Lumen Christi Institute

Chicago Catholics and the Quest for Interracial Justice
2020-07-23 12:30 - 13:30 (America/Chicago)
Free and open to the public. This event will be held online through Zoom. Registrants will be sent a link to the Zoom event or to a secondary livestream. Co-sponsored by the Catholic Lawyers Guild of Chicago the Department of Catholic Studies at DePaul University, Calvert House Catholic Center, the Sheil Catholic Center at Northwestern University and the Seminary Co-op Bookstore,
With parish boundaries often mapping onto segregation lines, it might appear that the possibilities of Catholic efforts towards racial justice were eliminated from the start. This picture, however, is incomplete. Karen Johnson’s book, One in Christ: Chicago Catholics and the Quest for Interracial Justice (Oxford University Press, 2018) uncovers the story of lay white and Black Catholics working on the ground towards interracial justice from the 1930’s to the late 1960’s, driven by a radical vision of the mystical body of Christ. Join for a conversation between historian of race and religion, Karen Johnson (Wheaton College), and Black Catholic historian Cecilia Moore (University of Dayton) on Chicago Catholics and the quest for interracial justice.

Giordano Bruno and the Poetry of the Cosmos
2020-07-28 12:00 | ONLINE, World Wide Web, INTERNET
A webinar lecture with Valentina Zaffino (Pontifical Lateran University; Rome Global Gateway, University of Notre Dame). Part of our summer webinar series on “Reason and Beauty in Renaissance Christian Thought and Culture,” presented in collaboration with the American Cusanus Society
Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) was an Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, mathematician, and cosmologist. Bruno’s notoriety is due both to his adventurous life and to his original reinterpretation of ancient thought in light of the new philosophical scenario. Valentina Zaffino will analyze Bruno’s image of the cosmos, focusing on his remodeled Neoplatonic background. In this context, as will be shown, the notions of harmony and beauty are closely related with Bruno’s fascinating claim of the infinity of the cosmos.

2020 Summer Webinar Series on “Reason and Beauty in Renaissance Christian Thought and Culture”
What do reason and beauty have to do with each other? Since the modern Enlightenment and Romantic movements, it has been tempting to see reason and beauty as separate or even opposed. In the Renaissance, however, rational and artistic pursuits bloomed together and even fed each other. Renaissance culture, including fine art, poetry, architecture, astronomy, and humanistic thought, both drew upon and extended ancient and medieval Christian intellectual traditions. This webinar course will examine different aspects of renaissance Christian thought and culture to explore how pursuits of reason interwove with the love of beauty.
This event is cosponsored by the Beatrice Institute, Calvert House, the Genealogies of Modernity Project, the Harvard Catholic Center, the Nova Forum for Catholic Thought, and St. Paul’s Catholic Center.

On the Eternity of the World: Aristotle, Bonaventure, Aquinas, Kant
2020-07-29 10:00 - 2020-07-30 15:30 | ONLINE, World Wide Web, INTERNET
This master class is open to current graduate students and uper-level University of Chicago undergraduates. It will take place online via Zoom, in four sessions, over two days.
Toward the end of his Physics, Aristotle argued that the motion in the physical world, and with it the world itself, never began and will never cease. Medieval Christian thinkers agreed that this position conflicted with revelation, but they assessed it in a wide variety of ways. In modernity, Kant used the problem of the world’s duration as evidence of the boundaries of mere reason.
In this master class, we will go through Aristotle’s arguments, Bonaventure’s rejection of them and insistence that the world’s having begun can be proved, Aquinas’s denial of any possible proof on either side, and Kant’s antinomous “proofs” for both sides. The readings invite discussion of such topics as the relation between reason and faith, how to understand creation ex nihilo, the relation between physics and metaphysics, and the limits of human knowledge.
SCHEDULE

Wednesday, July 29, 10:00 AM – 11:30 AM; 2:00 PM – 3:30 PM
Thursday, July 30, 10:00 AM – 11:30 AM; 2:00 PM – 3:30 PM

READINGS

Aristotle, Physics, VIII.1-2, 250b10-253a21
Bonaventure, In II Sent., d. 1, p. 1, a. 1, q. 2
Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae I, q. 45, aa. 1-2; Summa theologiae I, q. 46; Compendium theologiae ch. 98-99; Summa contra gentiles, II, caps. 31-37; On the Eternity of the World
Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason, Transcendental Dialectic, II.2.2, First Antinomy

COVID and the Color Line: Race, Religion, and Public Health
2020-07-30 12:00 | ONLINE, World Wide Web, INTERNET
A conversation with Yolonda Wilson (Howard University), Shawnee Daniels-Sykes (Mount Mary University), and Utibe Essein (University of Pittsburgh, School of Medicine), moderated by Vincent Lloyd (Villanova University). Co-organized with the International Academy for Bioethical Inquiry.
Cosponsored by America Media and the Gnaegi Center for Health Care Ethics
Free and open to the public. The event will be held online over Zoom and will be livestreamed on YouTube.
COVID-19 has been described as a great equalizer, affecting all Americans alike. Yet, data collected throughout the pandemic has revealed startling disparities, particularly with communities of color being disproportionately impacted by the virus, suffering from both higher infection rates and higher death rates. What are the roots of these asymmetries? How do economics, politics, and issues of healthcare—including how racial preconceptions have historically impacted medical treatment and public health policy—contribute? What resources do we have within our communities and within our religious traditions to respond? Join for an interdisciplinary panel of philosophers, public health experts, and theological ethicists as we seek to understand and respond to COVID and the color line.

ONLINE SEMINAR on Dominican Theological Anthropology: Albert the Great and Meister Eckhart
2020-08-03 09:00 - 2020-08-11 17:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
APPLICATIONS ARE NOW CLOSED FOR THIS SEMINAR
On consecutive Mondays and Tuesdays in August (August 3, 4, 10, 11) Bernard McGinn and Fr. Bernhard Blankenhorn will lead a set of young scholars through questions relating to the theological anthropologies of Albertus Magnus and Meister Eckhart. Topics of special interest will include contemplation, Albert on the imago dei, and Eckhart on the ground of the soul.
Applicants should have some background in medieval philosophy and theology. More specifically, they should have a basic familiarity with Aristotelian anthropology, as well as general grasp of the Augustinian theology of the image of God and medieval theories of contemplation.
Intermediate knowledge of Latin is preferred, but not required. Applications who can read German and/or French secondary literature should be given preference.
Required Reading Before Seminar
Simon Tugwell, “Introduction,” Albert and Thomas: Select Writings (Paulist Press, 1988), 3-129.
Edmund Colledge and Bernard McGinn, “Introduction,” Meister Eckhart: The Essential Sermons, etc. (Paulist Press, 1981), 5-81.
Required Reading During Seminar
Texts
Albert the Great, Commentary on Dionysius’s Mystical Theology, in Albert and Thomas, 133-98
Albert the Great, De Intellectu et intelligibili, Book II, chaps. 8-9 (Borgnet ed., IX:514-17)
Albert the Great, Selections from Summa theologica, Pars I (Cologne Edition XXXIV.1), q. 13, chapter 1 (pp. 38-41); q. 13, chapter 4 (pp. 44-48); q. 15, chapter 2, a. 2 (pp. 65-75).
Meister Eckhart: The Essential Sermons, etc.
Meister Eckhart: Teacher and Preacher (Paulist Press, 1986)
Studies
Henryk Anzulewicc, “Anthropology: The Concept of Man in Albert the Great,” in A Companion to Albert the Great, 325-46
Bernard Blankenhorn, “The Mystery of Union with God, 52-90, and 131-48
Bernard McGinn, “Chapter 4. Meister Eckhart: Mystical Teacher and Preacher,” in McGinn, The Harvest of Mysticism, 94-194
Rupert J. Mayer, “The Term ‘Ground of the Soul’ and ‘Sparkle of Reason’ in Eckhart and Aquinas,” Medieval Mystical Theology 22 (2013): 120-38.
Schedule
Mornings will contain two hour-long lecture/discussions of key texts.
Afternoons will have two sessions of 45-minute guided discussion.
The final day (Tuesday, August 11) will be devoted to short student presentations.

Reason and Beauty in Cambridge Platonism
2020-08-04 12:00 | ONLINE, World Wide Web, INTERNET
A webinar lecture with Douglas Hedley (University of Cambridge). Part of our summer webinar series on “Reason and Beauty in Renaissance Christian Thought and Culture,” presented in collaboration with the American Cusanus Society
The Cambridge Platonists are the first modern Platonists. They are a group of English philosophers around the University of Cambridge in the seventeenth-century, in the context of reformed theology and the English Civil War. Yet while accepting the New Science of Copernicus and Galileo, they offer a fierce protest against mechanism and naturalism. Their notion of aesthetics and beauty–as historian Ernst Cassirer correctly saw–was one of the sources of the later Romantic movement. Their aesthetics has a theological foundation. As one of the Cambridge Platonists, Benjamin Whichcote (d. 1683) wrote: “There is that in God that is more beautiful than power, than will and Sovereignty, viz. His righteousness, His good-will, His justice, wisdom and the like’. In this webinar, Professor Douglas Hedley will discuss the Cambridge Platonists’ thought on beauty and its theological dimension that is tied to a distinctly Platonic theory of enthusiasm or inspiration and that came to be a shaping force in 18th century thought.

2020 Summer Webinar Series on “Reason and Beauty in Renaissance Christian Thought and Culture”
What do reason and beauty have to do with each other? Since the modern Enlightenment and Romantic movements, it has been tempting to see reason and beauty as separate or even opposed. In the Renaissance, however, rational and artistic pursuits bloomed together and even fed each other. Renaissance culture, including fine art, poetry, architecture, astronomy, and humanistic thought, both drew upon and extended ancient and medieval Christian intellectual traditions. This webinar course will examine different aspects of renaissance Christian thought and culture to explore how pursuits of reason interwove with the love of beauty.
This event is cosponsored by the Beatrice Institute, Calvert House, the Genealogies of Modernity Project, the Harvard Catholic Center, the Nova Forum for Catholic Thought, and St. Paul’s Catholic Center.

Pondering Hiroshima
2020-08-06 12:00
Cosponsored by America Media, the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University, and the Institute for Human Ecology at the Catholic University of America.
Free and open to the public. The event will be held online over Zoom and will be livestreamed on YouTube. Registrants will also get a specially created booklet drawing on the archives of America Magazine’s coverage of Hiroshima from the past 75 years.
On August 6th and 9th, 1945, the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The bombs destroyed the cities in a flash, and ultimately killed approximately 200,000 people. The Second World War came to a close days later. 1945 was the first and last time a nuclear bomb was used in armed conflict. This technology has influenced international relations ever since and has raised questions about the appropriate use of force in a way that the firebombing of Dresden and Tokyo did not. The site of the bomb’s genesis was not a military base, however, but at the University of Chicago, where the first self-sustaining nuclear reaction took place three years earlier, opening the nuclear age and giving rise to a new source of energy, life-saving technologies, and unparalleled destruction. Join as we reflect upon the legacy and tension caught up in the event that was Hiroshima.
This event is dedicated to the memory of John P. Langan, S.J., noted professor, theologian and peace activist.
Image © AP Photo/Stanley Troutman

Richard Hooker’s Sapiential Theology: Reformed Platonism?
2020-08-11 19:00 - 20:00 | ONLINE, World Wide Web, INTERNET
An evening webinar lecture with Torrance Kirby (McGill University). Part of our summer webinar series on “Reason and Beauty in Renaissance Christian Thought and Culture,” presented in collaboration with the American Cusanus Society
Richard Hooker (1554-1600) was a preeminent theologian and philosopher of the Elizabethan Church. His seminal book, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity (1593), set out a path for Anglican theology that was distinct from both Puritan and Roman Catholic thought. In Book I, Hooker identifies Law with Holy Wisdom and his treatment echoes the sapiential books of Scripture, viz. Proverbs, Job, and the Wisdom of Solomon. Hooker also appeals to a hierarchical disposition of the species of law in the medieval scholastic conception of the ‘lex divinitatis’, especially as formulated by Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite and later by Thomas Aquinas. For Hooker, the First Eternal Law concealed in the ‘Bosome of God’ is unutterable, while its external emanation, the Second Eternal Law, is a ‘Voyce’ whose utterance constitutes the beautiful ‘Harmony of the Worlde’. This distinction between two species of Eternal Law owes much to the ancient Neoplatonic metaphysics of Proclus. Both Hooker’s sapiential theology and his invocation of the law of the ‘great chain’ stand in creative tension with his professed adherence to doctrine expressed by the Elizabethan Articles of Religion (1571). In this webinar, Professor Torrance Kirby will examine the tension between Hooker’s sources and his theology and will ask whether Hooker is successful in reconciling his legal metaphysics with his Reformed soteriology.

2020 Summer Webinar Series on “Reason and Beauty in Renaissance Christian Thought and Culture”
What do reason and beauty have to do with each other? Since the modern Enlightenment and Romantic movements, it has been tempting to see reason and beauty as separate or even opposed. In the Renaissance, however, rational and artistic pursuits bloomed together and even fed each other. Renaissance culture, including fine art, poetry, architecture, astronomy, and humanistic thought, both drew upon and extended ancient and medieval Christian intellectual traditions. This webinar course will examine different aspects of renaissance Christian thought and culture to explore how pursuits of reason interwove with the love of beauty.
This event is cosponsored by the Beatrice Institute, Calvert House, the Genealogies of Modernity Project, the Harvard Catholic Center, the Nova Forum for Catholic Thought, and St. Paul’s Catholic Center.

The Global Economic Effects of COVID-19: Perspectives from Economics and Catholic Social Thought
2020-08-13 17:00
Free and open to the public. The event will be held online over Zoom and will be livestreamed on YouTube.
Cosponsored by America Media and the Catholic Research Economists Discussion Organization.
The adverse impact of the COVID-19 Crisis on the lives and livelihoods of people is hard to fully appreciate in real time. Moreover, it is not equally distributed across socio-economic groups within countries or across countries. This panel sets economics and Catholic Social Thought in dialogue, discussing the socio-economic consequences of the pandemic, the policies to mitigate it, and the values that ought inform our judgements.

Passage to Modernity: Renaissance Christianity Today
2020-08-18 19:00 - 20:00 | ONLINE, World Wide Web, INTERNET
An evening webinar lecture with Peter Casarella (Duke University). Part of our summer webinar series on “Reason and Beauty in Renaissance Christian Thought and Culture,” presented in collaboration with the American Cusanus Society
Historian Jacob Burckhardt (d. 1897) famously argued that Italian humanism of the fourteenth and fifteenth century paved the way inevitably to modern individualism and secularism, but more recently Burckhardt’s view has been largely discredited. Contemporary thinkers, Louis Dupré and Karsten Harries, each with very distinctive accents, made decisive contributions to overcoming of Burkhardtian forerunner mentality. In this concluding webinar, Professor Casarella will explore Dupré’s and Harries’ contributions to a post-Burckhardtian reading of the relationship of Italian humanism to modernity and also some of the limitations of the interpretations they proposed in the light of more recent ideas regarding post-structuralism and decolonial theory.

2020 Summer Webinar Series on “Reason and Beauty in Renaissance Christian Thought and Culture”
What do reason and beauty have to do with each other? Since the modern Enlightenment and Romantic movements, it has been tempting to see reason and beauty as separate or even opposed. In the Renaissance, however, rational and artistic pursuits bloomed together and even fed each other. Renaissance culture, including fine art, poetry, architecture, astronomy, and humanistic thought, both drew upon and extended ancient and medieval Christian intellectual traditions. This webinar course will examine different aspects of renaissance Christian thought and culture to explore how pursuits of reason interwove with the love of beauty.
This event is cosponsored by the Beatrice Institute, Calvert House, the Collegium Institute, the Genealogies of Modernity Project, the Harvard Catholic Center, the Nova Forum for Catholic Thought, and St. Paul’s Catholic Center.

Healing the Wounds of Racism: A Discussion with Members of Chicago’s “Back of the Yards” Community
2020-08-26 17:00
Free and open to the public. Online registration required. This event is organized by the Catholic Lawyer’s Guild of Chicago, and co-sponsored by the Lumen Christi Institute
“Compassion isn’t just about feeling the pain of others; it’s about bringing them in toward yourself. If we love what God loves, then, in compassion, margins get erased.”
– Father Gregory Boyle, Tattoos on the Heart (2010)
“I have never seen – even in Mississippi and Alabama – mobs as hostile and as hate-filled as I’ve seen here in Chicago.”
– Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1966)
Our country is in a moment of reckoning. For too long, black people have been marginalized and denied equal justice under the law. We have created, in the words of Pope Francis, “an economy of exclusion and inequality.” Evangelium Gaudium, ¶ 53. Chicago, sadly, is no exception. At this critical juncture, many of us find ourselves asking: What can we do to combat racism and bring about healing in our communities?
To move forward, we must first seek to listen to and understand those who have suffered from the evils of racism. We must stand with those whose dignity has been denied and learn to “find Jesus in [their] faces, in their voices, in their pleas.” Evangelium Gaudium, ¶ 91. Only once our hearts are changed can we hope to bring about change in our community and justice system.
On August 26 at 5:00 pm, the Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation will introduce us to several residents of the Back of the Yards community in a discussion moderated by Father Dave Kelly, C.P.P.S. These men and women will share their experiences with racial prejudice and their views on how we as a city might find reconciliation. An opportunity for questions and discussion will follow.

Introduction to Liturgical Mystagogy
2020-09-03 19:00
Free and open to the public. This event will be presented on Zoom (registration required), as well as through live-stream on YouTube. This event is presented in collaboration with the Godbearer Institute as part of a Fall webinar lecture series on “Eastern Catholic Theology in Action.”
From the fourth to eighth centuries, liturgical commentaries flourished to explain the meaning of the sacramental life of the Church. Notably after the fourth century, the tradition of Jerusalem developed another genre for mystagogy, namely hymnography. As part of the structure of the liturgical services, they explain to the faithful what is happening during the services, rather than before or after the celebration. In this way, hymnography has an exegetical function, commenting on scripture and the mystery of salvation in Christ. Dr. Galadza will explore this hymnographic tradition and its relation to the formation of liturgical theology.

Eastern Catholic Theology in Action
Distinct in their liturgy, theology, spirituality, and discipline of Church life, 23 Eastern Churches are in communion with the Roman Catholic Church. The Second Vatican Council urged the Eastern Catholic Churches to cultivate and promote their unique share of the tradition. This series responds to that mandate and features leading scholars in the field to offer their theological perspectives drawn from the wisdom of Christian East. In view of broadening our understanding of the Catholic intellectual tradition, this series draws attention to the vantage points of Christians who worship, think, and pray in continuity with the first 1,000 years of the undivided Church.
This series is co-presented with the Godbearer Institute and co-sponsored by the Beatrice Institute, the Calvert House Catholic Center, the Catholic Theological Union, the Institute for Faith and Culture, God With Us Online, the Harvard Catholic Forum, the Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies, the Nova Forum, the Orthodox Christian Studies Center at Fordham University, the Saint Benedict Institute, the St. Paul University Catholic Center, St. Stephen Byzantine Catholic Church, and the Tabor Life Institute.
Upcoming Series Lectures:
Thursday, September 10, 7 p.m. CDT
A Theology of Wonder: An Introduction to the Poetry of Ephrem the Syrian | Andrew Hayes (University of St. Thomas, Houston)
Thursday, September 17, 7 p.m. CDT
Christ the Lover of Mankind: Philanthropia, Mystery, and Martyria in Eastern Christianity | Robin Darling Young (Catholic University of America)
Thursday, September 24, 7 p.m. CDT
Eastern Churches, Latin Territories: Ecclesial Catholicity and the Notion of Diaspora | Alexander Laschuk (Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies at University of St. Michael’s College)
Thursday, October 1, 7.p.m. CDT
Expanding the Archive: Syriac Literature and the Study of Early Christianity Today | Erin Walsh (University of Chicago)
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Monday, November 12, 7 p.m. CDT
Quo Vadis: The Direction of Eastern Catholic Theology, a Pastoral Perspective for the 21st Century | Archbishop Borys Gudziak (Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia and Metropolitan of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in the USA)

A Theology of Wonder: An Introduction to the Poetry of Ephrem the Syrian
2020-09-10 19:00
Free and open to the public. This event will be presented on Zoom (registration required), as well as through live-stream on YouTube. This event is presented in collaboration with the Godbearer Institute as part of a Fall webinar lecture series on “Eastern Catholic Theology in Action.”
St. Ephrem is the common teacher of the Syriac theological tradition whose preferred medium is poetry. Named a doctor of the Church by Benedict XV, Ephrem emphasizes that the ascetical and mystical experience of wonder is the criterion for authentic theologizing. Dr. Hayes will discuss how Ephrem’s notion of wonder purifies our freedom and rendering the whole person a clear and luminous receptacle for the experience of God.

Eastern Catholic Theology in Action
Distinct in their liturgy, theology, spirituality, and discipline of Church life, 23 Eastern Churches are in communion with the Roman Catholic Church. The Second Vatican Council urged the Eastern Catholic Churches to cultivate and promote their unique share of the tradition. This series responds to that mandate and features leading scholars in the field to offer their theological perspectives drawn from the wisdom of Christian East. In view of broadening our understanding of the Catholic intellectual tradition, this series draws attention to the vantage points of Christians who worship, think, and pray in continuity with the first 1,000 years of the undivided Church.
This series is co-presented with the Godbearer Institute and co-sponsored by the Beatrice Institute, the Calvert House Catholic Center, the Catholic Theological Union, the Institute for Faith and Culture, God With Us Online, the Harvard Catholic Forum, the Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies, the Nova Forum, the Orthodox Christian Studies Center at Fordham University, the Saint Benedict Institute, the St. Paul University Catholic Center, St. Stephen Byzantine Catholic Church, and the Tabor Life Institute.
Upcoming Series Lectures:
Thursday, September 17, 7 p.m. CDT
Christ the Lover of Mankind: Philanthropia, Mystery, and Martyria in Eastern Christianity | Robin Darling Young (Catholic University of America)
Thursday, September 24, 7 p.m. CDT
Eastern Churches, Latin Territories: Ecclesial Catholicity and the Notion of Diaspora | Alexander Laschuk (Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies at University of St. Michael’s College)
Thursday, October 1, 7.p.m. CDT
Expanding the Archive: Syriac Literature and the Study of Early Christianity Today | Erin Walsh (University of Chicago)
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Monday, November 12, 7 p.m. CDT
Quo Vadis: The Direction of Eastern Catholic Theology, a Pastoral Perspective for the 21st Century | Archbishop Borys Gudziak (Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia and Metropolitan of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in the USA)

Christ the Lover of Mankind: Philanthropia, Mystery, and Martyria in Eastern Christianity
2020-09-17 19:00
Free and open to the public. This event will be presented on Zoom (registration required), as well as through live-stream on YouTube. This event is presented in collaboration with the Godbearer Institute as part of a Fall webinar lecture series on “Eastern Catholic Theology in Action.”
Three features are common to all Eastern Christian traditions—philanthropia, mystery, and martyria. They appear repeatedly in Eastern Christian writing, ritual, and personal practice from the preaching of Jesus to the present. Philanthropia, God’s love for humanity, prompts the mission of the Logos to provide for humanity’s return to the divine. Mystery, which paradoxically reveals and conceals, both in ceremony and in “ordinary” time, the Logos’ saving events. Martyria is the sign and demonstration of God’s beckoning love and the replication of the “priesthood of all believers.” Dr. Young will explore these themes through examples, not only from the Greek and Slavic traditions, but also from those of the Christian traditions of the East, the Caucasus and Ethiopian Christianity.

Eastern Catholic Theology in Action
Distinct in their liturgy, theology, spirituality, and discipline of Church life, 23 Eastern Churches are in communion with the Roman Catholic Church. The Second Vatican Council urged the Eastern Catholic Churches to cultivate and promote their unique share of the tradition. This series responds to that mandate and features leading scholars in the field to offer their theological perspectives drawn from the wisdom of Christian East. In view of broadening our understanding of the Catholic intellectual tradition, this series draws attention to the vantage points of Christians who worship, think, and pray in continuity with the first 1,000 years of the undivided Church.
This series is co-presented with the Godbearer Institute and co-sponsored by the Beatrice Institute, the Calvert House Catholic Center, the Catholic Theological Union, the Institute for Faith and Culture, God With Us Online, the Harvard Catholic Forum, the Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies, the Nova Forum, the Orthodox Christian Studies Center at Fordham University, the Saint Benedict Institute, the St. Paul University Catholic Center, St. Stephen Byzantine Catholic Church, and the Tabor Life Institute.
Upcoming Series Lectures:
Thursday, September 24, 7 p.m. CDT
Eastern Churches, Latin Territories: Ecclesial Catholicity and the Notion of Diaspora | Alexander Laschuk (Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies at University of St. Michael’s College)
Thursday, October 1, 7.p.m. CDT
Expanding the Archive: Syriac Literature and the Study of Early Christianity Today | Erin Walsh (University of Chicago)
Monday, November 12, 7 p.m. CDT
Quo Vadis: The Direction of Eastern Catholic Theology, a Pastoral Perspective for the 21st Century| Archbishop Borys Gudziak (Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia and Metropolitan of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in the USA)

Eastern Churches, Latin Territories: Ecclesial Catholicity and the Notion of Diaspora
2020-09-24 19:00
Free and open to the public. This event will be presented on Zoom (registration required), as well as through live-stream on YouTube. This event is presented in collaboration with the Godbearer Institute as part of a Fall webinar lecture series on “Eastern Catholic Theology in Action.”
According to the teaching of the Second Vatican Council, all Eastern Catholic Churches have same rights and obligations as the Latin Church and are equal in dignity. They also share the obligation to preach the Gospel to the whole world. At the same time, the jurisdiction of the Eastern Churches is circumscribed to the notion of canonical territory. Inside this territory, the hierarchy has certain rights, while outside this territory there are numerous limitations. The talk will first discuss the notion of the Church sui iuris and the understanding of the Catholic Church as a communion of Churches. Second, it will then examine the idea of canonical territory in the Catholic Church. Historical roots of the juridical concept will be examined before looking at the current theological and canonical expression. Finally, the notion of canonical territory as currently existing will be critically examined, with special attention to the conciliar teachings as well as ecumenical implications.

Eastern Catholic Theology in Action
Distinct in their liturgy, theology, spirituality, and discipline of Church life, 23 Eastern Churches are in communion with the Roman Catholic Church. The Second Vatican Council urged the Eastern Catholic Churches to cultivate and promote their unique share of the tradition. This series responds to that mandate and features leading scholars in the field to offer their theological perspectives drawn from the wisdom of Christian East. In view of broadening our understanding of the Catholic intellectual tradition, this series draws attention to the vantage points of Christians who worship, think, and pray in continuity with the first 1,000 years of the undivided Church.
This series is co-presented with the Godbearer Institute and co-sponsored by the Beatrice Institute, the Calvert House Catholic Center, the Catholic Theological Union, the Institute for Faith and Culture, God With Us Online, the Harvard Catholic Forum, the Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies, the Nova Forum, the Orthodox Christian Studies Center at Fordham University, the Saint Benedict Institute, the St. Paul University Catholic Center, St. Stephen Byzantine Catholic Church, and the Tabor Life Institute.
Upcoming Series Lectures:
Thursday, October 1, 7.p.m. CDT
Expanding the Archive: Syriac Literature and the Study of Early Christianity Today | Erin Walsh (University of Chicago)
Monday, November 12, 7 p.m. CDT
Quo Vadis: The Direction of Eastern Catholic Theology, a Pastoral Perspective for the 21st Century | Archbishop Borys Gudziak (Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia and Metropolitan of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in the USA)

Expanding the Archive: Syriac Literature and the Study of Early Christianity Today
2020-10-01 19:00
Through the work of editing and translating Syriac manuscripts, scholars continue to enrich our historiography of the formative centuries of Christianity. This research has been particularly fruitful in the areas of biblical interpretation, asceticism, the history of doctrine, and the role of women within the church. Dr. Walsh will provide a brief overview of these developments before focusing on the importance of poetry for biblical storytelling and spiritual formation. Using examples from the poetry of Narsai and Jacob of Serugh, Dr. Walsh will explore the ways poets inherited the legacy of Ephrem and applied their own artistic brilliance to articulate a Christian worldview, exhorting believers to live with fervent faith both in their own time and today.

Professor Walsh has generously assembled a bibliography of additional resources and introductory readings for Syriac Studies:
Books/Articles

Brock, Sebastian P. The Luminous Eye: The Spiritual World Vision of Saint Ephrem the Syrian. Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1985.
Brock, Sebastian P. An Introduction to Syriac Studies. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2006.
Brock, Sebastian P. and Susan Ashbrook Harvey. Holy Women of the Syrian Orient. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987. o Also see the Gorgias Press website for the published translations of mēmrē by Jacob of Serugh and Narsai!
Harvey, Susan Ashbrook. “Spoken Words, Voiced Silence: Biblical Women in Syriac Tradition.” Journal of Early Christian Studies 9, no. 1 (2001): 105-131.
Harvey, Susan Ashbrook. “Revisiting the Daughters of the Covenant: Women’s Choirs and Sacred Song in Ancient Syriac Christianity.” Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies 8, no. 2 (2005): 125-149.
Van Rompay, Lucas. “Past and Present Perceptions of Syriac Literary Tradition.” Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies 3, no. 1 (2000): 71-103.
Van Rompay, Lucas. “Society and Community in the Christian East.” In The Cambridge Companion to Justinian, edited by Michael Maas, 239-266. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
Wickes, Jeffrey. Bible and Poetry in Late Antique Mesopotamia: Ephrem’s Hymns on Faith (University of California Press, 2019). o UC Press is an important publisher for research on early Christianity and Syriac literature

Websites and Online Resources – many of these organizations are on social media!

Gorgias Press and Beth Mardutho o They also publish Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies
Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of Syriac Heritage – edited by Sebastian P. Brock, Aaron M. Butts, George A. Kiraz, and Lucas Van Rompay
Hill Museum and Manuscript Library o Follow the Syriac Manuscript Cataloger, Dr. James Walters on Twitter
Syriaca.org – The Syriac Reference Portal
Syri.ac – The Annotated Bibliography of Syriac Resources Online
Hebrew University’s Comprehensive Bibliography of Syriac Christianity
To learn more about the contemporary study of ancient Judaism and Christianity, read and follow the web journal, Ancient Jew Review

Eastern Catholic Theology in Action
Distinct in their liturgy, theology, spirituality, and discipline of Church life, 23 Eastern Churches are in communion with the Roman Catholic Church. The Second Vatican Council urged the Eastern Catholic Churches to cultivate and promote their unique share of the tradition. This series responds to that mandate and features leading scholars in the field to offer their theological perspectives drawn from the wisdom of Christian East. In view of broadening our understanding of the Catholic intellectual tradition, this series draws attention to the vantage points of Christians who worship, think, and pray in continuity with the first 1,000 years of the undivided Church.
This series is co-presented with the Godbearer Institute and co-sponsored by the Beatrice Institute, the Calvert House Catholic Center, the Catholic Theological Union, the Institute for Faith and Culture, God With Us Online, the Harvard Catholic Forum, the Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies, the Nova Forum, the Orthodox Christian Studies Center at Fordham University, the Saint Benedict Institute, the St. Paul University Catholic Center, St. Stephen Byzantine Catholic Church, and the Tabor Life Institute.
Upcoming Series Lectures:
Thursday, November 12, 7 p.m. CDT
Quo Vadis: the Direction of Eastern Catholic Theology, a Pastoral Perspective for the 21st Century | Archbishop Borys Gudziak (Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia and Metropolitan of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in the USA)

Fearful Symmetry: Cosmic Order and a Divine Creator
2020-10-15 18:30
Free and open to the public. This event is organized by the Harvard Catholic Forum and is co-presented with the Lumen Christi Institute. This event will be held on Zoom (registration required) and live-streamed to the Harvard Catholic Forum’s YouTube page.
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For thousands of years, some philosophers and scientists have argued that order in the universe points to a creator God. How does this argument hold up against the scientific discoveries of recent decades? Join us as theoretical particle physicist Stephen Barr examines the cosmic order and its relationship to a Divine Creator.

Integral Bioethics in the Anthropocene
2020-10-16 12:00 | ONLINE, World Wide Web, INTERNET
Free and open to the public. This event is being co-presented with the International Academy for Bioethical Inquiry, and co-sponsored by the Albert Gnaegi Center for Health Care Ethics. This event will be held on Zoom (registration required) and live-streamed on YouTube.
In 2000, scientists argued that human impact on the Earth reached levels meriting the creation of a new geological epoch, naming it the Anthropocene. The challenge of the Anthropocene is more than just an acknowledgement of changes to our planet, but also a challenge to humanity, pressing us to reconsider human health, action, and ethics. Can theological insights, ranging from early Christian thinkers to Pope Francis’s Laudato si’, help orient us in the Anthropocene, or do they fall short of the challenge? Join as this interdisciplinary panel brings scientific, theological, and ethical perspectives to bear on integral bioethics in the Anthropocene.

Christ, the True Origin of Humanity
2020-10-20 12:00
This event is co-presented by the Society of Catholic Scientists and the Science and Religion Initiative at the McGrath Institute for Church Life, and is co-sponsored by the Lumen Christi Institute.
“Its beginnings are no measure of its capabilities, nor of its scope.” These words of St. John Henry Newman describing the character of great ideas works equally well in describing the human species. For many, what we were in prehistory is what defines us now. But the Christian faith has a much different, and more exciting, perspective. In this presentation, Chris Baglow will connect the beginning and the end of humanity, relying on Scripture, Tradition and the insights of modern science as well as modern theologians.

The United Nations at 75: Catholic Perspectives
2020-10-22 14:00 | ONLINE, World Wide Web, INTERNET
Free and open to the public. This event is co-presented with America Media, the Kellogg Institute for International Studies, and the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations, and is co-sponsored by the Beatrice Institute, the Collegium Institute, the Harvard Catholic Forum, the Institute for Faith and Culture, the Institute for Human Ecology, the Nova Forum for Catholic Thought, and the St. Paul Catholic Center. This event will be held on Zoom (registration required) and live-streamed to YouTube.
Historically, the Bishop of Rome and the diplomats representing the Holy See have played important roles in international affairs involving Empires and Kingdoms, sometimes in making war, sometimes negotiating marriages and alliances, ideally in making peace. With the loss of the Papal States in 1870 and the creation of, first, the League of Nations, and later, the United Nations, the Holy See has continued to play an important—and sometimes contested—role. Of course, lay Catholics played an important role in founding the UN—as they did for the EU and in writing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This panel discussion explores the history of the Holy See’s relations with the United Nations, the role of lay Catholics and Church leaders in developing the human rights tradition, and the growing role of Catholic NGOs as they work alongside the UN for justice, peace, religious freedom, and integral human development around the world. Moderated by Paolo Carozza (Notre Dame), this panel features the participation of Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations; Joseph Donnelly, Delegate of Caritas Internationalis to the UN; and Mary Ann Glendon, former US ambassador to the Holy See and expert in human rights.

Fratelli Tutti: Engaging Pope Francis's New Encyclical on Social Friendship
2020-10-27 17:00 - 18:30
Free and open to the public. Cosponsored by the Institute for Human Ecology at Catholic University of America and America Media. The event will take place online over Zoom and YouTube livestream.
Who is my neighbor? Who is my brother and sister? Drawing on central gospel themes found in the Good Samaritan narrative, Pope Francis applies them to the whole “human family,” proposing that the logic of social friendship and neighborly love move beyond the personal to touch on every major social sphere. Join as this panel of experts in Catholic Social Thought discuss Pope Francis’s latest social encyclical, Fratelli Tutti.

Great Texts in Legal History Seminar and Discussion
2020-10-28 18:00 - 19:00
REGISTER HERE
$104 Registration Fee/ $50 for JD students.
Open to lawyers and law school students. CLE credit available.
Others interested in participating should contact us. Seminars will be held online over Zoom.
The Lumen Christi Institute has partnered with the Catholic Lawyers Guild to offer a monthly close-reading seminar on “Great Texts in Legal History.” The seminar will be led by Austin Walker (Assistant Director of the Lumen Christi Institute) and moderated by Judge Tom Donnelly. This monthly online seminar will allow lawyers to read and analyze great short works that illuminate the relationship between law, ethics, free will, authority, and God. Selections are short enough to read immediately beforehand. We will also read them during the session.

SCHEDULE
September 23 | The Ten Commandments
October 28 | Lincoln’s Second Inaugural
November 18 | 2 Samuel 11 and 12: David and Bathsheba & Nathan rebukes David
December 16 | Frederick Douglass, What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? (excerpts)
January 20 | Thomas Aquinas, Treatise on Law (excerpts)
February 24 | Lawrence Joseph, Curriculum Vitae (poem)

Education and the Catholic Intellectual Life
2020-10-28 19:00 - 20:00
Open to current University of Chicago students (undergrads and grad students welcome). This event will take place over Zoom.
Join Calvert House and the Lumen Christi Institute for an hour-long panel discussion and Q&A on the Catholic Intellectual Life. Why do we pursue education in the first place? Why study topics that may not be directly relevant to our work? Do Christians approach their studies differently? There is no better time to think broadly about the meaning of education than at the start of a new school year.
The panel will feature Fr. Andrew Liaguminus, chaplain of Calvert House; Jennifer Martin, professor in the Program of Liberal Studies at Notre Dame; and Andrew Horne, postdoctoral fellow at the Lumen Christi Institute

What Do Genesis 1-3 Tell Us About Creation in a Scientific Age?
2020-10-29 18:30
Free and open to the public. This event is organized by the Harvard Catholic Forum, co-presented by the Lumen Christi Institute, and co-sponsored by the Society of Catholic Scientists and the Science & Religion Initiative at the McGrath Institute for Church Life. This event will be held on Zoom (registration required) and live-streamed to the Harvard Catholic Forum’s YouTube page.
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Modern readers fall naturally into a series of typical mistakes when interpreting the creation accounts in Genesis. Urging us to consider these texts with fresh eyes, Fr. Clifford asks: Why does Genesis 1 describe creation as a 6-day work week? Why is Genesis 2-3 set on a large farm? And if today we cannot accept some of the Biblical writers’ assumptions, how can they still instruct us?

Venerating the Saints: An Ancient Tradition Actual Today
2020-11-01 16:00 - 17:00
Free and open to the public. This event is co-presented with the Bollandist Society and America Media, and is co-sponsored by the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University, the Nova Forum, the Harvard Catholic Forum, the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies at USC, the Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage, the Georgetown Office of Mission and Ministry, and the Collegium Institute. This event will be held on Zoom (registration required) and live-streamed to YouTube.
Few Christian practices are as ancient and widely popular as veneration of the saints. It is appropriate on this Feast of All Saints to review that history, consider the challenges it has faced, and reflect on its appeal even in our day. Beginning with the early veneration of the martyrs, especially in Rome, the presentation will show how it expanded to confessors who “confessed” or witnessed to the faith under trial and then came to include the veneration of images and relics, which provoked severe controversy. The talk will conclude with consideration of Jesuit saints, saints today, and the work of the Bollandist Society, a unique group of Jesuits based in Belgium who have, for centuries, provided crucial editing and scholarship that have defined the field of “hagiography,” the serious, critical historical study of the lives of the saints.
You can learn more about the Bollandist Society here.

Thinking Inside and Outside the University: Zena Hitz on the Inner Life
2020-11-10 18:00
Free and open to the public. This event will be held online through Zoom (registration required) and YouTube live-stream. This event is presented by the Lumen Christi Institute Forum on the Church in Higher Education as part of its Liberal Arts Colloquium. This event is cosponsored by The Point magazine, the Saint Benedict Institute, Calvert House Catholic Center, Princeton University Press, and the Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage.
In a world where efficiency and utility are the standards by which we measure success, how do we appreciate what resists quantification? And at a moment of institutional change and instability for higher education, what do we hold onto?
In her new book, Lost in Thought, Zena Hitz lays out the case for the inner life as a good in itself. Today, when even the humanities are often defended only for their economic or political usefulness, Hitz says our intellectual lives are valuable not despite but because of their practical uselessness. Within or without institutional structures, the intellectual life offers a source of meaning and fulfillment.
In this webinar conversation with Jared Ortiz, Hitz will elucidate the hidden pleasures of contemplation, assess the possibilities for its re-emergence in the contemporary university, and debate whether figures as dissimilar as the Virgin Mary, Albert Einstein, and Malcom X can be said to participate in a common intellectual activity.

Quo Vadis: The Direction of Eastern Catholic Theology, a Pastoral Perspective for the 21st Century
2020-11-12 20:00
Free and open to the public. This event will be presented on Zoom (registration required), as well as through live-stream on YouTube. This event is co-presented with the Godbearer Institute and the Collegium Institute.
Metropolitan Borys Gudziak has spent his life committed to Catholic education. He helped to found Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, the only Catholic University between Poland and Japan. The University’s mission was simple: to bring the Christian humanist vision of the Catholic University to Ukraine to heal the wounds inflicted by Soviet oppression. Gudziak was rector of Ukrainian Catholic University until 2012 and became president upon his episcopal ordination. After seven years as ordinary for Ukrainian Catholics in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Switzerland he was named metropolitan archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia in 2019. From the depths of his experience living between continents, eastern and western Europe, the academy and pastoral life, Gudziak will offer a pastoral perspective on the Eastern Catholic theological voice and its role in communicating the Gospel today.

Eastern Catholic Theology in Action
Distinct in their liturgy, theology, spirituality, and discipline of Church life, 23 Eastern Churches are in communion with the Roman Catholic Church. The Second Vatican Council urged the Eastern Catholic Churches to cultivate and promote their unique share of the tradition. This series responds to that mandate and features leading scholars in the field to offer their theological perspectives drawn from the wisdom of Christian East. In view of broadening our understanding of the Catholic intellectual tradition, this series draws attention to the vantage points of Christians who worship, think, and pray in continuity with the first 1,000 years of the undivided Church.
This series is co-presented with the Godbearer Institute and co-sponsored by the Beatrice Institute, the Calvert House Catholic Center, the Catholic Theological Union, the Institute for Faith and Culture, God With Us Online, the Harvard Catholic Forum, the Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies, the Nova Forum, the Orthodox Christian Studies Center at Fordham University, the Saint Benedict Institute, the St. Paul University Catholic Center, St. Stephen Byzantine Catholic Church, and the Tabor Life Institute.
Previous Lectures in the Series
Thursday, September 3, 7 p.m. CDT
Introduction to Liturgical Mystagogy | Daniel Galadza (University of Regensburg)
Thursday, September 10, 7 p.m. CDT
A Theology of Wonder: An Introduction to the Poetry of Ephrem the Syrian | Andrew Hayes (University of St. Thomas, Houston)
Thursday, September 17, 7 p.m. CDT
Christ the Lover of Mankind: Philanthropia, Mystery, and Martyria in Eastern Christianity | Robin Darling Young (Catholic University of America)
Thursday, September 24, 7 p.m. CDT
Eastern Churches, Latin Territories: Ecclesial Catholicity and the Notion of Diaspora | Alexander Laschuk (Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies at University of St. Michael’s College)
Thursday, October 1, 7.p.m. CDT
Expanding the Archive: Syriac Literature and the Study of Early Christianity Today | Erin Walsh (University of Chicago)

Master Class on Yves Simon on Natural Law
2020-11-13 14:00 - 16:00
A FOLLOW UP MASTER CLASS ON PART 2 OF THE BOOK WILL BE HELD ON JANUARY 15.
Open to current graduate students. It will take place online on Zoom. Copies of the readings will be provided. Others interested in participating should contact us.
Join us for a master class on Yves Simon’s The Tradition of Natural Law: A Philosopher’s Reflections (Fordham University Press, 1999).
You can watch Professor Hittinger’s lecture on Part 1 of the book here.

ABOUT THE BOOK
The tradition of natural law is one of the foundations of Western civilization. At its heart is the conviction that there is an objective and universal justice which transcends humanity’s particular expressions of justice. It asserts that there are certain ways of behaving which are appropriate to humanity simply by virtue of the fact that we are all human beings. Recent political debates indicate that it is not a tradition that has gone unchallenged: in fact, the opposition is as old as the tradition itself.
By distinguishing between philosophy and ideology, by recalling the historical adventures of natural law, and by reviewing the theoretical problems involved in the doctrine, Simon clarifies much of the confusion surrounding this perennial debate. He tackles the questions raised by the application of natural law with skill and honesty as he faces the difficulties of the subject.
Simon warns against undue optimism in a revival of interest in natural law and insists that the study of natural law beings with the analysis of “the law of the land.” He writes not as a polemicist but as a philosopher, and he writes of natural law with the same force, conciseness, lucidity and simplicity which have distinguished all his other works.

Human Rights and Human Wrongs: The Catholic History of Human Rights
2020-11-14 10:00 - 14:30 | University of Saint Mary of the Lake, 1000 East Maple Avenue Mundelein, IL 60060, Mundelein, IL
Presented by the Lumen Christi Institute’s Newman Forum. Open to current high school students. This event was made possible by a grant from the Our Sunday Visitor Institute, and is cosponsored by the University of Saint Mary of the Lake, Mundelein Seminary, and the Archdiocese of Chicago Vocation Office.
You can email Austin Walker or Madison Chastain with any questions or concerns!
Online Schedule
9:30 Opening Prayer & Welcome
9:45 1st Lecture
10:20 1st Q&A
10:45 Break
11:00 2nd Lecture
11:35 2nd Q&A
11:45pm Online Breakout Discussion Groups
12:30pm Conclusion

What makes something right? What makes something wrong? What is a “right,” and why ought it be respected? What happens if two people’s rights come into conflict? What is justice? Why (and how) ought it be pursued?The Newman Forum is excited to continue its yearly tradition of day-long academic conferences during the Autumn and Winter Quarters.
On Saturday, November 14, the Newman Forum will host a conference about the relationship between rights, justice, and–the theme we’ve chosen for our year–human dignity. Professor Paolo Carozza will introduce us to the development of the earliest human rights tradition by Spanish Dominicans in the 16th century, and chart the course of its expansion into our contemporary language of human rights and social justice, which fails to achieve its ends when it loses the Catholic understanding of human dignity. It can seem to us that the Catholic Church is new to topics of justice and rights, but not only were Catholics some of the first to develop the language of rights and justice, but the Catholic understanding of human dignity is pivotal to our contemporary pursuit of a just society!

This November, our fall conference will be a hybrid event. IN-PERSON REGISTRATION IS CLOSED.
High school teachers and youth ministers are encouraged to bring online groups. If they so desire, they will be given their own virtual discussion room after the lectures to discuss the content with their students. Otherwise, your students can be assigned to a group led by one of our trained graduate-student discussion leaders. A separate pre-event prep meeting is offered to teachers who would like it.
In-Person Schedule
9:00 Grab-and-go breakfast (Coffee Room)
9:30 Prayer and Welcome (Chapel)
9:45 1st Lecture (Chapel)
10:20 1st Q&A (Chapel)
10:45 Break & Snack (Coffee Room)
11:00 2nd Lecture (Chapel)
11:35 2nd Q&A (Chapel)
11:45 Transition to Eucharistic Adoration (Chapel)
12:10pm Grab-and-Go Lunch (Coffee Room) & Discussion Groups (Breakout Rooms)
1:00pm Final Q&A (Chapel)
1:30pm Closing Prayer (Chapel)
There will be mandatory health screenings at the start of the in-person experience. Masks will be required at all times during the day, except for when students are eating. Refusal to wear a mask or follow appropriate social distancing protocols will be grounds for removal from the event, as it will violate the Newman Forum’s contract with Mundelein Seminary.

Extraterrestrial Life: The Science and the Theology
2020-11-14 13:30
A webinar discussion with Jonathan I. Lunine (Cornell University), and Christopher Baglow (University of Notre Dame). This presentation is the second part of the the Steno Lectures: Discussions at the Intersection of Faith and Science, presented by the Society of Catholic Scientists and the Science and Religion Initiative at the McGrath Institute for Church Life. This event is co-sponsored by the Lumen Christi Institute.
Might Extraterrestrial life exist? Where? How would we search for it? (Do we already have evidence of it?) Could such life have human-level intelligence? If Extraterrestrial intelligent life (or “ETI” life) exists, what would be its theological implications? These questions will be addressed by two distinguished Catholic scholars: Cornell astrophysicist, Prof. Jonathan Lunine, and Universiy of Notre Dame theologian, Prof. Christopher Baglow.

COVID-19 and the Worldwide Church
2020-11-14 16:00
Free and open to the public. This event is organized by the Harvard Catholic Forum, co-presented with the Lumen Christi Institute, and co-sponsored by the Saint Benedict Institute, the Collegium Institute, the Institute for Faith and Culture, the Nova Forum, and St. Paul’s University Catholic Center. This event will be held on Zoom (registration required) and live-streamed to the Harvard Catholic Forum’s YouTube page.
The pandemic of 2020 has disrupted the sacraments and public worship, scattered communities, and put local churches into new, sometimes strained, relationships with civil authorities. The Church has also been a significant actor in the crisis, offering relief services and spiritual care on a massive scale. What does all this mean for the worldwide Church, now and in the years to come?

Image credit: Vatican Media

Friends in Heaven: Edmund Campion and the Martyrs of England & Wales
2020-12-01 20:00
Free and open to the public. This event will be held online through Zoom (registration required) and live-streamed to YouTube. This event is co-presented with the Bollandist Society and America Media.
“The expense is reckoned, the enterprise is begun; it is of God; it cannot be withstood.” With these bold words Edmund Campion, SJ, communicated to Her Majesty’s Privy Council in 1581 the Catholic plan to restore the faith in England. On December 1, the Church celebrates Campion and his fellow martyrs of England and Wales. They did not succeed in restoring the faith, but they did carry out one of the most dangerous and fascinating clandestine missions in the history of the Church. “Friends in Heaven” explores the origin, activities, and ultimate demise of these men, as well as the lay Catholics who aided them, in the Elizabethan age, and concludes with a brief discussion of how they came to be canonized.

Presented on the feast day of St. Edmund Campion, this event continues our event series on the saints, examining the lives of the martyrs of England and Wales.
Previous events in this series:

“Venerating the Saints: An Ancient Tradition Actual Today” with Fr. John O’Malley, S.J.

Food Insecurity in the U.S.: Insights from Catholic Social Thought and Economics
2020-12-03 20:00
7:00 PM CST / 8:00 PM EST
Free and open to the public. The event will be held online over Zoom and will be livestreamed on YouTube. This event is co-presented with the Catholic Research Economists Discussion Organization (CREDO), and is co-sponsored by America Media, Catholic Charities USA, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago, the Center for Social Concerns at the University of Notre Dame, the Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and the Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities (LEO).
Food insecurity has become a leading indicator of well-being in the U.S. due to the tens of millions of food insecure Americans and the accordant negative physical and mental health outcomes and higher health care costs. Its importance has become even more stark during COVID-19, as rates are predicted to rise by almost 50% in 2020 in comparison to 2019. Join us for a discussion of food insecurity in the context of Catholic Social Thought with a panel comprised of a theologian, Margaret Pfeil (University of Notre Dame), and of economists Bruce Weber (Oregon State), and Craig Gundersen (University of Illinois), moderated by economist Chris Barrett (Cornell).

Additional reading on food insecurity and work of our cosponsor, Catholic Charities: https://www.catholiccharitiesusa.org/story/as-food-insecurity-rises-pantries-work-overtime-to-meet-the-growing-need/

A Catholic Life in the Secular University: A Conversation with George Dennis O'Brien
2020-12-09 20:00
Cosponsored by Commonweal Magazine, and the Sheil Catholic Center at Northwestern University. This event is presented by the Lumen Christi Institute Forum on the Church in Higher Education as part of its Liberal Arts Colloquium.
John F. Kennedy once quipped that a Catholic would be president of the United States before a Catholic would be president of Harvard. As the Catholic president of two secular universities, Dennis O’Brien was a trailblazer. In this interview, O’Brien discusses his long career in higher education as a Catholic, a philosopher, and an administrator, with reflections on the past, present, and future of American higher education.
O’Brien was raised in a south-side Chicago parish in the 1930s and 1940s. Educated at Yale, he came to the University of Chicago to write a PhD on Hegel. He was appointed president of Bucknell in 1976 and the University of Rochester in 1984. O’Brien’s varied career offers a fascinating window onto the history of American higher education in the twentieth century. Philosopher and fellow Hegelian Mark Alznauer will conduct this interview, focusing on higher education both Catholic and secular, as well as O’Brien’s experiences growing up in Chicago and attending the University of Chicago.

Is there a Catholic Vote? An Evangelical Vote? Religion, Polls and Presidential Elections
2020-12-16 18:00
REGISTER HERE
Free and open to the public. This event will be held online through Zoom (registration required) and YouTube live-stream. This event is cosponsored by America Media and the Institute for Human Ecology.
The 2020 presidential race seemed to highlight the central role of religion in the electorate. Democrats spent heavily on campaign ads emphasizing Joe Biden’s Roman Catholicism. President Trump has spent the past four years courting Evangelicals and conservative Catholics. But is there really a religious vote? In this panel, experts will examine the relationship between religion, polls, and presidential elections.

Partners in Charity: St. Louise de Marillac and St. Vincent de Paul
2021-01-07 18:00
Join us February 13 for the next event in this series on “Pledges of the Saints: the Cult of Relics in the Catholic Tradition.”
This event is co-presented with the Bollandist Society
In this talk, we will examine side by side the lives and legacies of two major saints of French Catholicism’s seventeenth-century golden age. Louise de Marillac and Vincent de Paul co-founded the Daughters of Charity, one of the most successful socially-oriented women’s congregations in the Church’s history, when the Tridentine-era bishops were attempting to enforce strict claustration for women religious. They also collaborated with a wide circle of lay and religious women and men of different social backgrounds in ways that transformed Christian life in and beyond France for centuries. We will reflect on the two saints’ fruitful spiritual friendship of several decades. We will also consider why De Marillac is far less well known than De Paul in modern times, something that stems in part from the different trajectories their causes for sainthood took in the wake of each saint’s death, only several months apart from the other’s, in 1660.

Laudato Si at 5-years: Towards an Ecology of Culture
2021-01-11 17:00
How do we develop a culture marked by an ethic of ecological awareness? In Laudato Si, Pope Francis called for an ecological conversion to just such a culture. The ecological conversion he envisions entails more than just tinkering with technology or the economy; rather, we must reshape our sense of culture and society. Pope Francis has asked that this year be dedicated to a reflection on the continuing importance of Laudato Si.
How does an ecologically aware ethic change the ways we live together, create art, and encounter nature? What kind of culture should we be developing to live out an ecological conversion? How can art, design, and urban planning contribute to an ecology of conversion? How can we change our own lifestyles to develop an ethic of ecological awareness? How can a non-consumerist approach to the good life help save our planet? How can religion in conversation with the secular world help advance such a change in culture.
Presented by the Collegium Institute and the Pontifical Council for Culture. Csponsored by the Lumen Christi Institute.

Speakers

Bishop Paul Tighe

Kate Soper

Makoto Fujimura

Phil Bess (ND)

Master Class on Yves Simon on Natural Law, Part 2
2021-01-15 14:00 - 16:00
Open to current graduate students. It will take place online on Zoom. Copies of the readings will be provided. Others interested in participating should contact us.
Join us for a master class on part II of Yves Simon’s The Tradition of Natural Law: A Philosopher’s Reflections (Fordham University Press, 1999).

ABOUT THE BOOK
The tradition of natural law is one of the foundations of Western civilization. At its heart is the conviction that there is an objective and universal justice which transcends humanity’s particular expressions of justice. It asserts that there are certain ways of behaving which are appropriate to humanity simply by virtue of the fact that we are all human beings. Recent political debates indicate that it is not a tradition that has gone unchallenged: in fact, the opposition is as old as the tradition itself.
By distinguishing between philosophy and ideology, by recalling the historical adventures of natural law, and by reviewing the theoretical problems involved in the doctrine, Simon clarifies much of the confusion surrounding this perennial debate. He tackles the questions raised by the application of natural law with skill and honesty as he faces the difficulties of the subject.
Simon warns against undue optimism in a revival of interest in natural law and insists that the study of natural law beings with the analysis of “the law of the land.” He writes not as a polemicist but as a philosopher, and he writes of natural law with the same force, conciseness, lucidity and simplicity which have distinguished all his other works.

Beyond Test Scores: Measuring the Contributions of Catholic Schools and Universities
2021-01-19 11:00
Join us on February 16 for the next event in this series, “Learning Poverty and Education Pluralism: The Global Catholic Education Report 2021.”
Catholic schools and universities aim to educate the whole person. Beyond strong academics, they aim to educate towards fraternal humanism. Do we have any evidence that they succeed? Based on recent research for the United States conducted under the new collaborative Global Catholic Education project (www.GlobalCatholicEducation.org), including a set of papers prepared for a special issue of the Journal of Catholic Education, this webinar will explore this question. Topics to be considered include (1) whether parents sending children to Catholic schools have different priorities for what children should learn in school than other parents; (2) whether students in Catholic schools exhibit self-discipline; (3) whether different stakeholders have different worldviews for Catholic schools; (4) whether there is less violence in Catholic schools than in other schools; (5) whether going to Catholic schools is associated with particular patterns of family formation later in life; and (6) more generally, what is meant by a Catholic identity. While the discussion will focus in large part on schools, implications for Catholic universities will also be discussed. After a presentation summarizing findings from recent research, panelists will share their views on how Catholic schools and universities could rely on these and other research findings to improve the education they provide “beyond test scores”.
Free and open to the public. The event will be held online over Zoom and will be livestreamed on YouTube. This event is organized with the Catholic Research Economists Discussion Organization (CREDO), Global Catholic Education, Global Researchers Advancing Catholic Education (GRACE), the International Federation of Catholic Universities (IFCU), the National Catholic Education Association (NCEA), and the International Office of Catholic Education (OIEC). This event is cosponsored by America Media, and the Roche Center for Catholic Education.
Presentation:
Quentin Wodon, International Office of Catholic Education
Discussants:
Annie Smith, Director of Research and Data Management, National Catholic Education Association
Andrew Miller, Assistant Professor, Boston College
Timothy Uhl, Superintendent, Montana Catholic Schools

What it Means to be Human
2021-01-28 20:00
This symposium is hosted by Sheil Catholic Ministries serving the Chicago Campus. This event is co-sponsored by the Lumen Christi Institute, the Catholic Lawyers Guild of Chicago, the Catholic Physician’s Guild of Chicago, the Christian Legal Society, CMA Student Section at Feinberg School of Medicine, the St. Thomas More Society, and Catholics at Kellogg.
—
The First Annual Feeney Symposium
What it Means to Be Human
Followed by A Faith-Informed Professional Response by Northwestern Scholars
Keynote
O. Carter Snead will propose a new paradigm for what it means to be human. Professor Snead is William P. and Hazel B. White Director of the Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture, Professor of Law, and Concurrent Professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame. He is a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life, the principal bioethics advisory body to Pope Francis, and a Fellow of the Hastings Center.
Panel
This symposium engages three scholars from Northwestern’s professional schools in a response to O.Carter Snead’s new paradigm to public bioethics:

Dean Emeritus Daniel Rodriguez, Pritzker School of Law
Harry Kraemer, Kellogg School of Management
Mary Keen, MD, Northwestern Medicine, Feinberg Alumna, president, CMA Chicago

The panel will be moderated by Rita Gitchell. The symposium facilitator is Carol Leitch Miller Dotson.

Inner Wholeness Beyond Isolation, Shame, and Despair
2021-02-04 20:00 - 22:00
This event is presented by the Veritas Forum at the University of Chicago and co-sponsored by the Lumen Christi Institute, the University Bible Fellowship, Christ Church Chicago, Living Hope Church, Vineyard Church Hyde Park, CRU, Poema, the Christian Legal Society, InterVarsity, UChicago Lutheran Campus Ministry, and Brent House.
The isolation of the pandemic has only obscured and amplified the issue of mental health across US college campuses. In marshaling resources to find wholeness and combat isolation, shame, and despair, are students limited to the expertise of mental health experts? Does the wisdom of religious traditions have anything to contribute? Are these in conflict? Join for a discussion on neuroscience, psychology, and spiritual practices with psychiatrist and author Dr. Curt Thompson and Professor Miwa Yasui, moderated by Rev. Cynthia Lindner.

Humanism as an Educational Ideal
2021-02-06 16:00
The ideal of educating the total human person – the project that took on the name “humanism” – became a widespread norm for education in the Christian world of early modern Europe, whence it spread to North and South America. This humanist ideal has competed for influence with other educational ideals, most especially with those pursued by universities. Fr. John O’Malley examines the sources of the humanistic style of learning, the place of that style in Catholic culture, and, more broadly, in the world in which we live. He examines the courses of study that came to characterize it, how humanism has developed and adapted over time, and what may be its prospects in the future.
This event is co-presented with the Harvard Catholic Forum, and co-sponsored by the Saint Benedict Institute, the Collegium Institute, the Nova Forum, the Institute for Faith and Culture, the St. Paul’s Catholic University Center, and the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry.

Pledges of the Saints: The Cult of Relics in the Catholic Tradition
2021-02-13 11:00
This event is co-presented with the Bollandist Society. This event is co-sponsored by America Media, the Collegium Institute, the Harvard Catholic Forum, the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University, the Nova Forum, the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies at USC, the Saint Benedict Institute, and the Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage.
The physical remains of saints are often referred to as pignora, that is, as security deposits or pledges of the continued concern that the saints, although in heaven, continue to show for those who venerate them. In this lecture will discuss the origin of the cult of relics, the process by which these cults, originally concentrated on the tombs of saints, became mobile, and how the veneration of saints led to the dismemberment of saints’ bodies and the distribution of relics throughout Christendom. It will also consider the resulting anxieties about relics’ authenticity, the efforts to control and regulate the cult of relics, and the competition that relics have received from other types of sacred or sanctified objects.

Learning Poverty and Education Pluralism: The Global Catholic Education Report 2021
2021-02-16 11:00
Catholic schools serve close to 62 million students globally at the preschool, primary, and secondary levels, with in addition more than 6 million students enrolled at the post-secondary level. By managing the largest non-governmental network of schools and universities in the world, the Catholic Church plays an important role in efforts to achieve SDG4, especially in low-income countries. In 2020, OIEC released the first Global Catholic Education Report. The second edition of the report for 2021 under the new collaborative Global Catholic Education project (www.GlobalCatholicEducation.org) focuses on learning poverty, education pluralism, and the implications of the COVID-19 Crisis. The report explores the impact of the crisis on educational attainment and learning across countries, as well as the issue of education pluralism, suggesting that education pluralism should be taken into account when considering state support for nonprofit faith-based schools and universities. The report also discusses regulatory framework for Catholic schools and universities, as well as interventions that could improve educational outcomes. Finally, the report includes an updated statistical annex on enrollment trends in Catholic schools and universities in more than 100 countries. After a presentation summarizing the main findings from the Global Catholic Education Report 2021, panelists will share their views on how Catholic schools and universities globally could improve the education they provide and confront some of the most pressing challenges they face.
Free and open to the public. The event will be held online over Zoom and will be livestreamed on YouTube. This event is organized with the Catholic Research Economists Discussion Organization (CREDO), Global Catholic Education, Global Researchers Advancing Catholic Education (GRACE), the International Federation of Catholic Universities (IFCU), the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA), and the International Office of Catholic Education (OIEC). This event is cosponsored by America Media, and the Roche Center for Catholic Education.
Presentation:
Quentin Wodon, International Office of Catholic Education
Discussants:
François Mabille, Secretary General, International Federation of Catholic Universities
Augusta Muthigani, National Executive Secretary, Commission for Education and Religious Education, Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops
Halsey Rogers, Lead Economist, World Bank, Washington, DC

Miracles: Source of Truth or Violation of Natural Law?
2021-02-18 19:30
From the beginning, Christian faith has been founded on the evidence of miracles: the Incarnation, the Resurrection, the signs and wonders worked by Jesus, the workings of the Holy Spirit in the Church. But miracles, especially those claimed to have happened after New Testament times, have provoked unease and skepticism, even among Christians. Enlightenment rationalism tended to argue them away completely. Professor Johnson asks: what place do miracles have in the Biblical vision? And how should we understand them today?
This event is co-presented with the Harvard Catholic Forum, as their Daniel Harrington SJ Memorial Lecture. This event is co-sponsored by the Saint Benedict Institute, the Nova Forum, the Institute for Faith and Culture, the St. Paul’s Catholic University Center, St. Peter Parish (Cambridge, MA), Catholic Parishes of Arlington, MA, and the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry.

Medical Ethics, Science Fiction, and What it Means to be Human
2021-02-20 10:00 | ONLINE, World Wide Web, INTERNET
Presented by the Lumen Christi Institute’s Newman Forum. Open to current high school students. This event is cosponsored by the University of Saint Mary of the Lake at Mundelein Seminary, the Archdiocese of Chicago Vocation Office, and Duc in Altum schools collaborative.
In a world of genetic engineering, what does it mean to be human? Do rapid medical advancements tempt us to ‘play God’?
What if you could implant a device that would improve your memory? Would you do it? Should you do it? Should you be allowed to take the ACT with a “memory prosthesis?”
Should insurance companies be able to analyze your genetic code and offer you different rates based on when they predict you will die? Or even deny you insurance altogether?
How can we tally up the moral and ethical implications of medical advances when they’re moving so fast, they seem to come straight out of science fiction novels?
Join us on Saturday, February 20th for a half-day, online conference, “Medical Ethics, Science Fiction, and What it Means to be Human.” Professor Jeffrey Bishop (SLU) will guide us through the philosophical and theological problems connected to technological advancement. Professor Michael Murphy (Loyola Chicago) will show us how science fiction can help us think about ethical issues from a creative perspective.
While it may seem strange, the Catholic Church’s intellectual tradition may give us the resources we need to think about what we should do when technological advance has offered us the opportunity to “be as Gods” (Genesis 3:5).
Cost is $15 per participant. Scholarships are available. Group discount (flat rate of $100) for groups of 7+ student participants! Group leaders are invited to be discussion group leaders, if they so choose. Duc in Altum affiliates receive an additional discount. Please contact Austin (awalker@lumenchristi.org) or Madison (mchastain@lumenchristi.org) for more information on large group procedures.
Schedule:
9:00am — Welcome & Prayer
9:10am — 1st Lecture (35 minutes)
9:50am — 1st Q&A (15 minutes)
10:05am — short break
10:15am — 2nd Lecture
10:55am — 2nd Q&A
11:10am — Discussion Group (35/40 mins, w/time for break built in)
12:00pm — Final Panel w/both Lecturers
12:20pm — Closing Prayer (10 minutes)
We will introduce the prompts for our Spring Essay Contest at the conclusion of the conference!

The Impact of Asteroids
2021-02-24 13:30
This event is presented by the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame as part of The Steno Lectures; Discussions at the Intersection of Faith and Science and co-sponsored by the Lumen Christi Institute, the Society of Catholic Scientists, and the Harvard Catholic Forum.
As the human race increasingly covers planet Earth, we are providing an ever-growing target for the regular impacts of near-Earth objects. What are the odds that impactors from space will do major damage to human life on Earth? What’s the underlying science? And what are the larger implications for our place in the universe?

Conversion and the Rehabilitation of the Penal System
2021-03-04 20:00
This event is co-sponsored by the Catholic Lawyers Guild of Chicago, the Boston College Law School, the University of St. Thomas School of Law, Kolbe House Jail Ministry, St. Paul’s Catholic University Center, the Collegium Institute’s Legal Humanities Project, the National Center for the Laity, America Media, and Oxford University Press.
There is growing bipartisan awareness of the need to reform the American criminal justice system. Solutions have been sought for over-criminalization, over-incarceration, and the disproportionate effect of the system upon minority communities. Many have observed a difference between European models of criminal justice, such as that in Germany, and the unique harshness of their American counterpart.
Yet the answer to the ongoing crisis may lie beyond mere policy changes. Professor Andrew Skotnicki of Manhattan College argues that the problems inherent to our criminal justice system are rooted in misguided theology and anthropology. Join Professor Skotnicki and Cecelia Klingele (University of Wisconsin Law School) for their discussion of Skotnicki’s book, Conversion and the Rehabilitation of the Penal System (Oxford University Press, 2019), moderated by Cook County Judge Tom Donnelly. They will consider the origins of the current criminal justice system, the challenges that it faces, and the resources from the Catholic tradition that may offer a way forward.
This event is part of the Catholic Criminal Justice Reform Network, a new initiative of the Lumen Christi Institute.

Spirituality and the Saints
2021-03-13 11:00
This event is co-presented with the Bollandist Society and co-sponsored by America Media, the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University, the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies at USC, the Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage, and the Harvard Catholic Forum.
In this presentation, Fr. Mark Rotsaert will look to sanctity as a gift of the Spirit and reflect on the different ways one can become a saint and the universal call to holiness according to Pope Francis’ exhortation Gaudete et exsultate. Do saints have a specific kind of spirituality? Is sanctity the same as perfection? Are the saints perfect?

Fragile Democracy: Technocratic Takeover and Popular Renewal
2021-03-20 10:00
This event is co-presented with the Nova Forum and co-sponsored by America Media, the Collegium Institute, the Institute of Politics at the University of Chicago, and the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies.
We are experiencing a crisis of democracy more powerful than anything seen in a generation: inequality continues at a galloping pace; policing is increasingly racialized and militarized; political decision-making appears remote and divorced from the lives of ordinary people.
This panel discussion—including renowned philosopher Charles Taylor–will consider sources and solutions to the present crisis of democracy by drawing on two recent books: Reconstructing Democracy by Charles Taylor, Patrizia Nanz, and Madeleine Beaubien Taylor and We Built Reality by Jason Blakely.
Both works identify within our political and cultural crisis the loss of democratic participation and the rise of top-down technocratic, managerial rule.

Themes in Catholic Social Thought: Three Necessary Societies
2021-03-26 13:00 - 15:00
Open to current graduate students. This master class will take place online on Zoom. Copies of the readings will be provided. Others interested in participating should contact us.
The modern social magisterium, which emerged during the pontificate of Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903), held that the dignity of human society exemplified in three necessary societies. By nature or grace, human beings are domestic (marriage-family), political, and ecclesial animals. Each has an origin in some kind of necessity, but the necessities are paths to human excellence and happiness. In the first master class we will consider the political and documentary history of the teachings on the origin and interrelation of these societies. In the second master class we will look carefully at the deeper ontology of social order.
Join us on April 23 for a follow-up master class to this topic on “Society as Sacrament.”

A Good Man is Hard to Find: St. Joseph in Art
2021-03-27 15:00
This event is co-presented with the Harvard Catholic Forum and co-sponsored by the Saint Benedict Institute, the Nova Forum, the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies, the Ars Vivendi Arts Initiative of the Collegium Institute, the St. Paul’s Catholic Center, the St. Lawrence Institute for Faith and Culture, and the New England Chapter of the Patron of the Arts Vatican Museums.
St. Joseph was an unassuming latecomer to the history of art, but once discovered, his images evolved rapidly to serve the Catholic Church during challenging times. From model for the papacy, to symbol of marriage and fatherhood, to guide for a good death and advocate for the worker, St Joseph’s many guises have made him one of the Church’s greatest spiritual treasures. Following Pope Francis’ dedication of 2021 to St. Joseph, this talk will look at Giotto, Raphael, Murillo and others as we uncover the many faces of this quiet saint.

How to be a Corinthian
2021-03-30 19:00
This event is cosponsored by Calvert House Catholic Center.
The first recipients of St. Paul’s letters did not keep their letters to themselves; as part of the organic life of the Church that Catholics call “Tradition,” the letters of Paul were collected together and incorporated into the New Testament. One amazing consequence of this Tradition at work is that everyone who reads these letters, regardless of time or place, becomes a Corinthian, or a Roman, or an Ephesian, thanks to the unifying power of the Holy Spirit. This conference will reflect on how the early Church received these letters, and highlight specific texts that reveal how the voice of St. Paul still reaches us, both individuals and the Body of Christ collectively, today.

The Origins of Mass Incarceration: The Courts and the 1960s Criminal Procedure Revolution?
2021-04-08 19:00
This event is co-sponsored by Georgetown University Law Center, Notre Dame Law School, Boston College Law School, the University of St. Thomas School of Law, the Catholic Lawyers Guild of Chicago, Catholic Prison Ministry Coalition, Kolbe House Jail Ministry, Seattle University, the Seattle University Crime and Justice Research Center, Loyola University Chicago School of Law, the Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage, Fordham University School of Law, the Institute on Religion, Law and Lawyer’s Work at Fordham University School of Law, The Center on Race, Law, and Justice (Fordham University School of Law), the University of Denver College of Law Federalist Society, and the University of Colorado Federalist Society

American principles of justice and equality lead our culture to value the criminal trial as a fair hearing for the accused and vindication for the victims of crime. But the reality of the U.S. justice system falls far short of this ideal, making criminal trials the rare exception amidst a wave of plea bargains. When trials do take place, judges are often forced to impose mandatory sentences that do not fit the unique context of a given case.
Join Judge Stephanos Bibas from the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, and author of The Machinery of Criminal Justice (Oxford University Press, 2015), and Professor William Pizzi, as they discuss Pizzi’s new book, The Supreme Court’s Role in Mass Incarceration (Routledge, 2020). Pizzi provocatively argues that the Supreme Court’s attempts to expand defendants’ rights in the 20th century unexpectedly led to the mass incarceration crisis today. He points to Canada as a beacon of hope, where an unelected, professional judiciary customizes sentences to fit the actual case. Unlike American courts, where judges are forced by repeat-offender laws to sentence defendants to decades for a minor offense, Canada’s judiciary freely metes out proportionate sentencing.
The discussion will be moderated by Cook County Judge Tom Donnelly.
This event is part of the Catholic Criminal Justice Reform Network, a new initiative of the Lumen Christi Institute.

The Eucharist in Art: Visualizing Mystery
2021-04-10 15:00
Free and open to the public. This event will be held online through Zoom (registration required) and live-streamed to YouTube. This event is co-presented with the Harvard Catholic Forum and co-sponsored by the Saint Benedict Institute, the Nova Forum, the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies, the Ars Vivendi Arts Initiative of the Collegium Institute, the St. Paul’s Catholic Center, the St. Lawrence Institute for Faith and Culture, and the New England Chapter of the Patron of the Arts Vatican Museums.
The 17th century Catholic Church found itself engaged in a battle over the sacraments, especially the Eucharist. Most Protestant Reformers rejected the teaching of Transubstantiation, while an increasingly empirical culture grew doubtful that a piece of bread and a glass of wine could ever be more than mere matter. To return the gaze of the faithful to mystery, to assist congregations to see beyond the material, the Catholic Church called upon the talent of Caravaggio. the Carracci School and other great artists, who produced works that still delight, teach and move people today. This talk will look at old masterpieces with new eyes, revealing how artists used their gifts to render the invisible, visible.

Teaching Catholic Doctrine en Español
2021-04-13 19:00
This event is part of a webinar series on Hispanic Theology. This event and series is made possible by a generous grant from the Our Sunday Visitor Institute.
Language matters, and it matters much when sharing the best of our faith convictions with one another. Without language there is no communication, understanding or community. Sharing faith in the United States of America in an increasingly Hispanic church demands that we take questions associated with language seriously. Nearly fifteen million Catholics in the U.S. are Spanish-speaking immigrants. Many are raising their children “in Spanish.” Even though the vast majority of Hispanics are U.S. born and English-speaking, Spanish constantly shapes their cultural and religious imagination. In this presentation, we will reflect on the intersectionality of language, culture and religious identity among U.S. Hispanic Catholics at the time of sharing the faith and reflect theologically. To teach Catholic doctrine “en español,” literally or metaphorically, is an invitation to embrace the many creative ways in which God calls us to be church in the twenty-first century.

Pierre Manent on Natural Law and Human Rights
2021-04-16 13:00 - 16:00
This event is cosponsored by University of Notre Dame Press and the de Nicola Center for Ethics & Culture.
Shortly after the promulgation of the U.N.’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, Jacques Maritain wrote, “With regard to Human Rights, what matters most to a philosopher is the question of their rational foundations. The philosophical foundation of the Rights of man is Natural Law. Sorry that we cannot find another word!” In his recent book Natural Law and Human Rights: Toward a Recovery of Practical Reason (Notre Dame Press, 2020), leading Catholic political philosopher Pierre Manent takes a different and decidedly more critical approach to the relationship between natural law and human rights.
Manent argues that the project of human rights is inextricably tied to an erroneous modern understanding of human beings as naturally isolated and apolitical individuals. He tries to show that this impoverished understanding of human nature, and thus human rights as its offspring, distorts our self-understanding and saps the intelligibility of law, natural or otherwise, as well as the fecundity of human action. As part of a solution to these difficulties, he concludes the book with a novel approach to natural law thinking that he proposes as a way of recovering the dignity of practical reason and moral action. While this book represents Manent’s first extended treatment of natural law, he examines these issues through the same tripartite lens of politics, philosophy, and religion that he has developed in his earlier publications.
In this master class, we will situate Manent’s book on natural law within the wider context of his work as a whole, and we will then discuss his arguments concerning natural law and human rights in some detail, with due sensitivity to his method of integrating insights from politics, philosophy, and religion. Finally, we will attempt to see Manent’s book as part of a conversation between prominent Catholic and secular political philosophers.

Ambrose and Augustine on Christian Holiness
2021-04-17 14:00
Free and open to the public. This event was held online through Zoom and live-streamed to YouTube. This event was co-presented with the Bollandist Society.
While Saints Ambrose and Augustine never define Christian holiness, this was the pursuit that fueled all of their writings, all of their sermons, and directed their everyday lives. By examining the writings of these two pillars of the Western Church, today’s talk seeks to show how Ambrose and Augustine understood holiness and what that might mean for our lives today.

Globalization from the People: Fratelli Tutti and the Latino Social Teaching of Pope Francis
2021-04-20 19:00
Free and open to the public. This event will be held online through Zoom (registration required) and live-streamed to YouTube. This event is part of a webinar series on Hispanic Theology. This event and series is made possible by a generous grant from the Our Sunday Visitor Institute.
The COVID-19 pandemic has been a flash point for globalization as a sign of the times, revealing the best and worst of our interconnected human family. Released during the pandemic, Pope Francis’s Fratelli tutti speaks directly to the political crisis of globalization, following the worldwide financial and ecological crises addressed in the previous two social encyclicals of the twenty-first century. Despite the public conversation about Fratelli tutti, very little attention concerns the Latino theological and political imagination of Pope Francis’s social teaching. This talk examines the new encyclical of the first Hispanic Pope from the global South as someone formed in a teología del pueblo. Among the relevant topics raised in Fratelli tutti, we will explore the peculiar relationship between neoliberalism and universal human rights, and the providential role of popular movements for promoting global solidarity in sharp contrast to populism.

Among the Fragments: Race and the Fragile Hope of Wholeness in America
2021-04-22 19:00
Free and open to the public. This event will be held online through Zoom. This event is presented by the Veritas Forum at the University of Chicago and co-sponsored by the Lumen Christi Institute, the University Bible Fellowship, Christ Church Chicago, Living Hope Church, Vineyard Church Hyde Park, CRU, Poema, the Christian Legal Society, InterVarsity, UChicago Lutheran Campus Ministry, Calvert House, and Holy Trinity Church.
The legacy of race in America has left our society fragmented and fragile. But is there hope? Can Christianity provide a vision for joining these fragments together; a vision for human wholeness? Join Yale theologian Willie Jennings for an honest conversation during this interactive forum hosted by Veritas and the Christian community at UChicago.

Master Class on "Toward an Adequate Anthropology: Social Aspects of Imago Dei"
2021-04-23 13:00 - 15:00
Open to current graduate students. This master class will take place online on Zoom. Copies of the readings will be provided. Others interested in participating should contact us.
This master class is a follow-up to the March 26 session on Three Necessary Societies. The first master class considered pontifical teachings about the three societies necessary for human eudaimonia: domestic, political, and ecclesial. Having discussed how that theme evolved in Catholic social teaching, the second master class moves to a deeper metaphysical and theological consideration of social orders. The question is whether social unions are made unto the image and likeness of God. The reading will be Prof. Hittinger’s essay “Toward an Adequate Anthropology: Social Aspects of Imago Dei.”

Was Something Lost? Thomas Aquinas, Intellectual Disability, and the 16th Century Spanish Colonial Debates
2021-04-27 19:00
Free and open to the public. This event will be held online through Zoom (registration required) and live-streamed to YouTube. This event is part of a webinar series on Hispanic Theology. This event and series is made possible by a generous grant from the Our Sunday Visitor Institute. This event is cosponsored by the National Catholic Partnership on Disability. Live closed captioning will be made available on Zoom.
In the 16th century, there was a subtle shift in the way the Spanish Dominican interpreters of Thomas Aquinas spoke about the anthropological and moral significance of our rational faculties. Historical and textual markers, indicating both the origin and development of this interpretive shift, present amid the fierce engagement of the Spanish colonial debates.
Much has been written on the specific topic of those debates: i.e., the allegations concerning the rational status and moral aptitude of the Amerindian peoples and, by extension, the justice or injustice of the Spanish colonial enterprise in the Americas. However, it is difficult to find any scholarly work on the subject of the Spanish colonial debates: i.e., the anthropological and moral questions relevant to persons who seem to “lack the full use of reason.” Bearing that distinction in mind, between the topic and subject of the debates, this presentation for Lumen Christi is focused on persons who actually (and not allegedly) lack the full use of reason.
Key interpretations, appropriations, and arguments about Aristotle and Aquinas—in the writing of John Mair, Francisco de Vitoria, and Bartolome de las Casas—will be retraced to show how Aquinas’s way of thinking about the intellectual dignity and inalienable contemplative aptitude of persons who “lack the use of reason” came to be displaced from the main currents of Thomistic theological discourse.

Automation and the Future of Work: Insights from Economics and Catholic Social Thought
2021-04-29 14:00
Free and open to the public. This event will be held online through Zoom (registration required) and live-streamed to YouTube. This event is co-presented with CREDO and cosponsored by the Las Casas Institute, Catholics at Booth, and America Media.

God is Complicated – Science is Complex
2021-04-29 19:00
Free and open to the public. Presented by the Lumen Christi Institute’s Newman Forum for High School Students. Cosponsored by The Society of Catholic Scientists and Mundelein Seminary.
The most important development in modern science that you’ve likely never heard of is “Complexity Theory.”
Why do highly ordered structures seem to emerge almost spontaneously from chaotic, random collections?
Whether it’s galaxies forming in the early universe, thousands of birds forming single flocks that move in perfect unison, or the possible emergence of life from random interactions of organic molecules, Complexity Theory is producing exciting new insights into how it all comes together. And if God works through complex systems, what does that tell us about the divine ordering of the natural world? Join us at 7pm CT on Zoom for a fascinating dive into complexity.
Please consider helping to underwrite the cost of the event, so it can reach the widest audience of Catholic high school students. Click HERE to donate, and be sure to indicate “High School Program” or “Newman Forum” in the memo.

United by Their Loves: Deciphering Augustine’s Understanding of a People
2021-05-01 10:00
This event is cosponsored by America Media.
The president in his inaugural address quoted Augustine of Hippo’s definition of a people as “a multitude defined by the common objects of their love.” This surprising event offers us the occasion to consider Augustine’s definition and its implications for our understanding of life in society: what role do our loves play in fashioning us as people? Can disparate loves divide a people? What does Augustine think we should love in order to belong to the people who inhabit the City of God? Join us for a moderated conversation between Profs. Russell Hittinger, Michael Sherwin, O.P., and Jennifer Frey on Augustine and the loves that form a People.

Latino Youth and Evangelization
2021-05-04 19:00
This event is part of a webinar series on Hispanic Theology. This event and series is made possible by a generous grant from the Our Sunday Visitor Institute.
There are complex dynamics to account for when examining the intersectionality of religious identity, social context, and the lived experience of young Latinx in the U.S, and there is much to reflect upon when attending to the everyday life or lo cotidiano of young Latinx. Current research shows that almost half of Catholics in the United States self-identify as Hispanic, and that more than half of those Hispanic Catholics are young. To better understand the religious dynamics of young Latinx, we first must identify those who are affiliated as Catholics and those who are not, and examine how they understand their relationship with the faith. This requires a process of listening, reflection and participatory-action. There is a large group of young Latinx who self-identify as Catholics and no longer affiliate nor participate in a local church or any form of pastoral activity. In some cases, their faith identity and daily practice as Catholics is a pilgrimage where the Church is home, the streets, and other spaces, and the practices of their everyday life represent Catholicism.
This conversation aims to provide both practical and theological insight emerging from the particularities of pastoral and research work with young Latinx and their familias/comunidades. There is a great need to open concrete spaces in which young Latinx are listened to as they name themselves and are affirmed as active agents in the sharing of the good news of the Gospel. Let’s continue the conversation!

Spring 2021 Hispanic Theology Series
In the last half century, the demographics of Catholicism in America has shifted dramatically as Latino Catholic communities continue to grow. Today, nearly 50 percent of American Catholics are Latino. What are the trends and currents of Hispanic theology in the US? How does it draw from the deep wells of polyglot Catholic Intellectual tradition and from the experience of Catholics on the ground? How is Hispanic theology a resource today not only for Latino communities, but also the broader Church?
Join Tuesdays this Spring as the Lumen Christi Institute presents some of the top Latino/a scholars in the United States for an introduction to Hispanic Theology.
This series and event is made possible by a generous grant from the Our Sunday Visitor Institute and cosponsored by ACHTUS: The Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the US , La Comunidad of Hispanic Scholars of Religion, Corazón Puro, the Hispanic Theological Initiative, Saint Benedict Institute, the Nova Forum, Calvert House Catholic Ministry, Dominican University Ministry Program, the Ecclesia in America Network, the Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage, the Óscar Romero Scholars Program at Catholic Theological Union, Iskali, Commonweal Magazine, and America Media.
Upcoming events in our series:
May 11 Beauty and Justice in the City: the Restoration of St. Adalbert’s, in Pilsen, with Michelle Gonzalez Maldonado (University of Scranton), Peter Casarella (Duke University), and Juan Soto (Gamaliel)
May 18 Latino Christology, with Roberto Goizueta (Boston College) and Neomi de Anda (University of Dayton)
May 25 The Ethics of Immigration, with Victor Carmona (University of San Diego) and Nichole Flores (University of Virginia)
June 1 Future Directions of Hispanic Theology with Peter Casarella (Duke University) and Michelle Gonzalez Maldonado (University of Scranton)

The Crisis of Mysticism: Quietism in 17th Century Spain, Italy, and France
2021-05-06 19:00
Free and open to the public. This event will be held online through Zoom (registration required) and live-streamed to YouTube. This event is co-sponsored by the Collegium Institute, the Martin Marty Center for the Public Understanding of Religion, and Herder & Herder.
The Crisis of Mysticism (Herder & Herder, 2021), by Bernard McGinn is the first book in English in seventy years to give a full account of the struggle over mystical spirituality that tore the Catholic Church apart at the end of the seventeenth century, resulting in papal condemnation of some mystics and the decline of mysticism in Catholicism for almost two centuries. Join Professors McGinn (University of Chicago), David Tracy (University of Chicago), and Sandra Schneiders (Jesuit School of Theology at Santa Clara University), for a conversation on The Crisis of Mysticism, moderated by Willemein Otten (University of Chicago).

The Virgin Mary in the Art of Latin America 1520 - 1820
2021-05-08 15:00
Free and open to the public. This event will be held online through Zoom (registration required) and live-streamed to YouTube. This event is co-presented with the Harvard Catholic Forum and co-sponsored by the Saint Benedict Institute, the Nova Forum, the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies, the Ars Vivendi Arts Initiative of the Collegium Institute, the St. Paul’s Catholic Center, the St. Lawrence Institute for Faith and Culture, and the New England Chapter of the Patron of the Arts Vatican Museums.
Latin Americans in colonial times had an abounding love for the Virgin Mary. During these 300 years, devotions to Mary proliferated widely, particularly among Amerindian groups who identified with her compassion, and her role as an intercessor and mother. The Virgin of Guadalupe is still the most important religious image in Latin America, but many other local devotions sprouted as well, each with distinctive imagery, in large cities and tiny villages, alike from Quito (present-day Ecuador) to Chiloé (Chilean Patagonia). This talk will explore how artists of every background and walk of life transformed imported European images of the Virgin to make her a truly Latin American saint.

Beauty and Justice in the City: the Restoration of St. Adalbert's, in Pilsen
2021-05-11 19:00
Free and open to the public. This event was held online through Zoom and live-streamed to YouTube. This event is part of a webinar series on Hispanic Theology. This event and series are made possible by a generous grant from the Our Sunday Visitor Institute.
Latinx Theology has always had a dual focus on the beauty of the symbols of Popular Catholicism and the cry of the poor in urban settings. In this session, one of the premier Latina voices on beauty and justice, Dr. Michelle Gonzalez Maldonado, will have a discussion with a long-time community activist in Chicago about the application of this dyad to the concrete setting of Latinx Catholic life in the city of Chicago. The ongoing discussion of the proposed restoration of St. Adalbert’s will serve as a case study for thinking about how “God lives in the city” (Pope Francis).

Spring 2021 Hispanic Theology Series
In the last half century, the demographics of Catholicism in America has shifted dramatically as Latino Catholic communities continue to grow. Today, nearly 50 percent of American Catholics are Latino. What are the trends and currents of Hispanic theology in the US? How does it draw from the deep wells of polyglot Catholic Intellectual tradition and from the experience of Catholics on the ground? How is Hispanic theology a resource today not only for Latino communities, but also the broader Church?
Join Tuesdays this Spring as the Lumen Christi Institute presents some of the top Latino/a scholars in the United States for an introduction to Hispanic Theology.
This series and event is made possible by a generous grant from the Our Sunday Visitor Institute and cosponsored by ACHTUS: The Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the US , La Comunidad of Hispanic Scholars of Religion, Corazón Puro, the Hispanic Theological Initiative, Saint Benedict Institute, the Nova Forum, Calvert House Catholic Ministry, Dominican University Ministry Program, the Ecclesia in America Network, the Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage, the Óscar Romero Scholars Program at Catholic Theological Union, Iskali, Commonweal Magazine, and America Media.
Upcoming events in our series:
May 18 Latino Christology, with Roberto Goizueta (Boston College) and Neomi de Anda (University of Dayton)
May 25 The Ethics of Immigration, with Victor Carmona (University of San Diego) and Nichole Flores (University of Virginia)
June 1 Future Directions of Hispanic Theology with Peter Casarella (Duke University) and Michelle Gonzalez Maldonado (University of Scranton)

West Suburban Catholic Culture Series on "The Liturgy"
2021-05-12 18:30 - 20:30 | Ruth Lake Country Club, 6200 South Madison Street, Hinsdale, IL
REGISTER HERE FOR THE JUNE 9 PRACTICUM

In 1918, the German priest Romano Guardini lamented that “the lack of fruitful and lofty culture causes spiritual life to grow numbed and narrow.” The remedy was that “prayer must be simple, wholesome, and powerful,” while also being “rich in ideas and powerful images, and speak a developed but restrained language.” Guardini concluded that this “is precisely the way in which the prayer of the liturgy has been formed.”
The events of recent months have made us acutely aware of what we lose when the Church’s rites, ceremonies, and corporate worship (the liturgy) are taken from us. Guardini wrote The Spirit of the Liturgy as the First World War ravaged Europe in order to remind his readers how the Church’s worship meets the deep, complex and paradoxical yearnings of man, centers a people in the Lord, and gives them new language and insight into the central mysteries of the faith. He called the liturgy “nothing else but truth expressed in terms of prayer.” Perhaps we could use a similar reminder now.
Resuming in March 2021, the Lumen Christi Institute will host a monthly series on the Liturgy at the Ruth Lake Country Club in Hinsdale. Topics for the spring include liturgical music, the theology of sacred vestments, and the Liturgy of the Hours. Heavy hors d’oeuvres and drinks will be served before a lecture and Q&A.
SPRING SEMESTER SCHEDULE
Wednesday, March 10
Liturgical Music with Fr. Peter Funk (Monastery of the Holy Cross)
Wednesday, April 21
The Liturgy of Sacred Vestments with Br. Mark Visconti (St. John Cantius)
Wednesday, May 12
Liturgy of the Hours with Abbot Austin Murphy (St. Procopius Abbey)
FALL SEMESTER SCHEDULE
September 24
Guardini’s The Spirit of the Liturgy with Christopher Carstens
October 14
Post-Vatican II Reform and Benedict XVI’s Reform with Kevin Magas
November 11
Sacred Architecture with Denis McNamara

From 92 Pages to More Than 60,000: How the Bollandists Created the "Science of the Saints"
2021-05-15 14:00
Free and Open to the Public. This event is co-presented with the Bollandist Society.
2:00 PM CDT (GMT -5) | 21:00 (Brussels)
For many centuries the Church has been venerating the saints. During Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, thousands of Lives have been written in Greek, in Latin and in the languages of the Christian East. Very soon wonderful and imaginary elements were mixed with historical ones, creating “legends”. If the awareness appeared quite early that all Lives of saints were not equally trustworthy, it is only at the beginning of the 17th century that scientific criteria were applied for the first time to that literature.
Critical hagiography is the “science of the saints”, a discipline which was created by Jean Bolland, a Belgian Jesuit, who initiated the publication of what would become the largest ever collection of Lives of saints: the Acta Sanctorum. Through the following three centuries, this unique enterprise would not proceed unchallenged given the attachment of many to the wonderful elements related to their patron saints. Nowadays a scientific approach commands the inquiries for beatification, and critical hagiography has become an intensively cultivated field in universities.
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This event will be moderated by Fr. Michael Garanzini, S.J.

Latino Christology
2021-05-18 19:00
This event is part of a webinar series on Hispanic Theology. This event and series are made possible by a generous grant from the Our Sunday Visitor Institute.
Two experts on Latinx Christology will share their perspectives on the uniqueness as well as the universality of the Latinx spirituality of the crucified Christ. Beyond the stereotypical and often caricatured “bloody crucifix,” these scholars will lay out their complementary visions of how in the Hispanic Catholic tradition and in daily life today this Hispanic practical theology and cultural reality address the solidarity with the poor, the struggle to be a Church of the poor, and the transformative vulnerability and unheeded voices of lay and religious women.

Spring 2021 Hispanic Theology Series
In the last half century, the demographics of Catholicism in America has shifted dramatically as Latino Catholic communities continue to grow. Today, nearly 50 percent of American Catholics are Latino. What are the trends and currents of Hispanic theology in the US? How does it draw from the deep wells of polyglot Catholic Intellectual tradition and from the experience of Catholics on the ground? How is Hispanic theology a resource today not only for Latino communities, but also the broader Church?
Join Tuesdays this Spring as the Lumen Christi Institute presents some of the top Latino/a scholars in the United States for an introduction to Hispanic Theology.
This series and event is made possible by a generous grant from the Our Sunday Visitor Institute and cosponsored by ACHTUS: The Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the US , La Comunidad of Hispanic Scholars of Religion, Corazón Puro, the Hispanic Theological Initiative, Saint Benedict Institute, the Nova Forum, Calvert House Catholic Ministry, Dominican University Ministry Program, the Ecclesia in America Network, the Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage, the Óscar Romero Scholars Program at Catholic Theological Union, Iskali, Commonweal Magazine, and America Media.
Upcoming events in our series:
May 25 The Ethics of Immigration, with Victor Carmona (University of San Diego) and Nichole Flores (University of Virginia)
June 1 Future Directions of Hispanic Theology with Peter Casarella (Duke University) and Michelle Gonzalez Maldonado (University of Scranton)

The Ethics of Immigration
2021-05-25 19:00
Free and open to the public. This event will be held online through Zoom (registration required) and live-streamed to YouTube. This event is part of a webinar series on Hispanic Theology. This event and series are made possible by a generous grant from the Our Sunday Visitor Institute.
The U.S. Catholic Bishops have lobbied for and spoken eloquently about the need for a comprehensive immigration reform and have done so over the course of multiple administrations. These Latino/a experts in moral theology will not only speak to the fact that this call to action remains unheard, even by some Catholics, but to the question of the principles in the Catholic tradition and beyond that can serve as resources for a Latino theology of migration. Carmona has looked to St. Thomas Aquinas as a starting point and Flores to the Latino experience of being familia. A rich conversation will ensue.

Spring 2021 Hispanic Theology Series
In the last half century, the demographics of Catholicism in America has shifted dramatically as Latino Catholic communities continue to grow. Today, nearly 50 percent of American Catholics are Latino. What are the trends and currents of Hispanic theology in the US? How does it draw from the deep wells of polyglot Catholic Intellectual tradition and from the experience of Catholics on the ground? How is Hispanic theology a resource today not only for Latino communities, but also the broader Church?
Join Tuesdays this Spring as the Lumen Christi Institute presents some of the top Latino/a scholars in the United States for an introduction to Hispanic Theology.
This series and event is made possible by a generous grant from the Our Sunday Visitor Institute and cosponsored by ACHTUS: The Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the US , La Comunidad of Hispanic Scholars of Religion, Corazón Puro, the Hispanic Theological Initiative, Saint Benedict Institute, the Nova Forum, Calvert House Catholic Ministry, Dominican University Ministry Program, the Ecclesia in America Network, the Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage, the Óscar Romero Scholars Program at Catholic Theological Union, Iskali, Commonweal Magazine, and America Media.
Upcoming events in our series:
June 1 Future Directions of Hispanic Theology with Peter Casarella (Duke University) and Michelle Gonzalez Maldonado (University of Scranton)

René Girard, Conversion, and the Present Media Moment
2021-05-27 19:00
Free and open to the public. This event was held online through Zoom (registration required) and live-streamed to YouTube. This event was co-sponsored by Word on Fire Catholic Ministries and America Media.
While social media has become a source of meaning and identity formation for many, its dangers have become clear in recent years, from promoting disinformation to algorithm-aided polarization. Despite these dangers, can social media be a medium for the Gospel? Does a model for discipleship within social media exist?
René Girard’s theory of mimesis or imitation provides a powerful diagnostic for analyzing aspects of human behavior and culture that contribute to the current media climate, including rivalry, escalation, and scapegoating. It also points towards the fragile possibility of positive mimesis: imitation of Christ.
Join us for a panel drawing together Girard scholars and Catholic media experts to explore how Girard’s analysis can inform our understanding of the current media climate and how we might approach social media as a space for evangelization and conversion.
Image ©Basso Cannarsa/Opale

Future Directions of Hispanic Theology
2021-06-01 19:00
Free and open to the public. This event will be held online through Zoom (registration required) and live-streamed to YouTube. This event is part of a webinar series on Hispanic Theology. This event and series is made possible by a generous grant from the Our Sunday Visitor Institute.
Where do we go from here? Concluding our spring Hispanic Theology Series, Professor Peter Casarella and Dean Michelle Maldonado will discuss the current landscape of Hispanic Theology, considering the most pressing needs and most promising opportunities in the field. Join us for this lively conversation, moderated by Professor Horacio Vela (University of the Incarnate Word).

Spring 2021 Hispanic Theology Series
In the last half century, the demographics of Catholicism in America has shifted dramatically as Latino Catholic communities continue to grow. Today, nearly 50 percent of American Catholics are Latino. What are the trends and currents of Hispanic theology in the US? How does it draw from the deep wells of polyglot Catholic Intellectual tradition and from the experience of Catholics on the ground? How is Hispanic theology a resource today not only for Latino communities, but also the broader Church?
Join Tuesdays this Spring as the Lumen Christi Institute presents some of the top Latino/a scholars in the United States for an introduction to Hispanic Theology.
This series and event is made possible by a generous grant from the Our Sunday Visitor Institute and cosponsored by ACHTUS: The Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the US , La Comunidad of Hispanic Scholars of Religion, Corazón Puro, the Hispanic Theological Initiative, Saint Benedict Institute, the Nova Forum, Calvert House Catholic Ministry, Dominican University Ministry Program, the Ecclesia in America Network, the Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage, the Óscar Romero Scholars Program at Catholic Theological Union, Iskali, Commonweal Magazine, and America Media.

Saint Among the Skyscrapers: The American Afterlife of Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini
2021-06-10 12:30
ONLINE REGISTRATION
$10 registration fee for the online event. Registration required. A link to the livestream will be sent to registrants on the day of the event.
IN PERSON REGISTRATION
You can now register for this in-person event taking place at the University Club of Chicago (76 E. Monroe St.) from 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Cosponsored by the University of North Carolina Press.
Drawing on the recent book, A Saint of Our Own: How the Quest for a Holy Hero Helped Catholics Become American (University of North Carolina Press, 2019), this lecture will focus on St Frances Cabrini, an Italian missionary who arrived in New York in 1889 and died in Chicago in 1917. Cabrini and the congregation she founded, the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart, made their mark on Chicago and her other foundations throughout the United States, South America, and Europe. Cabrini progressed quite rapidly through the process of canonization, the elaborate series of steps through which the Catholic Church affirms that a holy person entered God’s eternal presence at the moment of death. This lecture explores her “afterlife” in historical memory, examining the role that Chicago played in presenting her as a saint for their city, the nation, and the world.

Race and Justice in America
2021-06-23 19:00
This event is part of the Lumen Christi Institute’s Catholic Criminal Justice Reform Network.
National conversation about racial bias in law enforcement has become increasingly polarized over the last year. Some deny the existence of any widespread discrimination, while others see systemic racism as an inextricable part of American criminal justice, and call for defunding or even abolishing police forces.
Professor Brandon Vaidyanathan says that racial bias in the criminal justice system is more complicated. A number of factors, including personal prejudice, laws and policies with racist origins, and broader cultural disparities that reflect the history of American racial discrimination, all contribute to a system that is neither irredeemably racist nor free from racial bias. Recognizing this complex interplay of problems, says Vaidyanathan, can help us move toward solutions.
Join Brandon Vaidyanathan, Herschella Conyers, and Darren Davis for a conversation moderated by Cook County Judge Tom Donnelly, as they discuss race in contemporary American criminal justice and a path to equality in a fractured nation.
This event is cosponsored by the Institute for Human Ecology.

The Song of Songs in Monastic Interpretation
2021-06-27 19:30
Free and open to the public. This event was held online through Zoom and live-streamed to YouTube. This event is part of a summer webinar series on Monastic Wisdom.
The Song of Songs is the Bible’s treasure-house of love poetry, a cycle of songs sung between a man, a woman, and their friends, lush with the imagery of nature and of intense human longing. In it the name of God nowhere to be seen; believers have always, however, cherished it as a figurative representation of the ideal love between God and humanity; indeed, one of history’s most forceful movements for Christian celibacy – the Cistercian renewal of the twelfth-century – was famous for tending to treat the Song of Songs as the very heart of the Bible. This challenges us with the following very basic question: what does it mean to speak of God in romantic terms?

Wisdom from the Heart of the Cistercian Tradition
Join us once per month, June through September, for four Sunday evening sessions featuring monks from Our Lady of Dallas Cistercian Abbey who will lead us through a series of reflections examining the contours of the monastic intellectual tradition. At the foundations of the Cistercian order is the reform movement of St. Bernard of Clairvaux. In faithfulness to their founder, these webinars invite participants to see how the monastic approach to Scripture, theology, and the common life might reform our own understanding and endeavors in the labors of daily Christianity.
This series is co-presented with Our Lady of Dallas Cistercian Abbey, and co-sponsored by the Harvard Catholic Forum, the Nova Forum, the Saint Benedict Institute, and Studies in Catholic Faith and Culture at the University of Dallas.
Upcoming sessions:
July 25, 7:30 PM CT:
A School for the Lord’s Service”: A Meditation on the Rule of St. Benedict
Fr. Abbot Peter Verhalen, O. Cist.
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August 22, 7:30 PM CT:
The Monastics before the Scholastics: An Introduction to Medieval Monastic Theology
Fr. John Bayer, O. Cist.
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September 26, 7:30 PM CT:
The Christological Structure of Spiritual Growth In the Thought of St. Bernard
Fr. Roch Kereszty, O. Cist.

The Thought of John Henry Newman
2021-07-04 00:00 - 2021-07-10 00:00 | University of Saint Mary of the Lake, 1000 East Maple Avenue Mundelein, IL 60060, Mundelein, IL
Now in its eighth year, this intensive seminar will examine the achievements of Saint John Henry Newman as a theologian, philosopher, educator, preacher, and writer. Remarkably, in each of these areas Newman produced works that have come to be recognized as classics: An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, The Grammar of Assent, The Idea of a University, The Parochial and Plain Sermons, and the Apologia Pro Vita Sua. This seminar will approach Newman’s thought through a critical engagement with these texts.
Format: There will be two 2-hour sessions each day. The seminar will include presentations by Fr. Fields and by participants on the readings assigned, followed by seminar-style discussion.
Location: The seminar will take place at the University of Saint Mary of the Lake. Participants will be provided with lodging and meals for the duration of the seminar, and a travel stipend.
Application Information: This seminar is open to PhD students, post docs, and junior faculty in the humanities and relevant fields.
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 applicant 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).

2021 Newman Forum Summer Institute
2021-07-08 00:00 - 2021-07-11 00:00 | University of Saint Mary of the Lake, 1000 East Maple Avenue Mundelein, IL 60060, Mundelein, IL
In-person summer experience for high school students exploring truth, goodness, and beauty at Mundelein Seminary
Presented by the Lumen Christi Institute’s Newman Forum. Open to current high school students and incoming college freshman only. This seminar is cosponsored by the University of Saint Mary of the Lake at Mundelein Seminary, and the Archdiocese of Chicago Vocation Office.

DRIVING QUESTIONS
“It is through wonder that men now begin and originally began to philosophize; wondering in the first place at obvious perplexities, and then by gradual progression raising questions about the greater matters too…” -Aristotle, Metaphysics 982b
“The Christian remains the guardian of that metaphysical wonderment which is the point of origin for philosophy and the continuation of which is the basis of its further existence. Wonderment is constantly on the point of turning into a marveling at the beauty of existence as a whole…”
-Hans Urs von Balthasar, The Glory of the Lord: A Theological Aesthetics, Volume V, The Realm of Metaphysics in the Modern Age
Philosophy begins in wonder: How can I explain what I see, put words to what I feel, or communicate what seems inexpressible?
Looking out at the world, one wonders: Is there some order to the universe and to my soul? Or is it all random?
We wonder most of all about the true, the beautiful, and the good: Is there such a thing as Truth? Beauty? Goodness? There must be, but so many people disagree! How can one talk about the reality of concepts that seem so hotly contested?
OVERVIEW
In this 4-Day Summer Institute, high school students will be introduced to the disciplines and distinct methodologies of philosophy and theology through college-level lecture and discussion of the three “transcendentals” of truth, goodness, and beauty. Figures under consideration will include Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Bonaventure, Aquinas, Newman, Ratzinger, von Balthasar, as well as relevant biblical texts.
We will balance academic formation with spiritual formation, focusing on themes of discernment, vocation, and the practices that comprise an intellectually informed and responsible life of faith. In addition to a balance of the spiritual and intellectual, we will also balance work and play. Mornings will be devoted to lectures and discussion, with afternoons and evenings filled with excursions and fun programming (including a trip to Six Flags!)
>> CLICK HERE TO APPLY <<
Applications are now closed. Check back next Spring 2022 for information on the 2022 Summer Institute!

SCHEDULE

THURSDAY, JULY 8
Day 1 — Student Arrival
4:00pm Check-In (Building E, Main Entrance)

Room assignments
Time to settle in

5:00pm Welcome Mass (Building E, Chapel)
6:00pm Dinner (Building B, Dining Hall)
7:00pm Icebreakers & House Rules (Building N, Classrooms)
8:00pm S’Mores (Fire Pit)
9:00pm Night Prayer (Building E, Chapel)

FRIDAY, JULY 9
Day 2
7:30am Morning Prayer (Building E, Chapel)
8:00am Breakfast (Building B, Dining Hall)
9:30am Morning Class (Building N, Classooms)

30 min. Philosophy lecture
30 min. Theology lecture
15 min. Q&A each

11:00am Small Discussion Groups (Building N, Classrooms)
12:00pm Leave Mundelein for Six Flags
7:00pm Leave Six Flags to Return to Mundelein
8:00pm Night Prayer (Building E, Chapel)

SATURDAY, JULY 10
Day 3
7:30am Morning Prayer (Building E, Chapel)
8:00am Breakfast (Building B, Dining Hall)
9:30am Morning Class (Building N, Classrooms)
11:00am Small group (Building N, Classrooms)
12:00pm Lunch (Building B, Dining Hall)
12:45pm Break
2:30pm Outdoor Games (Ball Fields)
4:00pm Vocation Talks (Mundelein Grounds)
6:00pm Dinner (Grab-N-Go, Building B, Dining Hall)
9:00pm Night Prayer (Building E, Chapel)

SUNDAY, JULY 11
Day 4 — Student Departure
8:00am Breakfast (Building B, Dining Hall)
8:30am Morning Class (Building N, Classrooms)
10:00am Farewell Mass (Building E, Chapel)
11:00am Brunch (TBD)
12:00pm Small group (Building N, Classrooms)
12:45pm Big group (Building N, Classrooms)
1:30pm Students depart

Safety & Wellness Information:
Mundelein Seminary’s COVID-19 procedures at the time of the Summer Institute will be consistent with State Guidelines for outdoor and indoor group gatherings. Complete information regarding protocol will be circulated to all accepted students as the Institute nears.
Single occupancy accommodations are available to all accepted students. To the extent that you are comfortable, accepted students are encouraged to select “Double Occupancy” come registration time. This will assign each student a roommate to bunk with for the duration of the Institute. Siblings will room together. Male and female students are assigned to separate floors, and there are no communal bathrooms. Nightly curfew will be strictly observed. There will be one adult chaperone for every three students, with a balanced number of male and female chaperones.
Arriving to the Institute late and/or leaving early will not be permitted.
Further information about allergies, medical concerns, dress code, etc. will be made available to accepted students upon registration.

Irenaeus of Lyon’s Adversus Haereses: A Seminar on the Foundations of Early Christian Theology
2021-07-11 09:00 - 2021-07-16 17:00 | St. Meinrad Archabbey, 200 Hill Drive, St. Meinrad, IN
July 11—16, 2021, Fr. John Behr and Professor Lewis Ayres will lead a summer seminar of graduate students in a close reading of Irenaeus’ Adversus Haereses. One of the first systematic presentations of the Christian theology, Irenaeus’ refutation of Gnosticism, as well as his bold defense of the canon of Scripture and its connection with the preaching of the apostles, set the trajectory for future theological reflection. Through the engagement of this principal text, students will be able to grasp the contours of the early Church’s discernment of the Christian faith.
The seminar will be held in the monastic setting of St. Meinrad Archabbey in Indiana. Meals and lodging will be provided and students will receive a travel stipend.
Working knowledge of relevant ancient languages will be helpful, but not essential. Preference will be given to Ph.D. students in theology, though advanced M.A. students will be considered.
There will be two sessions each day in the morning and in the afternoon. Each session will include lectures and seminar-style discussions working through all five books of Adversus Haereses. Students will be expected to prepare the readings carefully and participate in the discussions of the material.
Applicants will be required to submit:

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

All application materials can be submitted via the online application. Incomplete applications will not be considered. Fifteen students will be admitted to this seminar. Applications are now closed.
Please contact us with any questions.
Required Reading Before Seminar
Irenaeus, Against Heresies in Ante-Nicene Fathers 1, eds. A. Roberts and J. Donaldson (Edinburgh, 1887; reprinted Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1987). [digital copy provided in advance]
Preliminary Bibliography
This bibliography contains only a few suggestions of things worth reading before our sessions together. Moreover, it lists only works in English. This will give a distorted view of scholarship on Irenaeus, but it is a point of departure. For further literature see the extensive biography in John Behr’s Irenaeus of Lyons (Oxford, 2013), which we suggest you read before we meet.
If you can read literature other than English it is important to be aware of the extensive notes attached to the multi-volume Sources Chrétiennes edition of Against Heresies, and the huge corpus of the late Spanish scholar Antonio Orbe. Behr’s bibliography will provide indications to both these resources. If you have French, an invaluable resource for the biographies of writers in this period is Pierre Nautin’s Lettres et Écrivains Chrétiens des IIe et IIIe Siècles. Not in Behr’s bibliography but a useful book (if you have German) is Brox, Norbert, Offenbarung, Gnosis und gnostischer Mythos bei Irenäus von Lyon (Salzburg/Munich: Verlag Anton Pustet, 1966).
Translations

Roberts, A., and J. Donaldson (eds.), ANF 1 (Edinburgh, 1887; repr. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1987). [this is the version that we will send around as a word document. It is also available online fairly easily]
Unger, D. J., rev. J. J. Dillon, St. Irenaeus of Lyons Against the Heresies, Book 1, ACW 55 (New York: Paulist Press, 1992).
Unger, D. J., rev. J. J. Dillon, St. Irenaeus of Lyons Against the Heresies, Book 2, ACW 65 (New York: Paulist Press, 2012).
Unger, D.J. rev. Irenaeus M. C. Steenberg, St. Irenaeus of Lyons: Against the Heresies, Book 3, ACW 64 (New York: Newman Press, 2012).
Grant, R. M., Irenaeus of Lyons (New York: Routledge, 1997) [Extracts].
Behr, J., St Irenaeus of Lyons: The Apostolic Preaching (New York: SVS, 1997).

Secondary Literature

Behr, J. Asceticism and Anthropology in Irenaeus and Clement, OECS (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000).
Blowers, Paul M., ‘The Regula Fidei and the Narrative Character of Early Christian Faith’, Pro Ecclesia 6 (1997), 199-228.
Brakke, David, The Gnostics: Myth, Ritual, and Diversity in Early Christianity (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010).
Briggman, A. God and Christ in Irenaeus. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018).
Farkasfalvy, D., ‘Theology of Scripture in St Irenaeus’, RB 78 (1968), 319-33.
Hill, Charles E. Who Chose the Gospels? Probing the Great Gospel Conspiracy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010).
Steenberg, M. C. Irenaeus on Creation: The Cosmic Christ and the Saga of Redemption (Leiden: Brill, 2008).
Markschies, C. Gnosis: An Introduction. Trans. John Bowden. London: T&T Clark, 2003.

Nicholas of Cusa & Qur’anic Exegesis
2021-07-21 18:00
Free and open to the public. This event was held online through Zoom and live-streamed to YouTube. This event is part of a webinar series, “Catholics & Muslims: History, Theology, Encounters,” presented by the Lumen Christi Institute and the American Cusanus Society.
This session will focus on “faithful interpretation” (pia interpretatio) as characteristic of Nicholas of Cusa’s approach to the Qur’ān as a book that claims to be revealed by God. He argues that it is possible to take the Qur’ān seriously as a theological source for Christian faith. Following Nicholas of Cusa’s example he will also talk about his own experiences as a Christian theologian reading the Qur’an as confirmation and critique of Jews and Christians as “People of Scripture” (ahl al-kitāb).

Catholics & Muslims: History, Theology, Encounters
The 1965 Vatican II document Nostra Aetate 3 encouraged Catholics and Muslims to “forget the past” and focus on a more positive future together, one based on dialogue and cooperation. Since then, Catholics at all levels, from popes to parishioners, have heeded this call. However, the complicated, centuries-long history of Christian-Muslim relations demands attention. Instead of “forgetting the past,” Catholics need to revisit this history, both on their own and with their Muslim partners. In this series, we will examine Nicholas of Cusa’s approach to the Qur’an; the history of Mary as a bridge or barrier in Christian relations with Muslims; and St. Francis and Pope Francis as models of fraternal encounter.
This series is co-presented by the Lumen Christi Institute and the American Cusanus Society. This series is cosponsored by the Graymoor Ecumenical & Interreligious Institute, the Australian Catholic University, the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies, St. Paul’s Catholic Center, the Nova Forum for Catholic Thought, the Saint Benedict Institute, the Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage, and both the Jay Phillips Center for Interreligious Studies and the Encountering Islam Initiative at the University of St. Thomas (Minnesota).
Upcoming events:
August 18, 6:00 p.m. CDT
Mary & Muslims: Bridge or Barrier?
Dr. Rita George-Tvrtkovic (Benedictine University)
Respondent: Dr. Zeki Saritoprak (John Carroll University)
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September 8, 6:00 p.m. CDT
Francis & Francis: Encountering Muslims, Past & Present
Dr. Jason Welle, OFM (Pontifical Institute for Arabic & Islamic Studies, Rome)

Truth and Authority in Augustine's City of God
2021-07-25 00:00 - 2021-07-31 00:00 | University of Saint Mary of the Lake, 1000 East Maple Avenue Mundelein, IL 60060, Mundelein, IL
This seminar is an intensive week-long course in how to read, analyze, and discern the many themes in Augustine’s most ambitious and sprawling work. The City of God tells the history of two societies, and their respective origins, progress, and appointed ends. The story is engaged first from the evidence of profane history (I-XI) and then from the evidence of revelation (XII-XXII). In this seminar, participants will discuss how Augustine reckons with the crisis of the ancient and the human city, and whether it is possible to reconcile truth and authority across the competing domains of polity, religion, and philosophical wisdom. These themes will be approached from an interdisciplinary perspective, addressing questions pertinent to students in political science, philosophy, law, theology, religious studies, and history.
Format: There will be two 2.5-hour sessions each day. Each session will include an opening lecture and seminar-style discussion of the text and the issues at hand. Students will be expected to prepare the readings carefully and participate in the discussions of the material.
Location: The seminar will take place at the University of Saint Mary of the Lake in Mundelein, IL. Students will be provided with lodging, meals, and a travel stipend.

Application Information: This seminar will be open to JD, PhD students, postdoctoral fellows, and junior faculty in the humanities and relevant fields (such as philosophy, theology, English, classics, law and history).

Applicants will be required to submit:

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

The Thought of René Girard: Understanding the Faith in a Secular Age
2021-07-25 00:00 - 2021-07-31 00:00 | Mary & Joseph Retreat Center, 5300 Crest Road, Los Angeles, CA
Photo Credit: Linda A. Cicero / Stanford News Service
APPLY HERE
THE APPLICATION DEADLINE HAS BEEN EXTENDED TO MAY 1.
One of the most influential 20th century Catholic thinkers, René Girard transformed our understanding of culture, religion, and human behavior. His “mimetic theory” builds on the demystifying power of the Old and New Testaments to illuminate the religious history of mankind. Through an intensive reading of his more accessible works, in conjunction with the fiction of the greatest writers, this five-day seminar will explore Girard’s key insights into imitation, conflict, and scapegoating, connecting them to central themes of Christian theology.
Format: There will be two 2.5-hour sessions on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. On Tuesday and Thursday, the morning session will be followed by a post-lunch excursion. Each session will a seminar-style discussion of the text and the issues at hand. Students will be expected to prepare the readings carefully, submit study questions in advance, and participate actively in each session.
Location: The seminar will take place at a retreat center in Los Angeles from July 26-30 (there will be an opening dinner on the evening of July 25th, and students will be expected to arrive at 5pm) with lodging provided from Sunday evening through Saturday morning. Participants will be provided with lodging and meals for the duration of the seminar, and a travel stipend of up to $350.
Application Requirements: This seminar is open to all undergraduate students (including 2021 graduates) interested in understanding the thought of one of the great modern Christian apologists.
Applicants will be required to submit an online application form including:

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

All application materials can be submitted via the online application. Incomplete applications will not be considered. Fifteen applicants will be admitted to this seminar. Application materials are due May 1.
APPLY HERE

A School for the Lord’s Service: A Meditation on the Rule of St. Benedict
2021-07-25 19:30
Free and open to the public. This event was held online through Zoom and live-streamed to YouTube. This event is part of a summer webinar series on Monastic Wisdom.
Written for monks living in Italy almost 1600 years ago, The Rule of St. Benedict is remarkable for its wisdom, its discretion, and its clarity. St. Benedict draws on Scripture and the theological tradition that preceded him to craft a text that combines both detailed prescriptions for daily life in a monastery and the principles of a spiritual theology. All these prescriptions and theological principles he sees as foundation of a School for the Lord’s Service. In this webinar we will look at several elements of that “school” that guide any Christian to “run along the path of God’s commandments, our hearts overflowing wit the inexpressible delight of love” (Rule of St. Benedict, Prologue 49).

Wisdom from the Heart of the Cistercian Tradition
Join us once per month, June through September, for four Sunday evening sessions featuring monks from Our Lady of Dallas Cistercian Abbey who will lead us through a series of reflections examining the contours of the monastic intellectual tradition. At the foundations of the Cistercian order is the reform movement of St. Bernard of Clairvaux. In faithfulness to their founder, these webinars invite participants to see how the monastic approach to Scripture, theology, and the common life might reform our own understanding and endeavors in the labors of daily Christianity.
This series is co-presented with Our Lady of Dallas Cistercian Abbey, and co-sponsored by the Harvard Catholic Forum, the Nova Forum, the Saint Benedict Institute, and Studies in Catholic Faith and Culture at the University of Dallas.
Upcoming sessions:
August 22, 7:30 PM CT:
The Monastics before the Scholastics: An Introduction to Medieval Monastic Theology
Fr. John Bayer, O. Cist.
—
September 26, 7:30 PM CT:
The Christological Structure of Spiritual Growth In the Thought of St. Bernard
Fr. Roch Kereszty, O. Cist.

Master Class on "Friendship with God: Apprenticeship of the Christian life"
2021-08-04 14:00 - 17:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
REGISTER HERE
Open to current graduate students. Advanced University of Chicago undergraduate students are also welcome. Others who are interested in participating should contact us at info@lumenchristi.org. PDF copies of the readings will be provided for registrants.
Far from offering a romantic or sentimental notion of divine friendship, the Scriptures develop a theology of divine intimacy that portrays friendship with God as an apprenticeship in Christ. Through the filial friendship established by the grace of baptism, Christians are called to participate in Christ’s salvific mission. Friendship with God initiates Christians into the mystery of Christ’s cross and resurrection and teaches them how to bear the fruit of salvation by working in the vineyard and by tending the flocks. Divine friendship is nothing other than the way of Christ by which we are configured to his life, death, and resurrection. Patristic authors develop their own understanding of these biblical themes, offering theologies of divine friendship that will influence Thomas Aquinas’ definition of charity as itself a type of friendship with God. This masterclass will offer an introductory account of this biblical and patristic vision.
Readings

Scripture: Genesis 15.1-20; 18.1-33; 22.1-19; 38.1-26; Exodus 2.1-3.15; 15.22-27; 16.2-35; 17.1-7; 33.7-23; Song of Songs 5.1; 8.11-14; Wisdom 1.1-12.27; 15.18-19.27; Matthew 11.16-19; 20.1-16; 22.1-14; 26.47-50; Luke 12.4-7; 21.12-19; John 3.13-36; 11.5-12; 13.1-21.19; Acts 7.20-38; Second Peter 1.3-11; James 2.21-23; 4.4; Third John 1.15
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, bks 8 and 9.
Konstan, David. Friendship in the Classical World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), pp. 95-115, 167-170.
Sherwin, Michael. On Love and Virtue (Emmaus Academic, 2018), chs 6-7, 12 (pp. 123-153, 221-248).

Schedule
1:30 Coffee & Pastries | 2:00 Session 1 | 3:25 Break | 3:35 Session 2 | 5:00 End, wine & cheese

Mary & Muslims: Bridge or Barrier?
2021-08-18 18:00
Free and open to the public. This event is part of a webinar series, “Catholics & Muslims: History, Theology, Encounters,” presented by the Lumen Christi Institute and the American Cusanus Society. This event is cosponsored by the Collegium Institute.
In 1965, Nostra Aetate 3 acknowledged that Christian and Muslims share a devotion to Mary. But did Christians always view Mary as a bridge? A few medieval Latins stressed concord between the two Marys, but others raised the Virgin on military standards in battles against Muslims. This talk will consider the myriad ways in which Mary’s role in Christian-Muslim relations has shifted back and forth from bridge to barrier and back again. The lecture with Dr. Rita George-Tvrtković will be followed by a response from a Muslim scholar, Dr. Zeki Saritoprak, and further dialogue.

Professor George-Tvrtkovic generously provided the following bibliography for those interested in further reading:
•Abboud, Hosn. Mary in the Qur’an: A Literary Reading (Routledge, 2014).
•George-Tvrtkovic, Rita. Christians, Muslims, and Mary: A History (Paulist, 2018).
•Hearden, Maura. “Lessons from Zeitoun: A Marian Proposal for Christian-Muslim Dialogue.” Journal of Ecumenical Studies 47, no. 3 (2012).
•Pentcheva, Bissera. Icons and Power: The Mother of God in Byzantium (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2006).
•Remensnyder, Amy. La Conquistadora (Oxford University Press, 2014).
•Saritoprak, Zeki. Islam’s Jesus (University of Florida Press, 2014).
•Saritoprak, Zeki. “Mary in Islam,” in The Oxford Handbook of Mary, ed. Chris Maunder (Oxford University Press, 2019).
•Schleifer, Aliah. Mary the Blessed Virgin of Islam (Fons Vitae, 1998).
•Shoemaker, Stephen. Mary in Early Christian Faith and Devotion (Yale University Press, 2016).

Catholics & Muslims: History, Theology, Encounters
The 1965 Vatican II document Nostra Aetate 3 encouraged Catholics and Muslims to “forget the past” and focus on a more positive future together, one based on dialogue and cooperation. Since then, Catholics at all levels, from popes to parishioners, have heeded this call. However, the complicated, centuries-long history of Christian-Muslim relations demands attention. Instead of “forgetting the past,” Catholics need to revisit this history, both on their own and with their Muslim partners. In this series, we will examine Nicholas of Cusa’s approach to the Qur’an; the history of Mary as a bridge or barrier in Christian relations with Muslims; and St. Francis and Pope Francis as models of fraternal encounter.
This series is co-presented by the Lumen Christi Institute and the American Cusanus Society. This series is cosponsored by the Graymoor Ecumenical & Interreligious Institute, the Australian Catholic University, the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies, St. Paul’s Catholic Center, the Nova Forum for Catholic Thought, the Saint Benedict Institute, the Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage, and both the Jay Phillips Center for Interreligious Studies and the Encountering Islam Initiative at the University of St. Thomas (Minnesota).
Upcoming events:
September 8, 6:00 p.m. CDT
Francis & Francis: Encountering Muslims, Past & Present
Dr. Jason Welle, OFM (Pontifical Institute for Arabic & Islamic Studies, Rome)

The Monastics Before the Scholastics: An Introduction to Medieval Monastic Theology
2021-08-22 19:30
Free and open to the public. This event will be held online through Zoom (registration required) and live-streamed to YouTube. This event is part of a summer webinar series on Monastic Wisdom.
What is monastic theology? Is it just an alternative to Thomism or the more “philosophical” (or more serious?) tradition of theology? Should the works of monastic theologians be relegated, as Thomas Merton feared they were, to the shelves of “spiritual” or devotional literature, as pious options extrinsic to theological discipline? With St. Anselm as our guide, Fr. John will discuss how theological method must include a properly “monastic” element.

Wisdom from the Heart of the Cistercian Tradition
Join us once per month, June through September, for four Sunday evening sessions featuring monks from Our Lady of Dallas Cistercian Abbey who will lead us through a series of reflections examining the contours of the monastic intellectual tradition. At the foundations of the Cistercian order is the reform movement of St. Bernard of Clairvaux. In faithfulness to their founder, these webinars invite participants to see how the monastic approach to Scripture, theology, and the common life might reform our own understanding and endeavors in the labors of daily Christianity.
This series is co-presented with Our Lady of Dallas Cistercian Abbey, and co-sponsored by the Harvard Catholic Forum, the Nova Forum, the Saint Benedict Institute, and Studies in Catholic Faith and Culture at the University of Dallas.
Upcoming sessions:
September 26, 7:30 PM CT:
The Christological Structure of Spiritual Growth In the Thought of St. Bernard
Fr. Roch Kereszty, O. Cist.

Francis & Francis: Encountering Muslims, Past & Present
2021-09-08 18:00
Free and open to the public. This event is part of a webinar series, “Catholics & Muslims: History, Theology, Encounters,” presented by the Lumen Christi Institute and the American Cusanus Society.
This session will consider two Christian-Muslim encounters: the first between St. Francis of Assisi and Sultan al-Malik in 1219 in Egypt during the Crusades, and the second between Pope Francis and Grand Imam Ahmed el-Tayeb in Abu Dhabi eight centuries later, on Feb. 4, 2019, when they co-signed the historic “Document on Human Fraternity.” How have personal relationships between Christians and Muslims affected both the practice of interreligious dialogue and the Catholic theology of Islam?

Catholics & Muslims: History, Theology, Encounters
The 1965 Vatican II document Nostra Aetate 3 encouraged Catholics and Muslims to “forget the past” and focus on a more positive future together, one based on dialogue and cooperation. Since then, Catholics at all levels, from popes to parishioners, have heeded this call. However, the complicated, centuries-long history of Christian-Muslim relations demands attention. Instead of “forgetting the past,” Catholics need to revisit this history, both on their own and with their Muslim partners. In this series, we will examine Nicholas of Cusa’s approach to the Qur’an; the history of Mary as a bridge or barrier in Christian relations with Muslims; and St. Francis and Pope Francis as models of fraternal encounter.
This series is co-presented by the Lumen Christi Institute and the American Cusanus Society. This series is cosponsored by the Graymoor Ecumenical & Interreligious Institute, the Australian Catholic University, the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies, St. Paul’s Catholic Center, the Nova Forum for Catholic Thought, the Saint Benedict Institute, the Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage, and both the Jay Phillips Center for Interreligious Studies and the Encountering Islam Initiative at the University of St. Thomas (Minnesota).

Master Class on "The Integralism of Jacques Maritain" Part I
2021-09-24 14:00 - 17:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
REGISTER HERE
THIS IS AN IN-PERSON EVENT. Open to current graduate students and University of Chicago Undergraduates. Others who are interested in participating should contact us. Copies of The Primacy of the Spiritual: On the Things that are not Caesar’s (Cluny Media, 2020) will be provided for registrants.
Jacques Maritain (1882-1973) was perhaps the most influential Catholic social and political philosopher of the 20th century. He taught at Columbia and Princeton, and was a frequent guest lecturer at the University of Chicago, where he gave the Walgreen Lectures, later published as Man and the State (1951). Appointed the French Ambassador to the Holy See after WWII, Maritain’s thought influenced not only four popes but also the generation of bishops who attended the Second Vatican Council.
This master class will focus on his critique of Action Française, a right-wing integralism led by Charles Maurras and supported by many influential French Catholics, including Maritain himself. It’s slogan La politique d’abord! (“Politics first!”) was condemned by Rome, causing Maritain to rethink his own position in The Primacy of the Spiritual (1927).

This is the first of a series of three master classes on the political thought of Jacques Maritain. Dates for the subsequent master classes are to be announced.
PART II
We turn to Maritain’s most important work, Integral Humanism (1936). Published on the eve of the Second World War, it had its most profound effect upon the post-war generation engaged in rebuilding Europe and eventually reforming the Church at the Council. In it, Maritain clearly proposes an alternative to the political integralisms of his era.
PART III
We take up Maritain’s mature political philosophy, encapsulated in his University of Chicago lectures. Man and the State reflects his recent work on human rights commissions, and it represents a fairly accurate testament of his philosophy of the nature and limits of political order.

For all events held at Gavin House, the Lumen Christi Institute follows Chicago Department of Public Health Guidance for in-person gatherings. Please see here for the city’s most up-to-date guidelines. These are guidelines subject to change.

If you have any questions about accessibility, please contact us.

The Christological Structure of Spiritual Growth In the Thought of St. Bernard
2021-09-26 19:30
Free and open to the public. This event will be held online through Zoom (registration required) and live-streamed to YouTube. This event is part of a summer webinar series on Monastic Wisdom.
The development of spiritual life is caused and modeled by the stages in the history of Jesus: the converting soul first develops an emotional love for Jesus in the flesh: This love is moody and lacks judgment in discerning right and wrong (amor carnalis). Next, Jesus the teacher instructs the soul in the moral virtues (amor rationalis) but the soul lacks the joy of love and virtue. In the final stage of spiritual growth the soul is able to know and love the glorified risen Christ (amor spiritualis) who dwells in the soul as wisdom, the taste of good.

Wisdom from the Heart of the Cistercian Tradition
Join us once per month, June through September, for four Sunday evening sessions featuring monks from Our Lady of Dallas Monastery who will lead us through a series of reflections examining the contours of the monastic intellectual tradition. At the foundations of the Cistercian order is the reform movement of St. Bernard of Clairvaux. In faithfulness to their founder, these webinars invite participants to see how the monastic approach to Scripture, theology, and the common life might reform our own understanding and endeavors in the labors of daily Christianity.
This series is co-presented with Our Lady of Dallas Cistercian Abbey, and co-sponsored by the Harvard Catholic Forum, the Nova Forum, the Saint Benedict Institute, and Studies in Catholic Faith and Culture at the University of Dallas.
Previous events in this series:
June 27, 2021:
The Song of Songs in Monastic Interpretation
Fr. Joseph Van House, O. Cist.
—
July 25, 2021:
A School for the Lord’s Service”: A Meditation on the Rule of St. Benedict
Fr. Abbot Peter Verhalen, O. Cist.
—
August 22, 2021:
The Monastics before the Scholastics: An Introduction to Medieval Monastic Theology
Fr. John Bayer, O. Cist.

The University and Your Soul: Integrating Faith, Prayer, and the Intellectual Life
2021-09-28 18:00 - 19:30 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Open to current University of Chicago undergraduates ONLY. Registration required. FREE DINNER! Cosponsored by Calvert House Catholic Center.
Join the Lumen Christi Institute and Calvert House for a panel discussion of practical ways to engage and integrate your Catholic faith and intellectual life at the university.

For all events held at Gavin House, the Lumen Christi Institute follows Chicago Department of Public Health Guidance for in-person gatherings. Please see here for the city’s most up-to-date guidelines. These are guidelines subject to change.

If you have any questions about accessibility, please contact us.

Cruel But Usual: Solitary Confinement's Tortured History
2021-09-30 19:00
Free and open to the public. This event will be held online through Zoom (registration required) and live-streamed to YouTube. Presented by the Catholic Criminal Justice Reform Network and cosponsored by the Catholic Mobilizing Network.
Pope Francis has denounced the use of solitary confinement. He describes it as “torture” employed under the “pretext of offering greater security to society or special treatment for certain categories of prisoners, its main characteristic is none other than external isolation.” The result is the degradation of the human person through the imposed “lack of sensory stimuli, the total impossibility of communication and the lack of contact with other human beings induce mental and physical suffering such as paranoia, anxiety, depression, weight loss, and significantly increase the suicidal tendency.”
Our panel of legal scholars will discuss solitary confinement in light of history and contemporary practice. Professor Andrea Armstrong, whose work was highlighted in the August 16, 2021 issue of the New Yorker, will discuss contemporary conditions of solitary confinement, including its effects on healthcare and mortality in the Louisiana prison system. Her presentation will include art, pictures, and video of solitary cells used recently in Louisiana. Professor David Shapiro will take us back to the beginning of solitary confinement in the United States, discussing his important work on early use of solitary confinement in the Walnut Street Jail. This groundbreaking work was published in the Harvard Law review. Finally, Professor John Stinneford will endeavor to tie present and past together by discussing the relationship between solitary confinement and the American punishment tradition. The panelists will also discuss constitutional, statutory, and administrative approaches to solitary confinement However, we must discuss these varied views regarding the the legality of solitary confinement in light of Pope Francis’s question: Can depriving a human being of the company of other humans ever be just?

Conscience and Human Rights in Thomas Aquinas and Some Predecessors
2021-10-07 17:00 | Swift Hall, 3rd Floor Lecture, 1025 E 58th St. Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Free and open to the public. Registration is required. Contact us with any questions. Note the time for this event has been changed from 4:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
In discussions of the history of the philosophy of human rights, typically a distinction is made between theories that understand rights as objective and those that understand them as subjective (or, to use a more contemporary term, more “personalistic”). This talk relates this issue to the history of reflection, especially by Christian thinkers leading up to the thirteenth century, regarding conscience. It argues ultimately that Thomas Aquinas’s understanding of conscience, influenced as it is by Aristotle, entails an understanding of human rights that is primarily objective. It concludes with a few remarks about the advantages of such an understanding.

This convening is open to all invitees regardless of vaccination status and, because of ongoing health risks, particularly to the unvaccinated, participants are expected to adopt the risk mitigation measures (masking and social distancing, etc.) appropriate to their vaccination status as advised by public health officials or to their individual vulnerabilities as advised by a medical professional. Public convening may not be safe for all and carries a risk for contracting COVID-19, particularly for those unvaccinated. Participants will not know the vaccination status of others and should follow appropriate risk mitigation measures.
If you are not currently affiliated with the University (enrolled student, faculty, or staff) it is expected that you review the University’s COVID mitigation efforts. The University expects every event attendee to adopt precautions designed to mitigate the risk of viral transmission.
If you have any questions, please contact us.

Justice and Peace: A Radical Reconsideration of Public Safety – A Roundtable Discussion
2021-10-07 19:00 - 20:30
8:00 PM ET | 7:00 PM CT | 5:00 PM PT
This zoom webinar event is free and open to the public. Presented by Seattle University and The Catholic Criminal Justice Reform Network.
Nearly fifty years ago, Pope St. Paul VI said, “If you want Peace, work for Justice.” Echoing his words, “No Justice, No Peace” has become the chant of protesters from Seattle to Atlanta seeking freedom not only from excessive use of force by police but also from unjust inequities across social and political structures. This roundtable presentation invites policing scholars in the fields of law, criminology, and theological ethics to explore how we might build peace on a foundation of justice. The interdisciplinary panel will address the future of public safety through the lens of Catholic Social Teaching.
Professor Herschella Conyers (University of Chicago Law School) bleakly assesses the current state of affairs: “[R]eform must begin … with an acknowledgement of the sad history and present conditions that have left the people totally alienated from the police, and afraid for their physical and emotional safety.” Similarly, Professor Michael Scott (Arizona State University) points to a possible source of guidance: “[I]nsofar as the Catholic Catechism represents a coherent and comprehensive moral code, and if one accepts the proposition that law, law enforcement and governance must, minimally, be moral, then the Catholic Catechism…merits being consulted on police reform.” “In dialogue with the tradition of Catholic Social Teaching, Professor Michael Jaycox (Seattle University) argues that “a credible Catholic commitment to pursuing the common good would have to include, at minimum, ensuring whatever social conditions are necessary for Black freedom from white violence.” To advance the common good, Professor Tobias Winright (St. Louis University) suggests that involving “the police in other community and social peacekeeping activities serves to contextualize, moderate and restrain that use of force, ensuring that it is a last resort.”
This panel serves as the keynote event for a three-day colloquium addressing Catholic perspectives on criminal justice reform. The workshops and public lectures include leading scholars examining how Catholic tradition and social thought might inform the challenges confronting today’s American criminal justice system.

A Life in Service of the Truth: The Legacy of Fr. Paul Mankowski, SJ
2021-10-08 17:30 - 19:45 | University Club of Chicago, 76 E Monroe St Chicago, IL 60603, Downtown, IL
Fr. Paul Mankowski (1953 – 2020) was a brilliant essayist, a singular wit, and a devoted son of the Church. Born in South Bend, Indiana, he put himself through the University of Chicago while working summers in a steel mill. Called to a vocation with the Society of Jesus, Fr. Paul entered the novitiate in 1976 before studying Classics at Oxford and Semitic languages at Harvard.
Though lacking all instincts for self-promotion, Fr. Paul quickly gained a reputation for his erudition and his razor-sharp intellect. He suffered greatly for his loyalty to the Church before finding a home at the Lumen Christi Institute at the University of Chicago. Having returned to his alma mater, he served as a fulcrum of intellectual and spiritual formation for countless students. In passing away unexpectedly on September 3, 2020, Fr. Paul Mankowski left a legacy of principled and courageous allegiance to the Church and her tradition of integrated intellectual and spiritual life.
This event will celebrate the life and legacy of Fr. Paul Mankowski through a conversation with Professor Gary Anderson (University of Notre Dame), who will comment on Fr. Paul’s work as a scholar. and Fr. Kevin Flannery, SJ ( Pontifical Gregorian University), who will reflect on Fr. Paul’s life as a Jesuit (with Fr. Paul’s letters as a point of departure).

Conversation on "The Rage of Innocence"
2021-10-14 17:00 | Loyola University Chicago Law School, 25 East Pearson Street, Chicago, IL
Free and open to the public. Presented by the Loyola University Chicago School of Law and the Catholic Criminal Justice Reform Network. Cosponsored by the Catholic Lawyers Guild of Chicago.
A discussion of The Rage of Innocence: How America Criminalizes Black Youth with author and Professor Kris Henning in conversation with Pulitzer Prize winning author of Locking Up Our Own, Professor James Forman, Jr.
In January 2019, Pope Francis told the detainees at a Panamanian youth prison: “You are part of [God’s] family; you have a lot to share with others.” A fruitful society, he said, “is able to generate processes of inclusion and integration, of caring and trying to create opportunities and alternatives that can offer new possibilities to the young, to build a future through community, education and employment. Such a community is healthy.” Unfortunately, our communities fail to offer a healthy, inclusive, and caring environment for court-involved youth–particularly youth of color–as Professor Kris Henning dramatically reveals.
In a searing and clear indictment of the juvenile and criminal legal system, Kris Henning draws on her 25 years of representing young people accused of crimes to show the day-to-day brutalities endured by Black youth growing up under constant surveillance and persistent threat of physical and psychological abuse by police. Join Profs. Henning and Forman in a discussion of her critical and timely new book.

The Salvific Power of the Inner Life of Christ: The Witness of the Ecumenical Councils
2021-10-21 17:00 | Swift Hall, First Floor Common Room, 1025 E 58th St,Chicago, IL 60637, Hyde Park, IL
Free and open to the public. Registration for in-person attendance is not required, but requested. Contact us with any questions. Note the time for this event has been changed from 4:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. This event is cosponsored by the Harvard Catholic Forum.
Standard accounts of salvation in both East and West typically do not include a consideration of how Christ’s inner life-his thoughts, feelings, and intentions- are salvific. Such an omission is inconsistent with the witness of both the Scriptures and the ecumenical councils.
In affirming the necessity for human salvation of Christ’s human mind and will, the ecumenical councils implicitly affirmed the salvific value of Christ’s inner life without providing a description of its inner contents. On the basis of Scripture and both Eastern and Western traditions, such a description can be summarized by the notion of Christ’s saving “doxological contrition”.
Fr. Anatolios will also lead a master class for students and faculty on Friday, October 22 on The Doctrine of Salvation in Nicholas Cabasilas’s The Life in Christ.

This convening is open to all invitees regardless of vaccination status and, because of ongoing health risks, particularly to the unvaccinated, participants are expected to adopt the risk mitigation measures (masking and social distancing, etc.) appropriate to their vaccination status as advised by public health officials or to their individual vulnerabilities as advised by a medical professional. Public convening may not be safe for all and carries a risk for contracting COVID-19, particularly for those unvaccinated. Participants will not know the vaccination status of others and should follow appropriate risk mitigation measures.
If you are not currently affiliated with the University (enrolled student, faculty, or staff) it is expected that you review the University’s COVID mitigation efforts. The University expects every event attendee to adopt precautions designed to mitigate the risk of viral transmission.
If you have any questions, please contact us.

The Doctrine of Salvation in Nicholas Cabasilas's "Life in Christ"
2021-10-22 14:00 - 17:00
THIS IS AN IN-PERSON EVENT. Open to current graduate students and University of Chicago Undergraduates. Others who are interested in participating should contact us. Copies of Life in Christ will be provided for registrants.
Life in Christ “originates in this life and arises from it. It is perfected, however, in the life to come, when we shall have reached the last day. It cannot attain perfection in men’s souls in this life, nor even in that which is to come without already having begun here.”
So writes the 14th century Greek theologian Nicholas Cabasilas in The Life in Christ. This work is a classic, synthetic presentation of the Christian understood through the lens of the Byzantine Christian tradition. This master class will feature a disciplined reading of The Life in Christ led by Fr. Khaled Anatolios and will discuss Cabasilas’ soteriology found within the work.
Fr. Anatolios will also give a public lecture on Thursday, October 21 on The Salvific Power of the Inner Life of Christ: The Witness of the Ecumenical Councils.

For all events held at Gavin House, the Lumen Christi Institute follows Chicago Department of Public Health Guidance for in-person gatherings. Please see here for the city’s most up-to-date guidelines. These are guidelines subject to change.

If you have any questions about accessibility, please contact us.

The Riddle of the Ring: Dark Magic & Spiritual Danger in Tolkien
2021-10-28 18:00 - 20:00 | Gavin House, 1220 E 58th St., Chicago, IL, 60637
Open to current students and faculty. Dinner at 6:00 p.m. | Lecture at 6:30 p.m.
“One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them. In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.” Everyone knows that Sauron made the One Ring, but nobody—including Tolkien—seems to know how it worked, perhaps because nobody—including Tolkien—explained how Sauron made it. Where did Tolkien get the idea of magic rings? What would it mean to make a magic ring? And what might explain its effects? In this lecture, Professor Rachel Fulton Brown gives a brief history of English magic in quest of the making of Sauron’s One Ring and explores the spiritual dangers in attempting to make such rings for Elves, Dwarves, Hobbits—and Men.

For all events held at Gavin House, the Lumen Christi Institute follows Chicago Department of Public Health Guidance for in-person gatherings. Please see here for the city’s most up-to-date guidelines. These are guidelines subject to change.
If you have any questions, please contact us.
