | International House at the University of Chicago, 1414 E 59th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
How does today’s economy impact the modern family? Several trends link mounting burdens on family life to economics: children are raised amid familial and fiscal instability, young people are delaying or forgoing marriage, the elderly are made increasingly vulnerable with a growing distance between generations and rising health care costs, and the families of economic refugees are often divided across national borders or go legally unrecognized. Yet families form us as persons and are integral both to society and the economy. Situated between the 2014 and 2015 Synod Of Bishops On The Family, this symposium will feature dialogue among Bishop Cantù, economists, and scholars on what insights Catholic social teaching and contemporary economics can offer into the current crisis of the family in the changing economy.
Opening Remarks
Blase J. Cupich, Archbishop of Chicago
Keynote Address
Oscar Cantú, Bishop of Las Cruces, NM; Chair, USCCB Committee on International Justice and Peace
Panelists
Pierre-André Chiappori, Columbia University
William Evans, University of Notre Dame
Christine Firer Hinze, Fordham University
Valerie Ramey, University of California, San Diego
This program is part of the Lumen Christi Institute’s Seventh Annual Conference in Economics and Catholic Social Thought, a continuing exchange between research economists, bishops, and scholars.

Presented by the Lumen Christi Institute for Catholic Thought. Co-sponsored by The International House Global Voices Program, & The Seng Foundation Program for Market-Based Programs and Catholic Values at the Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts, and the Kellogg Institute for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame.

On a Possible Epistemology of Revelation
2015-05-06 16:30 | University of Chicago, 5801 S Ellis Ave Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Jean-Luc Marion (University of Chicago)
cosponsored by the Philosophy Department
How is it possible to admit a rational truth that at the same moment could not be achieved by mere rationality? This implies a revision of the definition of knowing, and of the relation between will and understanding. Saint Augustine and Pascal – with some others – may give a clue.

The Jewish Roots of Catholic Charity
2015-05-07 16:00 | Jenner & Block, 45th Floor, 353 N Clark St. Chicago, IL 60654, Downtown, IL
Gary A. Anderson (University of Notre Dame; author of Charity: The Place of the Poor in the Biblical Tradition)
It has long been acknowledged that Jews and Christians distinguished themselves through charity to the poor. Though ancient Greeks and Romans were also generous, they funded theaters and baths rather than poorhouses and orphanages. How might we explain this difference? In this significant reappraisal of charity in the biblical tradition, Gary Anderson argues that the poor constituted the privileged place where Jews and Christians met God. Though concerns for social justice were not unknown to early Jews and Christians, the poor achieved the importance they did primarily because they were thought to be “living altars,” a place to make a sacrifice, a loan to God that he, as the ultimate guarantor, could be trusted to repay in turn. Contrary to the assertions of Reformation and modern critiques, belief in a heavenly treasury was not just about self-interest. Sifting through biblical and post biblical texts, Anderson shows how charity affirms the goodness of the created order; the world was created through charity and therefore rewards it.
Hosted by Jenner & Block. Cosponsored by The Lumen Christi Institute, The Catholic Lawyers Guild, The Decalogue Society of Lawyers, The Jewish Judges Association of Illinois, and The National Center for the Laity.

Master Class on "Seeing and Being Seen: a Reading of Nicholas of Cusa's "The Vision of God""
2015-05-08 14:00 - 18:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Jean-Luc Marion (University of Chicago)
REGISTER HERE
Nicholas of Cusa, in a famous essay on The Vision of God, explained how and why experiencing God does not mean first seeing an image of the divine, but to be under the gaze of Christ. This difference leads one to distinguish very clearly the icon from the idol. Participants will read The Vision of God in preparation for this discussion.
Copies of the book Nicholas of Cusa: Selected Spiritual Writings (Paulist Press, 1997) will be provided free of charge for participants.
This master class is open to all graduate and undergraduate students, including non-University of Chicago students. Space is limited and offered on a first-come, first-served basis. If you have any questions, please contact Mark Franzen.

Luncheon Discussion with Jim Perry on Ethics in Private Equity
2015-05-13 11:45 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
REGISTER HERE
Intended for Booth School of Business and other University of Chicago students.
Sponsored by the Lumen Christi Institute, Booth Catholic Students, the Christians in Business Group, and the Private Equity Group. Lunch will be served.

Metaphysics and the Soul in Thomas Aquinas
2015-06-18 23:00 - 2015-06-23 23:00 | Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, Piazza Santa Apollinare, 49, 00186 Roma, Italy, Rome, Italy
This seminar will be a five-day, intensive discussion of St Thomas Aquinas’s account of the nature of the soul, with particular attention paid to the metaphysical principles on which it rests. The sessions will center on Summa Theologiae, I, qq. 75-77, concerning the soul in itself, its essential relation to the body, and its role as the primary principle of vital activity. Participants will also discuss relevant passages from other works of St. Thomas, as well as his historical influences (such as Plato, Aristotle, and Augustine) and some contemporary literature on the topic. Finally, the seminar will take up related issues, such as Aquinas’s understanding of the relation between metaphysics and theology, his handling of the Augustinian tradition, his reaction to the Averroists, and how his account of the soul relates to later philosophical developments such as Cartesianism and personalism.
Format: There will be two 2 ½ hour sessions each day. Each session will include an opening lecture and seminar-style discussion of the text and the issues at hand. Students will be expected to prepare the readings carefully and participate in the discussions of the material.
Location: The seminar will take place at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome. Students will be provided with a travel stipend, accommodations, and meals.
Application Information:  This seminar will be open to Ph.D. students in the humanities and social sciences (such as philosophy, theology, & medieval studies).
Applicants will be required to submit:

A completed online application form found HERE.
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 except for letters of recommendation, which can be emailed to mfranzen@lumenchristi.org or mailed to: Lumen Christi Institute, Graduate Seminars, 1220 East 58th Streeet, Chicago, IL 60637. Incomplete applications will not be considered. 15 students will be admitted to this seminar.
Application materials must be received by 11:59pm CST on FEBRUARY 15, 2015.
The Lumen Christi is an institute for the promotion of the Catholic Intellectual Tradition and is committed to the integration of the intellectual and spiritual life. The Institute welcomes seminar participants of all or no religious affiliation, and wants to assure all applicants that the opportunities to participate in devotional activities are optional.
Any further questions can be directed to Mark Franzen at mfranzen@lumenchristi.org.
