Lumen Christi Institute

The Suspended Harp: Sounds of Faith in Medieval Jerusalem
2016-10-23 13:00 - 14:00 (America/Chicago) | The Met Cloisters – The Fuentidueña Chapel, 99 Margaret Corbin Drive, New York, IL
A concert by Schola Antiqua of Chicago (Lumen Christi Institute Artists-in-Residence)
BUY TICKETS HERE
The vocal ensemble Schola Antiqua of Chicago brings “musicality and sound beyond question” (Early Music America) to the sacred repertoire of Jerusalem: Georgian and Armenian hymns; cantorial psalms; Sufic devotional music; and Jewish, Christian, and Muslim calls to prayer. This program features special guests oudist Amro Helmy, and soprano Nell Snaidas.
Other performances:
Sun, Oct 23, 3 pm
Tickets to this event include Museum admission.
This program, made possible by the William S. Lieberman Fund, is presented in conjunction with the exhibition Jerusalem 1000–1400: Every People Under Heaven, on view September 26, 2016–January 8, 2017.

A Conversation with Phil Klay
2016-10-21 15:30 - 17:00 | Swift Hall, 3rd Floor Lecture, 1025 E 58th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
REGISTER HERE
cosponsored by the Committee on Creative Writing and the Seminar Coop Bookstore
In this informal conversation, Phil Klay and Scott Moringiello (DePaul University) will discuss how literature helps us reflect on themes of brutality, faith, fear, and morality to deepen our understanding of faith and humanity. In 2014, Phil Klay was awarded the National Book Award Prize for Redeployment, a collection of short stories that takes readers to the frontlines of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, asking us to understand what happened there, and what happened to the soldiers who returned.

NYC Master Class on Michel Foucault and Humanism
2016-10-21 14:00 - 17:00 | Fordham President’s Dining Room, 113 West 60th Street, New York, NY
A half-day seminar discussion of the chapter “Contesting Humanism: Michel Foucault” from the new book by philosopher Rémi Brague. This master class is open to graduate students and faculty. Undergraduates or others interested in participating should contact us. PDFs of the book will be made available online for all participants.
ABOUT THE BOOK
The Legitimacy of the Human (St. Augustine’s Press, 2016) presents itself as a satellite work to a more voluminous effort by Rémi Brague, The Kingdom of Man. The larger book argues the thesis of the increasingly visible failure of the modern project, founded upon a view of man as thoroughly emancipated and autonomous, his own sovereign and the world’s. This is most visible in our technological powers and predicaments, with their ever-growing capacity to destroy or fundamentally transform our humanity, but understandings of freedom and equality unable to justify themselves before the bar of reason, but willfully asserting themselves, complement the picture. If modernity’s precious gains are to be preserved, and with them their beneficiaries, modern human beings, then the founding thoughts of the modern world need to be revisited and revised, often in terms of a creative reengagement with premodern ones. A new, truly humanistic, culture needs to be sought.
The Legitimacy of the Human drives home that basic argument, surveying contemporary challenges to the very existence of humanity, then interrogating modern thought and philosophy for reasons it might have for the continuation of the human adventure. Brague finds the self-proclaimed advocates of the modern strikingly silent or even negative about the proposition. To be sure, in many instances modern philosophy has helped humanity organize itself better in terms of justice, peaceful coexistence, and prosperity. But on the basic question whether it is good that humans exist, it is strangely tongue-tied. Other authorities must be consulted, other sources drawn from, to credibly answer that fundamental existential question. The last two chapters of the book hearken to the answer of the biblical God, as expressed in Genesis 1 and recapitulated by the Word Incarnate of the Gospels.

Religious Faith and Modern War
2016-10-21 07:30 - 08:30 | University Club of Chicago, 76 E Monroe St Chicago, IL 60603, Downtown, IL
REGISTER HERE
$25 Registration includes breakfast
You can read Phil Klay’s recent piece “The Citizen-Soldier: Moral Risk and the Modern Military” HERE.
Photo courtesy of Hannah Dunphy

The Near East in the First Millenium: A Bird's Eye View
2016-10-19 16:30 - 18:00 | Classics 110, 1010 E 59th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Cosponsored by the France Chicago Center and the Department of Near East Languages and Civilizations
The Near East of today is very much in the center of attention, for obvious political and military reasons. Yet, it is worth while to look at its past cultural history. It was for millennia the hub of the world’s higher culture. It was especially fruitful in the Roman Empire and in the first centuries of Islam. Its influence on European culture was real. It is a duty for us all to recall this heritage and to try and save what is left of it.

Master Class on the Epistle to Diognetus
2016-10-15 14:00 - 17:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
REGISTER HERE
This master class is open to graduate and undergraduate students, including non-University of Chicago students. Space is limited and offered on a first-come, first-served basis.
A masterpiece of early Christian apologetic literature (about 200), this short anonymous writing gives a vivid description of the paradoxical way in which Christians live in the pagan world and gives us precious hints about God’s ways. The actuality of such an ancient work for our secularized world is amazing.
The text can be found HERE.

The Conciliar Heritage: The Politics of Oblivion
2016-10-07 15:30 | Swift Hall, First Floor Common Room, 1025 E 58th St,Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
REGISTER HERE
Cosponsored by the History Department and the Medieval Studies Workshop
In the early fifteenth century, the general council assembled at Constance and, representing the universal Church, put an end to the scandalous schism which for almost forty years had divided the Latin Church between rival lines of claimants to the papal office. It did so by claiming and exercising an authority superior to that of the pope, an authority by virtue of which it could impose constitutional limits on the exercise of his prerogatives, stand in judgment over him, and if need be, depose him for wrongdoing. This lecture will consider the nature and history of the conciliarist tradition of ecclesiastical constitutionalism across the half millennium down to 1870 when Vatican I, by confirming Cardinal Manning’s claim that “ultramontanism is Catholic Christianity”, consigned it to oblivion.
You can read more about Professor Oakley’s book The Conciliarist Tradition HERE.

Kingship: The Politics of Enchantment
2016-10-06 16:30 | Classics 110, 1010 E 59th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
REGISTER HERE
Cosponsored by the History Department and the Medieval Studies Workshop
The lecture will focus on the extraordinary millennial career of the sacral kingship down through the ages and across the globe as the most common form of government known to humankind. It will trace its survival down into the early modern era and highlight the unexpected turn whereby it drew the papacy itself into its ideological orbit and helped transform the popes into the last of the great sacral monarchs.
You can read more about Prof. Oakley’s book on Kingship HERE.

Getting Religion: Faith, Culture, and Politics from the Age of Eisenhower to the Era of Obama
2016-09-27 17:30 - 19:30 | University Club of Chicago, 76 E Monroe St Chicago, IL 60603, Downtown, IL
ABOUT THE BOOK
Impeccably researched, thought-challenging and leavened by wit, Getting Religion, the highly-anticipated new book from Kenneth L. Woodward, is ideal perfect for readers looking to understand how religion came to be a contentious element in 21st century public life.
Here the award-winning author blends memoir (especially of the postwar era) with copious reporting and shrewd historical analysis to tell the story of how American religion, culture and politics influenced each other in the second half of the 20th century. There are few people writing today who could tell this important story with such authority and insight. A scholar as well as one of the nation’s most respected journalists, Woodward served as Newsweek’s religion editor for nearly forty years, reporting from five continents and contributing over 700 articles, including nearly 100 cover stories, on a wide range of social issues, ideas and movements.
Beginning with a bold reassessment of the Fifties, Woodward’s narrative weaves through Civil Rights era and the movements that followed in its wake: the anti-Vietnam movement; Liberation theology in Latin America; the rise of Evangelicalism and decline of mainline Protestantism; women’s liberation and Bible; the turn to Asian spirituality; the transformation of the family and emergence of religious cults; and the embrace of righteous politics by both the Republican and Democratic Parties.
Along the way, Woodward provides riveting portraits of many of the era’s major figures: preachers like Billy Graham and Jerry Falwell; politicians Mario Cuomo and Hillary Clinton; movement leaders Daniel Berrigan, Abraham Joshua Heschel, and Richard John Neuhaus; influential thinkers ranging from Erik Erikson to Elizabeth Kubler-Ross; feminist theologians Rosemary Reuther and Elizabeth Schussler-Fiorenza; and est impresario Werner Erhardt; plus the author’s long time friend, the Dalai Lama.
For readers interested in how religion, economics, family life and politics influence each other, Woodward introduces fresh a fresh vocabulary of terms such as “embedded religion,” “movement religion” and “entrepreneurial religion” to illuminate the interweaving of the secular and sacred in American public life.
This is one of those rare books that changes the way Americans think about belief, behavior and belonging.
PRAISE FOR THE BOOK
“In this thoughtful book, Ken Woodward offers us a memorable portrait of the past seven decades of American life and culture. From Reinhold Niebuhr to Billy Graham, from Abraham Heschel to the Dali Lama, from George W. Bush to Hillary Clinton, Woodward captures the personalities and charts the philosophical trends that have shaped the way we live now.” – Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize winner and New York Times bestselling author of Destiny and Power
“For decades, Kenneth Woodward covered religion like no one else in the field: with a keen intellect, an open mind, a big heart, and most of all, the inability to write a dull sentence. In his new memoir, which mixes his own religious upbringing with a typically clearheaded analysis of the times in which he lived (and on which he reported), he takes us on a fascinating journey of what he rightly calls the most volatile religious period in American history. You may open the book for the historical tour, but you’ll stay with it because of your brilliant guide.” – James Martin, SJ, New York Times bestselling author of Jesus: A Pilgrimage.
Woodward’s book is brilliant—lively, historically informed, and spiced throughout with his trademark wit. Having personally witnessed many of most important events in American religion over the past half century, Woodward provides close-up, moment-to-moment reality to stories others often missed. His judgments are consistently edgy but also appreciative of the achievements of the era’s key players he came to know so well. – Grant Wacker, Gilbert T. Rowe Professor Emeritus of Christian History, Duke Divinity School
“No American journalist has patrolled the borders of that often-troubled relationship between faith and culture longer or better than Kenneth Woodward. He’s a reporter of the old school, taking the time both to get the story right and to be artful about how he crafts his prose. As Woodward says himself, “being there matters,” and in this book, you’ll find the wisdom of someone who’s just flat-out been there. This is a superb book.” – John L. Allen Jr, editor of Crux and author of A People of Hope
“This survey and interpretation of the American socio-religious scene over the past half century is deeply resourced, comprehensive in coverage, fair-minded in its judgments, and eminently readable. It covers much more than politics, but Woodward has original things to tell us on that highly charged topic. His account of the religious right is a model of clarity, and he balances that by calling attention to often overlooked religious dimensions to Democratic party politics — especially the importance of Methodism in the political formation of George McGovern and Hillary Clinton. All in all, a terrific book.” – Philip Gleason, Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame.
“If ever there were a journalist who could write of his journey through the multi-dimensional worlds of religion in America — and in the world, it is Kenneth Woodward. Religion Reported is a fascinating account of his almost 40 years as the religion editor of Newsweek. He takes us behind the scenes with illuminating portrayals of some of the major religious and political leaders of the latter twentieth century and does so with thorough research, balanced reporting, candid assessments, and more than a little humor. As Woodward notes, ‘being there’ mattered. It becomes clear that the author has been everywhere on the religion scene and his observations are incisive and insightful. Readers of this engaging book will feel, as I did, that they were there also.” – Michael Cromartie, Vice President, Ethics and Public Policy Center
Not since de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, has there been such a personal and insightful survey of religion in American life. Ken Woodward’s Getting Religion is in some ways even better because de Tocqueville was a just visitor to America while Woodward is a sympathetic insider who loves church and state as well as the separation between them that mutually enriches both. This is a masterful record of the dance of religion on American shores since the second world war. Ken Woodward may be the only one who could have written it. –Rabbi Marc Gellman, Ph.D., former religion columnist for Newsweek.com

NYC Master Class on "The Wisdom of Bernard of Clairvaux"
2016-09-17 09:30 - 14:30 | Faculty House at Columbia University, 64 Morningside Drive, New York, NY
This master class is open to graduate students and faculty. Undergraduates or others interested in participating should contact us. PDFs of the readings will be made available online for all participants. Complimentary copies of Early Christian Mystics (Crossroads, 2003) will be provided at the seminar.
This one-time Seminar will study selected writings of the great Cistercian theologian and mystic, Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1157). Bernard was one of the most remarkable figures of the twelfth century—monastic leader, ecclesiastical politician, and noted theologian. His most important legacy, however, was as a mystic and mystical writer. His mystical treatises, such as On Loving God (De diligendo Deo), and especially his eighty-six sermons on the biblical Song of Songs (Sermones super Cantica Canticorum), are among the most widely-read works in the history of Christian mysticism. The Seminar will focus on reading and analyzing On Loving God and selected sermons from the collection on the Song of Songs as found in Bernard of Clairvaux. Selected Works, translated by G. R. Evans (New York: Paulist Press, 1987), pp. 173-205, and 209-78. In addition, some other outlines and short extracts will be handed out during the Seminar.
REQUIRED READINGS

G.R. Evans, trans., Bernard of Clairvaux: Selected Works (New York: Paulist Press, 1988), pp.173-205, 209-278.

ANCILLARY READINGS

Bernard McGinn & Patricia Ferris McGinn, Early Christian Mystics (New Yorl: Crossroads Publishing, 2003), pp. 207-230
G.R. Evans, trans., Bernard of Clairvaux: Selected Works (New York: Paulist Press, 1988), pp.13-57.

SCHEDULE
9:30am Welcome Reception
10:00am Session I
11:15am Break
11:45am Session II
1:00pm Close, Buffet Lunch
2:30pm End

Catholic Social Thought: A Critical Investigation
2016-07-30 23:00 - 2016-08-06 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) and Evangelii Gaudium (2013). 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.

The Thought of John Henry Newman
2016-07-08 23:00 - 2016-07-15 23:00 | Merton College, Oxford, Merton St, Oxford OX1 4JD, UK, Oxford, United Kingdom
Now in its fourth consecutive year, this intensive seminar will examine Newman’s achievements 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.

Aquinas’s Five Ways and Where they Lead
2016-07-08 23:00 - 2016-07-15 23:00 | Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, Piazza Santa Apollinare, 49, 00186 Roma, Italy, Rome, Italy
This intensive seminar will discuss St. Thomas Aquinas’s Five Ways of proving the existence of a God and the conception that he thinks they yield: that of a God who is at once utterly simple and utterly perfect, and therefore utterly beyond our comprehension. The sessions will center on Summa Theologiae, I, qq. 2-4—especially, of course, q. 2, a. 3, which contains the Five Ways themselves—and on selected texts from qq. 12 & 13. Participants will also discuss relevant passages from other works of St. Thomas, as well as his historical influences and some related contemporary issues.

Symposium on Heidegger's Confessions
2016-05-26 15:30 | Swift Hall, 3rd Floor Lecture, 1025 E 58th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Cosponsored by the Philosophy of Religions Workshop and the Theology & Religious Ethics Workshop
Although Martin Heidegger is nearly as notorious as Friedrich Nietzsche for embracing the death of God, the philosopher himself acknowledged that Christianity accompanied him at every stage of his career. In Heidegger’s Confessions, Ryan Coyne isolates a crucially important player in this story: Saint Augustine. Uncovering the significance of Saint Augustine in Heidegger’s philosophy, he details the complex and conflicted ways in which Heidegger paradoxically sought to define himself against the Christian tradition while at the same time making use of its resources.

Caring for our Common Home: Economics, Environment, & Catholic Social Thought
2016-05-19 15:00 - 2016-05-20 17:00 | International House at the University of Chicago, 1414 E 59th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
THURSDAY, MAY 19
The International House at The University of Chicago
Public Symposium
Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski, Archbishop of Miami
Christopher Barrett, Cornell University
Mary Evelyn Tucker, Yale University
Michael Greenstone, The University of Chicago
V. Ramanathan, The University of California, San Diego
FRIDAY, MAY 20
The Hilton Chicago/Magnificent Mile Suites
SESSION I: The Current State of Environmental Degradation and its Impact on the Most Vulnerable
Richard Carson, The University of California, San Diego
Christopher Barrett, Cornell University
SESSION II: Catholic Social Teaching on the Environment
Jame Schaefer, Marquette University
David Cloutier, Mount St. Mary’s University
Session III: Practical Responses to the Problem
Geoffrey Heal, Columbia University
Mark Jacobsen, The University of California, San Diego
Bishop Richard Pates, Bishop of Des Moines

Schola Antiqua Concert: Caged Byrd
2016-05-14 18:30 | St. John Cantius Church, 825 N Carpenter St Chicago, IL 60642, Chicago, IL
General $25 / Students $10. Purchase tickets HERE.
A concert of sacred motets and keyboard music by William Byrd with Jason Moy, harpsichord.
For more information visit the Schola Antiqua website.

The Myth of Autonomy
2016-05-12 16:30 - 18:00 | Swift Hall, First Floor Common Room, 1025 E 58th St,Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Modernity and post-modernity share an evolving notion of autonomy, conceived along nominalist lines,
that runs counter to earlier concepts of human freedom developed by the likes of Irenaeus and Anselm.
Persona creatus is today displacing homo gratus, both culturally and politically. What is at stake in
this evolution? Fundamental theology, obviously, and anthropology too. Perception of the body as well,
together with the legislation or policies by which we try to reinforce our sense of autonomy and our
claims to ‘dignity’ in the sphere of the body. So what if this sense is mistaken? What if we have autonomy
wrong? Professor Farrow’s public lecture will ask us to think again about autonomy.

Pope Francis, Marriage, and the Family
2016-05-07 17:00 | Swift Hall, First Floor Common Room, 1025 E 58th St,Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
In the wake of a synodal process that reflected on “the vocation and mission of the family today,” (RF 1) Pope Francis recently released a sweeping and rich post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia on love in the family, in which he invites Christian families to “value the gifts of marriage and the family, and to persevere in a love strengthened by the virtues of generosity, commitment, fidelity and patience” and invites everyone to “be a sign of mercy and closeness wherever family life remains imperfect or lacks peace and joy” (AL 5). Spouses Anna and Michael Moreland will consider how the themes and goals of the document address the place of marriage and the family in the life of the church today.

Harsh Justice: The Widening Divide Between America and Europe
2016-05-03 16:00 - 18:00 | Jenner & Block, 45th Floor, 353 N Clark St. Chicago, IL 60654, Downtown, IL
REGISTER HERE
Free and open to the public
a panel discussion with
James Q. Whitman, Yale University Law School
Respondents
Hon. Tom Dart,Cook County Sheriff
Hon. Colleen Sheehan, Cook County Circuit Court Judge
Kim Foxx, Former Assistant State’s Attorney, Juvenile Justice Division, and Former Chief of Staff to President of Cook County Board, Toni Preckwinkle
Hon. Ann M. Burke (moderator), Illinois Supreme Court Justice
Cosponsored by The Catholic Lawyers Guild of Chicago and The John Howard Association
Criminal punishment in America has become harsh and degrading–more so than any other western democracy. Executions and long prison terms are commonplace in America. Countries like France and Germany, by contrast, are systematically mild. European offenders are rarely sent to prison, and when they are, they serve far shorter terms than their American counterparts. Why is America so comparatively harsh? The answer lies in America’s triumphant embrace of a non-hierarchical social system and distrust of state power which have contributed to a law of punishment that is more willing to degrade offenders.
The panelists will discuss how Professor Whitman’s comparison of the European and American systems might highlight and uncover aspects of the criminal justice system in Cook County and Illinois that could be improved.
Event Schedule
4:30-5:00 Registration
5:00-6:30 Event
6:30-7:30 Reception

The Work of Our Redemption: A Liturgical Theology of Sacrosanctum Concilium
2016-04-26 18:00 | St. Procopius Abbey Church, 5601 College Rd. Lisle, IL 60532, Lisle, IL
Free and open to the public

Part of an annual lecture series hosted by St. Procopius Abbey and Benedictine University on the Documents of Vatican II commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council.
Contact Fr. Becket Franks, OSB with any questions at bfranks (at) procopius.org or 630-829-9253.

The Inquisition: What Really Happened?
2016-04-20 15:30 | Harper Memorial Library 120, 1116 East 59th Street, Hyde Park, IL
The Inquisition is a subject of much cultural fascination, invoking images of book burnings and gruesome executions. Yet these were only a small part of the activities of a vast and complex organization, involved in many subtler aspects of society, from the regulation of prostitution and homosexuality, to the development of copyright, to prescribing differences between elite and lower class education. This panel of experts on the history of the Inquisition will discuss the realities behind the myths about this vast effort at information control, torn between many different goals and powers, and staffed by members who were often scholars or scientists themselves.

Reception for A Godly Humanism: Clarifying the Hope That Lies Within
2016-04-19 16:15 - 18:15 | University Club of Chicago, 76 E Monroe St Chicago, IL 60603, Downtown, IL
Join us for a reception to celebrate the recently released book A Godly Humanism: Clarifying the Hope that Lies Within (CUA Press, 2015) by the late Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I. on the one-year anniversary of his passing.

Finished by Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I. nine days before his death, A Godly Humanismoffers an account of the Catholic intellectual life by one of the most gifted thinkers to serve as bishop in the American Church. It draws on figures such as St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. John Paul II, and Pope Benedict XVI to express a vision of the Church as a communion built around the relationship of God to human beings and of human beings to one another. The book provides a starting point for the interpretation of “Pope Francis’s Magisterium [as] evidence of another horizon having been opened more clearly for believers.”

Sin as Self-Sabotage: Saint Augustine on Ravishing One's Own Ruin
2016-04-14 18:00 | Swift Hall, First Floor Common Room, 1025 E 58th St,Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
When St. Augustine innocuously yet infamously stole some pears in his youth, he confessed that he did it simply because he was in love with his own ruin. Have you ever looked at your sins as the way you destroy that which you do not like about yourself? Fr. Meconi’s talk will draw from this Augustinian insight that sin is really a form of self-sabotage, a way of keeping ourselves away from an intimacy and a love we all know we in no way deserve.

Interpreting Pope Francis: Evangelization and the Family
2016-04-08 18:00 | Swift Hall, 3rd Floor Lecture, 1025 E 58th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
cosponsored by the Theology and Religious Ethics Workshop
This lecture will address the potential changes in the Catholic Church’s approach to marriage and family life to result from the Extraordinary Synod on the Family convened by Pope Francis this month. It will examine what this synod reveals about the relationship between the doctrinal and the pastoral and the papacy and the episcopate.

master class on The Morality of Exchange: Bargaining and Gift-Giving in Thomas Aquinas and Pope Benedict XVI
2016-04-08 13:00 - 16:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
REGISTER HERE
This master class is open to graduate and undergraduate students, including non-University of Chicago students. Space is limited and offered on a first-come, first-served basis. Copies of the readings will be provided.
Pope Benedict’s 2009 Encyclical-Letter, Caritas in veritate, breaks new ground in the tradition of Catholic social teaching by explicitly calling for a new theory of economic exchange. Whereas the traditional scholastic theory of the “just price” was focused on “the principle of the equivalence in value of exchanged goods” (par. 35), a new theory of exchange must focus instead on “a metaphysical understanding of the relations between persons” (par. 53). True, Thomas Aquinas pioneered this new approach to the morality of exchange when he argued that the Golden Rule must take precedence over the logic of the just price: the relation between persons must trump the relation between the goods exchanged. Caritas in veritate argues further for a new theory of exchange that combines elements of mutual gain with elements of gift-giving. Here again we see a revision of traditional scholastic theory in which every transaction was defined exclusively either as a unilateral gift (subject to norms of distributive justice and charity) or as a bilateral exchange (subject to norms of commutative justice). Benedict, by contrast, calls for a vision of economic life in which gift-giving and exchange are mixed, so that bargains are “redolent with the spirit of gift” (par. 37) in a new “economy of gratuitousness” (par. 38). According to Benedict, economic bargains are self-interested while gifts stem from altruistic love. I will call this sharp contrast into question by revising the traditional scholastic analysis of the just price, which was focused on the equality of the goods exchanged and instead focus on the moral equality of the parties to an exchange.
Discussion Questions

What is a just price? How is a just price related to a market price? Can the government impose a just price on goods?
Is economic exchange inherently self-interested? Is there a place for love in the marketplace?
What is a gift? Do all gifts involve exchange? Why do bribes often take the form of gifts? Why do people often resent receiving “charity”?
What does Benedict mean by “an economy of gratuitousness”?
What matters most for justice? Equality of the commodities exchanged or the equality of the parties to an exchange?

Readings:

Thomas Aquinas on Justice in Buying and Selling.
Encyclical Letter of Benedict XVI: Caritas in Veritate
James Bernard Murphy: The Morality of Bargaining (Journal of Business Ethics 2011 (100: 79-88).g

Sacred Violence: The Legacy of René Girard
2016-04-07 13:30 | Swift Hall, 3rd Floor Lecture, 1025 E 58th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
A panel discussion with William Cavanaugh (DePaul University), Jean-Luc Marion (University of Chicago), and James B. Murphy (Dartmouth College) at the University of Chicago on April 7, 2016.
René Girard (1923-2015) has been described as the Darwin of the human sciences for his theories of the origin of violence and religion and the imitative character of human behavior (mimesis). His books, among them Violence and the Sacred and Things Hidden since the Foundation of the World, span the fields of Literary Criticism, Psychology, Anthropology, Sociology, History, Biblical Hermeneutics and Theology. While his theories have attracted many devoted disciples, Girard has also sparked controversy for his sweeping general claims, tendentious readings of canonical works, and his explicitly Christian perspective. This panel discussion will consider the significance of Girard’s thought for the human sciences.

cosponsored by the John U. Nef Committee on Social Thought and the Theology & Religious Ethics Workshop

Spring Non-Credit Course on the Sacraments
2016-04-05 18:00 - 2016-05-23 20:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
6:00 Dinner | 6:30 Lecture

Intended for current students and faculty. Others interested in attending please contact info@lumenchristi.org. Registrants are free to attend as many sessions as they choose.
REGISTER HERE
Jesus’ words and actions during his hidden life and public ministry were already salvific, for they anticipated the power of his Paschal mystery. They announced and prepared what he was going to give the Church when all was accomplished. The mysteries of Christ’s life are the foundations of what he would henceforth dispense in the sacraments, through the ministers of his Church, for “what was visible in our Savior has passed over into his mysteries.”
— from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, #1115, quoting St. Leo the Great, Sermo 74, 2,
This course will examine the doctrine, history, and theology of the seven sacraments, along with a discussion of contemporary pastoral concerns. No previous knowledge of or instruction in Catholic sacramental theology is presumed.
April 5 The Sacrament of Penance
April 12 The Sacrament of Holy Orders
April 26 The Sacrament of Baptism
May 3 The Sacrament of the Eucharist
May 10 The Sacrament of Confirmation
May 17 The Sacrament of Extreme Unction
May 24 The Sacrament of Matrimony

CANCELLED: Luncheon discussion of Tolkien's "On Fairy-Stories" and Lewis's "Transposition"
2016-04-01 11:00 - 12:30 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Due to unforeseen personal reasons, Carol Zaleski’s visit has been postponed. We hope to reschedule this event for a future date.
At this luncheon event, students will read and discuss J.R.R. Tolkein’s essay “On Fairy-Stories” and C.S. Lewis’s essay “Transposition” with Carol & Philip Zaleski (co-authors ofThe Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings)
REGISTER HERE
This event is open to current University of Chicago students. Lunch will be served. Space is limited and offered on a first-come first-serve basis. PDFs of the readings will be provided.

CANCELLED: The Recovered Image: C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and the Inklings
2016-03-31 14:00 | University of Chicago–TBA, N/A, Hyde Park, IL
Due to unforeseen personal reasons, Carol & Philip Zaleski’s visit has been postponed. We hope to reschedule this event for a future date.
Thursday, March 31, 7:00pm
University of Chicago, Location TBA
Carol & Philip Zaleski (Smith College)
REGISTER HERE
cosponsored by the Seminary Co-op Bookstore
The literary historian, novelist and critic C. S. Lewis is the most widely read Christian writer of his century and ours; the philologist J.R.R. Tolkien our most beloved mythmaker. For three decades, they and their closest associates (including the philosopher of language Owen Barfield and the eccentric fantasist Charles Williams) formed a literary club known as the Inklings, which met every week in Lewis’s Magdalen College rooms and nearby Oxford pubs. They read aloud works in progress, drank, argued, and encouraged one another to write the kind of books they loved to read — even if it meant bucking modernist trends. Philip and Carol Zaleski, co-authors of The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings, will present the literary and spiritual project of the Inklings as one of recovery rather than reaction: recovery of the living tradition of Christian humanism in the face of war, environmental degradation, and secular indifference.

CANCELLED: The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings
2016-03-31 11:00 - 12:30 | University Club of Chicago, 76 E Monroe St Chicago, IL 60603, Downtown, IL
Due to unforeseen personal reasons, Carol Zaleski’s visit has been postponed. We hope to reschedule this event for a future date.
with co-authors Philip & Carol Zaleski
REGISTER HERE
$50 General/ $15 Student/ $500 Table Sponsorship
At this luncheon event, authors Philip and Carol Zaleski will discuss their book The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings: J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, Charles Williams.
For three decades, C.S. Lewis (author of The Chronicles of Narnia), J.R.R. Tolkien (author of The Lord of the Rings), and their closest associates met weekly in Oxford pubs as a literary club known as the Inklings. This book examines their project of recovering a tradition of Christian Humanism in the face of war, environmental degradation, and secular indifference.
Romantics who scorned rebellion, fantasists who prized reality, wartime writers who believed in hope, Christians with cosmic reach, the Inklings sought to revitalize literature and faith in the twentieth century’s darkest years-and did so in dazzling style.

Praise for The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings
Named Book of the Year by the Conference on Christianity and Literature
“The husband-and-wife team of Philip and Carol Zaleski bring to bear both extensive scholarship and a neatly interwoven narrative; this is a story about storytellers, and it shows . . . In The Fellowship, the authors never cease to feel for the Inklings, particularly sympathizing with their yearnings for spiritual and professional fulfillment, with occasional wry asides on the nature of their marriages and their politics to take note of shortcomings both personal and institutional. Taken together, it makes the overarching life of the group something greater than the sum of its parts.” ―Genevieve Valentine, The New York Times Book Review
“This is a long overdue study of an abidingly fascinating and creative group of writers. There has not been a serious treatment of the whole group and their interactions for more than thirty years, and this excellent book brings together a great deal of new discussion and discovery in a lively, readable, sympathetic but not uncritical survey that allows these remarkable figures to emerge in all their human complexity and diverse gifts. The authors deserve warm congratulations.” ―Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury and author of The Lion’s World: A Journey into the Heart of Narnia
“The Zaleskis have produced a major work of biography and criticism, and if you are a devotee of any of the Inklings, you will want to read it.” ―Michael Dirda, The Washington Post
“The Zaleskis deftly interweave the four stories [of Lewis, Tolkien, Barfield, and Williams], showing how, when read together, these very different men can help us more clearly see the state of literary and religious culture in mid-century England and beyond.” ―Anthony Domestico, Christian Science Monitor
“A fascinating overview of this ‘intellectual orchestra’ . . . a captivating story of young writers finding their literary footing while trying to rectify competing desires for happiness, love, fame, and faith.” ―Ethan Gilsdorf, The Boston Globe
“The Fellowship makes a convincing case that [the Inklings’s] cultural legacy deserves comparison with that of the less Christian, more intellectually austere Bloomsbury group.” ―Lev Grossman, Time Magazine
“A gutsy, glorious adoration of the English fantasy and faerie traditions, which celebrates what sometimes seems like a fantastical time when religion didn’t destroy art but created it.” ―Joshua Cohen, Harper’s Magazine
“A highly readable group biography . . . The Zaleskis do an impressive job.” ―Elizabeth Hand, Los Angeles Times
“It’s difficult to overstate the influence of the two most famous Inklings, Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, on varied fields including Christian apologetics and fantasy writing. The Zaleskis trace the history of this informal club of Oxford-educated, Christian intellectuals, which first coalesced in the early 1930s, by focusing on four of the most prominent Inklings: Tolkien, Lewis, mystic Charles Williams, and philosopher Owen Barfield. As scholarship, the book is immensely successful, describing its protagonists’ strengths and shortcomings with insight and facility.” ―Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Like expert commentators at a fencing match, Philip Zaleski and Carol Zaleski give a sparkling account of how J.R.R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis, those friendly duelists, and their eager teammates, Owen Barfield and Charles Williams, sharpened one another’s wits and dazzled the world with words. The Inklings were that rare thing, an elite with an inclusive spirit, and the Zaleskis share the same ethos, brilliantly mastering the details of their brief but never forgetting to be readable. Thorough, lucid, balanced, and well judged, this is literary biography of the very best kind.” ―Michael Ward, University of Oxford, author of Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C.S. Lewis
“[A] well-researched, consistently engaging group biography . . . richly detailed . . . A bountiful literary history.” ―Kirkus
“[A] prodigious work . . . [The Fellowship,] which is extensively researched, provides a fascinating look at British literary society during the first half of the 20th century. . . For all fans of Tolkien and Lewis, this excellent title will also appeal to readers interested in Christian scholarship and 20th-century British literature and history.” ―Erica Swenson Danowitz, Library Journal (starred review)
“The Fellowship . . . is a mental map, a religious journey, and the biography of a brotherhood. Plenty of distinguished Inklings came and went over the years . . . but the Zaleskis zoom in on (and out from) the primary axis of Tolkien, Lewis, Williams, and Barfield . . . . Christians all, these men formed what the Zaleskis call ‘a perfect compass rose of faith’: Barfield the proto-New Ager, Tolkien the rather prim orthodox Catholic, Lewis the noisy and dogmatically ordinary layman and popular theologian, Williams the ritualistic Anglican with a taste for sorcery . . . . Who can compare with these writers? . . . . The Inklings . . . are still gathering steam.” ―James Parker, The Atlantic

CANCELLED: In Praise of Purgatory
2016-03-30 15:30 | Swift Hall, First Floor Common Room, 1025 E 58th St,Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Due to unforeseen personal reasons, Carol Zaleski’s visit has been postponed. We hope to reschedule this event for a future date.
Carol Zaleski (Smith College)
REGISTER HERE
cosponsored by the Medieval Studies Workshop and the Theology & Religious Ethics Workshop
The idea of Purgatory – “that second kingdom,” as Dante puts it, “where the human soul is cleansed and made fit to ascend to Heaven” — is present in germ throughout world religions, fully articulated (and discriminated from ‘hell lite’) by the Catholic tradition, rejected by the Reformers, yet never wholly suppressed. Carol Zaleski will speak about the idea of purgatory with a view to its analogues in secular and religious literature, its ecumenical possibilities, and its enduring moral and spiritual significance.

San Marco, the Dominican Monastery at the Heart of Renaissance Florence
2016-02-25 19:00 | Social Sciences, Room 122, 1126 E 59th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
A lecture with Ada Palmer (University of Chicago)

Cosponsored by the Department of History
It is difficult today to imagine a world in which religious communities were deeply intertwined with the civic order and when a third of a town’s population might be priests, monks, and nuns. In Renaissance Florence the Dominican Monastery of San Marco was intimately tied to every aspect of city life, from commerce and patronage, to civil broils and foreign invasions, to education and medicine, to the great artists, architects and radical thinkers who earned the Florentine Renaissance its eternal fame. This lecture will explore the monastery’s role as a center of social and spiritual life.

Master Class on "Virtues of Thought in Aristotle"
2016-02-19 13:00 - 16:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Aryeh Kosman (Haverford College)
REGISTER HERE
This master class is open to graduate and undergraduate students, including non-University of Chicago students. Space is limited and offered on a first-come, first-served basis. Copies of the readings will be provided.
This seminar will discuss Aristotle’s account in Book 6 of the Nicomachean Ethics of what he there terms “virtues of thought” – ἀρετὰι τῆς διανοίας – distinguishing them from virtues τοῦ ἤθοuς – virtues of character. Virtues of thought seem to be those cognitive states that enable us to think well – to reason correctly and to judge truly, sometimes about what is the case, sometimes about how best to make something, sometimes about how best to act. Thus the states that Aristotle proceeds to specify early in Book 6: these he designates art, understanding, prudence, wisdom and intellect. These virtues are apparently states of character enabling the kinds of activities in which we engage when we deliberate or reason or plan or develop theories. They are, to put it simply, virtues that enable us to think well. But on another interpretation, virtues of thought are not states of character enabling good thinking, but those aspects of our character by virtue of which we are in general able to reason well concerning how best to bring about the objects of our desire. On this reading Aristotle’s distinction highlights the fact that all virtuous activities in general require good thinking, rather than the fact that some virtuous activities in particular are instances of good thinking. In addition to reading Book 6 of the Ethics and related texts of Aristotle, participants will read and discuss a short essay by Dr. Kosman on this subject, which suggests that it will be fruitful for understanding Aristotle that we keep both of these interpretations in view.
READINGS

Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics Book 6
Kosman, Aryeh, Virtues of Thought (Harvard University Press, 2014) Ch. 15 on “Aristotle on the Virtues of Thought”

Aristotle on the Contemplation of the Divine
2016-02-18 00:00 | Classics 110, 1010 E 59th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Aryeh Kosman (Haverford College)
Cosponsored by the Philosophy Department
Aristotle’s remarks in the last book of the Nicomachean Ethics that the highest form of happiness consists in θεωρία is often translated as revealing happiness to consist in contemplation, without noting that both terms designate a kind of seeing, a mode of vision. This oversight if more remarkable when we recall that the vision in question is that of the divine. What does Aristotle mean by “seeing the divine?” This lecture will suggest that one way to understand Aristotle is to hear him as urging that happiness is associated with seeing the world as divine. Such seeing looks beyond the structuring of the world as good and bad and sees the world simply as it is. The association of this seeing with νοῦς makes precisely this point: νοῦς sees things simply as they are. Seeing the world’s divinity is not to have failed in judgment; it is to have relinquishedjudgment as to good and bad and as to the success of things going well or not well. It is simply to accept the presence of the world as its mere being, a being that in its shining bestows its presence upon sentient subjects like ourselves.

Putting First Things First: The Story of Richard John Neuhaus' Vocation to Public Life
2016-02-11 00:00 | University Club of Chicago, 76 E Monroe St Chicago, IL 60603, Downtown, IL
Randy Boyagoda (author of Richard John Neuhaus: A Life in the Public Square)
Cosponsored by First Things, the Chicago Leadership Forum, and Relevant Radio
For all the political controversies that Fr. Richard John Neuhaus was involved in over his four decades in American public life, and these were many, he really understood his work in vocational terms. In other words, he understood his work foremost as the work of a man of God. It’s too simple to dismiss him (or admire him!) as a Republican in a Roman collar, as many of his later critics and fans did. Learn the full story of Fr. Neuhaus’ life, his moving from Lutheran to Catholic and from Left to Right, and discover that a religiously-informed vocation to public life is as straightforward, triumphant or disappointing as these markers might suggest (depending on your own religious and intellectual politics).

Reviews of Richard John Neuhaus: A Life in the Public Square (Image, 2015)
“Deeply researched, lucidly written.” – New York Times
“In Richard John Neuhaus: A Life in the Public Square, Randy Boyagoda captures his subject’s deep sense of vocation and the complexity of his personality, offering a comprehensive biography and, along the way, a thoughtful introduction to some of the ‘culture wars’ of the past several decades.” – Wall Street Journal
“[A] stellar biography.” – Publishers Weekly
“Boyagoda dispassionately describes this fascinating and active life, and he manages to blend skills as a folksy storyteller, researcher and unbiased historian, providing a biography that is balanced, interesting and relevant. A useful, provocative spotlight on one of the leading lights of the 20th century.” – Kirkus
“[A] page-turner.” – National Review
“Boyagoda’s biography is an invaluable account of the political and ecclesiastical controversies in which Neuhaus played a central, influential and controversial role.” – America Magazine
“A wonderful biography.” − Raymond Arroyo, New York Times bestselling author and host, EWTN’s The World Over
“Boyagoda persuasively argues that Neuhaus was a charismatic leader and original thinker whose contributions to American culture and politics make him someone worth knowing about.” − American Conservative
“Boyagoda’s luminously intelligent study of the man makes clear that Richard John Neuhaus — however one regards his politics — deserved his place in a long line of memorable American preacher politicians.” − National Post
“Neuhaus was a hugely influential figure, and Boyagoda tells his story with novelistic empathy and narrative panache.” − The Globe and Mail
“Boyagoda found the Neuhaus I knew, complete with all the man’s winsome qualities and not a few of his contradictions. Not surprisingly, he also revealed facets of the man I could never guess.” − Russell E. Saltzman, Aleteia
“And up until now, no one has offered a more credible, careful, and colorful biography of this convert to Catholicism. “ – Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, Archbishop of New York, author ofTrue Freedom
“Thorough, vivid, and keenly understanding of the interplay of personality, faith, and cultural context, Boyagoda’s biography of Neuhaus does justice to this man of faith.” – Carl A. Anderson, Supreme Knight, Knights of Columbus
“Until his death in 2009, Father Richard John Neuhaus was a powerhouse in American public life and a monument in American Catholic history…Randy Boyagoda, an extraordinary author best known for his work in fiction, knew that someone had to tell Fr. Neuhaus’ story — and that it deserved to be told well.” − CatholicVote.org

Slavic Routes: Music from Renaissance Prague
2016-02-06 19:30 - 2016-02-07 14:00 | St. Vincent DePaul Parish, 1010 W Webster Ave. Chicago, Il 60614, Chicago, IL
Saturday, February 6, 7:30pm
St. Vincent DePaul Parish1010 West Webster Avenue
Sunday, February 7, 2:00pm
Rockefeller Memorial Chapel
5850 South Woodlawn Avenue
TICKETS AVAILABLE HERE
$25 General/$10 Students
In the sixteenth century, all roads led to Prague – or from it. The city had long been an incubator for rich musical activity and was an important stop for composers from neighboring Poland, Slovenia, and Germany, but also from farther afield. Schola Antiqua’s program brings a fascinating cross-section of sacred vocal polyphony from this musical crossroads together – and to life. In-concert commentary by Erika Supria Honisch, Assistant Professor of Music History and Theory at Stony Brook University.
For more information visit the Schola Antiqua website.

Master Class on The First Known in 13th Century Epistemology
2016-02-05 14:00 - 17:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Timothy B. Noone (Catholic University of America)
REGISTER HERE
This master class is open to graduate and undergraduate students, including non-University of Chicago students. Space is limited and offered on a first-come, first-served basis. Copies of the readings will be provided.
This seminar will begin with crucial texts from the middle of the thirteenth century that set up the problem of the first known as that problem came to be discussed in the writings of Aquinas, Henry of Ghent, and Duns Scotus. Thereafter, the seminar will examine the three authors mentioned on the issue of the first known and explore how their positions fit into other elements of their theories of cognition. The problem of whether or not to allow that God is in some vague sense the first thing known in an through the concept of being figures into, and is background to, parallel themes in the epistemology of thirteenth century philosophy, including the issue of divine illumination and the theory of abstraction.

St. Bonaventure on Education, Philosophy, and the Sciences
2016-02-04 16:30 | Classics 110, 1010 E 59th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Timothy B. Noone (Catholic University of America)
REGISTER HERE
Cosponsored by the Philosophy Department and the Medieval Studies Workshop
This lecture will situate Bonaventure’s thought on education, philosophy, and the sciences into the context of the thirteenth century’s controversies regarding the place of philosophy in the universities and human life generally. While Bonaventure accepts the essential and irreplaceable role of philosophy and science in the progress of human knowledge and endorses the claim that they both perfect the human intellect, he insists that science and philosophy are in a hierarchy of knowledge that transcends them, culminating in the study of Sacred Scripture, theology, and mystical vision.

Aquinas: Poet and Contemplative
2016-01-28 20:00 | University of Chicago, 5801 S Ellis Ave Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Cosponsored by the Medieval Studies Workshop and the Theology and Religious Ethics Workshop

“The well-known is what we have yet to learn.” T.S. Eliot
What do we know of the prayer-life of St Thomas Aquinas? This lecture will be directly concerned with this question, and the answer may well come as a surprise to many people. Aquinas is still today almost exclusively regarded as an outstanding scholastic philosopher and theologian. But what is little known is that he was also a master of the spiritual life and a very considerable poet, perhaps even the greatest Latin poet of the Middle Ages.

Master Class on Pseudo Dionysius
2016-01-22 15:00 - 20:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Bernard McGinn (University of Chicago)
REGISTER HERE
REGISTRATION IS CURRENTLY FULL. If you are interested in attending, contact us and we will inform you if space becomes available.
Cosponsored by the Medieval Studies Workshop
Participants will be provided with a complimentary copy ofPseudo Dionysius: The Complete Works (Paulist Press).
This master class is open to graduate and undergraduate students, including non-University of Chicago students. Space is limited and offered on a first-come, first-served basis.
This one-time Seminar will discuss the writings of the mysterious Eastern monk (ca. 500 C.E.) who hid his identity under the name of the Athenian Dionysius of the Areopagus mentioned in Acts 17:32. These texts, thought to be quasi-apostolic for centuries, were among the most influential in the history of Christian theology and mysticism. The translation used will be that of Colm Luibheid, Pseudo-Dionysius. The Complete Works (New York: Paulist Press, 1987. The Classics of Western Spirituality). We will discuss specific sections of these writings, but participants are encouraged to read as much of the whole as they are able (240 pp. in this translation).

Love Your Enemies: Retribution and Forgiveness
2016-01-14 17:30 | University of Chicago, 5801 S Ellis Ave Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Regina M. Schwartz (Northwestern University)
cosponsored by the Department of English
The law presumes not only the right but the duty to punish: it does not ask whether it should punish, but how much, who, when, and how. In contrast, Christianity offers a different response to wrongdoing: Jesus engaged in a polemical attack on “the reciprocity code,” the assumption that good should be reciprocated with good and evil with evil. “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you” (Luke 6:27-28). How are we to begin to comprehend this radical difference?

Winter Non-Credit Course on Romans
2016-01-12 18:00 - 2016-02-23 18:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Fr. Paul Mankowski, S.J. (LCI Scholar-in Residence)
Intended for current students and faculty. Others interested in attending please contact info@lumenchristi.org. Registrants are free to attend as many sessions as they choose.
REGISTER HERE
The most consequential and controversial of his writings, St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans was written to instruct new Christians on the meaning of faith and discipleship. This course will present Paul’s teaching in Romans from the perspective of Roman Catholic doctrine, while engaging the more provocative arguments of the Church Fathers, the Schoolmen, the Reformers, and modern exegetes. Knowledge of Biblical Greek or familiarity with New Testament writing is not required.
January 12
Apostleship
January 19
Jew & Greek
January 26
Salvation
February 2
Judgment
February 9
Righteousness
February 16
Justification
February 23
Transformation

NY Reception for A Godly Humanism: Clarifying the Hope That Lies Within
2015-12-15 18:30 - 20:00 | The Westin New York at Times Square, 270 W. 43rd St. New York, NY 10036, New York, NY
CLICK HERE for a recent article and photos from this event.
Timothy Cardinal Dolan (Archbishop of New York)
Robert Louis Wilken (University of Virginia)
Join us for a reception in celebration of the newly released book A Godly Humanism: Clarifying the Hope that Lies Within (CUA Press, 2015) by the late Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I. This occasion will include a reception and remarks by His Eminence, Timothy Cardinal Dolan (Archbishop of New York) and Robert Louis Wilken (Professor Emeritus at the University of Virginia).
Finished by Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I. nine days before his death, A Godly Humanismoffers an account of the Catholic intellectual life by one of the most gifted thinkers to serve as bishop in the American Church. It draws on figures such as St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. John Paul II, and Pope Benedict XVI to express a vision of the Church as a communion built around the relationship of God to human beings and of human beings to one another. The book provides a starting point for the interpretation of “Pope Francis’s Magisterium [as] evidence of another horizon having been opened more clearly for believers.”
Presented by the Lumen Christi Institute, First Things, and America Magazine. Copies of the book will be available for purchase.

The Present and Future of Religious Freedom
2015-12-10 17:30 - 19:30 | Jones Day, 77 W Upper Wacker Dr. Chicago, IL 60601, Downtown, IL
Cosponsored by the Christian Legal Society
Recent controversy over the HHS contraceptive mandate and the participation of faith-based organizations in federal grant programs has raised questions about religious freedom in the American legal and political systems. This discussion will consider the perceived conflict between civil rights and religious freedom and the roles of Congress, the judiciary, and administrative agencies for how religious freedom will be understood, applied, and protected in the future.

Master Class on Faith and Reason in the Thought of John Henry Newman: The Oxford University Sermons
2015-11-20 14:00 - 17:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Reinhard Hütter (Duke University)
REGISTER HERE
This master class is open to all graduate and undergraduate students, including non-University of Chicago students. Space is limited and offered on a first-come, first-served basis. If you have any questions, please contact Mark Franzen.
This three-hour seminar will focus on the one of Newman’s works, which he himself called “the best, not the most perfect, book I have done.” The Oxford University Sermons are the Anglican precursor and still the best introduction to the Catholic Newman’s masterwork, The Grammar of Assent. Sermons 10-15 constitute a precis of Newman’s mature theory of religious belief. In these sermons he develops the epistemological basis for belief in objective dogma and dogmatic theology. The masterclass will focus its attention especially on sermons 10-13.
No background knowledge of the topic is required to participate. Copies of the book John Henry Newman, Fifteen Sermons Preached Before the University of Oxford Between A.D. 1826 and 1843, introd. by Mary Katherine Tillman (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1997) will be provided free of charge for participants.
Readings:

Sermon 10 “Faith and Reason, Contrasted as Habits of Mind”
Sermon 11 “The Nature of Faith in Relation to Reason”
Sermon 12 “Love as Safeguard of Faith against Superstition”
Sermon 13 “Implicit and Explicit Reason”

Divine Faith and Private Judgment in Newman and Aquinas
2015-11-19 16:30 | Classics 110, 1010 E 59th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
REGISTER HERE
cosponsored by the Theology and Religious Ethics Workshop

Dinner and Prayer at the Monastery of the Holy Cross
2015-11-14 16:30 - 20:00 | The Monastery of the Holy Cross, 3111 South Aberdeen St. Chicago, IL 60608, Chicago, IL
REGISTER HERE
Cosponsored by Calvert House. Open to current university students. Others interested in attending please contact info@lumenchristi.org.
Join us for an evening of prayer with Benedictine Monks at the Monastery of the Holy Cross. Students will participate in the prayer of the Divine Office (Vespers and Compline), and have dinner and discussion with Fr. Peter Funk, O.S.B., prior of the monastery and alumnus of the University of Chicago.
To find out more about liturgy at the monastery, go HERE.
SCHEDULE
4:00pm Meet at Gavin House (1220 E. 58th St.)
4:30pm Depart from Hyde Park
5:00pm Arrive at the Monastery, welcome by Fr. Funk
5:15pm Office of Vespers
5:45pm Dinner & Discussion
7:15pm Office of Compline
8:00pm Arrive back in Hyde Park

Pondus Dei: The Weight of God in Anselm's Poetics
2015-11-11 16:30 | Swift Hall, 3rd Floor Lecture, 1025 E 58th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
cosponsored by the Medieval Studies Workshop
The meaning of Anselm’s famous ‘sola ratione’ or ‘by reason alone’ has been the subject of much debate. Is it a principle of reason or a principle of faith? This lecture will argue that the sola ratione instead operates as a poetical principle in Anselm’s work at large, steering his various writings –treatises, meditations, prayers, and letters – into a comprehensive oeuvre. As a result of this poetic use of sola ratione, his work is characterized by a certain playfulness. However lofty questions of divine absence and presence may be, the sola ratione guarantees that meditating about questions of faith and reason keeps within the boundaries of a ‘divina commedia’ of sorts.

Master Class on Anselm of Canterbury: Reason, Logic, and Meditation
2015-11-09 16:30 - 19:30 | Swift Hall, First Floor Common Room, 1025 E 58th St,Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Burcht Pranger (University of Amsterdam)
REGISTER HERE
Open to current University of Chicago students. Dinner will be served. Readings will be provided for all participants. Others interested in attending, please contact us.
This master class seminar will cover three major works by Anselm of Canterbury: Proslogion, Cur deus homo and theFirst Meditation. The discussion will revolve around the question: how to read Anselm properly and comprehensively? Most often Anselm’s discourse in his various works is compartmentalized into either rational, theological or meditative text blocks. By focusing on texts that differ as to their outlook, we will try at once to honor the differences in discourse while at the same time tracing the various turns and moves Anselm makes both in argumentation and meditation. So doing, it will become clear that, where the various types may differ and are entitled to their independence, Anselm’s rhetorical moves and turns will prove to be similar to each other to the point of telling us something comprehensive about his way of writing and reading.
READINGS:
Anselm of Canterbury

Proslogion, chapters 1-15, 26.
Cur deus homo, Preface, book I, chapters 1,2, 7,21, 25; Book II, chapters 17, 18, 19.
First Meditation

M.B. Pranger

The Artificiality of Christianity: Essays on the Poetics of Monasticism (Stanford, Stanford University Press, 2003); Introduction to Part Two: ‘Density.’

Toward a Theology of Science
2015-10-29 11:00 - 12:30 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Tom McLeish (Durham University)
REGISTER HERE
This event is open to students, faculty, and scientists at the University of Chicago. Lunch will be served. Others interested in attending, please contactinfo@lumenchrisit.org.
At this luncheon events, student will discuss a chapter from Faith & Wisdom in Science (Oxford University Press, 2014) on “A Theology of Science?” with author Tom McLeish. A PDF of the chapter will be made available to read beforehand and attendees will be given complimentary copies of the book.
In the book, McLeish’s narrative approach develops a natural critique of the cultural separation of sciences and humanities, suggesting an approach to science, or in its more ancient form natural philosophy – the ‘love of wisdom of natural things’ – that can draw on theological and cultural roots. Following the theme of pain in human confrontation with nature, it develops a ‘Theology of Science’, recognising that both scientific and theological worldviews must be ‘of’ each other, not holding separate domains. Science finds its place within an old story of participative reconciliation with a nature, of which we start ignorant and fearful, but learn to perceive and work with in wisdom. Surprisingly, science becomes a deeply religious activity. There are urgent lessons for education, the political process of decision-making on science and technology, our relationship with the global environment, and the way that both religious and secular communities alike celebrate and govern science.

Schola Antiqua Concert "The Night Watch: Music for Vespers"
2015-10-24 20:00 - 2015-10-30 18:30 | St. James Chapel, Quigley Center, 835 North Rush Street Chicago, IL 60611, Chicago, IL
Saturday, October 24: 8:00PM
St. James Chapel, Quigley Center
103 E. Chestnut, Chicago, IL
$25 General/$10 Student
TICKETS
Friday, October 30, 7:30PM
St. Joseph Chapel, University of St. Francis
500 Wilcox St., Joliet, IL
$10 General/$7 Student
TICKETS
For more information visit the Schola Antiqua website.

Master Class on "Love Alone is Credible"
2015-10-16 13:00 - 16:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Rémi Brague (Sorbonne; University of Munich)
REGISTER HERE
This master class is open to all graduate and undergraduate students, including non-University of Chicago students. Copies of the readings will be provided. Space is limited and offered on a first-come, first-served basis. If you have any questions, please contact Mark Franzen.
The thin pamphlet (1963) summarizes Hans Urs von Bathasar’s (1905-1988) masterpiece The Glory of the Lord: A Theological Aesthetics (1961-1969). The booklet is compact, but rich. As a consequence, the reading is arduous, but extremely rewarding. After a sketch of the evolution of Christian theology in its two main epochs, von Balthasar brings the content of Revelation back to the self-assertion of God’s love through Christ. Beyond any merely human work of love, always finite and imperfect, the Christian message allows us to access Love as the ground of Being. The class will focus on the two central chapters 3 and 6 and possibly end with a foray into chapter 10.
REQUIRED READING:
H. U. von Balthasar, Love Alone Is Credible, tr. D. C. Schindler, San Francisco, Ignatius Press, 2004. Chs. 3, 6, & 10.
SECONDARY READING:
Peter Henrici, SJ, “Hans Urs von Balthasar: a Sketch of His Life”, Communio: International Catholic Review 16/3 (fall, 1989): 306–50.

From Ancient Philosophy to Christian Wisdom: A Symposium
2015-10-15 15:30 | Swift Hall, 3rd Floor Lecture, 1025 E 58th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL

Conservation as Conversation
2015-10-14 16:30 | Classics 110, 1010 E 59th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Rémi Brague (Sorbonne, University of Munich)

Cosponsored by the France Chicago Center

If the contrary of civilization is barbarism, we have to take seriously the etymology of the latter word, i.e. the inability to engage in a conversation. Conversation presupposes some continuity. First, with the past that may have something to teach us (which is the meaning of “conservatism”), then with nature that is not a mere quarry or pantry, but has something to tell us as well, and finally with God as creator in the Logos.

Morals or Metaphysics: The Place of Charity in Christian Thought
2015-10-07 19:00 | Swift Hall, First Floor Common Room, 1025 E 58th St,Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
cosponsored by the Theology and Religious Ethics Workshop and the Early Christian Studies Workshop
When modern persons think about assistance for the poor the two major categories that tend to dominate are the motivations of the donor (altruism) and the effects of the donation (social justice). Though both of these attributes were part of classical Christian thinking, they stood on a deeper foundation: a description of the type of world God had made. And so, charity was as much about metaphysics as it was morality.

Church Fathers Non-Credit Course
2015-10-06 18:00 - 2015-11-17 21:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
TUESDAYS
6:00pm Buffet Dinner
6:30pm Lecture
Intended for current students and recent graduates of the University of Chicago. Others interested in attending please contactinfo@lumenchristi.org.
REGISTER HERE
“Greatness, depth, boldness, flexibility, certainty and flaming love—these virtues of youth are marks of patristic theology. Perhaps the Church will never again see the likes of such an array of larger-than-life figures such as mark the period from Irenaeus to Athanasius, Basil, Cyril, Chrysostom, Ambrose, and Augustine”
– Hans Urs von Balthasar, “The Fathers, the Scholastics, and Ourselves”
From the close of the apostolic age until the 8th century, the Church Fathers developed a vision of Christian wisdom, 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. This series will introduce students to major figures and themes of the patristic period and convey their relevance to the life of faith today.
October 6
St. Ignatius of Antioch
Scott Moringiello, DePaul University
October 13
St. Irenaeus of Lyons
Scott Moringiello, DePaul University
October 20
St. Clement of Alexandria
Scott Moringiello, DePaul University
October 27
St. Jerome
Paul Mankowski, S.J., Lumen Christi Institute
November 3
St. Athanasius of Alexandria
Aaron Canty, Saint Xavier University
November 10
St. Gregory of Nyssa
Andrew Radde-Gallwitz, University of Notre Dame
November 17
Why the Fathers Still Matter
Msgr. Michael Heintz, University of Notre Dame

Catholic Social Thought: A Critical Investigation
2015-08-01 23:00 - 2015-08-06 23:00 | University of California, Berkeley, S Hall Rd. Berkeley, CA 94720, Berkeley, CA
In this seminar, students will read, analyze, and discern continuities and discontinuities in Catholic Social Thought from the late 19th century to the present. Lectures, seminar reports, and discussion will focus on original sources (encyclicals and other magisterial documents), beginning with Rerum novarum (1892) and concluding with Caritas in veritate (2009). This intensive course is multi-disciplinary, since this tradition of social thought overlaps several disciplines in the contemporary university including political science, political philosophy, law, economics, theology, and history. This will be the third time Prof. Hittinger has led this seminar.
Format: There will be two 2 ½ hour sessions each day. Professor Hittinger will open each session with a lecture, and then we will turn to general, seminar-style discussion of the text and the issues at hand. Students will be expected to make seminar presentations of the material under discussion.
Location: The seminar will take place at the University of California, Berkeley. Students will be provided with a travel stipend, accommodations, and meals. . Students will be provided with a travel stipend, accommodations, and meals.
Application Information:  This seminar will be open to Ph.D. students in the humanities and social sciences (such as philosophy, theology, political science, history & medieval studies).
Applicants will be required to submit:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

From Athanasius of Alexandria:

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

Secondary Reading:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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
2014-07-26 23:00 - 2014-07-31 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.
