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.
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...
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...
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.
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,...
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...
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...
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...
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.
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.
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...
