Catholicism: A Global History from the French Revolution to Pope Francis
2023-02-09 18:00 - 19:30 (America/Chicago)
This event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact info@lumenchristi.org. This event is co-sponsored by the History Department at the University of Chicago.
The story of Roman Catholicism has never followed a singular path. In no time period has this been more true than over the last two centuries. Beginning with the French Revolution, extending to the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, and concluding with present-day crises, John T. McGreevy chronicles the dramatic upheavals and internal divisions shaping the most multicultural, multilingual, and global institution in the world.
In his latest book, John McGreevy gives a magisterial history of the centuries-long conflict between “progress” and “tradition” in the world’s largest international institution.

Master Class on "Catholicism and Upheaval Between the World Wars"
2023-02-10 15:00 - 18:30 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Open to current students and faculty. Others interested in participating should contact info@lumenchristi.org. All registrants will receive pdfs of the selected readings, which should be read in advance of the class. The first 20 registrants will receive a free copy of Catholicism: A Global History from the French Revolution to Pope Francis.
This Master Class will use a mix of primary and secondary sources to examine global Catholicism in the thirty years preceding the opening of the Second Vatican Council in 1962. Themes include the political crisis of the 1930s and the turn toward democracy, Catholicism and post WWII decolonization and the “return to the sources” that so shaped the Second Vatican Council.
Readings:
Required: John T. McGreevy, Catholicism: A Global History from the French Revolution to Pope Francis, (Norton, 2022), ix-xiv, 187-271.
Recommended:
Samuel Moyn, Christian Human Rights, (UPenn Press, 2015), 65-100.
Elizabeth Foster, “’Entirely Christian and Entirely African’: Catholic African Students in France in the Era of Independence,” Journal of African History 56 (2015), 239-59.
“In the Face of the World’s Crisis: A Manifesto by European Catholics Sojourning in America,” Commonweal (August 21, 1942), 415-421.
James Chappel, “The Catholic Origins of Totalitarianism Theory in Interwar Europe,” Modern Intellectual History 8 (2011), 561-590.
Schedule:
2:00-3:20 | Session 1
3:20-3:40 | Break
3:40-5:00 | Session 2
5:00-5:30 | Reception

Winter 2023 Fundamental Questions Seminar: Sophocles' Antigone
2023-02-16 19:00 - 20:30 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Open to current undergraduate students at the University of Chicago. Registration is capped at 20. Students who register after capacity has been reached will be put on a waitlist. All registrants will be provided with a copy of the text.
“For death is gain to him whose life, like mine, is full of misery.”
Here is the paradigmatic tragic lament, wrenched from Antigone in Sophocles’ famous play. But what is tragedy? Is life miserable because it is meaningless? Or is the tragedy not that life has no value, but that it has too many values? What does one do when one’s responsibilities to family, country, and religion collide? And how does one hold onto one’s freedom and identity in the face of undeniable, but incompatible, demands? Join us as we explore what this ancient text about a young woman struggling to bury her brother can tell us about our own more modern–and less melodramatic–lives.
This event is part of Lumen Christi’s Fundamental Questions seminar, a quarterly reading group designed for undergraduate students at the University of Chicago. By fostering intellectually rigorous conversation around culturally resonant texts, we aim to allow students to experience the force of the deep existential concerns which animate our lives: “Where do my values come from? What is the good life? How can I become happy?” Our aim is not to answer such fundamental questions, but rather to equip students with the intellectual skills needed to recognize and articulate them for themselves.
This fundamental questions seminar meets three times during the quarter. For each session, we will meet and discuss over dinner. Dinner is served at 6:00pm. Discussion begins at 6:15.
SCHEDULE
6:00 PM Dinner | 6:15 PM Discussion
Week 3 : Thursday, January 19: lines 1-331 (p. 3-16)
Week 5 : Thursday, February 2: lines 332-780 (p. 16-36)
Week 7 : Thursday, February 16: lines 781-end (p. 36-60)

Ash Wednesday Reflection with Archbishop Borys Gudziak
2023-02-22 01:00 | 5554 S. Woodlawn Ave., Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Registration required. Open only to current students at the Univesity of Chicago. Registration is capped at 20. This event will be held at the Lumen Christi Woodlawn Residence for Graduate Students.
Join us for a special evening program for students with Metropolitan Borys Gudziak.
Metropolitan Borys is the head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in the United States. He is most known his work with the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv. After his PhD at Harvard University, he moved to post-Soviet Ukraine in the 1990’s and helped found–and then lead–the only Catholic University between Poland and Japan. He is currently the chair for the USCCB committee on domestic justice and human development.
The evening will begin at 6 p.m., just after a 5 p.m. Mass at Calvert House, followed by a simple soup supper. Metropolitan Borys will offer some informal remarks and take questions. This is an excellent opportunity to speak with an intelligent, international church leader in an intimate setting. Talk to him about best spiritual practices during Lent, the war in Ukraine, or his favorite gelato flavor in Rome. He will have incisive opinions about all of the above and more. This will be a great way to start this penitential season.
Schedule:
6:00 PM | Gathering
6:30 PM | Simple Soup Supper
7:00 PM | Reflection by Metropolitan Gudziak

Graduate Reading Group on "The Works of Frederick Douglass"
2023-02-22 17:30 - 18:30 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Open to current graduate students students at the University of Chicago. Participants can come to whichever sessions they choose. Others interested in participating should contact info@lumenchristi.org. Wine and cheese reception to follow.
Frederick Douglass is, without a doubt, a great American writer and orator. Largely self taught, he wove together the traditions of American rhetoric and law, sacred scripture, classical insight, and the romantic language of his age. In so doing, he became a voice of conscience for the United States, a leading light in the abolition movement, and one of the most famous and respected men of his age–of any color.
Douglass has lasting importance, and his language remains fresh and immediate. His writing shows keen psychological insight, deep faith, and moral fervor. It also throws a unique light on turning points of our national history, on the ideals espoused by Americans, and the legacy these have unto the present day. Douglass’ writings deserve continued study and contemplation for their timeless insights into human nature and the moral life, and his uniquely powerful expression of what it means to be an American.
In a time where Americans are investigating anew the history of slavery and prejudice, Douglass provides a unique lens, grounded substantively in faith and authentic personal experience. This reading group will be an opportunity to explore important themes, like the grounds for an ethic of human dignity, the place of faith in public life, the nature of the American idea, and much more.
SCHEDULE
February 1 – What Does Slavery Do to Human Souls?
4:30-5:30 PM
Autobiography

Selections from the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and My Bondage and My Freedom

February 8 – The Civil War and Meaning of the Union
4:30-5:30 PM
Speeches

“The Mission of the War”
“What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”

February 15 – Postwar
4:30-5:30 PM
Journalism

“The Lessons of the Hour”

February 22 – Reckoning and Reconciliation
4:30-5:30 PM

‘To my Former Master”
Chapter 37, the reunion narrative, from Life and Times of Frederick Douglass

Lessons from the Past to Heal the Future: A Perspective on healing Ukraine post-war
2023-02-23 13:00 - 14:30 | University Club of Chicago, 76 E Monroe St Chicago, IL 60603, Downtown, IL
This event is open to the public. Registration is required. Please contact info@lumenchristi.org with any questions.
As a Church historian, Metropolitan Borys Gudziak has dedicated his vocation to transcribing and articulating the experience of the underground Church in Ukraine during the 20th century. These lessons of perseverance and adherence to the gospel—embodying the cross, death and resurrection—form the foundation of the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, where Metropolitan Borys was at the beginnings of its re-birth and now serves as its president.
At this luncheon, hear Metropolitan Gudziak draw deep from these hard-earned lessons from the past to discuss strategies for healing the wounds in the body of Christ in post-war Ukraine.

Ideologies of War and Theologies of Healing: Ukraine one year later
2023-02-23 18:00 - 20:00 | Swift Hall, 3rd Floor Lecture, 1025 E 58th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
This event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact info@lumenchristi.org. This event is co-presented with Fordham University’s Orthodox Christian Studies Center, and co-sponsored by the Sheptysky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies, Commonweal Magazine, America Media, the University of Chicago’s Martin Marty Center for the Public Understanding of Religion, the Three Hierarchs Orthodox Christian Fellowship, and CNEWA.
One year later, the war in Ukraine has risen and fallen in the news cycle but remains an ever-pressing issue in Europe and abroad. Scholars, pundits, and public figures have done much to diagnose the ideological engines that drive the conflict, yet even the most careful public reflection fails to grasp the interrelationship between the religious and cultural forces in play. Just as religion has been weaponized in this geopolitical conflict, so too can it be wielded to tend to these wounds. This panel turns to Church leaders, international relations experts, scientists, and scholars fluent in the traditions of the Christian East common to Russia and Ukraine—to explore principles that can aid in the just-peacemaking and the healing of trauma inflicted by the war.
Join us for this panel discussion featuring Metropolitan Borys Gudziak (Ukrainian Archeparchy of Philadelphia), Elizabeth Prodromou (Boston College), Perry Hamalis (North Central College), and Gayle Woloschak (Northwestern University). The event will be followed by a reception.

Winter Non-Credit Course | Heresies, Ancient and Modern: The Truth about Error
2023-02-28 19:00 - 20:30 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Tuesdays, Jan. 10-Feb. 28
6:00pm: Dinner
6:30pm: Presentation
Intended for university students and recent graduates. Others interested in attending please contact info@lumenchristi.org.
Registrants are free to attend as many sessions as they choose. Sessions do not presuppose previous attendance or prior knowledge of the subject.
What is “heresy?” At first glance, the term “heresy” might be dismissed as anachronistic, or even as repellent as the term “inquisition” or “auto-da-fe.” Surprisingly, the Greek root of the term “heresy” does not mean “error,” but “choice.” Heresy entails a selective partiality that in one way or another rejects the integral fullness of catholic truth. Certain heresies are recurrent. For example, Pope Francis has signaled the dangers of neo-gnosticism and neo-Pelagianism, heresies that threatened the integrity of Christian truth in the early Church.
This course will revisit some prominent heresies in their ancient and modern forms and pose these questions: Why do people find a given heresy attractive? How does heresy reveal a particularly pressing issue? How does a specific heresy compromise the fullness of truth?
Schedule:
January 10: What is heresy? Biblical Revelation; Ancient & Modern Gnosticism & the Scandal of the Cross
January 17: A Perfect Church? The Scandal of Sinful Pastors: from 4th century to the Present
January 24: Christological Heresies: Safeguarding the Saving Truth of the Incarnation
January 31: Pelagianism: The Perennial Attraction of Self-Salvation.
February 7: Enthusiasm: the Holy Spirit Run Amok, from 2nd century Montanism to Contemporary Spiritualisms
February 14: Atheism: the Ultimate Heresy? The Idolatries of Mammon, Nation, Body, and Race
February 21: Culture of Relativism: Catholic Fullness vs. Heretical Partialness
February 28: The Spiritual Lives of Contemporary Young People: “Therapeutic, Moralistic Deism?”

Our Troubled Minds, Our Anxious Age, and the Ancient Alternative of Cistercian Spirituality: An Interdisciplinary Dialogue
2023-03-18 13:00 - 15:00 | ONLINE, World Wide Web, INTERNET
Watch the Recording Here
This event is co-presented by the Lumen Christi Institute and the St. Anselm Institute for Catholic Thought at the University of Virginia. Find out more at their website: https://www.stanselminstitute.org/index.php/publicectures/upcominglectures/270-march-18-2023-public-lecture
Have you ever been afflicted by a lack of focus, feelings of loneliness, debilitating anxieties, or inexplicable bouts of sadness, anger or despair in the midst of great personal achievements? Can advances in neurological medicine and pharmaceutical therapies heal our broken hearts, fix our troubled minds, and lead us to even greater personal triumphs? Many hope so, turning to neuro-chemical treatments that soothe our brains without bringing clarity to our difficulties and the social conditions within which we live. But is this type of happiness and lack of meaning what we truly seek? Or are there other unexplored alternatives that reveal who we are along with the realities of our everyday sufferings? Join us for a novel interrogation of these questions that exposes the limits of contemporary interpretations and the time-tested Cistercian perspective of St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153), who offers a salvific “compound that no pharmacist can produce.”
This program is made possible through the support of grant #62372 from the John Templeton Foundation,“In Lumine: Promoting the Catholic Intellectual Tradition on Campuses Nationwide.”

Money and the Good Life: a lunchtime discussion with Mary Hirschfeld
2023-03-30 12:00 - 13:15 | Booth School of Business, 5807 S Woodlawn Avenue, Chicago, IL
Open to current students and faculty. Box lunches will be served. To inquire about registration, please email info@lumenchristi.org.
In 2018, Mary Hirschfeld, economist and theologian, made a landmark intervention in the relationship between economics and theology. By locating the source of economic life in the search for human happiness, Hirschfeld used a Thomistic framework to approach modern problems. Join us for a lunch discussion on how we might move “Toward a Humane Economy.”
Prof. Hirschfeld will also give a lecture later in the day on “Rethinking Economic Inequality: a Theological Perspective.” A response will follow from Amir Sufi (Booth School of Business).
This event is made possible through the support of ‘In Lumine: Supporting the Catholic Intellectual Tradition on Campuses Nationwide’ (Grant #62372) from the John Templeton Foundation.

Rethinking Economic Inequality: a Theological Perspective
2023-03-30 17:00 - 18:30 | Booth School of Business, Room 104-C, 5807 S Woodlawn Avenue, Chicago, IL
This event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact info@lumenchristi.org.
This event is co-presented by the Catholic Research Economists Discussion Organization (CREDO) and cosponsored by the In Lumine Network and Catholics at Booth. This event is made possible through the support of ‘In Lumine: Supporting the Catholic Intellectual Tradition on Campuses Nationwide’ (Grant #62372) from the John Templeton Foundation.
Secular discourse about the problem of economic inequality rests on two foundational premises that are problematic from a theological point of view. First, individuals enter into society with the aim of bettering their own condition. Second, bettering one’s own condition entails accruing more wealth and power so that one can fulfill more of one’s desires.
In this event, Mary Hirschfeld will present on how market behavior shaped by the premises described above can promote economic inequality. Can ethical responses to the problem of economic inequality promote justice without challenging these assumptions? How do we find a theological response to the problem of economic inequality? How does genuine human flourishing depend on communal ties and the higher human goods that material wealth is properly meant to support? Join us for this lecture as we unpack the answers to these questions.
A response will follow from Amir Sufi, Bruce Lindsay Professor of Economics and Public Policy.

From ESG to Impact Investing: Catholic reflections from the field
2023-04-13 12:00 - 13:15 | Booth School of Business, 5807 S Woodlawn Avenue, Chicago, IL
Registration required. Open to students and faculty only. Email info@lumenchristi.org to inquire about registration.
Should business and finance play larger roles in resolving the great social and environmental challenges of our time? Proponents of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing say yes. They argue that ESG financial strategies can help reverse runaway carbon emissions and fix income and gender inequalities, among other ills. ESG-integrated investments already encompass more than $120 trillion in financial assets. Are they working as promised? If not, how can they be improved?
In his new book Sustainable, Terrence Keeley, a finance-industry veteran offers an insider’s look at the promises, prospects, and perils of ESG investing. Keeley argues that many ESG advocates have been overly optimistic about what it can accomplish. Divestment threats are ineffective tools for altering corporate behavior, and verifiably “good” companies do not systematically generate great returns. Most importantly, business and finance cannot cure social ills on their own: regulators, public policies, civil society, and individuals must all play specific, complementary roles to shape the future we want. Keeley provides comprehensive solutions that would promote more inclusive, sustainable growth. In particular, he recommends reallocating capital from some indexed products toward an emerging class of strategies with more verifiable social and environmental benefits. Keeley identifies dozens of alternative “impact investing” strategies that could generate true double bottom lines. He also highlights promising civic organizations with proven methodologies for achieving widely shared benefits at scale.
Proposing practical, actionable, and in many cases profitable solutions to social and environmental problems, Sustainable offers an incisive vision of the roles business and finance can and should play in building a flourishing society.
Come and join the Lumen Christi Institute and Catholics at Booth for a lunchtime conversation between former Blackrock executive Terrence Keeley and Prof. Luigi Zingales.

Image from Sustainable: Moving Beyond ESG Toward Impact Investing (Columbia Business School Publishing, 2022)

Magis Lecture | Evil and the God of Love
2023-04-18 17:30 - 19:00 | Loyola Academy McGrath Family Performing Arts Center, 3455 Illinois Rd, Wilmette, IL, 60091
Free and open to the public, but advance registration is required. For more information, contact info@lumenchristi.org.
“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is impotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Whence then is evil?”
So the philosopher David Hume presents the classic ‘problem of evil.’ For Christians, this is no mere logical puzzle. It is a challenge to our relationship with a God who we are convinced is not only all-powerful, but all-loving. How can we love God, and know ourselves to be loved by God, amid all the evils of the world? Fr. Stephen Fields, SJ (Georgetown University) will provide a Catholic perspective on how to confront this perennial problem.

ABOUT THE MAGIS SERIES
The Magis Series on Faith and Reason brings accessible yet sophisticated lectures on the Church’s intellectual tradition to the broad lay public. The event is open to everyone from high school students to retirees. Anyone who desires a lively entree into the mind of the Church is welcome and encouraged to attend.
SCHEDULE
5:30 PM | Cocktails and Hors d’oeuvres
6:15 PM | Lecture
6:50 PM | Q&A
7:00 PM | Event concludes

image: Spanish School. Job, 1618-1630. The Art Institute of Chicago. CC0 Public Domain Designation

Lunch Discussion on "Vatican II after 60 Years: The Legacy of Benedict XVI"
2023-04-19 13:05 - 14:05 | Calvert House, 5735 S University Ave, Chicago, IL 60637, Chicago, IL
Free and open to the public. Registration required. Contact info@lumenchristi.org with any questions about this event. This event is co-presented with Calvert House and co-sponsored by the graduate and undergradate Catholic Students Organization. A Mass will precede the event. Lunch will be provided.
Vatican II was the landmark event in the life of the 20th century Church. But opinions are divided over the extent to which the council was a decisive rupture with past life and practice in the Church. Amid a variety of interpretations in the decades following the council, Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI sought to integrate Vatican II within the wider history of the Church.
Join us for a lunchtime discussion with Fr. Stephen Fields, SJ, who will explore Pope Benedict XVI’s provocative thesis of a ‘hermeneutic of continuity,” which emphasized that authentic renewal could only occur in deep continuity with the past.

Are You Becoming Obsolete?
2023-04-20 19:30 - 21:00 | Breasted Hall, Oriental Institute, 1155 E 58th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Free and open to the public. No registration required. This event is presented by the Veritas Forum and co-sponsored by the Lumen Christi Institute.
We find ourselves on the cusp of a revolution. In the realm of language, image, and voice, AI technologies showcasing incredible potential, such that distinguishing the work of humans from computers is becoming nearly impossible. What does this mean for human identity and purpose? What might this mean for our future?
Join us for the University of Chicago Veritas Forum as we bring computer science into conversation with theology, philosophy, and ethics. Duke theologian and ethicist Norman Wirzba will participate in a moderated dialogue with University of Chicago computer science researchers Ben Y. Zhao over the implications of an AI-saturated future. A Q&A will follow.

Still Mining the Forgotten: Black Catholic Women's History in the 21st Century with Shannen Dee Williams
2023-04-27 12:00 - 13:30 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Open to current students and faculty. Box lunches will be served. Texts will be provided. This event is co-sponsored by the Martin Marty Center for the Public Understanding of Religion.
Despite being the world’s oldest and most popular Black Christian tradition, studies of Black Catholicism remain underrepresented both within popular discourse and academic study. This is especially true in the United States. Shannen Dee Williams is one contemporary scholar working to change this. In Subversive Habits, the first full history of Black Catholic nuns in the United States, Williams sheds light on a too-often overlooked group of Black American churchwomen and freedom fighters. Her book also turns overdue attention to women’s religious life as a stronghold of white supremacy and racial segregation–and thus an important battleground in the long African American struggle for freedom, justice, and human dignity.
Join us for this lunchtime seminar in which Dr. Williams will speak on the growing field of Black Catholic studies and the primary sources which have shaped her scholarship. Copies of Subversive Habits, as well as lunch, will be provided to all participants.
Prof. Williams will give a lecture later in the evening on “America’s Real Sister Act: The Hidden History of Black Catholic Nuns in the United States.”
Readings:

Subversive Habits, Introduction, Chapters 3, 5 (required)
“SUBVERSIVE HABITS: A book discussion with Shannen Dee Williams” in The American Catholic Newsletter (required)
“I Wrote the First Full History of Black Catholic Nuns in the United States” in America Magazine (optional)

America's Real Sister Act: The Hidden History of Black Catholic Nuns in the United States
2023-04-27 17:00 - 18:30 | Swift Hall, 3rd Floor Lecture, 1025 E 58th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
This event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact info@lumenchristi.org.
This event is co-presented by the Lumen Christi Institute and the Martin Marty Center for the Public Understanding of Religion. Cosponsored by St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church in Chicago, America Media, the Center for Gender Studies, the Center for Race, Politics and Culture at the University of Chicago, the History Department at the University of Chicago, the Thea Bowman Foundation, and the Catholic Theological Union.

For most people, Whoopi Goldberg’s performance as Sister Mary Clarence in Sister Act is the dominant interpretation of an African American nun and the desegregation of white Catholic sisterhood in the United States. In this presentation, Dr. Shannen Dee Williams will explore the story of America’s real sister act: the story of how generations of Black women and girls called to the sacred vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience fought against racism, sexism, and exclusion to become and minister as consecrated women of God in the Roman Catholic Church.

Catholic Lawyers Guild Speaker Series | Luncheon with Sr. Helen Prejean
2023-04-28 11:30 - 13:15 | University Club of Chicago, 76 E Monroe St Chicago, IL 60603, Downtown, IL
Registration required. This event is presented by the Catholic Lawyers Guild of Chicago and co-sponsored by the Lumen Christi Institute and the Hank Center of Loyola University Chicago. To find out more, visit https://www.clgchicago.org/events.

Sister Helen Prejean, who is known around the world for her tireless work against the death penalty, will be joining Catholic Lawyers Guild this Spring for a community event. Sr. Helen has been instrumental in sparking national dialogue on capital punishment and in shaping the Catholic Church’s vigorous opposition to all executions. We look forward to welcoming her and invite you to join us for what is sure to be a dynamic and thought-provoking event.
Our time together will consist of a plated lunch, followed by a presentation by Sr. Helen Prejean with an opportunity for Q&A.
One hour of Illinois CLE credit will be provided for this program. Registration is required to attend, please provide ARDC during registration to attain CLE credit.
We hope you can join us!

This event is a CLG Speaker Series Luncheon.

University Club of Chicago
Michigan Room
76 E. Monroe St., Chicago

Lust, Friendship, and Eternity in the Epic of Gilgamesh
2023-05-03 18:00 - 19:30 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Open to current undergraduate students at the University of Chicago. Registration is capped at 20. Students who register after capacity has been reached will be put on a waitlist. All registrants will be provided with a free copy of the text.
The Epic of Gilgamesh has been called the oldest surviving book in the history of Earth. Originating thousands of years ago, the story continues to offer profound insights for modern readers about essential human desires for love, power, and everlasting life. Whether you are encountering the book for the first time or re-visiting it, the tale of Gilgamesh promises to teach you something new about your life.

This event is part of Lumen Christi’s Fundamental Questions seminar, a quarterly reading group designed for undergraduate students at the University of Chicago. By fostering intellectually rigorous conversation around culturally resonant texts, we aim to allow students to experience the force of the deep existential concerns which animate our lives: “Where do my values come from? What is the good life? How can I become happy?” Our aim is not to answer such fundamental questions, but rather to equip students with the intellectual skills needed to recognize and articulate them for themselves.
This fundamental questions seminar meets three times during the quarter. For each session, we will meet and discuss over dinner. Dinner is served at 6:00pm. Discussion begins at 6:15.
SCHEDULE
6:00 PM Dinner | 6:15 PM Discussion
Week 3 : Wednesday, April 5: Is power the most fundamental human desire? (Prologue-Book II)
Week 5 : Wednesday, April 19: What qualities make a true friend? (Books III-IV)
Week 7 : Wednesday, May 3: What can humans hope for after death? (Books V-VII)
Image: “Alte Flagge Aramäer” by TruthWin47 via Wikimedia Commons is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International

Graduate Reading Group on "The Short Stories of Tolstoy"
2023-05-04 16:30 - 17:30 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Open to current graduate students at the University of Chicago. Participants can come to whichever sessions they choose. Others interested in participating should contact nbeacom@uchicago.edu. Books, food, and beverages will be provided.
Does life have a meaning in the face of unavoidable suffering and impending death? What does it mean to be good, to be authentic, to follow one’s conscience? Questions like these, which still knock at our hearts and minds today, are at the heart of the writing of Leo Tolstoy, widely considered one of the greatest novelists in the history of literature.
In this reading group, we’ll read through some of Tolstoy’s most enduring short stories. We will accompany a rich businessman as he faces his own inevitable physical demise, holy fools, proud priests, murderers, and saints. With Tolstoy and these characters, we will touch some of the most enduring mysteries of human life.
Whether you are a Tolstoy fan or haven’t read a page of his writing, join us over wine, beer, and food for a relaxed discussion of these great works of literature.
A copy of The Death of Ivan Illych and Other Stories, containing all readings, will be provided to all participants.
SCHEDULE:
April 6: Alyosha the Pot
April 13: Father Sergius
April 20: Master and Man
April 27: The Death of Ivan Illych, the First Part
May 4: The Death of Ivan Illych, the Second Part

Retribution and St. Thomas Aquinas's Teaching on Justice
2023-05-05 14:00 - 17:30 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Open to current students and faculty. This event is co-sponsored by the St. Thomas More Society at the University of Chicago Law School. Others interested in participating should contact info@lumenchristi.org. This event is in-person only. All registrants will receive pdfs of the selected readings, which should be read in advance of the class. An optional wine and cheese reception will follow.
Thomas Aquinas assigns two functions to punishment, retributive and medicinal. He sees the retributive function as the primary one, pertaining to the very idea of punishment, and it will be the focus of this master class. The aim will be to determine how exactly retribution fits within Aquinas’s teaching on justice. For although there is no doubt that he considers it to be a matter of justice, he has surprisingly little to say about it within his massive treatment of that virtue in the Summa theologiae. Legal theory and theology overlap on this topic, but scholarly literature on it is scant. Yet surely a clear understanding of Aquinas’s teaching on punishment in general is necessary for grasping his teachings on particular issues, such as capital punishment (on which the literature is huge).
There will be several questions to address. To which kind of justice does Thomas think retribution belongs? How does it constitute that kind of justice? Who is given their own or their right through retribution? Does it not really pertain to legal justice? Is it obligatory? The readings provided will furnish the background needed to engage the topic.
Readings:
Required Readings (from the Summa Theologiae): to be completed before class

I.21.1
II-II.57.1
II-II.58.1,2,5,6,7,8,10,11
II-II.59.1,3
II-II.60.1,5
II-II.61.1-4
II.II.62.1,3
II-II.63.1,4
II-II.108.2

Recommended Readings (from the Summa Theologiae):

I-II.21.3,4
I-II.87.1,6,7
I.21.2-4
II-II.67.4
II-II.108.1,3,4
III.85.3

Both the required and recommended readings will be distributed to participants via Dropbox. If you prefer, you can pick up a printout of the readings at Gavin House (1220 E. 58th Street) Mon-Fri, 10am-4pm. Please email Dan Stanley at dstanley@lumenchristi.org to let us know you are coming.
Schedule:
1:30-2:00 | Pre-event coffee and cookies
2:00-3:20 | Session 1
3:20-3:40 | Break
3:40-5:00 | Session 2
5:00-5:30 | Reception

The Vocation of a Theologian: The Legacy of Pope Benedict XVI
2023-05-07 18:30 - 20:00 | ONLINE, World Wide Web, INTERNET
Copresented with The Collegium Institute for Catholic Thought and Culture, First Things, and The Portsmouth Institute for Faith and Culture.
This online-only event is free and open to the public. Registration is required. For more information, please contact info@lumenchristi.org
From his role as a key peritus at the Second Vatican Council, a professor in Germany, to his tenure as prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, Joseph Ratzinger was a part of almost every Catholic theological conversation in the latter half of the 20th century. As pope, he brought his lifetime of learning to bear on his preaching, encyclicals, and continued publishing.
This webinar takes a look at Pope Benedict’s theological vocation and offers perspectives on his enduring legacy and witness.

Catholic Culture Series on "A Catholic Vision of the Person and the World"
2023-05-10 18:30 - 20:30 | Ruth Lake Country Club, 6200 South Madison Street, Hinsdale, IL
The Lumen Christi Institute’s West Suburban Catholic Culture Series returns in 2023 with a monthly series on the theme of “A Catholic Vision of the Person and the World.” REGISTER HERE
THEME | In a 1965 address to the United Nations General Assembly, Pope Paul VI described the Catholic Church as “an expert in humanity.” The Church could teach the U.N. because the Church understood human hearts and human institutions. Bishop Robert Barron has explained the pope’s words in the following manner:
“The Church has two thousand years of watching the human condition unfold – two thousand years of saints and sinners, two thousand years of confessions, two thousand years of great artists, mystics, and scholars. The Church is an expert in humanity. It understands the human heart, what gives it joy and how it get off the rails. That’s something the Church brings to the wider world, this great expertise in humanity.” – Bishop Robert Barron
A Catholic vision of the world is not cramped or cordoned-off, with “religion” over here and the vast secular world over there. For humans to be made “in the image of God,” all creation—all activities and acts—must look in some way back to its Creator. The 2022-2023 West Suburban Catholic Culture Series will explore The Catholic Vision of the Person and the World.
Each month, participants will gather at Ruth Lake Country Club. Over dinner, they will listen to a sophisticated yet accessible lecture offered by accomplished academics. The lectures will introduce insights from the treasure house of the Church’s intellectual tradition and their bearing on contemporary themes and issues, presenting faithful Catholic teaching in a way that avoids the acrimony of the culture wars.
Coming May 10: Gender in the Catholic Cosmos
Abigail Favale (Writer and Professor at the McGrath Institute for Church Life; University of Notre Dame)
What is “gender” when viewed from within the Catholic cosmos? How does this understanding of gender compare with the popular theories of our time? In this talk, Dr. Favale will elucidate the Catholic perspective and show its consonance and dissonance with contemporary gender theory.
SPRING 2023 SEMESTER SCHEDULE
6:30 p.m. cocktails | 7:00 p.m. dinner, lecture, & Q&A | 8:30 p.m. end
March 15: Persons, Divine, Created and Artificial: Living Humanely with Sociable AI
Jordan Wales (Associate Professor and Chair of Theology; Hillsdale College)
April 12: “Everything Will Live Where the River Goes” (Ez 47:9): A Catholic Vision of Ecology
Rev. Terrence Ehrman, CSC (Assistant Professor, Department of Theology; University of Notre Dame)
May 10: Gender in the Catholic Cosmos
Abigail Favale (Writer and Professor at the McGrath Institute for Church Life; University of Notre Dame)
FALL 2022 SEMESTER SCHEDULE
6:30 p.m. cocktails | 7:00 p.m. dinner, lecture, & Q&A | 8:30 p.m. end
SEP 14: Theological Anthropology: Man and Woman in the image of God
Fr. Thomas Loya, S.T.B, M.A. (Director of the Tabor Life Institute; Pastor of Annunciation Byzantine Catholic Church)
OCT 5: Rerum Novarum and New Approaches to Old Things: The Tradition of Catholic Social Thought
John Buchmann, Ph.D. (Director of Development, Lumen Christi Institute and Former Executive Director of the Beatrice Institute & Theologian in Residence at the Collegium Institute)
NOV 2: Doing Evil that Good May Come? Catholic Teaching on Justice in War
John Schwenkler (Humboldt Fellow, University of Leipzig; Institute for Advanced Study, Notre Dame; Professor of Philosophy, Florida State University)

Lunch Discussion with Sally Blount: "Faith, Markets, and Meaning"
2023-05-11 12:00 - 13:15 | Booth School of Business, 5807 S Woodlawn Avenue, Chicago, IL
This event is co-presented by the Lumen Christi Institute and Catholics at Booth. Registration required. Open to students and faculty only. Email m.lechevallier@lumenchristi.org to inquire about registration.
According to the Edelman Trust Barometer, business firms have become the only “trusted” social Institution. Simultaneously, there has been a growing drumbeat around corporate “purpose” over the last 10 years – with companies writing ever more expansive purpose statements about how their firms “improve the world,” “make lives more joyful,” and “create meaningful community.” Yet, business leaders have little training in moral philosophy or religion; markets systems are not inherently wise, kind, or fair. And, at its heart, a company’s purpose must be, first and foremost, its promise to its customers and investors. As people of faith, our hope must be in something bigger and more profound . . . What might Catholic Social Teaching suggest?

Maximus the Confessor Reading Group
2023-05-15 16:30 - 18:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Mondays, April 17- May 15, 2023 | 4:30- 6:00 PM
Open to current students and faculty at the University of Chicago. Copies of the Ambigua will be provided. Participants can come to whichever sessions they choose. No previous knowledge of the subject-matter required. Non-students interested in participating should contact info@lumenchristi.org. Food and beverages will be provided.
Maximus the Confessor (580-662) is considered one of the most speculative and creative theologians from the first millennium of Christianity. Yet, Maximus’s genius is at its most generative in conversation with the past. His largest work, the Ambigua, comments on difficult passages in the works of Gregory Nazianzen (4th century) and Dionysius the Areopagite (6th century). Maximus’ broad and deep thinking is on full display throughout this commentary, responses to single passages becoming small treatises in their own right.
The Ambigua reveals Maximus’ wide ranging interests in metaphysics, cosmology, anthropology, Christology, language, and time. His wide learning in all these areas are put at the service of exploring these earlier Christian works.
This reading group seizes upon the insight gleaned from Maximus’ method: creativity is born from a rigorous engagement with the past. Through a reading of selected Ambigua, we will explore his bold, christological vision of the cosmos, rooted in the deep reading of his priors.
Food, beverages, and Greek/English copies of the Ambigua will be provided.
SCHEDULE
April 17: Quid Ambigua?

“Ambiguum 21,” 421-447
Recommended Reading:

“Prologue to Ambigua to Thomas,” 3-7
“Prologue to Ambigua to John,” 63-69

April 24: Trinity & Christology

“Ambiguum 1,” 7-11
“Ambiguum 5,” 31-59

May 1: Creation & Salvation

“Ambiguum 7,” Selections

May 8: Interpretation: Scripture & Cosmos

“Ambiguum 10,” Selections

May 15: The Practice of Theology

“Ambiguum 13,” 349-355

Spring Non-Credit Course | Shame, Suffering, and the Scandal of the Cross
2023-05-16 18:00 - 19:30 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Tuesdays, March 28-May 16
6:00pm: Dinner
6:30pm: Presentation
This event is in-person only. Intended for university students and recent graduates. Others interested in attending please contact info@lumenchristi.org.
Registrants are free to attend as many sessions as they choose. Sessions do not presuppose previous attendance or prior knowledge of the subject.
The human experiences of suffering, shame, and evil are assaults on our deepest desire for happiness. The atrocities that darken human history, especially the Holocaust, and disasters like the recent earthquakes in Turkey & Syria call into question the Christian belief in God’s Providence. Correspondingly, Christ’s public passion and tortured death have always been a scandal to human reason (St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians 1:18-25). Nevertheless, Christian faith proclaims that the Cross of Christ has saved us (Ibid., 15:3-5).
This Lumen Christi Institute spring quarter class will consider the redemptive ‘causality’ of the cross, its relationship to our own experiences of suffering, and the credibility of the claim of Christ’s bodily resurrection.
SCHEDULE
March 28: The Evil of Auschwitz, the Scandal of the Cross, and the Death of God
April 4: Things aren’t the way they are supposed to be: the Fall and the Need for Salvation.
April 11: The Cross of Christ: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
April 18: The Saving Efficacy of the Cross of Christ: the Eastern Christian Tradition
April 25: The Saving Efficacy of the Cross of Christ: the Western Christian Tradition
May 2: The Resurrection of Jesus Christ: Linchpin of Hope for the Victory of Good over Evil.
May 9: The Shroud of Turin: Photographic negative of a tortured, crucified man: Artifact of the Bodily Resurrection of Jesus Christ?
May 16: Living the Paschal Mystery: “This is a trustworthy saying: If we die with him, we will also live with him. If we endure hardship, we will reign with him.” [2 Timothy 2:11]

Catholic Social Thought in Business Education
2023-05-23 00:00 - 2023-05-26 00:00 | Catholic University of America, 620 Michigan Ave NE, Washington, DC 20064, Washington, DC
APPLY HERE
We are pleased to announce the third annual seminar on “Business and Catholic Social Thought: A Primer.” During the seminar, graduate students and faculty members in business schools will cover foundational principles in Catholic social thought and apply them to their own field of research and teaching. This seminar aims at widening epistemological preconceptions and showing practical implications of Catholic social thought for business in a way that affirms the goodness of business directed toward the common good. Participants will delve into social encyclicals, secondary sources, and relevant business texts that show the path for principled entrepreneurship in order to gain knowledge, exchange experiences, receive help with their syllabi and consider how best to integrate Catholic social thought into business education.
LOCATION
The seminar will take place at the Catholic University of America in Washington D.C. between Tuesday May 23 and Friday May 26.
A limited number of travel stipends for students are available on a per need basis (see the application form). All participants will be provided with accommodations and meals.

APPLICATION INFORMATION
This seminar will be open to graduate students and faculty of any specialization in business schools. Applicants will be required to submit a completed online application, including:

An updated CV/resume.
A brief statement of research interest related to Catholic social thought no longer than 750 words.
One academic writing sample.
All application materials can be submitted via the online application. Incomplete applications will not be considered.
Fifteen students will be admitted to this seminar.

Application materials are due February 21, 2023.
APPLICATION DEADLINE HAS BEEN EXTENDED TO MARCH 8, 2023.
This seminar is cosponsored by the John A. Ryan Institute for Catholic Social Thought at the University of St. Thomas (MN); the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame; the Ciocca Center for Principled Entrepreneurship at the Catholic University of America; the Lumen Christi Institute; and the Markets, Culture and Ethics Research Centre at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome.

Monastic Wisdom Seminar: "The Schola Caritatis"
2023-06-05 00:00 - 2023-06-11 00:00 | Our Lady of the Angels Monastery, 3365 Monastery Drive Crozet, VA 22932, Crozet, VA
APPLY HERE
The Lumen Christi Institute, the St. Anselm Institute and Our Lady of the Angels Monastery, a Trappistine monastery located near Crozet, Virginia are partnering for the first time to organize a retreat that explores the monastic wisdom tradition. The Trappistine Community at Crozet, Virginia lives according to a continual tradition of Christian monasticism with its roots in the Cistercian Tradition. This seminar will offer the possibility of not only learning the guiding principles that foster a good and balanced life according to the monastic tradition, but of putting them into practice, since it is experience alone that leads not only to correct understanding but to real wisdom.
After reading some core texts in the monastic tradition in advance, participants will then spend a week praying, working, reading, and learning from the Sisters during two daily conferences and other times of sharing and mutual exchange.
The goals of the seminar are fourfold:
1. Introduce participants to monastic life and the history and theology of monasticism.
2. Introduce participants to monastic practices, including community life, lectio divina, the Divine Office, the discipline of silence, and manual labor, and see how these practices form a balanced whole that fosters human and spiritual growth.
3. Provide an opportunity for participants to learn more about the longstanding ascetical and mystical guidelines that support prayer in the Catholic monastic tradition.
4. Study texts of major figures of the monastic tradition and see how their teaching can illuminate and enrich our human experience.
PRINCIPAL TEXTS FOR DISCUSSION

Evagrius Ponticus, Praktikos and Chapters on Prayer, trans. John Eudes Bamberger, CS 4 (Cistercian Publications, 1972).
Benedict of Nursia, RB 1980: The Rule of St. Benedict (Liturgical Press, 1981).
Michael Casey, The Road to Eternal Life: Reflections on the Prologue of Benedict’s Rule, (Liturgical Press, 2010).
Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermons on the Song of Songs I, trans. Kilian Walsh, CF 4 (Cistercian Publications, 1971).
William of St Thierry, The Mirror of Faith, trans. Thomas X Davis, CF 15 (Cistercian Publications, 1979)
Beatrice of Nazareth, The Seven Modes of Love

How to read the texts: Besides taking advantage of the introductions to be found in these books, slow reading is the best approach to these texts. It’s also helpful to bear in mind Bernard McGinn’s advice in his introduction to the Sermons of Isaac of Stella (Cistercian Publications, 1979). Dr. McGinn encourages the reader to be challenged by the texts instead of attempting to fit them into the confines of their own horizons. Doing this implies being prepared to bracket our spontaneous critical reactions, and renouncing the attitude of picking out what seems useful and rejecting the rest. It’s precisely by the effort to appreciate this “strangeness” in the texts that we will come away from our reading richer than when we began, our horizons widened, our world expanded.
LOCATION AND FORMAT

The seminar will take place at Our Lady of the Angels Monastery in Crozet, Virginia.
The seminar sessions will be led by the Sisters of the monastery.
Travel stipends will be available for currently enrolled students.
Lodging, meals, and books will be provided.
Participants will arrive at Our Lady of the Angels Monastery on Monday, June 5 (before 5 pm), and depart on Sunday, June 11 (after 9:30 am).
Participants will be required to read the assigned materials in preparation for the seminar.

APPLICATION INFORMATION

Open to women age 18 through 40. Catholics and non-Catholics are invited to apply.
Applicants must submit an online application including a statement of interest, a CV or resume, and a letter of recommendation from a professor or pastor.
Application materials are due February 21, 2023
APPLICATION DEADLINE HAS BEEN EXTENDED TO MARCH 8, 2023.

The Trinitarian Theology of Karl Barth
2023-06-17 10:30 - 15:00 | ONLINE, World Wide Web, INTERNET
The Lumen Christi Institute has designed this two-day seminar to introduce major themes and debates from the Catholic Church’s history to a wide online audience. It offers the opportunity to read primary sources in the context of a seminar-style discussion, led by Catholic faculty.
The enrollment fee for this short course is $95 USD. Because we believe the Catholic Intellectual Tradition should be made available to everyone, a limited number of scholarships are available. Contact info@lumenchristi.org for more details.
This is one of three short courses hosted by the Lumen Christi Institute this summer. If you would like to take a deep dive into the Church’s tradition by signing up for all three short courses for the discounted price of $200, you can do so HERE.
When we say “God is love,” what do we really mean? The renewed attention to the dogma of the Trinity so important to the last century of Catholic theology gets to the heart of this question. Standing in the background of this development, though, is a Protestant theologian whom Pope Pius XII allegedly called “the greatest since Thomas Aquinas”: Karl Barth. In this seminar, we will look at Barth’s understanding of the Trinity using short selections from his masterpiece, the Church Dogmatics. We will explore how, for Barth, the biblical idea of a covenant is that of an exclusive, noninterchangeable partnership between a superior lover who chooses and a subordinate beloved who is chosen. This means, in his interpretation, that the relationships between God and the world—and between man and woman—mirror, in time, a covenant between God the Father and God the Son in eternity. We will thus ask if Barth offers us a way of thinking about human participation in God’s Triune life that lets the human be made holy or even godlike while still respecting the human creature’s physical and intellectual limits.
Schedule
Session 1: Tuesday, June 13: 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM
Session 2: Saturday, June 17: 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM
Session 3: Saturday, June 17: 1:30 PM – 3:00 PM

Readings
Session 1:

Church Dogmatics II/2, pp. 175-181 (selection from “The Eternal Will of God in the Election of Jesus Christ”)
Church Dogmatics, IV/1, pp. 200-205 (selection from “The Way of the Son of God into the Far Country”)

Session 2:

Church Dogmatics III/1, pp. 42-53, 288-291, & 311-324 (selections from “Creation, History, and Creation History” and “The Covenant as the Internal Basis of Creation”)

Session 3: (note: please read in this order)

Church Dogmatics IV/2, pp. 20-31 (selection from “The Homecoming of the Son of Man”)
Church Dogmatics IV/1, pp. 259-273 (selection from “The Judge Judged in Our Place”)

​​*Pdfs. of all readings will be provided to participants.

Explorations in Integral Ecology: Science, Theology, and Creation
2023-06-18 00:00 - 2023-06-24 00:00 | Cornell University, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
APPLY HERE
COLLIS Institute for Catholic Thought and Culture at Cornell University, the In Lumine Network, and the Lumen Christi Institute partner to organize “Explorations in Integral Ecology: Science, Theology, and Creation,” a weeklong intensive seminar at Cornell University integrating theological study with direct scientific observation of the natural world and experiences of creation. Led by Sr. Damien Marie Savino, F.S.E., PhD (Dean of Science and Sustainability, Aquinas College) and Fr. Terrence Ehrman, C.S.C, PhD (Department of Theology, University of Notre Dame), this program aims to inspire and educate undergraduates of all academic backgrounds to pursue a God-centered response to current environmental challenges in the holistic spirit of integral ecology. With its setting at Cornell University’s Ithaca campus in the heart of the Finger Lakes region, the seminar will allow participants to explore the rich natural beauty of the area through field-based study and excursions which may include visits to Cayuga Lake, Cascadilla Gorge, Ithaca Falls, and the “living laboratory” of Cornell University’s 3,600-acre Botanic Gardens. In the classroom, participants will delve into a range of theological texts, including authors such as St. Basil the Great, St. Bonaventure, St. Francis of Assisi, Pope Francis, and Josef Pieper. Students may also have the opportunity to meet leaders in sustainability research at Cornell University. This program is free for accepted students; undergraduate students of all backgrounds are invited to apply.
LOCATION AND FORMAT

The seminar will take place at Cornell University, in Ithaca, NY. Admitted students will be required to arrange their own travel to and from the seminar.
Admitted students will be granted a stipend of $350 to offset travel costs
Lodging and meals will be provided for the duration of the seminar.
Participants will arrive on Sunday, June 18 and depart on Saturday, June 24. The seminar will take place from Monday to Friday, with lecture, discussion, and/or field excursions throughout the day
Participants will be required read the assigned materials in preparation for the seminar.
In order to receive the $350 stipend, students must participate fully in all seminar activities and complete a survey at the end of the seminar.

APPLICATION INFORMATION

Open to all undergraduate students, including those who graduate in 2023 and recent graduates.
Applicants must submit an online application, including details on their course of study, a statement of interest, and a letter of recommendation.
Applications will be evaluated on a rolling basis (Updated April 3)
15 applicants will be admitted to the seminar.

This seminar is made possible through the support of grant #62372 from the John Templeton Foundation, “In Lumine: Promoting the Catholic Intellectual Tradition on Campuses Nationwide.” This event is cosponsored by the St. Kateri Institute and member institutes of the In Lumine Network, including the Harvard Catholic Forum, the Nova Forum, COLLIS, the St. Anselm Institute.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What is integral ecology? Integral ecology (from Latin integralis, meaning “whole”) is a theme of Catholic Social Teaching. It proposes a holistic framing of creation, emphasizing the connections and relationship between its parts. Integral ecology calls for the integration of knowledge from various academic disciplines and other domains to repair ruptures in these relationships.
I’m not an environmental studies or ecology major. Can I still apply? This program does not presuppose any specific science background. We welcome applications of all majors and backgrounds.
I am a college student graduating this academic year. Can I still apply? Yes!
Do I have to be Catholic to apply? No. The Lumen Christi Institute and other institutes within the In Lumine Network exist to promote the Catholic intellectual tradition and are committed to the integration of the intellectual and spiritual life. We welcome seminar participants of all or no religious affiliation, and wants to assure all applicants that the opportunities to participate in devotional activities are optional.
Application Deadline: Rolling Basis

Economics and Catholic Social Thought: A Primer
2023-06-19 00:00 - 2023-06-23 00:00 | Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, Piazza Santa Apollinare, 49, 00186 Roma, Italy, Rome, Italy
APPLY HERE
Now in its sixth year, this seminar is designed as an introduction and immersion into Catholic social thought for graduate students and faculty in economics, finance, or related fields. Participants will cover foundational principles in Catholic social thought, starting with the human person, dignity, freedom, subsidiarity, solidarity, and the common good, and moving toward applications of these principles to conceptual understandings and ethical considerations involving economic topics such as utility theory, firm and business ethics, wages, markets, globalization, poverty, and development. Participants will delve into social encyclicals, secondary sources, and relevant economics texts.
FORMAT
There will be two or three sessions each day for five days, each featuring a different instructor. Each instructor will open with a lecture, and then we will turn to a seminar-style discussion of the texts and issues at hand. In the final sessions, we will discuss how the material can be applied to each student’s particular area of interest.
LOCATION
The seminar will take place at the Pontifical University of Santa Croce in Rome. Travel stipends are available on a need basis. All participants will be provided with accommodations and meals.
APPLICATION INFORMATION
This seminar will be open to PhD students and faculty in economics, finance and related fields. Applicants will be required to submit a completed online application form, including:

An updated CV.
A brief statement of research interest no longer than 750 words.
One academic writing sample.
All application materials can be submitted via the online application. Incomplete applications will not be considered. Fifteen students will be admitted to this seminar.

Application materials are due February 21, 2023.
APPLICATION DEADLINE HAS BEEN EXTENDED TO MARCH 8, 2023.
This seminar is sponsored by the Lumen Christi Institute; the Catholic Research Economists Discussion Organization; the De Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture; the Kellogg Institute for International Studies; and the Institute for the Scholarship in the Liberal Arts, College of Arts and Letters, University of Notre Dame.
Please direct any further questions to contact@credo-economists.org.

Gregory Nazianzen’s Five Theological Orations
2023-06-25 00:00 - 2023-07-01 00:00 | University of St. Michael’s College, 81 St. Mary's Street Toronto, ON M5S 1J4, Toronto, ON
APPLY HERE
Professor Lewis Ayres and Fr. Andrew Summerson will lead a summer seminar of graduate students in a close reading of Gregory Nazianzen’s Theological Orations. A difficult character who for a time presided over the Council of Constantinople in 381, Gregory (c.330 – 390) was one of the most well-educated among fourth-century Christian thinkers. His five Theological Orations, delivered during his tenure in Constantinople between 379 and 381, are works of high art, as well as complex theology, and generated extensive commentary throughout later Byzantine history. The Orations are sometimes enigmatic, lacking the prolixity of Basil of Caesarea and Gregory of Nyssa’s works, but the attack on Eunomius (and others) to defend the Nicene faith found in the Orations is no less fascinating or profound. Gregory’s Orations constitute one of the key works that define pro-Nicene theology and shape the orthodox Trinitarian faith.
LOCATION AND FORMAT
· The seminar will be held at Windle House, hosted by the Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies at the University of St. Michael’s College in the University of Toronto.
· Meals and lodging will be provided.
· Participants will receive a stipend of up to $350 to offset travel expenses.
· Participants will arrive on Sunday, June 25 and depart on Friday, July 1.
· Participants will be provided with a copy of On God and Christ: The Five Theological Orations and two Letters to Cledonius, trans. L. Wickham and R. Norris (Crestwood: SVS Press, 2002).
· Fifteen applicants will be admitted to the seminar.
Working knowledge of relevant ancient languages will be helpful, but not essential. Preference will be given to Ph.D. students in theology, philosophy, classics, and other relevant fields of study, though advanced M.A. students will be considered.
There will be two sessions each day in the morning and in the afternoon. Each session will include lectures and seminar-style discussions working through all five orations, and parallel texts from Gregory, other Cappadocian theologians, and select passages from Maximus the Confessor’s principal commentary on Gregory, the Ambigua. Students will be expected to prepare the readings carefully and participate in the discussions of the material.
The application deadline is March 13, 2023. Contact us with any questions at seminars@lumenchristi.org.

Theology for Engineers and Scientists: Technology, Environment, and the Pursuit of Wisdom
2023-06-25 00:00 - 2023-07-01 00:00 | Duke University, Chapel Drive Durham , NC 27708, Durham, NC
APPLY HERE
“Theology for Engineers and Scientists” aims to give graduate students with little or no background in Theology an introduction to the integration of Catholic theology with their respective fields of research or professional training. The goal is not comprehensive knowledge of an emerging field but the building of a bridge between disciplines that seem remote from one another and even in opposition. The theological part will be drawn principally from Romano Guardini’s The End of the Modern World and Pope Francis’s Laudato Si’ because these texts look at the technocratic paradigm generously and critically with the goal of gathering wisdom from many domains of experience and learning for the sake of genuine integration. The practical part will include work on a farm or local ecological restoration project. We also expect to consult with experts at Duke and in the Durham area who have some perspective on theology and engineering (Edgardo Colón-Emeric, Fr. Juan José Hernández), the climate crisis team at Duke (Norman Wirzba), and the placemaking division of the Ormond Center at Duke.
LOCATION AND FORMAT

The seminar will take place at Duke University in Durham, NC. Admitted students will be required to arrange their own travel to and from the seminar.

Admitted students will be granted a stipend of $350 to offset travel costs

Lodging and meals will be provided for the duration of the seminar.

Participants will arrive in Durham, NC on Sunday, June 25 and depart on Saturday, July 1. The seminar will take place from Monday to Friday, with a lecture and discussion session each morning and afternoon.

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

In order to receive the $350 stipend, students must participate fully in all seminar activities and complete a survey at the end of the seminar.

APPLICATION INFORMATION

Open to graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in STEM fields, medicine, the history of science, philosophy, theology, and relevant fields.

Applicants must submit an online application, including details on their course of study, a statement of interest, and a letter of recommendation (optional).

Applications will be evaluated on a rolling basis (Updated April 3).

15 applicants will be admitted to the seminar.

This seminar is made possible through the support of grant #62372 from the John Templeton Foundation, “In Lumine: Promoting the Catholic Intellectual Tradition on Campuses Nationwide.” This program is copresented by Fons Vitae at Duke University, and the Nova Forum. This program is cosponsored by institutes of the In Lumine Network: the Collegium Institute, the Harvard Catholic Forum, COLLIS, the Saint Anselm Institute, and the Lumen Christi Institute

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

Thomas Aquinas Reading Group
2023-06-29 13:00 - 14:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Open to current graduate students and faculty. Participants can come to whichever sessions they choose. Those interested in participating should contact Gregory Brown at gregdbrown@uchicago.edu. Food, beverages, and readings will be provided.
St. Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologica is a masterpiece of both theology and philosophy. Come join us as we read and discuss the work of one of the greatest philosophers and saints in history.
Each week, we closely read and discuss a short selection from the Summa. Our current focus is on Aquinas’ treatment of the soul in the Treatise on Man. Prereading is not required. Newcomers are always welcome.

The Thought of John Henry Newman
2023-07-01 00:00 - 2023-07-08 00:00 | Merton College, Oxford, Merton St, Oxford OX1 4JD, UK, Oxford, United Kingdom
APPLY HERE
Now in its tenth year, this intensive seminar will examine the achievements of Saint John Henry Newman as a theologian, philosopher, educator, preacher, and writer. Remarkably, in each of these areas Newman produced works that have come to be recognized as classics: An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, The Grammar of Assent, The Idea of a University, The Parochial and Plain Sermons, and the Apologia Pro Vita Sua. This seminar will approach Newman’s thought through a critical engagement with these texts.
LOCATION AND FORMAT

The seminar will be held at Merton College, Oxford.
Meals and lodging will be provided.
Participants will receive a stipend of up to $700 to offset travel expenses.
Participants will arrive on Saturday, July 1 and depart on Saturday, July 8.
Participants will be required to read the assigned texts in preparation for the seminar.
Fifteen applicants will be admitted to the seminar.

QUALIFICATIONS AND APPLICATION
This seminar is open to Ph.D. students in theology, philosophy, classics, and other relevant fields of study.

A completed online application form.
An updated CV.
At least one and no more than two letter(s) of recommendation.
A statement of research interest no longer than 750 words, which includes an explanation of how this seminar might bear on the student’s current or future research plans.
One academic writing sample (30 pages maximum).
All application materials can be submitted via the online application. Incomplete applications will not be considered

Application materials are due February 21, 2023.
APPLICATION DEADLINE HAS BEEN EXTENDED TO MARCH 8, 2023.
Contact us with any questions at seminars@lumenchristi.org.

The Thought of Rene Girard: Understanding the Faith in a Secular Age
2023-07-09 00:00 - 2023-07-15 00:00 | Stanford University, 450 Serra Mall, Stanford, CA 94305, Stanford, CA
Photo Credit: Linda A. Cicero / Stanford News Service
APPLY HERE
[Direct link: https://lumenchristi.submittable.com/submit/fe249b0c-362e-4d83-b3e9-4c86180e2e37/2023-the-thought-of-rene-girard-understanding-the-faith-in-a-secular-age ]
One of the most influential 20th century Catholic thinkers, René Girard transformed our understanding of culture, religion, and human behavior. His “mimetic theory” builds on the demystifying power of the Old and New Testaments to illuminate the religious history of mankind. Through an intensive reading of his more accessible works, in conjunction with the fiction of the greatest writers, this five-day seminar will explore Girard’s key insights into imitation, conflict, and scapegoating, connecting them to central themes of Christian theology.
Location and Format
This seminar will be held at Stanford Univeristy.
There will be two 2.5-hour sessions on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. On Tuesday and Thursday, the morning session will be followed by a post-lunch excursion. Each session will a seminar-style discussion of the text and the issues at hand. Students will be expected to prepare the readings carefully, submit study questions in advance, and participate actively in each session.
Application Information
This seminar is open to all undergraduate students (including 2023 graduates) interested in understanding the thought of one of the great modern Christian apologists.
Applicants will be required to submit an online application form including:

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

All application materials can be submitted via the online application. Incomplete applications will not be considered. Fifteen applicants will be admitted to this seminar. Admitted students will receive lodging and meals for the duration of the seminar and a $350 travel stipend.
Admissions accepted on a rolling basis until full.

Tolkien, Christianity, and Art
2023-07-18 18:00 - 2023-07-22 15:00 | ONLINE, World Wide Web, INTERNET
The Lumen Christi Institute has designed this two-day seminar to introduce major themes and debates from the Catholic Church’s history to a wide online audience. It offers the opportunity to read primary sources in the context of a seminar-style discussion, led by Catholic faculty.
The enrollment fee for this short course is $95 USD. Because we believe the Catholic Intellectual Tradition should be made available to everyone, a limited number of scholarships are available. Contact info@lumenchristi.org for more details.
This is one of three short courses hosted by the Lumen Christi Institute this summer. If you would like to take a deep dive into the Church’s tradition by signing up for all three short courses for the discounted price of $200, you can do so HERE.
JRR Tolkien stands as a colossus among modern fantasy writers and mythmakers. Many are familiar with his Christian faith and his famous books, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings and many discuss whether or how his Christian faith figures into these fantasy stories or whether his fantasy is separable or only superficially related to his personal Christian belief. This course will examine Tolkien’s robust concept of creativity and art in his other writings: ‘Leaf by Niggle,’ ‘On Fairy Stories,’ and selected letters, and excerpts from his Silmarillion. In these texts Tolkien articulates his ideas of subcreation, ‘the long defeat,’ and ‘eucatastrophe’, the promise and danger of art as well as art’s redemption.
Preparatory materials will focus on Tolkien’s essays and art that discusses his theory and practice of art and creativity and how his Christian beliefs informs this vision of and practice of creativity. Introductory videos will frame the overall life of Tolkien and introduce our readings. The three sessions of the course will prioritize discussion of our readings in the tradition of Great Books style seminars. Primary topics will include the practice of art, its promise, danger, and possible redemption; the value of myth for truth and living for truth. ‘Fairy Stories’ will introduce central concepts, including subcreation and eucatastrophe. Finally, we shall see the performance of these ideas in the myths of the Silmarillion in the creation of Middle-Earth, the subcreation of Middle-Earth, and ingenious and hazardous creation of the silmarils by heroic Feanor. We shall also bring this back to re-read Leaf with new eyes.
Schedule
Session 1: Tuesday, July 18: 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM
Session 2: Saturday, July 22: 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM
Session 3: Saturday, July 22: 1:30 PM – 3:00 PM
Readings
Session 1: The Promise and Danger of Art

‘Leaf by Niggle’
‘Mythopoeia’

Session 2: Theory of Fantasy / Creative Art (‘Subcreation’ and Eucatastrophe)

‘On Fairy Stories’
Introduction to the Creativity Narratives of Silmarillion

Session 3: The Promise and Dangers of Subcreation

Silmarillion, selections
‘Leaf by Niggle’

​​*Pdfs. of all readings will be provided to participants.

Truth and Authority in Augustine's City of God
2023-07-30 00:00 - 2023-08-05 00:00 | University of California, Berkeley, S Hall Rd. Berkeley, CA 94720, Berkeley, CA
APPLY HERE
This seminar is an intensive week-long course in how to read, analyze, and discern the many themes in Augustine’s most ambitious and sprawling work. The City of God tells the history of two societies, and their respective origins, progress, and appointed ends. The story is engaged first from the evidence of profane history (I-XI) and then from the evidence of revelation (XII-XXII). In this seminar, participants will discuss how Augustine reckons with the crisis of the ancient and the human city, and whether it is possible to reconcile truth and authority across the competing domains of polity, religion, and philosophical wisdom. These themes will be approached from an interdisciplinary perspective, addressing questions pertinent to students in political science, philosophy, law, theology, religious studies, and history.
Format
There will be two 2.5-hour sessions each day. Each session will include an opening lecture and seminar-style discussion of the text and the issues at hand. Students will be expected to prepare the readings carefully and participate in the discussions of the material.
Location
The seminar will take place at the University of California, Berkeley. Students will be provided with lodging, meals, and a travel stipend of up to $350.
Application Information
This seminar will be open to JD, PhD students, postdoctoral fellows, and junior faculty in the humanities and relevant fields (such as philosophy, theology, English, classics, law and history).
Applicants will be required to submit:

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

All application materials can be submitted via the online application. Incomplete applications will not be considered. Fifteen students will be admitted to this seminar.
Application materials are due February 21, 2023.
APPLICATION DEADLINE HAS BEEN EXTENDED TO MARCH 8, 2023.
Any further questions can be directed to seminars@lumenchristi.org.

Religion and Human Flourishing
2023-08-07 00:00 - 2023-08-11 00:00 | Harvard University, Mount Auburn Street, Cambridge, MA
APPLY HERE
Christianity, like other great spiritual traditions, is centrally concerned with the good life, with that “perfect peace” promised to those who trust in God (Isa. 26:3), or that “life abundant” which Christ came to offer (Jn. 10:10). Christian thinkers in every generation have reflected on the nature of human flourishing, the evils that threaten it, and the complex relationships among the temporal and eternal goods that comprise it.
Until recently, by contrast, the younger social sciences tended to focus myopically on understanding and preventing human illness and suffering, seeking (in Freud’s words) to “turn hysterical misery into ordinary unhappiness.” That has begun to change, with the rise of fields such as “positive psychology” and even “positive epidemiology,” which have sought instead to understand and promote human flourishing. Moreover, scholars from these fields have increasingly emphasized that religious participation promotes many aspects of well-being.
Co-sponsored by the Lumen Christi Institute, the Harvard Catholic Forum, and the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard University, and with generous support from the John Templeton Foundation, this seminar will consider the relationship between religion and human flourishing from the perspective both of the Christian theological tradition and contemporary social science. The seminar will be led by Dr. Brendan Case, a theologian and Associate Director for Research of the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard University, and will include instruction by notable social scientists and humanists, including Dr. Tyler VanderWeele (Harvard University), Dr. Jennifer Frey (University of Tulsa), and the interdisciplinary research team at the Human Flourishing Program.
Topics to be considered include 1) the nature and interrelation of theology and the social sciences; 2) the nature of human flourishing, and especially the relationship of temporal and eternal goods; 3) the nature of “religion” as a sociological category, and its relationship both to Christianity and to flourishing; 4) the significance of death and suffering for a flourishing life; 5) the nature and distribution of the moral virtues and vices; and 6) the role of interpersonal love in a flourishing life.
Application Information
Applications are welcome from doctoral students in theology, philosophy, psychology, sociology, anthropology, public health, or related fields. Please submit the following:

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

All application materials can be submitted via the online application. Incomplete applications will not be considered. Admitted students will receive lodging and meals for the duration of the seminar and a $350 travel stipend.
For full consideration, applications should be submitted by May 14.
This seminar is made possible through the support of grant #62372 from the John Templeton Foundation, “In Lumine: Promoting the Catholic Intellectual Tradition on Campuses Nationwide.” This event is cosponsored by the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard’s Institute for Quantitative Social Science and member institutes of the In Lumine Network, including the Harvard Catholic Forum, the Nova Forum, the Collegium Institute, COLLIS, the St. Anselm Institute, and the Lumen Christi Institute.

Brideshead Revisited Reading Group
2023-08-31 00:00 | ONLINE, World Wide Web, INTERNET
LCI alumni of the René Girard seminar for undergraduates are the primary audience for this group. However, if you are interested in joining, please contact John-Paul Heil at heil@msmary.edu. The cost for participation is $25.
Singled out by Bishop Robert Barron as the “best Catholic novel of the twentieth century,” Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited remains the exemplar not just of Catholic literature, but of the novel as a genre. Over the course of four months, this group will revisit Waugh’s classic and explore the text’s contribution to the Catholic intellectual tradition, the models it offers of lives well- and ill-lived, and its central theme of conversion (with some reference to the thought of Girard).
Four monthly meetings beginning in August

Golden Calf: Philosophy and Theology in the Early Church - Faith and Reason | West Suburban Catholic Culture Series
2023-09-13 18:30 - 20:30 | Ruth Lake Country Club, 6200 South Madison Street, Hinsdale, IL
The West Suburban Catholic Culture Series returns in 2024 to continue its series on
“Faith and Reason as the Two Wings:
The History and Enduring Importance of Catholic Philosophy“
(Business casual attire encouraged. For questions, please email Marial Corona at mcorona@lumenchristi.org).
Schedule: 6:30 p.m. Drinks | 7:00 p.m. Dinner, Lecture, & Q&A | 8:30 p.m. End
Sep 13:
Golden Calf: Philosophy and Theology in the Early Church
Kenneth Calvert (Hillsdale College)
The Greek and Roman world was, to say the least, immensely religious. The early Christians did not have not to convince their contemporaries of the existence of the divine, but to proclaim the nature and work of the incarnate God. The ideas and language of philosophy offered them many possibilities. As St. Justin Martyr wrote, “Whatever things were rightly said among all men are the property of us Christians.” Christians found great use of Greek and Roman philosophy, but they also found significant obstacles. The “gold” that was philosophy both clarified and confused Christians and their detractors.
In this lecture, Prof. Calvert will walk us through the fascinating exchange and enrichment that occurred between philosophy and theology in the early Church, allowing us to discover possibilities to better engage today’s world with the tools that philosophy affords us.
SERIES DESCRIPTION
In his 2006 Regensburg Address, Pope Benedict XVI argued that “it is necessary and reasonable to raise the question of God through the use of reason, and to do so in the context of the tradition of the Christian Faith.”
Christianity shared a sense of “reason” with Greek philosophy. Jesus himself was the Word (Logos), the Greek word for reason and speech. St. Paul himself reminded us that Christian worship is “reasonable worship” (logike latreia) (Rom. 12:1), and while love “transcends” knowledge and can perceive more than thought alone, it remains the love of the God who is Logos (Eph. 3:19).
Faith and reason support one another; however, many have tried to tear them asunder. The Reformation tried to get to a “pure” faith without reason; modern atheism has claimed that nothing can be “known” about God. When faith and reason are pulled apart, we lose sight of God and of ourselves, since we are made to know and love God.
In this year’s WSCCS, we will challenge the all-too-common assumption that the Church’s faith stands in opposition to reason. Join us as we examine the philosophical, monastic, and artistic geniuses who have borne the Church aloft through their engagement and enrichment of worldly wisdom.
Each month, we will gather at Ruth Lake Country Club. Over dinner, we will listen to a sophisticated yet accessible lecture offered by accomplished academics. The lectures will introduce insights from the treasure house of the Church’s intellectual tradition and their bearing on contemporary themes and issues, presenting faithful Catholic teaching in a way that avoids the acrimony of the culture wars.
CALENDAR
September 13: Golden Calf: Philosophy and Theology in the Early Church
Kenneth Calvert (Professor of History, Director of the Oxford Program, Hillsdale College)
October 4: The One Thing Necessary: Monasticism and Philosophy
Prior Peter Funk, OSB (Monastery of the Holy Cross)
November 9: Integrity, Creation, and a Restless Heart: Augustine’s Contribution to Philosophy
Jared Ortiz (Professor of Theology, Founder and Executive Director of the St. Benedict Institute, Hope College)
March 20: Catholic Women in the Arts and Sciences: An Underappreciated Tradition
Bronwen McShea (Professor of History, Augustine Institute)
April 10: Is Free Will an Illusion? St. Thomas Aquinas and Human Action
Fr. Stephen Brock (Professor of Medieval Philosophy, Pontifical University of the Holy Cross)
May 15: The Bond of All Creation: Renaissance Humanism and the Incarnate Word
Matthew Gaetano (Professor of History, Hillsdale College)
SEPTEMBER SPEAKER
Kenneth Calvert

The One Thing Necessary: Monasticism and Philosophy - Faith and Reason | West Suburban Catholic Culture Series
2023-10-04 18:30 - 20:30 | Ruth Lake Country Club, 6200 South Madison Street, Hinsdale, IL
The West Suburban Catholic Culture Series returns in 2024 to continue its series on
“Faith and Reason as the Two Wings:
The History and Enduring Importance of Catholic Philosophy“
REGISTER HERE
(Business casual attire encouraged. For questions, please email Marial Corona at mcorona@lumenchristi.org).
Schedule: 6:30 p.m. Drinks | 7:00 p.m. Dinner, Lecture, & Q&A | 8:30 p.m. End
October 4:
The One Thing Necessary: Monasticism and Philosophy
Prior Peter Funk, OSB (Monastery of the Holy Cross)
By integrating rigorous study and assiduous prayer within a life oriented towards the Truth, monasticism became a fertile ground for philosophical reflection, which starkly contrasts with modernity’s tendency towards analysis and fragmentation.
In this lecture, Prior Peter Funk, OSB will explore the perennial contributions of monasticism to philosophy and show how St. Benedict’s motto ora et labora can aid our own philosophical reflections.
SERIES DESCRIPTION
In his 2006 Regensburg Address, Pope Benedict XVI argued that “it is necessary and reasonable to raise the question of God through the use of reason, and to do so in the context of the tradition of the Christian Faith.”
Christianity shared a sense of “reason” with Greek philosophy. Jesus himself was the Word (Logos), the Greek word for reason and speech. St. Paul himself reminded us that Christian worship is “reasonable worship” (logike latreia) (Rom. 12:1), and while love “transcends” knowledge and can perceive more than thought alone, it remains the love of the God who is Logos (Eph. 3:19).
Faith and reason support one another; however, many have tried to tear them asunder. The Reformation tried to get to a “pure” faith without reason; modern atheism has claimed that nothing can be “known” about God. When faith and reason are pulled apart, we lose sight of God and of ourselves, since we are made to know and love God.
In this year’s WSCCS, we will challenge the all-too-common assumption that the Church’s faith stands in opposition to reason. Join us as we examine the philosophical, monastic, and artistic geniuses who have borne the Church aloft through their engagement and enrichment of worldly wisdom.
Each month, we will gather at Ruth Lake Country Club. Over dinner, we will listen to a sophisticated yet accessible lecture offered by accomplished academics. The lectures will introduce insights from the treasure house of the Church’s intellectual tradition and their bearing on contemporary themes and issues, presenting faithful Catholic teaching in a way that avoids the acrimony of the culture wars.
CALENDAR
September 13: Golden Calf: Philosophy and Theology in the Early Church
Kenneth Calvert (Professor of History, Director of the Oxford Program, Hillsdale College)
October 4: The One Thing Necessary: Monasticism and Philosophy
Prior Peter Funk, OSB (Monastery of the Holy Cross)
November 9: Integrity, Creation, and a Restless Heart: Augustine’s Contribution to Philosophy
Jared Ortiz (Professor of Theology, Founder and Executive Director of the St. Benedict Institute, Hope College)
March 20: Catholic Women in the Arts and Sciences: An Underappreciated Tradition
Bronwen McShea (Professor of History, Augustine Institute)
April 10: Is Free Will an Illusion? St. Thomas Aquinas and Human Action
Fr. Stephen Brock (Professor of Medieval Philosophy, Pontifical University of the Holy Cross)
May 15: The Bond of All Creation: Renaissance Humanism and the Incarnate Word
Matthew Gaetano (Professor of History, Hillsdale College)
OCTOBER SPEAKER
Prior Peter Funk, OSB

Integration Seminar
2023-10-14 10:00 - 12:00
Open to graduate students only. This is a private and closed event. This event may be attended by receiving an invitation or submitting a request. Those interested in participating should contact Fr. Peter Bernardi at bernardisj@gmail.com. Food and beverages will be provided.
The LCI integration seminars feature invited scholars, distinguished in a variety of disciplines, to share with University of Chicago students how they go about integrating Catholic faith with their specialized fields of scholarship & research. The scholar’s autobiographical presentation [20-30min.] is designed to animate a conversation with the students concerning the challenges and opportunities that characterize the vibrant Catholic intellectual tradition in dialogue with secular disciplines that are often skeptical or dismissive regarding revealed truths of Christian faith. In short, this seminar aims to promote reflection on the dialogue between faith and reason.
The 2022-23 seminars featured paleontologist Dr. Peter Tierney, Newman scholar Dr. Austin Walker, and a married couple: philosopher Dr. Richard Kim and Patristics scholar Xueling Wang.
The first seminar of the ’23-24 academic year will convene on Saturday, October 14, 2023. Historian Dr. Danny Wasserman-Soler, director of Lumen Christi Institute, will animate the conversation.
The seminars meet quarterly on Saturdays, 10am-12pm, at the LCI Woodlawn Residence. Coffee and rolls are available at 9:30am and lunch is available at 12pm.

Romano Guardini on Technology and the Liturgy
2023-10-19 17:00 - 18:30 | Swift Hall, First Floor Common Room, 1025 E 58th St,Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
This lecture was cosponsored by the University of Chicago Divinity School and the In Lumine Network. It was made possible through the support of ‘In Lumine: Supporting the Catholic Intellectual Tradition on Campuses Nationwide’ (Grant #62372) from the John Templeton Foundation.
Romano Guardini penned his Letters from Lake Como between 1923-1925 in order to think about the new technocratic relationship between nature and culture that was emerging in post-war and post-Enlightenment Europe. Guardini’s reflections on the technocratic paradigm are critical for understanding the relationship of the human person, the dynamics of culture, and our hyperdigitized world today. Guardini’s newly translated Liturgy and Liturgical Formation was also published in its first edition in German and Italian in 1923 and reflects a similar approach to the centrality of the body and the senses in the spiritual formation of the human person. In a surprising way, Guardini’s critique of technology parallels his analysis of liturgy and prayer within the life of the Church.
On the following day, Prof. Casarella lead a master class for students and faculty on Guardini’s Letters from Lake Como: Explorations on Technology and the Human Race.

Letters from Lake Como and Other Approaches: Guardini and Heidegger on Technology
2023-10-20 14:00 - 17:30 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
REGISTER HERE
Open to current graduate students and faculty. Advanced undergraduates and others interested in participating should contact dstrobach@lumenchristi.org. All registrants will receive a copy of the required reading, which should be read in advance of the class. An optional wine and cheese reception will follow.
This master class is made possible through the support of ‘In Lumine: Supporting the Catholic Intellectual Tradition on Campuses Nationwide’ (Grant #62372) from the John Templeton Foundation.
This masterclass will cover Romano Guardini’s Letters from Lake Como, written between 1923-1925, and will focus on the relationship between technology, human nature, and culture. It will take a special interest in his discussion of how some modern technology disrupts man’s historical and traditional relationship to nature. Some modern technology, Guardini argues, makes man into a dominator of nature instead of one who works in harmony with it. This significant difference alters man’s understanding of his relationship to humanity, to God, and to the cosmos.
Guardini’s critique of technology both influences and departs from Martin Heidegger’s famous treatment in his “The Question Concerning Technology.” The master class will conclude with a comparison of Guardini and Heidiegger.
Readings:
Required: Guardini, Romano. Letters from Lake Como: Explorations in Technology and the Human Race. Ressourcement : Retrieval & Renewal in Catholic Thought, 1994.
Recommended: Heidegger, Martin. “The Question Concerning Technology.” In The Question Concerning Technology and Other Essays, translated by William Lovitt, 3-36. New York and London: Garland Punlishing Inc., 1977.
The readings will be available at Gavin House (1220 E. 58th Street) Mon-Fri, 10am-4pm. Please email David Strobach at dstrobach@lumenchristi.org to let us know you are coming.
Schedule:
1:30-2:00 | Pre-event coffee and cookies
2:00-3:20 | Session 1
3:20-3:40 | Break
3:40-5:00 | Session 2
5:00-5:30 | Reception

Concert with Schola Antiqua at Swift Hall: Byrd of a Feather
2023-10-21 20:00 - 21:30 | Swift Hall, 1025 E 58th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Register Here
Join us for a celebration of English Renaissance composer William Byrd in the four hundredth year following his death. Journey through Byrd’s outstanding corpus with Schola Antiqua, as we survey his musical contributions to the Catholic recusant community, highlighting themes of trial and deliverance. Actor Jeff Parker will also read dramatic texts of Jesuit priest Robert Southwell, whom Byrd met in 1586. The program further includes some of the most prized music for keyboard known to that point, composed by Byrd. Guest harpsichordist Jason Moy (DePaul University), a specialist in Renaissance and Baroque keyboard music, joins Schola Antiqua to present this splendid music. Composer Nicolas Chuaqui also will contribute a commissioned work for the quatercentenary.
Admission: Pay-what-you-wish
This concert is sponsored by the Lumen Christi Institute of Chicago, the University of Chicago Divinity School, and a grant from the Illinois Arts Council. Nicolas Chuaqui’s commission is supported in part by a grant from the Saints, volunteers for the performing arts.

Concert with Schola Antiqua: Byrd of a Feather
2023-10-22 15:00 - 16:30 | Indian Boundary Park, 2500 W. Lunt Ave, Chicago, IL
Register Here
Join us for a celebration of English Renaissance composer William Byrd in the four hundredth year following his death. Journey through Byrd’s outstanding corpus with Schola Antiqua, as we survey his musical contributions to the Catholic recusant community, highlighting themes of trial and deliverance. Actor Jeff Parker will also read dramatic texts of Jesuit priest Robert Southwell, whom Byrd met in 1586. The program further includes some of the most prized music for keyboard known to that point, composed by Byrd. Guest harpsichordist Jason Moy (DePaul University), a specialist in Renaissance and Baroque keyboard music, joins Schola Antiqua to present this splendid music. Composer Nicolas Chuaqui also will contribute a commissioned work for the quatercentenary.
Admission: Pay-what-you-wish
This concert is sponsored by the Lumen Christi Institute of Chicago and a grant from the Illinois Arts Council. Nicolas Chuaqui’s commission is supported in part by a grant from the Saints, volunteers for the performing arts.

Non-Credit Mini Course | Transhumanism, AI, and the Soul: Science for Humans
2023-10-24 18:00 - 19:30 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Tuesdays, October 3 – October 24
6:00pm: Dinner
6:30pm: Presentation
This event is in-person only. Intended for university students, recent graduates, faculty, and staff. Others interested in attending please contact dstrobach@lumenchristi.org.
Registrants are free to attend as many sessions as they choose. Sessions do not presuppose previous attendance or prior knowledge of the subject.
This non-credit course is cosponsored by the University of Chicago Program on Religion and Medicine and the In Lumine Network. It is made possible through the support of ‘In Lumine: Supporting the Catholic Intellectual Tradition on Campuses Nationwide’ (Grant #62372) from the John Templeton Foundation.
Wrestle with the moral and philosophical questions around the rise of artificial intelligence, breakthroughs in genetic engineering, and the quest for transhumanism.
Michael Burns (a biology professor) and Joe Vukov (a philosophy professor) will show the group how to think about the human questions at the forefront of technological and medical innovation.
Each week dinner is served at 6:00pm, and the lecture and conversation lasts from 6:30pm to 7:30pm.
SCHEDULE
October 3: Introduction: Science for Humans
October 10: Being Human in the Era of Artificial Intelligence
October 17: Genetic Engineering, or How to “Refine” Humanity
October 24: Transcending Humanity? Transhumanism, Bioenhanced Virtue, and the Quest for Perfection

Getting to the Practical: Economics, Decision Making, and the Virtues in Catholic Thought
2023-10-25 12:00 - 13:15 | Booth School of Business, 5807 S Woodlawn Avenue, Chicago, IL
This event is co-presented by the Lumen Christi Institute and Catholics at Booth. Open to students, staff, and faculty. Email m.lechevallier@lumenchristi.org to inquire about registration. This lunch discussion will be held at the Charles M. Harper Center.
This event is made possible through the support of ‘In Lumine: Supporting the Catholic Intellectual Tradition on Campuses Nationwide’ (Grant #62372) from the John Templeton Foundation.
We often think of the virtues as moral dispositions or ethical values. In Catholic thought, the virtues have a more mundane function, however. They are practical, decision-making habits for uncertain environments. When we appreciate the practical nature of virtue, we can understand better the shortcomings of mainstream and behavioral economic models of decision making. Join for this lunchtime event as Prof. Andy Yuengert explores the interesection of economics and virtue.

Dante the Theologian: A Conversation
2023-10-26 12:00 - 13:30 | University Club of Chicago, 76 E Monroe St Chicago, IL 60603, Downtown, IL
12:00 Welcome, Blessing, Lunch is Served | 12:30 Interview | 1:30 End
REGISTER HERE
The dress code for the University Club can be consulted here, and parking information here.
For questions, please email Marial Corona at mcorona@lumenchristi.org.
All agree: Dante Alighieri was a great poet. The Divine Comedy stands as a masterwork of Western literature, integrating theology, philosophy, and history into a compelling vision of the cosmos.
Ken Woodward, Lumen Christi’s Writer-in-Residence, will explore Dante’s greatness and enduring relevance during a luncheon conversation with esteemed scholars Jennifer Martin and Jason Baxter. This conversation will help us learn about Dante’s journey and appreciate his poetry as an entry point into theological discovery.

Pondering the Psalms with Early Christians: Origen and Augustine
2023-10-28 09:00 - 11:00 | ONLINE, World Wide Web, INTERNET
REGISTER HERE
This online-only event is for students, faculty and university staff only. Registration is required. For more information, please contact info@lumenchristi.org.
This online event will take place from 9:00am – 11:00am C.T. / 10:00am – 12:00pm E.T. on Saturday, October 28th.
Exegesis is the core of early Christian theology and this comes alive in the interpretation of the psalms. In this master class we will look at two interpreters of the psalms—Origen and Augustine—led by Lewis Ayres (Durham University/Australian Catholic University/Angelicum) and Paul Blowers (Milligan University), two leaders of our upcoming summer seminar.
This online master class is a preview of our regular summer seminar offering in Patristics.
Readings:

Origen of Alexandria, Homily 1 on Psalm 77
Augustine of Hippo, Exposition 2 of Psalm 30

Readings for the masterclass can be found here.

Magis Lecture | The Making of St. Ignatius
2023-11-01 17:00 - 19:15 | Saint Ignatius College Prep, 1076 W Roosevelt Rd, Chicago, IL
5:00 Mass* | 5:45 Drinks & Hors d’Oeuvres | 6:30 Lecture | 7:15 End
REGISTER HERE
Cosponsored by the Bollandist Society, St. Ignatius College Prep. Supported by the Fr. Paul V. Mankowski, S.J., Memorial Fund for Jesuit Scholarship at Lumen Christi.
Free and open to the public. Registration required. For questions, please contact Marial Corona at mcorona@lumenchristi.org.
Although the Church calls upon the saints as heavenly intercessors, their lives on earth unfold in time and space in the midst of their fellow men. The recognition of the saints’ holiness begins with the people who know them face-to-face, who often provide divergent testimonies and conflicting images. How do hagiographers sift through a variety of sources—eyewitness testimonies, narrative accounts, and physical remains—to write historically reliable lives of the saints?
In this lecture, Fr. Sam Zeno Conedera will explore the contribution of Pedro de Ribadeneyra, an early Jesuit and the first official biographer of St. Ignatius, to the hagiography of the Spanish Golden Age. His prodigious literary output, including multiple lives of Ignatius, shows how the Society of Jesus has always treated the saints with both devotion and careful historical study and invites us to do the same.
* The Solemnity of All Saints, celebrated on November 1, is a Holy Day of Obligation.
ABOUT THE MAGIS SERIES
The Magis Series on Faith and Reason is a partnership between the Lumen Christi Institute and St. Ignatius College Prep to bring accessible yet sophisticated lectures on the Church’s intellectual tradition to the broad lay public. The event is open to everyone from high school students to retirees. No affiliation with St. Ignatius is needed. Anyone who desires a lively entree into the mind of the Church is welcome and encouraged to attend.

Visit to Monastery of the Holy Cross
2023-11-04 16:00 - 20:00 | The Monastery of the Holy Cross, 3111 South Aberdeen St. Chicago, IL 60608, Chicago, IL
REGISTER HERE
Open to current university students and faculty. Others interested in attending please contact dstrobach@lumenchristi.org. Transportation will be provided.
Join us for an edifying evening of prayer, dinner, and conversation with the Benedictine monks at the Monastery of the Holy Cross on the south side of Chicago. We will pray the Divine Office (Vespers and Compline), have dinner, and discuss a spiritual topic with prior of the monastery and University of Chicago alum Fr. Peter Funk, OSB. Following monastic tradition of oral reading during meals, selections of a text will be read during dinner and discussion will follow.
More information about the monastery can be found here.
Schedule
4:15pm Meet at Gavin House (1220 E. 58th St.)
4:30pm Depart from Hyde Park
5:00pm Arrive at the Monastery, welcome by Prior Funk
5:15pm Office of Vespers
6:00pm Dinner & Discussion
7:15pm Office of Compline
8:00pm Arrive back in Hyde Park

The Revolt of the Masses and the Suicide of Civilization
2023-11-08 19:00 - 20:30 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Open to current undergraduate students at the University of Chicago. Registration is capped at 20. Students who register after capacity has been reached will be put on a waitlist. All registrants will be provided with a free copy of the text. This seminar and the Nicklin Fellows are cosponsored by the First Analysis Institute.
REGISTER HERE
“As they say in the United States: ‘to be different is to be indecent.’ The mass crushes beneath it everything that is different, everything that is excellent, individual, qualified, and select. Anybody who is not like everybody, who does not think like everybody, runs the risk of being eliminated.”
We live in a world of mass media, mass markets, mass hysteria. It is no wonder, then, that we have become what the 20th century Spanish philosopher Jose Ortega y Gasset called “mass man.” While we are constantly making the world around us a better place to live in, we neglect to make ourselves better persons. We have lost even the aspiration for excellence.
In this dinner-time seminar, we will read Ortega’s masterpiece, The Revolt of the Masses, in order to examine how our culture has lost something essential, and what it means to be more than a face in the crowd.

SCHEDULE
6:00 PM Dinner | 6:15 PM Discussion | 7:30 PM Close
October 11th: Who is the Mass Man?
Revolt of the Masses: § 1, 2, 3, 6
October 25th : Nobility and vulgarity
Revolt of the Masses: § 7, 8, 9
November 8th: Specialization and the State
Revolt of the Masses: § 11, 12, 13, 15

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

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

Integrity, Creation, and a Restless Heart: Augustine's Contribution to Philosophy - Faith and Reason | West Suburban Catholic Culture Series
2023-11-09 18:30 - 20:30 | Ruth Lake Country Club, 6200 South Madison Street, Hinsdale, IL
The West Suburban Catholic Culture Series returns in 2024 to continue its series on
“Faith and Reason as the Two Wings:
The History and Enduring Importance of Catholic Philosophy“
REGISTER HERE
(Business casual attire encouraged. For questions, please email Marial Corona at mcorona@lumenchristi.org).
Schedule: 6:30 p.m. Drinks | 7:00 p.m. Dinner, Lecture, & Q&A | 8:30 p.m. End
November 9:
Integrity, Creation, and a Restless Heart: Augustine’s Contribution to Philosophy
Jared Ortiz (Professor of Theology, Founder and Executive Director of the St. Benedict Institute, Hope College)
Christianity integrates wisdom and worship, something no philosophy can do. Augustine understood this well and changed the parameters of philosophy by insisting that Christ was the true Wisdom philosophers were seeking. Further, he showed how the world has not always existed but was made by a transcendent God, who is our ultimate fulfillment.
In this lecture, Prof. Ortiz will argue that the end of the person’s natural search for happiness is deification, which only happens in Christ and through the Church.
SERIES DESCRIPTION
In his 2006 Regensburg Address, Pope Benedict XVI argued that “it is necessary and reasonable to raise the question of God through the use of reason, and to do so in the context of the tradition of the Christian Faith.”
Christianity shared a sense of “reason” with Greek philosophy. Jesus himself was the Word (Logos), the Greek word for reason and speech. St. Paul himself reminded us that Christian worship is “reasonable worship” (logike latreia) (Rom. 12:1), and while love “transcends” knowledge and can perceive more than thought alone, it remains the love of the God who is Logos (Eph. 3:19).
Faith and reason support one another; however, many have tried to tear them asunder. The Reformation tried to get to a “pure” faith without reason; modern atheism has claimed that nothing can be “known” about God. When faith and reason are pulled apart, we lose sight of God and of ourselves, since we are made to know and love God.
In this year’s WSCCS, we will challenge the all-too-common assumption that the Church’s faith stands in opposition to reason. Join us as we examine the philosophical, monastic, and artistic geniuses who have borne the Church aloft through their engagement and enrichment of worldly wisdom.
Each month, we will gather at Ruth Lake Country Club. Over dinner, we will listen to a sophisticated yet accessible lecture offered by accomplished academics. The lectures will introduce insights from the treasure house of the Church’s intellectual tradition and their bearing on contemporary themes and issues, presenting faithful Catholic teaching in a way that avoids the acrimony of the culture wars.
CALENDAR
September 13: Golden Calf: Philosophy and Theology in the Early Church
Kenneth Calvert (Professor of History, Director of the Oxford Program, Hillsdale College)
October 4: The One Thing Necessary: Monasticism and Philosophy
Prior Peter Funk, OSB (Monastery of the Holy Cross)
November 9: Integrity, Creation, and a Restless Heart: Augustine’s Contribution to Philosophy
Jared Ortiz (Professor of Theology, Founder and Executive Director of the St. Benedict Institute, Hope College)
March 20: Catholic Women in the Arts and Sciences: An Underappreciated Tradition
Bronwen McShea (Professor of History, Augustine Institute)
April 10: Is Free Will an Illusion? St. Thomas Aquinas and Human Action
Fr. Stephen Brock (Professor of Medieval Philosophy, Pontifical University of the Holy Cross)
May 15: The Bond of All Creation: Renaissance Humanism and the Incarnate Word
Matthew Gaetano (Professor of History, Hillsdale College)
NOVEMBER SPEAKER
Jared Ortiz

Dionysius the Areopagite Reading Course
2023-11-13 14:00 - 15:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
REGISTER HERE
Open to current students and faculty at the University of Chicago. Participants can come to whichever sessions they choose. Others interested in participating should contact dstrobach@lumenchristi.org. Books, food, and beverages will be provided.
This reading group explores the key works of Dionysius the Areopagite. A mysterious figure in the Christian tradition, he presents himself as a friend of both Paul and Plato. Christian theology in East and West remains forever indebted to his contribution.
A copy of The Complete Works will be provided to all participants.
SCHEDULE:
This group will meet Mondays (beginning October 9th) from 1pm – 2pm.
October 9: The Mystical Theology
October 16: Divine Names | Pt. 1
October 23: Divine Names | Pt. 2
October 30: The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy | Pt. 1
November 6: The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy | Pt. 2
November 13: The Letters

Franz Kafka Graduate Reading Group
2023-11-13 17:30 - 18:30 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
REGISTER HERE
Open to current graduate students at the University of Chicago. Participants can come to whichever sessions they choose. Others interested in participating should contact Sam Landon at snlandontn@gmail.com. Books, dinner, and beverages will be provided.
How do you navigate a world beyond comprehension? Do law and justice care about the individual? What are the causes of modern anxieties and can we find peace?
These questions and more are raised by the puzzling and alienating worlds of Franz Kafka. Join us at Gavin House on Mondays at 4:30pm for dinner, drinks, and discussion as we explore this master of 20th century literature!
A copy of The Complete Stories will be provided to all participants.
SCHEDULE:
This group will meet on Mondays (beginning October 9th) from 4:30pm – 5:30pm.

October 9: Brief Introduction and “Before the Law” (pg. 3-4)
October 16: “A Hunger Artist” (pg. 268-277)
October 23: “In the Penal Colony” (pg. 140-167)
October 30: “The Refusal” (pg. 263-267)
November 6: “The Burrow” (pg. 325-359)
November 13: “The Problem of Our Laws” & “On Parables” (pg. 437-438 & 457)

Non-Credit Mini Course | The Vatican 'Secret' Archives
2023-11-14 19:00 - 20:30 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Tuesdays, October 31-November 14
6:00pm: Dinner
6:30pm: Presentation
REGISTER HERE
This event is in-person only. Intended for university students and the broader university community. Others interested in attending please contact dstrobach@lumenchristi.org.
Registrants are free to attend as many sessions as they choose. Sessions do not presuppose previous attendance or prior knowledge of the subject.
The Catholic Church has kept archives from the very beginning. They are a treasure trove for researchers seeking to cast light on controversies such as the Investiture Controversy, the Crusades, the Inquisition(s) & the trial of Galileo, and the alleged “silence” of Pope Pius XII vis-à-vis the Holocaust. This 3-class course will draw on documentation preserved in the Vatican “Secret” [i.e., “private”] Archives to clarify the historical record regarding these putative scandals.
SCHEDULE
October 31: Paradoxes of the Inquisition
November 7: Shake Hands with the Devil: Modern Genocide from the French Revolution to Rwanda
November 14: The Silence of Pius XII: the Pope Accused

Intellectual Samaritanism: Embracing the Stranger and His Strange Ideas on College Campuses
2024-01-04 18:00 - 19:30 | Social Sciences, Tea Room, 1126 E 59th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
This event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact dstrobach@lumenchristi.org. Reception will follow.
This lecture is cosponsored by the In Lumine Network. It is made possible through the support of ‘In Lumine: Supporting the Catholic Intellectual Tradition on Campuses Nationwide’ (Grant #62372) from the John Templeton Foundation.
What moral and intellectual obligations do we have as scholars when encountering unfamiliar, strange or “other” ideas? It is a fraught idea on many college campuses right now. This lecture will unpack resources from the Catholic intellectual tradition that can help us navigate these issues, in particular developing a theory of what it means to be an intellectual Good Samaritan and applying it to the roads we traverse on modern university campuses.

What is Caesar's? What is God's? Church, State, and Society in Catholic Social Teaching
2024-01-12 14:00 - 15:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Open to current students and faculty. Lunch will be served.
Recent controversies in Catholic political thought have raised anew the question of the proper relationship between Church and state. In this lunchtime discussion, we will look at fundamental texts from the Catholic intellectual tradition that shed light on this issue. These texts articulate distinctions that show what the state is – and what it is not – as well as what the Church is – and what it is not – so that we can better appreciate how the Church is related to social and political life. Our discussion will be primarily philosophical and theological, paying close attention to the historical setting of the Church’s social teaching and its practical repercussions.

The Rise of Artificial Intelligence: Economic, Social, and Spiritual Challenges.
2024-01-16 12:00 | ONLINE, World Wide Web, INTERNET
The Lumen Christi Institute is a proud co-sponsor of the 2024 Catholic Research Economist Discussion Organization (CREDO) keynote lecture with Anton Korinek, Professor at the University of Virginia, in the Department of Economics and the Darden School of Business. His talk is titled “The Rise of Artificial Intelligence: Economic, Social, and Spiritual Challenges.”
This is an online event on Zoom, open to the public, but aimed at a specialist audience. If you are interested in registering, please contact us at info@lumenchristi.org
About the Speaker
In addition to his work at the University of Virginia, Anton is a Nonresident Fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Research Associate at the NBER, a Research Fellow at the CEPR and the Economics of AI Lead at the Centre for the Governance of AI. He received his PhD from Columbia University in 2007 after several years of work experience in the IT and financial sectors. He has also worked at Johns Hopkins and at the University of Maryland and has been a visiting scholar at Harvard, the World Bank, the IMF, the BIS and numerous central banks.
His research analyzes how to prepare for a world of transformative AI systems. He investigates the implications of advanced AI for economic growth, labor markets, inequality, and the future of our society. In his past research, he investigated the mechanics of financial crises and developed policy measures to prevent future crises, including an influential framework for capital flow regulation in emerging economies.

How Can We Flourish?
2024-01-22 18:30 - 20:00 | Knapp Center for Biological Discovery Room 1103, 900 E 57th street, Chicago, IL, 60637
What is human flourishing? What insights might we draw from the humanities? What insights might we draw from the empirical sciences? Many empirical studies throughout the social and biomedical sciences and many policy discussions focus only on very narrow outcomes such as income, or a single specific disease state, or measures of feeling happy. Human well-being or flourishing, however, consists in a much broader range of states and outcomes. Flourishing might be understood as living in a state in which all aspects of a person’s life are good including, but not limited to, affective happiness and life satisfaction, physical and mental health, meaning and purpose, character and virtue, and close social relationships. The empirical literature from the most rigorous studies is reviewed in attempt to identify major determinants of, and resources for, human flourishing. Special attention will be given to the role of religious communities in the promotion of flourishing. Empirical research indicates that participation in religious community is subsequently associated with a range of health and well-being outcomes including longevity, mental health, happiness, meaning in life, marital stability, and many others. Moreover, religious life is itself often a central means to a greater spiritual well-being. Discussion will be given to the implications of a broader conception of human flourishing for personal well-being, for research, and for policy.

This event is free and open to the public. This lecture is cosponsored by the In Lumine Network, the Department of Public Health Sciences, the Program on Medicine and Religion at the University of Chicago, the Collegium Institute, Fons Vitae at Duke University, the St. Anselm Institute, the Nova Forum, and the Kateri Institute.
This event is made possible through the support of ‘In Lumine: Supporting the Catholic Intellectual Tradition on Campuses Nationwide’ (Grant #62372) from the John Templeton Foundation. The opinions expressed in this program are those of the presenter and do not necessarily reflect the views of the John Templeton Foundation.
For more information, contact info@lumenchristi.org.

An Unknown Constellation: Hannah Arendt Reads Étienne Gilson and Jacques Maritain
2024-02-02 16:00 - 17:30 | Social Sciences, Tea Room, 1126 E 59th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
This event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact dstrobach@lumenchristi.org. A wine and cheese reception will follow. The location is tbd.
This event is cosponsored by the University of Chicago Committee on Social Thought.
German philosopher and former UChicago professor, Hannah Arendt stands as one of the most influential 20th century theorists of totalitarianism and political ideology. The sources for her unique insights remain obscure, as she rarely revealed her influences outside of Martin Heidegger and Karl Jaspers. Thomas Meyer has discovered in unpublished archives and letters Arendt’s deep interest in two mid-century French Catholic thinkers: Etienne Gilson and Jacques Maritain. She explored their works during the “Third Reich,” taking a special interest in Gilson’s philosophy of history and Maritain’s analysis of the state. Arendt valued their consistent way of thinking. A study of this “unknown constellation” traces unexpected connections among mid-century political theorists.
On the following day, Prof. Meyer will lead a master class for students and faculty on Hannah Arendt’s famous work, The Human Condition.
Image courtesty of Barbara Niggl Radloff,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hannah_Arendt_auf_dem_1._Kulturkritikerkongress,_Barbara_Niggl_Radloff,_FM-2019-1-5-9-16.jpg

Hannah Arendt and The Human Condition
2024-02-03 13:00 - 16:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Open to current graduate students and faculty. Advanced undergraduates and others interested in participating should contact dstrobach@lumenchristi.org. This event is in-person only. All registrants will receive copies of the selected readings, which should be read in advance of the class. An optional wine and cheese reception will follow.
Hannah Arendt came to Chicago in the 1950’s and produced two remarkable works: The Human Condition (which began as her Walgreens lectures) and Between Past and Future (which she finished while she was at the University of Chicago’s Committee on Social Thought). This seminar-style master class will examine excerpts from these works in order to delineate Arendt’s treatment of the human condition, the relation between the history of political thought and the present day, and her work in light of Leo Strauss’ Natural Right and History.
Readings:
Hannah Arendt:

From Between Past and Future: “The Concept of History: Ancient and Modern”
From The Human Condition: § 31 and 32 (“The Traditional Substitution of Making for Acting” and “The Process Character of Action”).

Leo Strauss:

From Natural Right and History: “Introduction” and “I. Natural Right and the Historical Approach.”

Both the required and recommended readings will be distributed to participants via Dropbox. If you prefer, you can pick up a printout of the readings at Gavin House (1220 E. 58th Street) Mon-Fri, 10am-4pm once they are ready. Please email David Strobach at dstrobach@lumenchristi.org to let us know you are coming.
Schedule:
11:30-12:00 | Optional pre-event lunch
12:00-1:20 | Session 1
1:20-1:40 | Coffee break
1:40-3:00 | Session 2
3:00-3:30 | Reception

Care of Souls in Inquisition Spain
2024-02-09 16:00 - 17:30 | John Hope Franklin Room SSRB 224, 1126 E 59th St., Chicago, IL
This event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact dstrobach@lumenchristi.org. A wine and cheese reception will follow.
What did the practice of Christianity look like in a place shadowed by an inquisition? Were personal preferences, conversations, spiritual friendships, and religious questions off the table by default? Did clergy under the Spanish Inquisition neglect their duty to care for souls? Sixteenth-century Spaniards — regardless of their vocation, gender or education — defended and practiced a Catholicism that was rich in individual discretion, human communication, and theological inquiry. This talk lays out the evidence for an “inductive Catholicism,” which even Spanish inquisitors sometimes endorsed.

Red Mass and Lecture for Legal Professionals
2024-02-10 17:00 - 19:30 | Bond Chapel & Swift Hall, 1025 E. 58th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
This event is free and open to the public.
The Lumen Christi Institute, Calvert House, St. Thomas the Apostle Parish, the St. Thomas More Society at the University of Chicago Law School, and the Catholic Lawyers Guild of Chicago are pleased to announce their third annual Red Mass and Lecture.
Mass will be held at Bond Chapel at the University of Chicago. The celebrant will be Bishop Jeffrey Grob, JCD.
The lecture will be held at Swift Hall. It will be offered by Dr. Lu Ann Homza.
What is a Red Mass?
A Red Mass is a Mass celebrated for members of the legal community. Through prayerful petition and thanksgiving the Red Mass requests guidance from the Holy Spirit for all who seek justice, and offers the legal community an opportunity to reflect on the God-given power and responsibility of all in the legal profession.
Originating in Europe during the High Middle Ages, the Red Mass is so-called from the red vestments traditionally worn in symbolism of the tongues of fire that descended on the Apostles at Pentecost (Acts 2:1–4). Its name also exemplifies the scarlet robes worn by royal judges that attended the Mass centuries ago.
Lecture by Dr. Lu Ann Homza
“When Witches Litigate: New Evidence from Spanish Archives”
We often wonder whether our legal system is accessible to unaware, under-educated, or vulnerable people who need to use it. Remarkably, between 1610 and 1612, suspected witches in northern Spain turn out to have known exactly how to deploy the courts at their disposal, despite being illiterate and Basque-speaking. The archives in Pamplona preserve multiple prosecutions launched by accused witches when they were defamed and illegally tortured in their villages. The witch-suspects won their cases; the defendants were severely punished.
This talk will explain the legal strategies, emotional reasoning, and practical measures that suspected witches used to regain their honor and punish their adversaries. Their examples illustrate how wide and deep their knowledge of the law was, even in the most implausible circumstances.
Schedule
4:00 pm – Mass at Bond Chapel (1025 E. 58th St.)
5:00 pm – Reception and Networking at Swift Hall (1025 E. 58th St.)
5:45 pm – Lecture at Swift Hall (1025 E. 58th St.)
6:30 pm – End

The Closing of the American Mind and the Death of Philosophy
2024-02-14 19:00 - 20:30 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Open to current undergraduate students at the University of Chicago. Registration is capped at 20. Students who register after capacity has been reached will be put on a waitlist. All registrants will be provided with a free copy of the text. This seminar and the Nicklin Fellows are cosponsored by the First Analysis Institute.
REGISTER HERE
The American university is premised on being open to a wide range of people and ideas, the place “where community and friendship can exist in our times.”

But has the university perverted openness into a “surrender to whatever is most powerful”?
Is openness a virtue, “that invites us to the quest for knowledge and certitude?”
Or does openness “result in conformism”?
Is “what is advertised as a great opening …a great closing,” where indifference, ignorance, and relativism have closed the American mind to the pursuit of truth?

These questions animated Allan Bloom in his 1987 bestseller, The Closing of the American Mind. A longtime member of the University of Chicago’s Committee on Social Thought with decades of experience teaching undergraduates, Bloom lambasted the intellectual and spiritual state of American higher education. From rock music to the sexual revolution, from Nietzsche and Max Weber to concepts like “my values” and “the self,” Bloom indicted the causes for the American undergraduate’s flat soul. The only solution was a return to a Great Books education guided by Plato’s Republic.
We will read selections from The Closing of the American Mind to debate some of Bloom’s most contentious claims. Was what he said of undergraduates true in 1987? Is it true now? Has the university been corrupted by relativism? Do the Great Books provide a way out?
John W. Boyer will join us for the first session. Boyer is the Senior Advisor to the President and the Martin A. Ryerson Distinguished Service Professor of History at the University of Chicago. He served as Dean of the College from 1992 until 2023.
SCHEDULE:
6:00 PM Dinner | 6:15 PM Discussion | 7:30 PM Close
We encourage you to read the book in its entirety. Come ready to discuss at least the selections below. Books are provided.
January 17th:

Intro + Part I: The Clean Slate, Books, and Relationships (Self-Centeredness, Equality, Race, and Sex)

January 31st:

Part II: The German Connection, Values, The Nietzcheanization of the Left, and Our Ignorance

February 14th:

Part III: The Sixties and the Student & the University

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

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

White Mass and Lecture for Medical Professionals
2024-02-17 17:00 - 19:30 | Bond Chapel & Swift Hall, 1025 E. 58th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
This event is free and open to the public.
The Lumen Christi Institute, Calvert House, and St. Thomas the Apostle Parish are pleased to announce their first annual White Mass and Lecture.
Mass will be held at Bond Chapel at the University of Chicago. The celebrant will be Fr. Carlos Rodriguez.
What is a White Mass?
The tradition of the White Mass in the United States finds its origins in the development of the national Catholic Medical Association in the early 1930s. From its inception, the medical profession has been understood as a healing profession, a way in which Christ’s work continues upon the earth. Moreover, since the apparitions at Lourdes in the late 19th century, the plight of the infirmed- and those who care for them- have taken on renewed appreciation in participating in the mysteries of Christ’s own life. The White Mass, so named by the color worn by those in the healing profession of medicine, gathers healthcare professionals under the patronage of St. Luke to ask God’s blessing upon the patient, doctor, nurse, and caregiver alike.
Lecture by Sr. Teresa Mary Kozlovski, RSM, MD
“Catholic Health Care: Serving as Instruments of God’s Mercy”
During our training as health care practitioners, we learn about the body, what is broken, and how to fix it. Yet, in our day-to-day practice in medicine, we interact with human persons, not bodies. How does our Catholic faith enlighten this reality and the practice of medicine? This lecture will explore topics including the dignity of each person made in the image and likeness of God, the importance of the development of our own interior life, the mercy of God, and how incorporating these aspects of the faith lends to comprehensive health care and our service in medicine as instruments of God’s mercy.
Schedule
4:00 pm – Mass at Bond Chapel (1025 E. 58th St.)
5:00 pm – Reception and Networking at Swift Hall (1025 E. 58th St.)
5:45 pm – Lecture at Swift Hall (1025 E. 58th St.)
6:30 pm – End
This event is made possible through the support of ‘In Lumine: Supporting the Catholic Intellectual Tradition on Campuses Nationwide’ (Grant #62372) from the John Templeton Foundation. The opinions expressed in this program are those of the presenter and do not necessarily reflect the views of the John Templeton Foundation.

Non-Credit Course | The Seven Sacraments of the Catholic Church: Doors to the Sacred
2024-02-20 19:00 - 20:30 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
REGISTER HERE
This event is in-person only. Intended for university students, faculty, and staff. Others interested in attending please contact dstrobach@lumenchristi.org.
Registrants are free to attend as many sessions as they choose. Sessions do not presuppose previous attendance or prior knowledge of the subject.
The Catholic Faith is profoundly sacramental. The Church recognizes seven sacraments: Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, Reconciliation, Anointing of the Sick, Marriage, and Holy Orders. These sacred actions contain and confer Christ’s healing, transformative Grace. This class will highlight the theological meaning, Biblical basis, historical development, and our own personal experiences of the sacraments.
The reality of the sacraments raises a number of complicated questions that this course will answer:

Why baptize infants? Can the unbaptized be saved?

Why confess one’s sins to a priest? Can a priest ‘forgive’ you?

What even is a ‘priest’? Why is Holy Orders conferred only on men?

Why should a sick person be anointed?

Is marriage really ‘indissoluble’? How does an annulment differ from divorce?

How can the Eucharist be more than bread and wine? What does the term ‘transubstantiation’ mean?

And more!

SCHEDULE
January 9: The Biblical basis of Sacramentality, Sacraments, and Sacramentals
January 16: The Sacraments of Initiation: Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist
January 23: The Eucharist: “The Sacrament of Sacraments”
January 30: The Eucharist and the Eucharistic Liturgy: “Source and summit of the entire Christian life.”
February 6: Sacraments of Healing: Reconciliation [aka Penance] and the Anointing of the Sick
February 13: Sacrament of Marriage
February 20: Sacrament of Holy Orders
FORMAT
Tuesdays, January 9-February 20
6:00pm: Dinner
6:30pm: Presentation

Reconciling Justice: A Community Conversation on Criminal Justice Reform
2024-02-21 18:00 - 22:00
This event is by invitation only. For more information, contact ccjrn@lumenchristi.org.
An event for lawyers, legal scholars, judges, ministry leaders, social workers, clergy, and people who have been directly impacted by the criminal justice system to unite for dinner, plenary panel conversation, and round-table dialogue around criminal justice reform. The evening’s purpose is to inspire hope, healing, and ideas on how to improve the legal system informed by religious wisdom and the experience of those directly affected by our criminal justice system. A mass preceding the program will be celebrated by Cardinal Blase Cupich.
This event will begin with a plenary conversation featuring Cardinal Blase Cupich, Sherrif Tom Dart, Jeanne Bishop, Joseph Mapp, Eric Anderson, Lisa Davis, and Judge Erica Reddick
Co-sponsored by the Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage at Loyola University Chicago, the Hinda Institute, Kolbe House Jail Ministry of the Archdiocese of Chicago, the Catholic Lawyers Guild of Chicago, the Athenaeum, the Loyola University Chicago School of Law, and Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation.
Click for more details about the Catholic Criminal Justice Reform Network.
The Organizing Committee of “Reconciling Justice: A Community Conversation on Criminal Justice Reform” comprise of:

Judge Thomas More Donnelly, Catholic Criminal Justice Reform Network
Fr. David Kelly, C.PP.S., Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation
Mark McCombs, Kolbe House Jail Ministry
Pamela Rubeo, First Vice President, Catholic Lawyers Guild of Chicago
Joseph Mapp, Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation
Emily Cortina, Kolbe House Jail Ministry
Justice Ramon Ocasio
Judge Sonia Gutierrez Antolec
Judge Erica L. Reddick
Rahmiel Hayyim, The Hinda Institute
Jeanne Bishop
Megan McGrath, Secretary, Catholic Lawyers Guild of Chicago
Kimberly Lymore, St. Sabina Catholic Church
Fr. David Jones, St. Benedict the African
Michael Le Chevallier, The Lumen Christi Institute

Viewing of Martin Scorsese's Silence
2024-02-21 19:00 - 23:15 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
This event is co-produced by the Critical Understanding of Liturgies & Traditions (CULT), a student RSO, and the Lumen Christi Institute, the home for the Catholic intellectual tradition at the University of Chicago. The movie will be screened at Gavin House (1220 E 58th St), directly across from the Booth School of Business.
This event is sponsored by the Lumen Christi Institute’s Nicklin Fellows Program, which supports and encourages University of Chicago undergraduate students to develop their intellectual maturity. Francesco Rahe, who designed this program, is a 2023-2024 Nicklin Fellow.
REGISTER HERE
The place is Japan. The year is 1670. Catholicism has been rendered illegal; the remaining faithful are in hiding. Nevertheless, Jesuit missionaries still travel there in secret from Europe–and one, the famously pious Father Ferreira, has just publicly given up his faith. Two Portuguese priests, students of Father Ferreira, set sail. They hope to sustain the Japanese Catholic community, to find the path to sainthood, and, perhaps most of all, to uncover why their beloved teacher apostatised.
Published in 1966, Shusaku Endo’s Silence quickly became considered one of the greatest Catholic novels of the 20th century. It received the Tanizaki Prize and won its author numerous comparisons to Graham Greene. It examines questions relating to colonization, self-sacrifice, and, the problem of evil.
On February 21st, members of the University of Chicago community will interact with this fascinating period of Catholic history through the 2016 Martin Scorsese film adaptation of Endo’s novel.
Dinner will be provided, as well as an introductory talk by Dr. Bruce Winkelman. The first 10 students to arrive will receive free copies of the Endo novel.
SCHEDULE:
6:00-6:30 pm: Dinner
6:30-7:00 pm: Introduction From Dr. Winkelman
7:00-9:50 pm: Screening of Martin Scorsese’s Silence
9:50-10:15 pm: Optional Post-Event Conversation Over Cookies
Dr. Bruce Winkelman, Divinity School Teaching Fellow at UChicago, is a historian of religions whose work spans theory and method in the study of religion, the history and historiography of Japanese religions, and the invention of Buddhist traditions across East Asia.

Dubliners Graduate Reading Group
2024-02-22 21:00 - 22:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
REGISTER HERE
Open to current graduate students at the University of Chicago. Participants can come to whichever sessions they choose. Others interested in participating should contact Rose Johnson at rodojo23@uchicago.edu. Books and drinks will be provided.
What do choice and responsibility look like for the modern person? How much are individuals determined by their families, their societies, and their religions? What freedom can be found within or outside these relationships? James Joyce addresses these questions and many others in his collection of short stories, Dubliners.
Though rich and nuanced like all of Joyce’s writing, these short stories present a straightforward introduction to Joyce’s writing style and to modern literary concepts of meaning. Join us at Gavin House on Thursdays at 8pm for drinks and conversation as we venture into the complicated and tragic world of one of the 20th century’s most brilliant authors!
SCHEDULE:
This group will meet on Thursdays (beginning January 18th) from 8:00pm – 9:00pm over drinks.

January 18: Introduction to Joyce and “Evaline” (5 pages)
January 25: “After the Race”” (6 pages)
February 1: “The Boarding House” (7 pages)
February 8: “A Mother” (12 pages)
February 15: “A little Cloud” (14 pages)
February 22: “Grace” (21 pages)

A copy of Dubliners will be provided to all participants. The reading may be picked up at Gavin House (1220 E 58th street) during buisness hours at the start of the winter quarter.

The University of Chicago is famous for its graduate student reading groups, in which students pursue their own intellectual interests among friends in an informal setting. The Lumen Christi Institute supports this endeavor by sponsoring a number of graduate student reading groups each quarter. LCI provides space, hospitality, and books.
Reading groups cover the whole spectrum of ideas. Texts do not need to be explicitly Catholic, though we follow St. Paul’s injunction to attend to whatever is true, noble, right, admirable, and lovely (Phil 4:8). Groups follow LCI’s guiding principles, which…

Affirm the intellectual life as good in itself

Ask questions animated by the principle that “all knowledge forms one whole”

Transcend the ideological / political divide (i.e., programs should not be partisan in nature)

Welcome religious perspectives as part of the intellectual life (i.e., programs need not be theological in nature but conversations should be open to religious insights)

Nurture friendships, to support the pursuit of truth, beauty, and goodness (i.e., programs should have a social component)

This quarter the reading groups will cover: The American Gothic, James Joyce’s Dubliners, Greek New Testament, and Latin Vulgate.

American Gothic Graduate Reading Group
2024-02-26 14:00 - 15:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
REGISTER HERE
Open to current graduate students at the University of Chicago. Participants can come to whichever sessions they choose. Others interested in participating should contact Sam Landon at snlandontn@gmail.com. Books, lunch, and beverages will be provided.
Fear. Rot. The inescapability of the past. These and more are the themes of Gothic literature. Join us Mondays from 1-2pm at Gavin House for a discussion of Edgar Allen Poe, Ambrose Bierce, and Flannery O’Connor. Lunch provided.
SCHEDULE:
This group will meet on Mondays (beginning January 22nd) from 1:00pm – 2:00pm over lunch.

January 22: “The Raven,” Poe
January 29: “Tell-Tale Heart,” Poe
Feburary 5: “Moonlit Road,” Bierce
Feburary 12: “Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” Bierce
Feburary 19: “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” O’Connor
February 26: “Parker’s Back,” O’Connor

Copies of The Best of Poe: The Tell-Tale Heart, The Raven, The Cask of Amontillado, and 30 Others, Ghost and Horror Stories of Ambrose Bierce, and The Complete Stories of Flannery O’Connor will be provided. They may be picked up at Gavin House (1220 E 58th street) during buisness hours at the start of the winter quarter.

The University of Chicago is famous for its graduate student reading groups, in which students pursue their own intellectual interests among friends in an informal setting. The Lumen Christi Institute supports this endeavor by sponsoring a number of graduate student reading groups each quarter. LCI provides space, hospitality, and books.
Reading groups cover the whole spectrum of ideas. Texts do not need to be explicitly Catholic, though we follow St. Paul’s injunction to attend to whatever is true, noble, right, admirable, and lovely (Phil 4:8). Groups follow LCI’s guiding principles, which…

Affirm the intellectual life as good in itself

Ask questions animated by the principle that “all knowledge forms one whole”

Transcend the ideological / political divide (i.e., programs should not be partisan in nature)

Welcome religious perspectives as part of the intellectual life (i.e., programs need not be theological in nature but conversations should be open to religious insights)

Nurture friendships, to support the pursuit of truth, beauty, and goodness (i.e., programs should have a social component)

This quarter the reading groups will cover: The American Gothic, James Joyce’s Dubliners, Greek New Testament, and Latin Vulgate.

Catholic Women in the Arts and Sciences: An Underappreciated Tradition - Faith and Reason | West Suburban Catholic Culture Series
2024-03-20 18:30 - 20:30 | Ruth Lake Country Club, 6200 South Madison Street, Hinsdale, IL
The West Suburban Catholic Culture Series returns in 2024 to continue its series on
“Faith and Reason as the Two Wings:
The History and Enduring Importance of Catholic Philosophy“
REGISTER HERE
(Business casual attire encouraged. For questions, please email Marial Corona at mcorona@lumenchristi.org).
Schedule: 6:30 p.m. Drinks | 7:00 p.m. Dinner, Lecture, & Q&A | 8:30 p.m. End
March 20:
Catholic Women in the Arts and Sciences: An Underappreciated Tradition
Bronwen McShea (Professor of History, Augustine Institute)
While many people are aware of the important intellectual and literary contributions of modern Catholic women such as St. Edith Stein and Flannery O’Connor, it is not widely appreciated that there is a long line of Catholic women scholars, scientists, and writers stretching back to the Patristic era.
In this talk, Dr. McShea will draw from her forthcoming book, Women of the Church, and highlight a range of brilliant and faithful women from the monastic, humanistic, and university traditions who can inspire Catholic intellectual and life and culture today.
SERIES DESCRIPTION
In his 2006 Regensburg Address, Pope Benedict XVI argued that “it is necessary and reasonable to raise the question of God through the use of reason, and to do so in the context of the tradition of the Christian Faith.”
Christianity shared a sense of “reason” with Greek philosophy. Jesus himself was the Word (Logos), the Greek word for reason and speech. St. Paul himself reminded us that Christian worship is “reasonable worship” (logike latreia) (Rom. 12:1), and while love “transcends” knowledge and can perceive more than thought alone, it remains the love of the God who is Logos (Eph. 3:19).
Faith and reason support one another; however, many have tried to tear them asunder. The Reformation tried to get to a “pure” faith without reason; modern atheism has claimed that nothing can be “known” about God. When faith and reason are pulled apart, we lose sight of God and of ourselves, since we are made to know and love God.
In this year’s WSCCS, we will challenge the all-too-common assumption that the Church’s faith stands in opposition to reason. Join us as we examine the philosophical, monastic, and artistic geniuses who have borne the Church aloft through their engagement and enrichment of worldly wisdom.
Each month, we will gather at Ruth Lake Country Club. Over dinner, we will listen to a sophisticated yet accessible lecture offered by accomplished academics. The lectures will introduce insights from the treasure house of the Church’s intellectual tradition and their bearing on contemporary themes and issues, presenting faithful Catholic teaching in a way that avoids the acrimony of the culture wars.
CALENDAR
September 13: Golden Calf: Philosophy and Theology in the Early Church
Kenneth Calvert (Professor of History, Director of the Oxford Program, Hillsdale College)
October 4: The One Thing Necessary: Monasticism and Philosophy
Prior Peter Funk, OSB (Monastery of the Holy Cross)
November 9: Integrity, Creation, and a Restless Heart: Augustine’s Contribution to Philosophy
Jared Ortiz (Professor of Theology, Founder and Executive Director of the St. Benedict Institute, Hope College)
March 20: Catholic Women in the Arts and Sciences: An Underappreciated Tradition
Bronwen McShea (Professor of History, Augustine Institute)
April 10: Is Free Will an Illusion? St. Thomas Aquinas and Human Action
Fr. Stephen Brock (Professor of Medieval Philosophy, Pontifical University of the Holy Cross)
May 15: The Bond of All Creation: Renaissance Humanism and the Incarnate Word
Matthew Gaetano (Professor of History, Hillsdale College)
MARCH SPEAKER
Bronwen McShea

The Quandaries of Biotechnology: Theory and Practice
2024-03-22 13:00 - 18:00 | BSLC 115, 924 E 57th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
This event is free and open to the public. This event is cosponsored by The Program on Medicine and Religion at the University of Chicago, and The Albert Gnaegi Center for Health Care Ethics at Saint Louis University. For more information, contact info@lumenchristi.org.
How are new developments between biotechnology and big data including gene editing, brain-computer interfacing, and artificial intelligence changing our vision of what it means to be human? How does this bear in the ethical practices of medicine and research at the lab bench and at the bedside? How might an integrative vision of ethics contribute to this conversation? Are there alternative social imaginaries in which we can think about different technologies?
In this day-long spring symposium, scholars from the University of Chicago and the Chicagoland area are invited to discuss how biotechnology is shaping anthropology and whether the application of new biomedical technologies reflects an adequate understanding of human personhood.
This event is open to the public and seeks to engage particularly with current students, faculty, and medical practitioners interested in the intersection between science, medicine, technology, and theology. Publication of this program’s proceedings is a possibility. Participants are invited to return for a second symposium in fall 2024 on biotechnology and artificial intelligence.
Schedule
1:00 – 2:30 PM CT – Session 1
“Medicine Within the Technological Enframing” – Kyle Karches (Saint Louis University)
“The Grand Inquisitor, Mustapha Mond, and the Attack on the Transcendentals” – Stephen Meredith (University of Chicago)
Q&A, Moderated by Jeffrey Bishop (Saint Louis University)
3:00 – 4:30 PM CT – Session 2
“Our Biotechnologies, Ourselves: Reflections on Innovation, Identity, and Culture” – Lesley Rice (Pontifical John Paul II Institute)
“Beyond Ethics: A Humanities Perspective on (Bio)technology” – Silvianne Aspray (Cambridge University)
Q&A, Moderated by Jeffrey Bishop (Saint Louis University)
5:00 – 6:00 PM CT – Keynote Lecture
“Populations, Persons, and Precision Medicine: The Ethics of Emerging Information Technologies in Genetics and Medicine” – Paul Scherz (University of Virginia)
You can view abstracts and presenter details here

This event is made possible through the support of ‘In Lumine: Supporting the Catholic Intellectual Tradition on Campuses Nationwide’ (Grant #62372) from the John Templeton Foundation.

Grief, Suffering, and "The Art of Dying" in a Plague: Cyprian’s De Mortalitate
2024-03-23 12:00 - 15:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Open to current graduate students and faculty. Advanced undergraduates and others interested in participating should contact dstrobach@lumenchristi.org. This event is in-person only. All registrants will receive copies of the selected readings, which should be read in advance of the class. Reception will follow.
This event is made possible through the support of ‘In Lumine: Supporting the Catholic Intellectual Tradition on Campuses Nationwide’ (Grant #62372) from the John Templeton Foundation.
The ancient Stoics rejected grief as a passion. Was it inhuman to grieve? Or was it inhuman to suppress this natural human affect? What about longing for lost loved ones or the fear of death? To what extent did early Christian teaching modify or reject the Stoics? And how does one approach the possibility of loss and death today, in a contemporary medical context that has prioritized statistical analysis and abstraction in lieu of concern for the concrete ‘other’?
Cyprian of Carthage’s sermon Mortality, delivered in the middle of a devastating plague in the third century, provides an early Christian vision of how to face death, which both takes up and transforms ancient Stoic approaches to death. This seminar-style discussion will explore these themes as well as its call to care for others despite risk. It will explore these insights in relation to today’s dramatically changed medical context in which care for the human person risks being occluded by statistical abstraction.
Readings:
Cyprian’s “Mortality” from Treatises in CUA’s Fathers of the Church Series (pp. 193-221).
Secondary:
Scherz “Grief, Death, and Longing in Stoic and Christian Ethics” Journal of Religious Ethics 45: 1 (2017), 7–28.
Scherz, “Chapter 10: Caring for the Statistical Other” in The Ethics of Precision Medicine: The Problems of Prevention in Healthcare (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, Forthcoming).
Both the required and recommended readings will be distributed to participants via Dropbox. If you prefer, you can pick up a printout of the readings at Gavin House (1220 E. 58th Street) Mon-Fri, 10am-4pm once they are ready. Please email David Strobach at dstrobach@lumenchristi.org to let us know you are coming.
Discussion Questions:
According to Cyprian, how should Christians approach death? How is this similar and/or different from contemporary stances toward death?
For Cyprian, how does a proper attitude toward death affect our actions and feelings toward others? How does it affect our emotions for loved ones who have died?
Schedule:
11:30-12:00 | Optional pre-event lunch
12:00-1:20 | Session 1
1:20-1:40 | Coffee break
1:40-3:00 | Session 2
3:00-3:30 | Reception

Magis Lecture | Do We Know More than the Apostles? Or, Do Doctrines Develop?
2024-04-04 17:00 - 19:15 | Loyola Academy McGrath Family Performing Arts Center, 3455 Illinois Rd, Wilmette, IL, 60091
5:00 Mass | 5:45 Drinks & Hors d’Oeuvres | 6:30 Lecture | 7:15 End
Co-presented by Loyola Academy.
Free and open to the public. Registration required. For questions, please contact Marial Corona at mcorona@lumenchristi.org.
Everyone realizes that some aspects of the Church have changed in the half-century since the Second Vatican Council. But has Catholic teaching actually changed? Moreover, can Catholics say that our understanding of the faith grows and deepens over time, that it develops? If we say “yes”, a simple but vital question follows: Can we say that we know more than the Apostles?
ABOUT THE MAGIS SERIES
The Magis Series on Faith and Reason is a partnership between the Lumen Christi Institute, St. Ignatius College Prep, and Loyola Academy to bring accessible yet sophisticated lectures on the Church’s intellectual tradition to the broad lay public. The event is open to everyone from high school students to retirees. Anyone who desires a lively entree into the mind of the Church is welcome and encouraged to attend; no affiliation with either high school is needed.

Brideshead Revisited Graduate Reading Group
2024-04-04 20:00 - 2024-05-09 21:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
REGISTER HERE
Open to current graduate students at the University of Chicago. Participants can come to whichever sessions they choose. Others interested in participating should contact Jack Drury at jackdrury@uchicago.edu. Books and drinks will be provided.
What do choice and responsibility look like for the modern person? How much are individuals determined by their families, their societies, and their religions? What freedom can be found within or outside these relationships? James Joyce addresses these questions and many others in his collection of short stories, Dubliners.
Though rich and nuanced like all of Joyce’s writing, these short stories present a straightforward introduction to Joyce’s writing style and to modern literary concepts of meaning. Join us at Gavin House on Thursdays at 8pm for drinks and conversation as we venture into the complicated and tragic world of one of the 20th century’s most brilliant authors!
SCHEDULE:
This group will meet on Thursdays (beginning January 18th) from 8:00pm – 9:00pm over drinks.

January 18: Introduction to Joyce and “Evaline” (5 pages)
January 25: “After the Race”” (6 pages)
February 1: “The Boarding House” (7 pages)
February 8: “A Mother” (12 pages)
February 15: “A little Cloud” (14 pages)
February 22: “Grace” (21 pages)

A copy of Dubliners will be provided to all participants. The reading may be picked up at Gavin House (1220 E 58th street) during buisness hours at the start of the winter quarter.

The University of Chicago is famous for its graduate student reading groups, in which students pursue their own intellectual interests among friends in an informal setting. The Lumen Christi Institute supports this endeavor by sponsoring a number of graduate student reading groups each quarter. LCI provides space, hospitality, and books.
Reading groups cover the whole spectrum of ideas. Texts do not need to be explicitly Catholic, though we follow St. Paul’s injunction to attend to whatever is true, noble, right, admirable, and lovely (Phil 4:8). Groups follow LCI’s guiding principles, which…

Affirm the intellectual life as good in itself

Ask questions animated by the principle that “all knowledge forms one whole”

Transcend the ideological / political divide (i.e., programs should not be partisan in nature)

Welcome religious perspectives as part of the intellectual life (i.e., programs need not be theological in nature but conversations should be open to religious insights)

Nurture friendships, to support the pursuit of truth, beauty, and goodness (i.e., programs should have a social component)

This quarter the reading groups will cover: The American Gothic, James Joyce’s Dubliners, Greek New Testament, and Latin Vulgate.

Dante the Theologian: Ken Woodward Interviews Denys Turner
2024-04-10 12:00 - 13:30 | University Club of Chicago, 76 E Monroe St Chicago, IL 60603, Downtown, IL
12:00 Welcome, Blessing, Lunch is Served | 12:30 Interview | 1:30 End
REGISTRATION OPENS ON MARCH 1
The dress code for the University Club can be consulted here, and parking information here.
For questions, please email Marial Corona at mcorona@lumenchristi.org.
All agree: Dante Alighieri was a great poet. But Denys Turner insists that he was also a great theologian—and that what makes his theology great is his poetry. Moreover, Turner argues, Dante was able to write his masterpiece only after he had personally journeyed through Hell and Purgatory like Dante, the pilgrim character in The Divine Comedy. Is this the case?
Ken Woodward, former Newsweek religion editor and Lumen Christi’s Writer-in-Residence, will press these questions during a luncheon interview with Denys Turner, to help us learn about Dante’s pilgrimage in hope, and appreciate his poetry as an entry point into theological discovery.

Is Free Will an Illusion? St. Thomas Aquinas and Human Action - Faith and Reason | West Suburban Catholic Culture Series
2024-04-10 18:30 - 20:30 | Ruth Lake Country Club, 6200 South Madison Street, Hinsdale, IL
The West Suburban Catholic Culture Series returns in 2024 to continue its series on
“Faith and Reason as the Two Wings:
The History and Enduring Importance of Catholic Philosophy“
REGISTER HERE
(Business casual attire encouraged. For questions, please email Marial Corona at mcorona@lumenchristi.org).
Schedule: 6:30 p.m. Drinks | 7:00 p.m. Dinner, Lecture, & Q&A | 8:30 p.m. End
April 10:
Is Free Will an Illusion? St. Thomas Aquinas and Human Action
Fr. Stephen Brock (Professor of Medieval Philosophy, Pontifical University of the Holy Cross)
Americans prize freedom, of all kinds. Yet many today are being persuaded that there is no such thing as free will. It is a serious issue. If you are Christian, then you believe in free will. But can you answer the arguments against it? Can you even say with precision what it is? Saint Thomas Aquinas can. He can also help greatly to answer those arguments and to do so in a way that believers and nonbelievers alike can understand.
SERIES DESCRIPTION
In his 2006 Regensburg Address, Pope Benedict XVI argued that “it is necessary and reasonable to raise the question of God through the use of reason, and to do so in the context of the tradition of the Christian Faith.”
Christianity shared a sense of “reason” with Greek philosophy. Jesus himself was the Word (Logos), the Greek word for reason and speech. St. Paul himself reminded us that Christian worship is “reasonable worship” (logike latreia) (Rom. 12:1), and while love “transcends” knowledge and can perceive more than thought alone, it remains the love of the God who is Logos (Eph. 3:19).
Faith and reason support one another; however, many have tried to tear them asunder. The Reformation tried to get to a “pure” faith without reason; modern atheism has claimed that nothing can be “known” about God. When faith and reason are pulled apart, we lose sight of God and of ourselves, since we are made to know and love God.
In this year’s WSCCS, we will challenge the all-too-common assumption that the Church’s faith stands in opposition to reason. Join us as we examine the philosophical, monastic, and artistic geniuses who have borne the Church aloft through their engagement and enrichment of worldly wisdom.
Each month, we will gather at Ruth Lake Country Club. Over dinner, we will listen to a sophisticated yet accessible lecture offered by accomplished academics. The lectures will introduce insights from the treasure house of the Church’s intellectual tradition and their bearing on contemporary themes and issues, presenting faithful Catholic teaching in a way that avoids the acrimony of the culture wars.
CALENDAR
September 13: Golden Calf: Philosophy and Theology in the Early Church
Kenneth Calvert (Professor of History, Director of the Oxford Program, Hillsdale College)
October 4: The One Thing Necessary: Monasticism and Philosophy
Prior Peter Funk, OSB (Monastery of the Holy Cross)
November 9: Integrity, Creation, and a Restless Heart: Augustine’s Contribution to Philosophy
Jared Ortiz (Professor of Theology, Founder and Executive Director of the St. Benedict Institute, Hope College)
March 20: Catholic Women in the Arts and Sciences: An Underappreciated Tradition
Bronwen McShea (Professor of History, Augustine Institute)
April 10: Is Free Will an Illusion? St. Thomas Aquinas and Human Action
Fr. Stephen Brock (Professor of Medieval Philosophy, Pontifical University of the Holy Cross)
May 15: The Bond of All Creation: Renaissance Humanism and the Incarnate Word
Matthew Gaetano (Professor of History, Hillsdale College)
APRIL SPEAKER
Fr. Stephen Brock

Dante and a Poet’s Journey in Hope
2024-04-11 18:00 - 19:30 | Social Sciences, Room 122, 1126 E 59th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
REGISTER HERE
This event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact dstrobach@lumenchristi.org. A wine and cheese reception will follow.
This event is cosponsored by the University of Chicago Committee on Social Thought, the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, and the Medieval Studies Workshop.
Often praised for its evocative treatment of heaven and hell, Dante’s Commedia is a significant work of theology. Denys Turner will explain how Dante accomplishes by means of poetry what the formal theological treatises of the Middle Ages demonstrate through prosaic inference and proof. Poetry, Turner argues, is the most natural language to articulate the “journey of the soul into God,” and a point of entry into the mystery of the divine. Dante’s poetry discloses the theological significance of hope in the pilgrim’s journey towards the “abiding city.”
On the following day, Prof. Turner will lead a master class for students and faculty titled, “Poetry Being The Body: Theology in Dante.”

Poetry Being the Body: Theology in Dante
2024-04-12 14:00 - 17:30 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
REGISTER HERE
Open to current graduate students and faculty. Advanced undergraduates and others interested in participating should contact dstrobach@lumenchristi.org. This event is in-person only. All registrants will receive pdfs of the selected readings, which should be read in advance of the class. An optional wine and cheese reception will follow.
The poet plays a crucial role in the development of a language of the “mystical” that paradoxically gives voice to the insufficiency of human speech in the face of the reality of the divine. The revelation of this insufficiency speaks effectively to theology’s positive, affirming, role. Poetry is a pre-theological anticipation of theology.
Prof. Turner will build this argument with the three parts of Dante’s Commedia. Alongside this great text, Prof. Turner will reference a chapter from God, Mystery, and Mystification, which sets out formally a theological epistemology to which Dante gives a poetic voice.
Readings:
Selections will be from Dante’s Commedia and Turner’s book, Dante the Theologian.
Both the required and recommended readings will be distributed to participants via Dropbox. If you prefer, you can pick up a printout of the readings at Gavin House (1220 E. 58th Street) Mon-Fri, 10am-4pm once they are ready. Please email David Strobach at dstrobach@lumenchristi.org to let us know you are coming.
Schedule:
1:30-2:00 | Pre-event coffee and cookies
2:00-3:20 | Session 1
3:20-3:40 | Break
3:40-5:00 | Session 2
5:00-5:30 | Reception

Can We Be Good On Our Own? Ancient Pagans and Modern Scientists on Thomistic Moral Virtue
2024-04-26 15:00 - 16:30 | Swift Hall, First Floor Common Room, 1025 E 58th St,Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Open to students and faculty. For more information, contact dstrobach@lumenchristi.org.
This event is cosponsored by the University of Notre Dame Press and made possible through the support of ‘In Lumine: Supporting the Catholic Intellectual Tradition on Campuses Nationwide’ (Grant #62372) from the John Templeton Foundation.
Thomas Aquinas, like a good Aristotelian, holds that the moral virtues can be cultivated in human beings by habitual moral action. And like a good Christian, he also holds that God can gift (or ‘infuse’) the moral virtues into a human being. Can humans become good on their own? Or do they require external assistance? This symposium will consider the question of infused moral virtue: how does Aquinas describe the bestowal of moral virtues on an individual by God? How is his description related to the classical account of virtues acquired by virtuous action? How does modern science make sense of these insights? Essentially, the question is the following: What would pagan philosophers and modern psychologists (or ‘scientists-of-mind’) make of what Thomas Aquinas says about the work of grace in the moral life?
In this symposium, Angela Knobel (Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Dallas) will present a Thomistic perspective of the interplay between grace and virtuous action in the moral life. Then, Candace Vogler will respond on the inadequacies of Aristotle. Daniel Lapsley (Professor of Psychology, University of Notre Dame) will offer an opinion on what modern psychology might say to Aristotle and Aquinas. Emily Austin (Assistant Professor of Classics, University of Chicago) will moderate as the conversation develops.
On Saturday, Prof. Knobel will lead a Master Class titled Aquinas on Virtue and Grace in the Moral Life.

Thomas Aquinas on Virtue and Grace in the Moral Life
2024-04-27 12:00 - 15:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Open to current graduate students and faculty. Advanced undergraduates and others interested in participating should contact dstrobach@lumenchristi.org. This event is in-person only. All registrants will receive copies of the selected readings, which should be read in advance of the class. An optional wine and cheese reception will follow.
This event is made possible through the support of ‘In Lumine: Supporting the Catholic Intellectual Tradition on Campuses Nationwide’ (Grant #62372) from the John Templeton Foundation.
Thomas Aquinas distinguishes between two kinds of moral virtue: acquired moral virtues, which are cultivated though one’s power and via one’s own repeated good acts, and infused moral virtues, which are bestowed on man directly by God in the moment of baptism. The distinction between these two types of virtue is the focus of this master class. The goal will be to understand how Aquinas understands the difference between the two types of virtue: the sources from which each spring, the ways in which the acts of each differ, and whether and to what extent he believes the two different types of virtue interact.
The first 15 registrants will receive a copy of Knobel’s book, Aquinas and the Infused Moral Virtues.
Readings:
Disputed Questions on the Virtues (Preferably the Atkins translation):
◊ Disputed Question on the Virtues in General a.8-11; (48 pages)
Summa Theologiae (Preferably Alfred Freddoso’s translation, available online at https://www3.nd.edu/~afreddos/summa-translation/TOC.htm)
◊ Prima Secundae q.61 a.5, 62, 63, 68 (22 pages total)
Aquinas and the Infused Moral Virtues
◊ Chapter 6 (30 pages)
Both the required and recommended readings will be distributed to participants via Dropbox. If you prefer, you can pick up a printout of the readings at Gavin House (1220 E. 58th Street) Mon-Fri, 10am-4pm once they are ready. Please email David Strobach at dstrobach@lumenchristi.org to let us know you are coming.
Discussion Questions:
◊ Conceptually, what seem to be the most important differences between the infused and acquired virtues? Aquinas repeatedly speaks of virtues as “proceeding from principles,” and of the different “seeds” of infused and acquired virtue, respectively. What is meant by the language of “principle” and “seed,” and how are those notions important in Aquinas’s understanding of infused and/or acquired virtue? What is meant by the claim that the two types of virtue differ in “species”? What role does the difference in the “end” that each virtue is ordered to play, and how important is it?
◊ a.10 ad.4 of the Disputed Question on the Virtues in General and q.61 a.5 of the Prima Secundae are two of the very few texts where Aquinas says anything at all about the relationship between the infused and acquired virtues. What do these texts imply, and is what each text implies the same or different?
◊ Given Aquinas’s insistence that only the infused virtues order us to supernatural beatitude, can it ever make sense on his account to pursue only acquired virtue?
Schedule:
11:30-12:00 | Optional pre-event lunch
12:00-1:20 | Session 1
1:20-1:40 | Coffee break
1:40-3:00 | Session 2
3:00-3:30 | Reception

Texts of Existence: The Interplay of Religion, Individualism, and the Cosmos in Borges and Nietzsche.
2024-05-01 18:00 - 19:30 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
This event is sponsored by the Lumen Christi Institute’s Nicklin Fellows Program, which supports and encourages University of Chicago undergraduate students to develop their intellectual maturity. Arjun Mazumdar, who designed this program, is a 2023-2024 Nicklin Fellow. This program is for undergraduate students only.
REGISTER HERE
In “Texts of Existence,” we will explore the depths of existentialism, religion, and the meaning of life through the lens of literary and philosophical classics. Our reading group will study the works of Jorge Luis Borges and Friedrich Nietzsche. Expect to read and analyze passages together, form a collaborative understanding of texts, and tackle crucial questions regarding purpose, “the good life,” and the implications of religion (or its absence) in our lives. Books and dinner will be provided. We will read the short stories together before we begin our discussion.
Themes: existentialism and individualism, the search for authenticity amidst the absurd, and the role of religion and spirituality.
SCHEDULE:
Pilot Session: Borges, “The Approach to Al-Mu’tasim,” Discussion
February 22nd, Thursday, 6-7:30 PM, Gavin House
Session 1: Introduction to Nietzsche’s The Gay Science
April 3rd, Wednesday, 6 – 7:30 PM, Gavin House
Session 2: The Gay Science Discussion
April 24th, Wednesday, 6-7:30 PM, Gavin House
Session 3: Borges, “The Library of Babel,” Discussion
May 1st, Wednesday, 6 – 7:30 PM, Gavin House

What is Ideology? A Conversation with Mark Shiffman and James Matthew Wilson
2024-05-02 17:30 - 19:30 | University Club of Chicago, 76 E Monroe St Chicago, IL 60603, Downtown, IL
5:30 Cocktail and Hors d’Oeuvres | 6:30 Opening Remarks | 6:45 Dialogue and Q&A | 7:30 End
Co-presented by Public Discourse, the online journal of the Witherspoon Institute, dedicated to renewing the culture through thoughtful reflections on education, family, and religion. Supported by Wiseblood Books.
Discounted student tickets are available. Please contact Marial Corona at mcorona@lumenchristi.org for more information on this or any other matter.
“Ideology” is a word in near-ubiquitous use: it is deployed to describe everything from religious identity (‘radical Islamic ideology’) and political principle (‘the contest between woke and MAGA ideology’) to gastronomic preferences (‘the ideology of meat in US culture’).
Does a word used so widely and vaguely still possess concrete meaning? In his new book, What is Ideology?, political theorist Mark Shiffman has studied the history of the concept and identified it as a distinctly modern phenomenon. Shiffman argues that ideological thinking attempts to subject all reality to a narrow and reductive schema in order to produce a redemptive social-political order and engineer a new type of human being. Moreover, he explains how our own imprecise use of the term makes us even more susceptible to ideological control.
To point towards an escape from ideological thinking, Shiffman engages a diverse array of thinkers, from Thomas Hobbes and Karl Marx, to John Adams and Antonio Gramsci, to Ralph Ellison and Hannah Arendt.
On the evening of May 2nd, Mark Shiffman will discuss these topics with the esteemed poet and cultural critic James Matthew Wilson. They will trace the history of the term ideology, discuss its deforming effects on political life and the soul, and suggest how “non-ideological thinking” can be restored by drawing on resources from the classical and Christian traditions of philosophy, theology, art, and literature.

The Managerial Revolution: What Went Wrong?
2024-05-02 18:00 - 19:30 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
This event is sponsored by the Lumen Christi Institute’s Nicklin Fellows Program, which supports and encourages University of Chicago undergraduate students to develop their intellectual maturity. Max Baumeister, who designed this program, is a 2023-2024 Nicklin Fellow. This program is for undergraduate students only.
REGISTER HERE
“[James Burnham] has real intellectual courage, and writes about real issues,” wrote George Orwell. Chicago native, prominent Trotskyist early in his intellectual life, student of J. R. R. Tolkien at Oxford, and recommended by George Kennan during WWII to work at the Office of Strategic Services (predecessor of the CIA), to say James Burnham was an interesting man would be an understatement. Burnham is best known for his book The Managerial Revolution (1941) in which he claimed that (1) capitalism would be displaced not by communism or socialism but by “managerialism” and (2) FDR’s The New Deal, the Soviet Union, and Fascism in Europe were all part of the same centralizing, bureaucratic trend that was—and perhaps still is—happening all over the globe. Was he right? How applicable is his theory in the 21st century?
SCHEDULE:
This group will meet on Thursdays (April 4-May 2) from 6:00pm – 730pm over dinner.

Wendell Berry's World-Ending Fire Graduate Reading Group
2024-05-02 20:00 - 21:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Open to current graduate students at the University of Chicago. Participants can come to whichever sessions they choose. Others interested in participating should contact Franklin Joyce at jfjoyce@uchicago.edu. Books and drinks will be provided.
Wendell Berry is America’s foremost contemporary advocate for a community-centered form of life he calls “agrarianism,” which focuses on the American relationship to the land and local circumstances. Berry’s articulation of agrarian life reveals the inadequacies of both crass industrialism and the popular “movements” of environmentalism. Furthermore, Berry seriously implements a Christian understanding of a world created by love and entrusted into the care of human stewards. For readers searching to avoid the party slogans or who want a fresh perspective on what it means to be an “American,” Berry is a vital thinker to engage.
SCHEDULE:
This group will meet on Thursdays (beginning April 4th) from 8:00pm – 9:00pm over drinks.

April 4: “Native Hill” (Intro to Berry as a thinker)
Arpil 11: “Two Minds”/”Quantity versus Form” (Alternative [agrarian] modes of thinking about self, land, death)
April 18: “The Work of Local Culture”/”Some Thoughts on Citizenship and Conscience in Honor of Don Pratt” (Agrarian conception of a moral community)
April 25: “Faustian Economics”/”Economy and Pleasure” (Critique of economic systems and proposed alternatives)
May 2: “The Way of Ignorance”/”In Defense of Literacy” (Popular attitudes on writing/knowledge/specialization with a proposed shift toward literacy)

A copy of World-Ending Fire will be provided to all participants. The reading may be picked up at Gavin House (1220 E 58th street) during buisness hours at the start of the winter quarter.
This reading group is made possible through the support of the grant ‘In Lumine: Supporting the Catholic Intellectual Tradition on Campuses Nationwide’ (Grant #62372) from the John Templeton Foundation.

The University of Chicago is famous for its graduate student reading groups, in which students pursue their own intellectual interests among friends in an informal setting. The Lumen Christi Institute supports this endeavor by sponsoring a number of graduate student reading groups each quarter. LCI provides space, hospitality, and books.
Reading groups cover the whole spectrum of ideas. Texts do not need to be explicitly Catholic, though we follow St. Paul’s injunction to attend to whatever is true, noble, right, admirable, and lovely (Phil 4:8). Groups follow LCI’s guiding principles, which…

Affirm the intellectual life as good in itself

Ask questions animated by the principle that “all knowledge forms one whole”

Transcend the ideological / political divide (i.e., programs should not be partisan in nature)

Welcome religious perspectives as part of the intellectual life (i.e., programs need not be theological in nature but conversations should be open to religious insights)

Nurture friendships, to support the pursuit of truth, beauty, and goodness (i.e., programs should have a social component)

The Ontology of Beauty
2024-05-03 14:00 - 17:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Open to current graduate students and faculty. Advanced undergraduates and others interested in participating should contact dstrobach@lumenchristi.org. This event is in-person only. All registrants will receive copies of the selected readings, which should be read in advance of the class. An optional wine and cheese reception will follow.
The theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar once claimed that if modern man denies the reality of beauty, he will lose the capacity for love and prayer, and indeed truth, goodness, and being itself will be lost to him. This seminar will explore von Balthasar’s less than obvious claims by returning to Plato and exploring the way in which beauty was “lost” in western thought before it was recovered by the provocative manifesto of French philosopher, Jacques Maritain. Beauty, Maritain proposed, could save the world from unintelligibility and prepare it for salvation.
Readings:
The readings consist of selections from Plato, Jacques Maritain, and Hans Urs von Balthasar.
Both the required and recommended readings will be distributed to participants via Dropbox and PDFs. If you prefer, you can pick up a printout of the readings at Gavin House (1220 E. 58th Street) Mon-Fri, 10am-4pm once they are ready. Please email David Strobach at dstrobach@lumenchristi.org to let us know you are coming.
Schedule:
1:30-2:00 | pre-event pastries and coffee
2:00-3:20 | Session 1
3:20-3:40 | Coffee break
3:40-5:00 | Session 2
5:00-5:30 | Reception

Greek New Testament Reading Group
2024-05-07 13:00 - 14:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Open to current students and faculty at the University of Chicago. Participants can come to whichever sessions they choose. Others interested in participating should contact Joe Haydt at jhaydt@uchicago.edu. Lunch will be provided.
This winter the Greek New Testament Reading Group will work through parables from the Gospel of Luke. We will pay particular attention to chapters sixteen and seventeen. Fr. Peter Bernardi will be on hand for theological questions. All levels of Greek are welcome, and lunch will be provided.
SCHEDULE:
This group will meet every Tuesday (beginning April 2nd) from 1pm – 2pm.

The University of Chicago is famous for its graduate student reading groups, in which students pursue their own intellectual interests among friends in an informal setting. The Lumen Christi Institute supports this endeavor by sponsoring a number of graduate student reading groups each quarter. LCI provides space, hospitality, and books.
Reading groups cover the whole spectrum of ideas. Texts do not need to be explicitly Catholic, though we follow St. Paul’s injunction to attend to whatever is true, noble, right, admirable, and lovely (Phil 4:8). Groups follow LCI’s guiding principles, which…

Affirm the intellectual life as good in itself

Ask questions animated by the principle that “all knowledge forms one whole”

Transcend the ideological / political divide (i.e., programs should not be partisan in nature)

Welcome religious perspectives as part of the intellectual life (i.e., programs need not be theological in nature but conversations should be open to religious insights)

Nurture friendships, to support the pursuit of truth, beauty, and goodness (i.e., programs should have a social component)

Non-Credit Course | Approaches to Virtue: Secular and Religious, Ancient and Modern
2024-05-07 18:00 - 19:30 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
This event is in-person only. Intended for university students, faculty, and staff. Others interested in attending please contact dstrobach@lumenchristi.org. This non-credit course is cosponsored by the Hyde Park Institute and made possible through the support of ‘In Lumine: Supporting the Catholic Intellectual Tradition on Campuses Nationwide’ (Grant #62372) from the John Templeton Foundation.
Registrants are free to attend as many sessions as they choose. Sessions do not presuppose previous attendance or prior knowledge of the subject.
How is a human being made better? By an increase in knowledge? Through a discipline of habit? By a gift from the gods? Through the reformation of unjust social structures? By a better understanding of the human mind’s rational and irrational impulses?
In this non-credit course, esteemed scholars from the University of Chicago will consider a variety of answers to the question of how one can grow in virtue. They will investigate multiple philosophical and theological perspectives in the intellectual history of the moral life.
Each session will be devoted to the thought of an individual thinker or perspective.
SCHEDULE
April 9th: Aristotle

with Gabriel Lear (Chair of the Committee on Social Thought, Professor of Philosophy and in the Committee on Social Thought)

April 16th: Thomas Aquinas

with Fr. Stephen Brock (Visiting Professor of Philosophy at the University of Chicago; Ordinary Professor of Medieval Philosophy at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross)

April 23rd: Machiavelli

with Hanna Gray (Professor of History Emerita at the University of Chicago; former President of the University of Chicago)

April 30th: Medicine and Virtue

with Kathryn Rowland (Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery, Section of Pediatric Surgery, at the University of Chicago)

May 7th: Wisdom

with Howard Nusbaum (Director and Founder of the Chicago Center for Practical Wisdom and Stella M. Rowley Professor of Psychology at the University of Chicago)

FORMAT
Tuesdays, April 9-May 7
6:00pm: Dinner
6:30pm: Presentation

Latin Vulgate Reading Group
2024-05-10 10:45 - 11:45 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Open to current students and faculty at the University of Chicago. Participants can come to whichever sessions they choose. Others interested in participating should contact Emily Barnum at ebarnum@uchicago.edu. Coffee, tea, and pastries will be provided.
St. Jerome’s Latin translation of the Bible was used exclusively by the Western Church for centuries; its significance for the Roman Catholic tradition cannot be overstated. In this group, we will work through sections of the Vulgate in order to appreciate its beauty and practice our Latin. For the first session, no preparation is necessary; we will decide together which texts we will read. Please come with a desire to grow in Latin Bible knowledge with St. Jerome and friends!
SCHEDULE:
This group will meet every Friday (beginning April 5th) from 10:45am – 11:45am over coffee, tea, and pastries.

The University of Chicago is famous for its graduate student reading groups, in which students pursue their own intellectual interests among friends in an informal setting. The Lumen Christi Institute supports this endeavor by sponsoring a number of graduate student reading groups each quarter. LCI provides space, hospitality, and books.
Reading groups cover the whole spectrum of ideas. Texts do not need to be explicitly Catholic, though we follow St. Paul’s injunction to attend to whatever is true, noble, right, admirable, and lovely (Phil 4:8). Groups follow LCI’s guiding principles, which…

Affirm the intellectual life as good in itself

Ask questions animated by the principle that “all knowledge forms one whole”

Transcend the ideological / political divide (i.e., programs should not be partisan in nature)

Welcome religious perspectives as part of the intellectual life (i.e., programs need not be theological in nature but conversations should be open to religious insights)

Nurture friendships, to support the pursuit of truth, beauty, and goodness (i.e., programs should have a social component)

Visit to the Monastery of the Holy Cross
2024-05-11 16:00 - 20:00 | The Monastery of the Holy Cross, 3111 South Aberdeen St. Chicago, IL 60608, Chicago, IL
Open to current university students and faculty. Others interested in attending please contact dstrobach@lumenchristi.org. Transportation will be provided.
Join us for an edifying evening of prayer, dinner, and conversation with the Benedictine monks at the Monastery of the Holy Cross on the south side of Chicago. We will pray the Divine Office (Vespers and Compline), have dinner, and discuss a spiritual topic with prior of the monastery and University of Chicago alum Fr. Peter Funk, OSB. Following monastic tradition of oral reading during meals, selections of a text will be read during dinner and discussion will follow.
More information about the monastery can be found here.
Schedule
4:15pm Meet at Gavin House (1220 E. 58th St.)
4:30pm Depart from Hyde Park
5:00pm Arrive at the Monastery, welcome by Prior Funk
5:15pm Office of Vespers
6:00pm Dinner & Discussion
7:15pm Office of Compline
8:00pm Arrive back in Hyde Park

G.K. Chesterton's Orthodoxy: Reading Course
2024-05-15 13:00 - 14:15 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Open to current students at the University of Chicago. Participants can come to whichever sessions they choose. Books, lunch, and beverages will be provided.
Author of the Father Brown detective stories, journalist, poet and literary critic, social philosopher, hagiographer, and popular Christian apologist, the multi-faceted genius of Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) eludes easy classification! You are invited to engage with Chesterton’s insights into the ‘suicide of thought’, his defense of the common man over against Nietzsche’s ‘superman,’ and his extraordinary appreciation of ‘the romance of orthodoxy’ as set out in his classic work Orthodoxy. There are no pre-requisites, only an openness for savoring paradoxes and skewering ideologies.
Copies of Chesterton’s Orthodoxy will be provided. They may be picked up at Gavin House (1220 E 58th street) during buisness hours at the start of the spring quarter.
SCHEDULE:
This group will meet on Wednesdays (beginning March 27th) from 1:00pm – 2:15pm over lunch.

The Bond of All Creation: Renaissance Humanism and the Incarnate Word - Faith and Reason | West Suburban Catholic Culture Series
2024-05-15 18:30 - 20:30 | Ruth Lake Country Club, 6200 South Madison Street, Hinsdale, IL
The West Suburban Catholic Culture Series returns in 2024 to continue its series on
“Faith and Reason as the Two Wings:
The History and Enduring Importance of Catholic Philosophy“
REGISTER HERE
(Business casual attire encouraged. For questions, please email Marial Corona at mcorona@lumenchristi.org).
Schedule: 6:30 p.m. Drinks | 7:00 p.m. Dinner, Lecture, & Q&A | 8:30 p.m. End
May 15:
The Bond of All Creation: Renaissance Humanism and the Incarnate Word
Matthew Gaetano (Hillsdale College)
The Italian Renaissance rarely plays a central role in our understanding of the story of Catholic theology, even though many of us love Renaissance art and literature. In this talk, Dr. Gaetano will show how philosophers, poets, and painters of this era saw faith and reason as “two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth.” Key figures of the Italian Renaissance such as Petrarch, Marsilio Ficino, Giovanni Pico, and Raphael went back to the sources in Greek antiquity and found in Plato a yearning for the divine Logos or Word, a Word only fully revealed in the Incarnation of Jesus Christ.
SERIES DESCRIPTION
In his 2006 Regensburg Address, Pope Benedict XVI argued that “it is necessary and reasonable to raise the question of God through the use of reason, and to do so in the context of the tradition of the Christian Faith.”
Christianity shared a sense of “reason” with Greek philosophy. Jesus himself was the Word (Logos), the Greek word for reason and speech. St. Paul himself reminded us that Christian worship is “reasonable worship” (logike latreia) (Rom. 12:1), and while love “transcends” knowledge and can perceive more than thought alone, it remains the love of the God who is Logos (Eph. 3:19).
Faith and reason support one another; however, many have tried to tear them asunder. The Reformation tried to get to a “pure” faith without reason; modern atheism has claimed that nothing can be “known” about God. When faith and reason are pulled apart, we lose sight of God and of ourselves, since we are made to know and love God.
In this year’s WSCCS, we will challenge the all-too-common assumption that the Church’s faith stands in opposition to reason. Join us as we examine the philosophical, monastic, and artistic geniuses who have borne the Church aloft through their engagement and enrichment of worldly wisdom.
Each month, we will gather at Ruth Lake Country Club. Over dinner, we will listen to a sophisticated yet accessible lecture offered by accomplished academics. The lectures will introduce insights from the treasure house of the Church’s intellectual tradition and their bearing on contemporary themes and issues, presenting faithful Catholic teaching in a way that avoids the acrimony of the culture wars.
CALENDAR
September 13: Golden Calf: Philosophy and Theology in the Early Church
Kenneth Calvert (Professor of History, Director of the Oxford Program, Hillsdale College)
October 4: The One Thing Necessary: Monasticism and Philosophy
Prior Peter Funk, OSB (Monastery of the Holy Cross)
November 9: Integrity, Creation, and a Restless Heart: Augustine’s Contribution to Philosophy
Jared Ortiz (Professor of Theology, Founder and Executive Director of the St. Benedict Institute, Hope College)
March 20: Catholic Women in the Arts and Sciences: An Underappreciated Tradition
Bronwen McShea (Professor of History, Augustine Institute)
April 10: Is Free Will an Illusion? St. Thomas Aquinas and Human Action
Fr. Stephen Brock (Professor of Medieval Philosophy, Pontifical University of the Holy Cross)
May 15: The Bond of All Creation: Renaissance Humanism and the Incarnate Word
Matthew Gaetano (Professor of History, Hillsdale College)
MAY SPEAKER
Matthew Gaetano

The Humanity of the Saints We Study: 2nd Annual Forum on the Vocation of the Patristic Theologian
2024-05-25 16:00 - 18:00 | Beane Hall, Lewis Towers, Loyola University of Chicago Water Tower Campus, 111 East Pearson St, Chicago, IL, 60611
Register Here
This reception and forum, following the annual meeting of the North American Patristics Society, is co-sponsored by the Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies and the Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage at the Loyola University of Chicago.
“Grace, as we are out to believe, should preserve the pastors of the church and even more their most important actions, but it does not suppress their failures—that would be to suppress their humanity.”
–Émile Mersch, The Theology of the Mystical Body
This forum invites graduate students and scholars of patristics to reflect on the nature of the craft and its relationship to contemporary theological studies, the academy, and church today. A panel of scholars, featuring Lewis Ayres, Paul Blowers, and Morwenna Ludlow, will speak on the nature of the vocation of the patristic theologian through an exploration of the intersection between the humanity within Christian history and the theology we derive from our study.

Economics and Catholic Social Thought: A Primer
2024-06-02 00:00 - 2024-06-05 00:00 | University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, Notre Dame, IN
Now in its seventh year, this seminar is designed as an introduction and immersion into Catholic social thought for graduate students and junior faculty in economics, finance, or related fields. Participants will cover foundational principles in Catholic social thought, starting with the human person, dignity, freedom, subsidiarity, solidarity, and the common good, and moving toward applications of these principles to conceptual understandings and ethical considerations involving economic topics such as utility theory, firm and business ethics, wages, markets, globalization, poverty, and development. Participants will delve into social encyclicals, secondary sources, and relevant economics texts.
This seminar is sponsored by the Lumen Christi Institute; the Catholic Research Economists Discussion Organization; the De Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture; the Kellogg Institute for International Studies; and the the Institute for the Scholarship in the Liberal Arts, College of Arts and Letters, University of Notre Dame.

LOCATION AND FORMAT
Format: There will be two sessions each day for three days, each featuring a different instructor. Each instructor will open with a lecture, and then we will turn to a seminar-style discussion of the texts and issues at hand. In the final sessions, we will discuss how the material can be applied to each student’s particular area of interest.
Location: The seminar will take place at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. Travel stipends are available on a need basis. All participants will be provided with accommodations and most meals (some on their own).
Application Information: This seminar will be open to PhD students and faculty in economics, finance and related fields.
Applicants will be required to submit a completed online application form, including:

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

All application materials can be submitted via the online application. Incomplete applications will not be considered. Fifteen students will be admitted to this seminar.
The application deadline is February 25, 2024.
Please direct any further questions to contact@credo-economists.org.

What is Social Science? Charles Taylor’s Catholic Vision of Human Behavior
2024-06-02 00:00 - 2024-06-08 00:00 | University of Southern California, University Park Campus 3551 Trousdale Pkwy, Los Angeles, CA, 90007
Are the social sciences properly scientific? Will we one day discover a social physics—perhaps a blend of psychology, economics, and algorithms—that allows us to predict and engineer our common life? No one has done more intellectual work to cast doubt on these techno-utopian claims than Catholic philosopher Charles Taylor. In this seminar we will explore Taylor’s argument that the study of human behavior should be closer to history and literature than biology and statistics. Is the human mind no more than a wet computer, or does selfhood possess moral and artistic dimensions? Can we understand politics by calculating large-scale voter behavior, or must we study cultural traditions like the “ethic of authenticity”? Taylor’s paradigm shift promises to transform 21st century social theory much as Max Weber or Emile Durkheim shaped theirs. For Taylor, secular modernity is not only a story of disenchantment and fading values, but an opportunity for increased spiritual intensity—what he calls a “Catholic modernity.”s
This seminar is organized by the Nova Forum for Catholic Thought and will be held at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. There will be two 2.5-hour sessions on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. On Wednesday and Friday, the morning session will be followed by a post-lunch excursion. Each session will be a seminar-style discussion of the text and the issues at hand. Students will be expected to carefully prepare the readings, submit study questions in advance, and participate actively in each session.
Application Information
This seminar is open to all undergraduate students (including 2024 graduates) interested in understanding the thought of one of the greatest Catholic thinkers of our century. The seminar will be of interest to a wide variety of students regardless of major.
Applicants will be required to submit an online application form including:

A list of completed coursework.
At least one and as many as two letter(s) of recommendation from a professor at the school in which the student is currently enrolled.
A statement of interest no longer than 750 words, which includes an explanation of how this seminar might bear on the student’s current intellectual interests.
All application materials can be submitted via the online application. Incomplete applications will not be considered. Fifteen applicants will be admitted to this seminar.

Admitted students will receive lodging and meals for the duration of the seminar and a $350 travel stipend.
Application materials are due February 25.
Contact us with any questions at seminars@lumenchristi.org.
