Lumen Christi Institute

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

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

Truth and Authority in Augustine's City of God
2014-07-27 23:00 - 2014-08-01 23:00 | University of California, Berkeley, S Hall Rd. Berkeley, CA 94720, Berkeley, CA
APPLICATION DEADLINE IS NOW FEBRUARY 15
APPLY HERE
This seminar is an intensive five-day course in how to read, analyze, and discern the many themes in Augustine’s most ambitious and sprawling work. The City of God tells the history of two societies, and their respective origins, progress, and appointed ends. The story is engaged first from the evidence of profane history (I-XI) and then from the evidence of revelation (XII-XXII). In this seminar, participants will discuss how Augustine reckons with the crisis of the ancient and the human city, and whether it is possible to reconcile truth and authority across the competing domains of polity, religion, and philosophical wisdom. These themes will be approached from an interdisciplinary perspective, addressing questions pertinent to students in political science, philosophy, law, theology, religious studies, and history.
Format: There will be two 2 ½ hour sessions each day. Professor Hittinger will open each session with a lecture, and then we will turn to general, seminar-style discussion of the text and the issues at hand. Students will be expected to make seminar presentations of the material under discussion.
Location:  The seminar will take place at the University of California Berkeley. Students will be provided with a travel stipend, accommodations, and meals.
Application Information:   This seminar will be open to Ph.D. students in the humanities and social sciences (such as Philosophy, Theology, Political Science, History, and Medieval Studies).
Applicants will be required to submit:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Religious Freedom in America Today”
2012-09-26 17:30 | Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, 28th Floor, 155 North Wacker Drive, Chicago, IL 60606, Downtown, IL
As President Clinton observed, “religious freedom is . . . our first freedom.” It was central to the Founders’ vision for the American political community. They did not always agree about what religious freedom means or requires, but they knew that it matters, and that it should be respected in policy and protected by law. James Madison, the Father of our Constitution, hoped that America’s religious-liberty experiment promised a lustre to our country. This lecture will take stock of this experiment and consider the rights of religious believers and institutions and their roles and voices in American public life today.

Co-sponsored by the Catholic Lawyers Guild

St. Thomas Aquinas on Law
2012-08-06 23:00 - 2012-08-12 23:00 | University of California, Berkeley, S Hall Rd. Berkeley, CA 94720, Berkeley, CA
No description available

Toward a Moral Economy: Policies and Values for the 21st Century
2012-05-31 16:00 | Ida Noyes Hall, Max Palevsky Cinema, 1212 E 59th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Keynote Address: Reinhard Cardinal Marx, Archbishop of Munich

Presentations: Roger Myerson, University of Chicago,
Kevin M. Murphy, University of Chicago,
and Russell Hittinger, University of Tulsa
This event opens the Fourth Lumen Christi Institute Conference on Economics and Catholic Social Thought and inaugurates the Institute Collaboration with the German-American Colloquium of the Katholische Sozialwissenschaftliche Zentralstelle.
Co-sponsored by the Katholische Sozialwissenschaftliche Zentralstelle and The John U. Nef Committee on Social Thought
As the United States and the global economy continue to reel from the effects of the 2008 financial crisis, we face several questions:

What went wrong?
How to prevent another such crisis?
Can there be moral responsibility in a globalized economy?
What would a moral economy look like?

"John Climacus" Non-Credit Course
2012-05-24 18:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Lecture, 7:00pm
Informal Dinner, 6:30pm
Intended for University students, faculty, and recent graduates. Others interested in attending, contact info@lumenchristi.org.
May 24
“John Climacus: Cleansing, Death, and Resurrection in his “The Ladder of Divine Ascent”
Perry Hamalis (North Central College)
Co-sponsored by the Orthodox Christian Fellowship
John Climacus (ca. 579-ca. 659) uses a number of analogies to describe the dynamics of spiritual development in his famous ascetical work, The Ladder of Divine Ascent. In addition to the image of a “ladder,” embedded in the work’s title, St. John uses a range of medical imagery, appeals to figures and events from the Hebrew Bible, and even compares a monastery to a “laundry” where the dirt, grossness, and deformity of the soul are scrubbed away. Through reflection on several passages from this classic work in Christian ascetical theology, this lecture contends that St. John’s images reveal a deeper, existential focus within his ethical vision–one that links cleansing and the acquisition of the virtues with a passing over from death to a resurrected way of living.

"The Making of Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologiae"
2012-05-23 16:30 | Swift Hall, 3rd Floor Lecture, 1025 E 58th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Co-sponsored by the Medieval Studies Workshop
The Summa Theologiae of Thomas Aquinas stands among the finest expressions of the Catholic “understanding of faith” (intellectus fidei). Over a thousand commentaries have been written on it. A leading historian of Medieval Christian thought, Bernard McGinn explores Thomas’s reason for writing the Summa and its principles, structure, and originality.

The Catholic Roots of Religious Freedom
2012-05-16 16:30 | Social Sciences, Room 122, 1126 E 59th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Co-sponsored by the St. Thomas More Society
The roots of modern ideas of religious freedom are as much religious as they are political and philosophical. The American political leaders who first championed these ideas were well aware of the religious sources supporting their views. This lecture explores how early Christian thinkers developed a theological understanding of religious freedom.

Monastery Visit and Lecture on "St. John Cassian, Monasticism, and the Kingdom of God"
2012-05-12 16:30 - 20:15 | The Monastery of the Holy Cross, 3111 South Aberdeen St. Chicago, IL 60608, Chicago, IL
Registration Required. RSVP to info@lumenchristi.org.
About the Lecture:
John Cassian, a monk with broad experience of Greek, Latin and Coptic monasticism, wrote his most important works, The Institutes and The Conferences to assist the Pope in establishing the monastic tradition of the Desert Fathers in fifth-century Europe. Since Cassian maintains that the monastic life is simply the life of the apostolic church, his insights are relevant for all Christians. This talk unfolds Cassian’s spirituality and the practices required of anyone who seeks the purity of heart that leads towards the realization of the Kingdom of God both in the interior life and in the social realm.
About the Monastery:
The Monastery of the Holy Cross is a contemplative Benedictine monastery in the South Side neighborhood of Bridgeport.
Tentative Schedule:
4:30pm Departure from Hyde Park.
5:00pm Welcome and Orientation to Divine Office.
5:15pm Chanted Office of Vespers.
5:45pm Dinner.
6:15pm Lecture on “St. John Cassian, Monasticism, and the Kingdom of God” by Fr. Funk.
7:30pm Chanted Office of Compline.
7:45pm Departure from the Monastery.
8:10pm Arrival back in Hyde Park.

The Unintended Reformation"
2012-05-08 16:30 | Classics 110, 1010 E 59th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Co-sponsored by the Department of History and The Early Modern Workshop
In his latest book, The Unintended Reformation, Brad Gregory identifies the unintended consequences of the Protestant Reformation and traces how it has shaped the modern condition. He argues that hyperpluralism, an absence of a shared sense of the common good, and the triumph of consumerism are each the long-term effects of a distinctive religious movement that marked the end of a period of history in which Christianity provided a framework for a shared intellectual, social, and moral life in the West.

Newman, Vatican II, and the Hermeneutic of Continuity
2012-04-25 16:30 | Swift Hall, 3rd Floor Lecture, 1025 E 58th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Often called the Father of the Second Vatican Council, Newman both anticipated a number of its teachings and, through his recovery of the thought of the early Church, provides a hermeneutic of continuity for interpreting the Council’s documents.

G.K. Chesterton on Humor
2012-04-24 19:00 | Ida Noyes, Third Floor Theatre, 1212 E 59th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Co-sponsored by The Nicholson Center for British Studies, The American Chesterton Society, and the Literature and Philosophy Workshop
Chesterton regarded comedy as important an art form as tragedy. He thought humor was integral to Christianity as opposed to paganism, and it was an essential part of his philosophy of wonder.

Irony and Humanity: A Dialogue between Jonathan Lear and Alasdair MacIntyre
2012-04-17 16:30 | Oriental Institute, Breasted Hall, 1155 East 58th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Presented by the Committee on Social Thought and the Department of Philosophy.
Co-sponsored by the Lumen Christi Institute.
In his most recent book, A Case for Irony, Jonathan Lear argues that becoming a human being is a difficult task, and that developing a capacity for irony is essential to doing it well. He claims that ironic experience is a form of truthfulness that is constitutive of human flourishing, such that a capacity for irony is a kind of virtue or human excellence. Alasdair MacIntyre will join Lear in a conversation about his book.

"Thomas Aquinas on God and Evil"
2012-04-11 16:30 | Swift Hall, 3rd Floor Lecture, 1025 E 58th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Many people find that they cannot reconcile belief in the existence of God with the reality of evil; for if an all powerful and perfectly good God exists, then why is there so much suffering and injustice? Brian Davies, in his most recent book, Thomas Aquinas on God and Evil, argues that Aquinas gives us the proper theoretical framework for dealing with these tensions.

"A Critical Look at Ayn Rand"
2012-03-23 12:00 - 13:30 | Union League Club, 65 W Jackson Blvd. Chicago, IL 60604, Downtown, IL
The continuing success of the books of Ayn Rand, even among Catholics, reveals the influence of her thought in debates on the role of the individual, community, market, and state in modern societies. At the same time, Rand’s success may have obscured fundamental flaws in her thought. A closer look at her philosophical, moral, political, and economic positions brings into question both the legitimacy of her success as well as the credulity of her disciples and the American public. Is it possible for anyone to be a legitimate philosopher in an age of clever marketing and mass consumption?

"Emotion and Virtue in Thomas Aquinas"
2012-03-02 17:00 | Swift Hall, First Floor Common Room, 1025 E 58th St,Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Co-sponsored by the Templeton Foundation and The Philosophy Department

Abstract: For Aquinas, ethics is nothing other than the study of human psychology insofar as it flourishes or fails to flourish. Consequently, his thought on emotion is crucial to his account of virtue. This lecture will discuss Aquinas’s theory of the emotions and its implications for his virtue theory.

"Benedict's Teaching for Dark Ages, His and Ours"
2012-02-23 20:00 | Swift Hall, 3rd Floor Lecture, 1025 E 58th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
While Roman civilization collapsed around him, Benedict a fifth-century monk and abbot authored his Rule for monks and set forth a way of life for the monasteries that would become one of the few lights of wisdom and civility in an age of increasing darkness and social isolation. Benedict taught those who lived in these dark ages how to make their daily lives an integrated whole of prayer and work, enlightened by the wisdom of Christ. In this respect, his Rule contains many lessons that apply to Christians in contemporary life.

Symposium on Timothy Matovina's new book, "Latino Catholicism: Transformation in America's Largest Church"
2012-02-08 17:00 - 19:00 | Social Sciences, Room 122, 1126 E 59th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Cosponsored by The American Religious History Workshop and The Center for Latin American Studies
Finely researched, engagingly written, and more comprehensive than any other book on the subject, Timothy Matovina’s Latino Catholicism is a scholarly labor of love that does justice to the historic presence of Latino Catholics in America….His book raises the bar for studies of U.S. religion and society.
-Allan Figueroa Deck, S.J.
Timothy Matovina (University of Notre Dame)
with responses from:
Peter Casarella (DePaul University)
Kathleen Conzen (University of Chicago)

"The Grand Design: An Augustinian Reply to Stephen Hawking"
2012-02-02 20:15 | Social Sciences, Room 122, 1126 E 59th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Cosponsored by The Theology Workshop
Stephen Hawking has recently declared that philosophy is dead, and that science is the only reasonable method for securing knowledge. In response, Professor Cavadini will argue that philosophy is rooted in man’s wonder about the universe, and that scientific inquiry is only one aspect of true wisdom and should not be privileged over others.

Solidarity Forever: An Idea and its Roots in Catholic Social Thought
2012-01-26 17:30 | Swift Hall, Room 106, 1025 E 58th St, Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Before “solidarity” became a legal concept and later the name of the Polish labor movement, it developed as an economic, political, social, but most fundamentally a theological idea from which the rest of the Catholic social teaching tradition developed.

The Church Fathers: The Shaping of Christian Orthodoxy, Non-Credit Course
2012-01-18 19:00 - 2012-02-29 19:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Lecture, 7:00pm
Informal Dinner, 6:30pm
Intended for University students, faculty, and recent graduates. Others interested in attending, contact info@lumenchristi.org.
January 19
Athanasius of Alexandria: Theologian of the Incarnationâ€
Aaron Canty (St. Xavier University)
January 26
Jerome in Bethlehem
Robin Darling Young (University of Notre Dame)
February 2, 7:15pm
Social Sciences 122
The Grand Design: An Augustinian Reply to Stephen Hawking
John Cavadini (University of Notre Dame)
February 9
Origen: Christian Faith and Greek Wisdom
Andrew Radde-Gallwitz (Loyola University Chicago)
February 16
St. Augustine on Love
Jean-Luc Marion (University of Chicago, University Paris-Sorbonne)
Registration closed.Â The event has reached seating capacity.
February 23
Swift Hall, Third Floor Lecture Hall
“St. Benedict’s Teaching for Dark Ages, His and Ours”
Russell Hittinger (University of Tulsa)
March 1
Evagrius of Pontus: Master of Spiritual Psychology
Fr. Peter Funk (Monastery of the Holy Cross)

Conference on Christian Legal Thought
2012-01-07 09:45 - 19:00 | The University Club of Washington DC, 1135 Sixteenth Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20036, Washington, D.C., DC
This conference is offered for legal scholars, law students, and others interested in Christian legal thought.
Conference Schedule
Registration: 8:45am
Panel One: 9:00am-10:30am
“Public Unions and the Current State of Organized Labor ”
David L. Gregory, St. Johns University School of Law
Thomas C. Kohler, Boston College Law School
John O. McGinnis, Northwestern University Law School
Panel Two: 10:45am-12:15pm
“Pedagogy”
Susan Stabile, University of St. Thomas School of Law
Deanell Reece Tacha, Pepperdine University School of Law
Michael Scaperlanda, University of Oklahoma College of Law
Lunch: 12:15pm-1:30pm
Panel Three: 1:30pm-3:00pm
“Law, Speech, and Morality”
Eric R. Claeys, George Mason University School of Law
Mary G. Leary, Columbus School of Law, Catholic University of America
Michael W. McConnell, Stanford Law School
Paul E. Salamanca, University of Kentucky College of Law
Address and Discussion: 3:15pm-4:15pm
The Vocation of the Christian Lawyer and the Future of Legal Education
Kent D. Syverud, Washington University School of Law
Vespers: 4:30pm-5:00pm
Reception: 5:00pm-6:00pm

“The Identity of Knower and Known in Aquinas”
2011-11-15 17:00 | Swift Hall, First Floor Common Room, 1025 E 58th St,Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Lecture Abstract:
The claim that knowledge involves an identity of knower and known has its historical roots among the Greeks. This lecture explores this claim as one finds it in the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas. Professor O’Callaghan will explore these issues in critical dialogue with two different papers, one by Wilfrid Sellars titled “Being and Being Known” and the other by John McDowell titled “Sellars’s Thomism.”

“Platonism and Christianity”
2011-11-08 20:00 | Social Sciences, Room 122, 1126 E 59th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL

“Phenomenology and Naturalism: Attitude and Objectivity”
2011-11-08 17:00 | Rosenwald 405, 1101 East 58th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Edmund Husserl was a philosopher, mathematician, and founder of the philosophical school of phenomenology. Professor Moran will argue that Husserl was correct to see naturalism as the dominant tendency of twentieth-century science and philosophy. Naturalism can be understood in many different senses, but it is typically defined by its commitment to science as the arbiter of what is objective. Husserl took naturalism to be self-refuting. Moran will discuss Husserl’s arguments, and in particular, the manner in which Husserl redefines ‘objectivity’ within his transcendental idealism, which is his alternative to naturalism.

Moran’s lecture will be followed by commentary from Professors Jean-Luc Marion (University of Paris/Sorbonne, University of Chicago) and Christopher Frey (University of Chicago).

“Politics as Vocation in Cicero and Burke”
2011-11-01 19:00 | Mandel Hall, 1131 East 57th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Mary Ann Glendon
A.B., J.D., M.C.L., University of Chicago
Professor of Law, Harvard University Law School,
President, The Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences
On the occasion of the publication of her bookÂ The Forum and the Tower: How Scholars and Politicians Have Imagined the World, from Plato to Eleanor Roosevelt
Co-sponsored by the Committee on Social Thought and the University of Chicago Law School
About the Book:
As Aristotle noted long ago, two very different and sometimes incompatible ways of life; the political and the philosophical exert a powerful pull on the ambitious and talented members of any society. Mary Ann Glendon, who teaches at Harvard Law School, says that she sees this double attraction in her students. Some go into politics, but many turn away, fearful of the compromises and corruptions of power. Such students may go on to become teachers and scholars, but they never quite give up on the idea of making a difference in the wider, public world, even if they aren’t quite sure how to do it. Ms. Glendon’s The Forum and the Tower profiles 12 figures in Western history who struggled not always successfully with the conflict between an active life and a contemplative one, between life in the public forum and life in the ivory tower.… The Forum and the Tower is a wise exploration of the eternal tension between action and thought.
Brian C. Anderson, The Wall Street Journal

“Humility in Bernard of Clairvaux and al-Ghazali: A Christian and A Muslim Perspective”
2011-10-25 16:30 | Classics 110, 1010 E 59th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL

A Concert of Sacred Music, "Josquin: Master of the Notes"
2011-10-22 20:00 - 21:30 | St. James Chapel, Quigley Center, 835 North Rush Street Chicago, IL 60611, Chicago, IL
Schola Antiqua of Chicago, Artists-in-Residence at the Lumen Christi Institute, presented a program exclusively dedicated to the music of Josquin des Prez, one of the most important composers from the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. His fluid and persuasive style of composition encapsulates the transition between the sound-world of the late Middle Ages and that of the High Renaissance. The centerpiece of the concert featured a rare performance of the composer’s Mass for the Blessed Virgin, a four-voice setting of the Mass Ordinary that figures among the latest of the composer’s masses, written around 1510. The program, under the direction of Michael Alan Anderson (Eastman School of Music), was supplemented by three of Josquin’s most exceptional motets (sacred choral works).
Friday, October 21, 8pm
St. James Chapel at Quigley Center of the Archdiocese of Chicago
835 North Rush Street
Chicago, IL 60611
Saturday, October 22, 8pm
Rockefeller Memorial Chapel at the University of Chicago
5850 South Woodlawn Avenue
Chicago, IL 60637
Sunday, October 23, 4pm
St. Francis Xavier Church
524 Ninth Street
Wilmette, IL 60091

Symposium on Czesław Miłosz
2011-10-21 14:00 - 17:00 | Social Sciences, Tea Room, 1126 E 59th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Sponsored by The Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, The Committee on Social Thought, The Committee on Creative Writing, The Program on Poetry and Poetics, and The Lumen Christi Institute.

Saturday, October 22, 1:30pm-4:00pm
Symposium on Polish poet, Czeslaw Milosz
At the 100th anniversary of his birthday
Social Sciences, Tea Room (2nd Floor)
Program
1:30pm Introductory Remarks
1:45pm Adam Zagajewski, University of Chicago
2:15pm Bozena Shallcross, University of Chicago
2:45pm Coffee break
3:00pm Lukasz Tischner, Jagellonian University, Cracow
3:30pm Thomas Pavel, University of Chicago

"Irenaeus: Bishop, Martyr, and Opponent of Gnosticism"
2011-10-12 23:00 - 2011-11-17 00:00 | Cobb Lecture Hall, Room 201, 5811 S. Ellis Ave. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Thursday Evenings, Non-Credit Course, Autumn Quarter 2011
“The Age of the Church Fathers: From Pagan Philosophy to Christian Wisdom”
Cobb Lecture Hall, Room 201
5811 S. Ellis AvenueÂ
Lecture, 7:00pm
Informal Dinner, 6:30pm
October 13
“Introduction: Why Study the Fathers?”
Fr. Michael Heintz (University of Notre Dame)
October 20
“Clement of Alexandria: Neo-Platonism and Christian Wisdom”
Brian Daley, S.J. (University of Notre Dame)
October 27
“Justin Martyr: Early Christian Engagement with Greek Philosophy”
Aaron Canty (St. Xavier University)
November 3
“Tertullian: What Does Athens Have to do with Jerusalem?”
Msgr. Michael Heintz (University of Notre Dame)
Tuesday, November 8, Social Sciences 122
“Platonism and Christianity”
Carlos Steel (Catholic University of Leuven)
November 17
“Irenaeus: Bishop, Martyr, and Opponent of Gnosticism”
Scott D. Moringiello (Villanova University)
Intended for University students, faculty, and recent graduates. Others interested in attending, contact info@lumenchristi.org.
About the Course:
A non-credit course for students and members of the University of Chicago community that explores the thought of some of the early Church Fathers, including Clement of Alexandria, Justin Martyr, Tertullian, and Irenaeus. From the close of the apostolic age until the 8th century, the Church Fathers put forth a vision of Christian wisdom and debated the nature of Christ, grace and free will, the role of the Church, and the meaning of a Christian life in the context of a changing social and political world.

Symposium on “God, Freedom, and Public Life”
2011-10-06 15:00 - 17:00 | Mandel Hall, 1131 East 57th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Co-sponsored by the Committee on Social Thought

The Lumen Christi Institute is pleased to co-sponsor a symposium at the University of Chicago entitled “God, Freedom, and Public Life” on the occasion of the publication of Francis Cardinal George’s book God in Action: How Faith in God can Address the Challenges of the World.
The symposium featured contributions from Jean Bethke Elshtain (University of Chicago), Hans Joas (University of Chicago), Martin Marty (University of Chicago), and Francis Cardinal George, OMI (Archbishop of Chicago).

Catholic Social Thought: A Critical Investigation
2011-08-08 00:00 - 2011-08-14 23:00 | Portsmouth Abbey, 285 Corys Lane, Portsmouth, RI
In this seminar, students will read, analyze, and discern continuities and discontinuities in Catholic Social Thought from the late 19th century to the present. Lectures, seminar reports, and discussion will focus on original sources (encyclicals and other magisterial documents), beginning with Rerum novarum (1892) and concluding with Caritas in veritate (2009). This intensive course is multi-disciplinary, since this tradition of social thought overlaps several disciplines in the contemporary university including political science, political philosophy, law, economics, theology, and history. This will be the third time Prof. Hittinger has led this seminar.
Format: There will be two 2 ½ hour sessions each day. Professor Hittinger will open each session with a lecture, and then we will turn to general, seminar-style discussion of the text and the issues at hand. Students will be expected to make seminar presentations of the material under discussion.
Location: The seminar will take place at the University of California, Berkeley. Students will be provided with a travel stipend, accommodations, and meals. . Students will be provided with a travel stipend, accommodations, and meals.
Application Information:  This seminar will be open to Ph.D. students in the humanities and social sciences (such as philosophy, theology, political science, history & medieval studies).
Applicants will be required to submit:

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

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

Aquinas and Contemporary Ethical Theory
2011-08-06 23:00 - 2011-08-11 23:00 | University of Chicago, 5801 S Ellis Ave Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
June 2011: Professor Mark Murphy (Georgetown University) led a seminar on “Aquinas and Contemporary Ethical Theory” in Chicago, IL.

“From Natural Law to Human Rights in Jewish Thought”
2011-06-01 16:30 | Swift Hall, First Floor Common Room, 1025 E 58th St,Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Co-sponsored by the Ethics Club and Jewish Studies and the Hebrew Bible Workshop
TO LISTEN: right click on below links to download or open in new window
“From Natural Law to Human Rights in Jewish Thought,” David Novak (part 1)
“From Natural Law to Human Rights in Jewish Thought,” David Novak (part 2)
“From Natural Law to Human Rights in Jewish Thought,” David Novak (part 3)

“Right Reason”
2011-05-24 17:00 | Classics 110, 1010 E 59th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Co-sponsored by the Ancient Philosophy Workshop and the Practical Philosophy Workshop

The Schola Antiqua of Chicago at Roosevelt University
2011-05-22 18:30 | Roosevelt University, Ganz Hall, 430 S Michigan Ave Chicago, IL 60605, Downtown, IL
“Tomorrow’s Music Today II”
featuring Pacifica Quartet, eighth blackbird, and special guest, Schola Antiqua of Chicago Sunday,
The Lumen Christi Institute co-sponsors Artist-in-Residence Schola Antiqua of Chicago in a University of Chicago Presents concert event. Founded in 1943, University of Chicago Presents is one of Chicago’s oldest and most distinguished concert series. Early performers in the series included Igor Stravinsky, Artur Schnabel, Isaac Stern, Arnold Schoenberg, and the Budapest Quartet, who performed, offered public master classes, and spoke about music and composition.
The Schola will be premiering Jacob Bancks’ Litany of the Sacred Heart with two GRAMMY award-winning ensembles: eighth blackbird and Pacifica Quartet.
Jacob Bancks: http://jbancks.com/home/
eighth blackbird: http://www.myspace.com/8bb
Pacifica Quartet: http://www.pacificaquartet.com/index2.html
For more information, please call University of Chicago Presents at 773-702-8068 or visit http://chicagopresents.uchicago.edu/ or http://contempo.uchicago.edu/current.html.

Dostoevsky’s Pilgrimage: Aesthetics and Ascesis in “The Brothers Karamazov”
2011-05-17 19:00 | Social Sciences, Room 122, 1126 E 59th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Co-sponsored by the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures

Dostoevsky’s final novel, set partly in a monastery, continues to shape contemporary images of Orthodox Christian monasticism and ascetic practice. Bird will examine how well Dostoevsky actually knew this milieu and this tradition, and how profoundly his knowledge affected his writing of The Brothers Karamazov. This will serve as a case study for the broader question of the influence of the Orthodox Christian ascetic tradition on modern Russian aesthetics.

“The Importance of Elizabeth Anscombe”
2011-05-10 19:00 | Classics 110, 1010 E 59th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Co-sponsored by the Department of Philosophy
TO LISTEN: right click on below links to download or open in new window
“The Importance of Elizabeth Anscombe,” Anselm Mueller (part 1)
“The Importance of Elizabeth Anscombe,” Anselm Mueller (part 2)
“The Importance of Elizabeth Anscombe,” Anselm Mueller (part 3)

Elizabeth Anscombe has become known as a pupil and literary executor of Wittgenstein, but also as a defender of conservative views on questions of morality. A. W. Müeller will suggest that she has contributed to current intellectual life in three ways: 1) by initiating a philosophy of action that helps us to argue responsibly about moral questions; 2) by stressing the importance of seeking truth in matters of basic orientation; 3) by showing that Christian beliefs do not need to shun the standards of intellectual respectability.

A Carnal Love of Concepts or a Work of Mercy? The Intellectual Life and the Dominican Vocation
2011-04-28 19:00 | Social Sciences, Room 122, 1126 E 59th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
co-sponsored by the Committee on Social Thought and the Program in Medieval Studies

In the Order of Preachers (Dominicans), study has a central place as it is an integral part of the religious life itself. What is the aim of studying theology and other sciences within a Christian vocation?

“The Dignity of Being a Substance”
2011-04-27 16:30 | Swift Hall, First Floor Common Room, 1025 E 58th St,Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Co-sponsored by the Committee on Social Thought and the Program in Medieval Studies
Thomas Aquinas characterized the person as “what is most perfect” and “most worthy” in all of nature. What grounds the dignity of the human being as a person? While in our day a metaphysical approach to the question is undervalued, this lecture attempts to show the value of such an approach in terms of “substance” and “nature.”

“Cardinal Lustiger and the New Springtime of the Church in Paris”
2011-04-13 17:00 | Alliance Française de Chicago, 54 West Chicago Avenue Chicago, IL 60610, Downtown
A close friend of Jean-Luc Marion, Cardinal Lustiger was nicknamed “le bulldozer” for his efforts to rebuild the Church as Archbishop of Paris. He established new parishes, founded the “Ãcole Cathedrale,” created Radio Notre-Dame, founded a center for cultural dialogue in a 13th-century monastery building on the Left Bank, and published best-selling books, among them Dare to Believe. Lustiger’s work was rooted in the “French School” of spirituality of Cardinal Pierre de Barulle and Jean-Jacques Olier (founder of the Sulpicians). Lustiger was committed to deepening the French Church’s reconciliation with democracy and to strengthening relations with the Jewish people, to whom he belonged by birth.
**Part of the Alliance’s “April in Paris” series**

Virtue, Action, and Reason: A Conference in Honor of Anselm Müller
2011-04-01 23:00 - 2011-04-02 23:00 | Swift Hall, First Floor Common Room, 1025 E 58th St,Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
The University of Chicago Philosophy Department will host a conference entitled, “Virtue, Action, and Reason” in honor of the Spring 2011 Lumen Christi visiting fellow, Anselm Müeller. The Lumen Christi Institute, along with a number of other institutes on campus, are delighted to act as conference co-sponsors.
The publication of Elizabeth Anscombe Modern Moral Philosophy in 1958 is often taken to mark a watershed event in analytic philosophical ethics. In this justly famous paper, Anscombe laid out three controversial theses. First, she argued that philosophers should not do moral theory until they have worked out an adequate philosophy of action and practical reason. Second, she argued that the idea of moral obligation, so central to the project of modern moral philosophy, is vacuous, and we should learn to do moral philosophy without it. Finally, she argued that the differences within contemporary moral theorists are superficial once we consider the crucial respect in which they are the same: each rejects the idea that some forms of human action such as the procurement of the judicial condemnation of the innocent are intrinsically bad qua human and, as such, are absolutely forbidden. At the close of her paper, Anscombe suggests that we give up the project of modern moral philosophy and return to the wisdom of a more ancient tradition of thought about the good life for man, one whose roots lie in Plato and Aristotle.
Arguably, no one has done more to advance progress in the direction Anscombe originally pointed than her student, Professor Anselm Müeller. Over the course of his long and distinguished career, he has articulated a theory of practical reason and action that seeks to demonstrate that man needs the virtues (dispositions for good practical inference) in order to achieve happiness. Moreover, he develops his theory in such a way that eliminates the need for an unreflective appeal to a species of practical obligation that is special in virtue of being moral. And finally, he has forcefully argued that predications of goodness and badness apply directly to actions and agents, and only derivatively to states of affairs, thereby showing that consequentialism rests upon a false picture of the relation between act and agent. In so doing, Professor Müeller has made lasting contributions to the field of practical philosophy.
Professor Müeller will be a visiting faculty member in the Philosophy Department this Spring quarter, and will be teaching a graduate seminar on the writings of Elizabeth Anscombe. To commemorate his visit to the University of Chicago, and to honor his distinguished career, the Philosophy Department is hosting a conference on his contributions to practical philosophy, titled Action, Virtue, and Reason. Each presenter at our conference will give a talk that engages one of Professor Müeller’s seminal papers in practical philosophy, with one hour of discussion to follow each presentation. Professor Müeller will also give the keynote address, titled The Teleology of the Virtuous Life.
