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Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Daniel Dennett—the twentieth-century “four-horsemen of new atheism” as described by Georgetown theologian John Haught—are (were) confident and self-assured, certain that believers (and the unfortunate beliefs they espouse) will eventually disappear.
It’s a reasonable assumption in their view.
But in his downtown luncheon lecture, “Science, Faith, and the New Atheism” (February 19), John Haught—Professor Emeritus of Theology at Georgetown University—described the ideas put forth by Harris, Dawkins, Hitchens, and Dennett as “soft-core atheism.” He prefers engaging the “hard-core atheists” (Nietzsche, Freud, and Marx) whose arguments he presents in the classes he teaches at Georgetown and finds “much more challenging.”
Nonetheless the new atheists have been successful in captivating public interest.
“Faith is belief without evidence. Every instance of faith is dangerous,” says the neuroscientist Sam Harris. He argues that all the unnecessary suffering and violence in the world originates from religious belief. The evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, famous for his The God Delusion, adds that religion is supposed to make us moral but doesn’t. The late writer and literary critic Christopher Hitchens, author of the caustically witty God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, claimed (in one of his nicer statements) that religion is an “intellectually indefensible idea.” The philosopher Daniel Dennett wonders why religion is still around. He turns to evolutionary theory to explain that religion has helped our species adapt and survive, and it lingers in our consciousness still because it is “in our genes.”
According to Haught, what the “new atheists” are saying isn’t new at all. Their arguments—rooted in 17th century scientism (the view that science alone can render truth about reality)—have in fact been articulated better by other thinkers.
Many believers nonetheless feel intimated by the arguments of the new atheists.
Haven’t monstrous atrocities been committed by people in Christ’s name (i.e. The Crusades, The Inquisition)? Debating morality—as people often find—doesn’t get very far. Atheists express their disgust with religious hypocrisy, with religion’s bloodstained history; believers fight back with examples of atheist tyrants (Mao, Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot). It’s an inconclusive effort. Each side can always make one more point, offer one more example.
Haught prefers a different approach, that of examining the intellectual assumptions made by the new atheists. They say to take nothing on faith, and yet it takes faith to accept scientism. The bottom line is that when you get to the essence of its philosophy, new atheism is “self-refuting, self-contradictory, built on sandy soil.”
The main point of his lecture, Haught said, was that human beings, scientists included, “cannot help but having a faith, a trust.” They have a faith that the universe is intelligible, a belief that truth is worth seeking, a belief in the rightness of honesty (of sharing their data and research), and a belief in the capacity of their minds to make judgments. All this reveals just how intrinsic faith is to everything they do. To say that faith is irrational is to disregard the most fundamental aspect of our humanity. “To be human,” Haught argued, “means to be already engaged in a life of faith.”
New atheists ignore another deep truth about the human experience. It is our awe before the mystical and sublime. Scientists, if they are honest with themselves, experience this just like everyone else. “Something like a surrender is going on tacitly in the minds of all good scientists,” said Haught.
Saw the Importance of the Intellectual Apostolate for the Task of Evangelization
For the past seventeen years, Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I., Archbishop Emeritus of Chicago, devoted himself to guiding the nation’s third largest diocese (the Archdiocese of Chicago has 2.2 million Catholics)—inspiring immigrant Catholics to cling to Christ despite the difficulties of living in an unfamiliar country, and encouraging Catholics who have lived in the city for generations not to be led astray by secularism, materialism, and individualism—ideologies that undermine the spiritual integrity of American society.
In addition to all the duties that come with being an archbishop in a large metropolitan area, Cardinal George found time to engage in important philosophical debates with prominent intellectuals.
American journalist John L. Allen, Jr.—who specializes in coverage of the Vatican—has described George as the “American Ratzinger.” Although George dismisses this label, “insisting he’s not of Benedict’s intellectual caliber,” Allen contends that he is the “closest thing to it on these shores”—citing as his credentials his “blend of intellectual chops and tenacious commitment to Catholic tradition.”
The Lumen Christi Institute—where Cardinal George was Episcopal Moderator since its founding in 1997—provided him with a forum for wide-ranging philosophical discourse.
Cardinal George would often participate in Lumen Christi events—engaging eminent thinkers (i.e., American theologian David Tracy, Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor, French philosopher Jean-Luc Marion, and the late American ethicist and public intellectual Jean Bethke Elshtain) in the discussion of topics such as “The Catholic Faith and the Secular Academy” (1999); “What Can Philosophers Learn from the Tradition” (2005); “God, Freedom, and Public Life” (2011); and most recently “The Human Person, Economics, and Catholic Social Thought” (2014).
Kenneth L. Woodward—former religion editor of Newsweek—publicly praised Cardinal George in his letter “Farewell, Cardinal” in the Chicago Tribune for his being instrumental in the formation of Lumen Christi.
“One of Cardinal George’s most important legacies is his solicitude for the intellectual life of the church in Chicago,” wrote Woodward, “particularly as manifest in the support he has given to the Lumen Christi Institute, which he helped to create at the University of Chicago in 1997.”
Lumen Christi benefited immensely by having a Cardinal so deeply invested in its mission.
Lumen Christi Board Chair Noel Moore is grateful for so many years of the Cardinal’s leadership and guidance: “The relationship between the Cardinal and Lumen Christi was a natural and grace-filled match right from the Institute’s early days. Because of the Cardinal’s great scholarship and intellectual gifts, he was able to see our mission as a whole, and therefore wisely lead it.”
Jean-Luc Marion—who along with George was responsible for the creation of Lumen Christi—found the Cardinal a keen thinker who understood the distinct problems facing a society whose heart and mind was at conflict with its soul.
“Cardinal George was perfectly well aware that pastoral and intellectual concerns not only are compatible, but that, in an information-led and structured society, they flourish together,” says Marion. “Taking seriously philosophy—being himself a scholar in that field—he could see the depth and diagnose the weakness of the arguments, judging from the point of view of both transcendent and immanent truth of Christ.”
George had a combination of gifts that inspired his city of Chicago, but also resonated with the broader American Church—a Church often struggling with how to pass on the faith, how to speak of its relevance, within a modern secular context.
He called for a fundamental reevaluation of the conversation surrounding human rights, religious liberty, respect for life, just war, commerce, immigration, and globalization in his bookGod in Action: How Faith in God Can Address the Challenges of the World, which he published in 2011.
Don Briel—Founding Director of the Center for Catholic Studies at the University of St. Thomas and Lumen Christi Advisory Board Member—remarked of George’s influence: “As a religious, a priest, an intellectual, a pastor, and a teacher, Cardinal George was exceptionally well prepared to address the unique challenges and opportunities for the Church within modern American culture. He saw, as few others did, the central importance of the intellectual apostolate for the task of evangelization and he supported it in ways that will have a lasting impact not only in Chicago but also around the country.”
“Lumen Christi keeps alive the possibility of a harmonization (or at least a productive tension) between humanistic and scientific inquiry in the modern university.”
What is your area of study and what is the focus of your current research?
I am a student in the Committee on Social Thought, where I study the political philosophy of John Henry Newman and the relationship between liberal education, religion, and liberalism.
How did you first hear about Lumen Christi? Which event did you first attend, and why?
I was late to the party, having been at UChicago for three years before I discovered Lumen Christi. But in April of 2014, I noticed that Social Thought and Lumen Christi were sponsoring a conference on “The Human Person, Economics, and Catholic Social Thought.” If you remember, by 2014, the nation had been forced to endure not only a presidential election but also a debate about the government shutdown, where the only thing more dispiriting than the arguments for “the economic position” had been the arguments against it. I attended the Lumen Christi conference in the (as it turns out, justified) hope that the Catholic position might be more thoughtful than that of either major political party.
How has your participation in Institute lectures, conferences, and seminars contributed to your growth as a scholar?
Political philosophy, as a discipline, is on uncertain terms with religion. It is willing, of course, to investigate the “utility” of religion, but it almost by necessity avoids the question of whether or not a certain religion might be true. Lumen Christi has helped me to move from arguments about utility to arguments about truth.
Is there a particular event (or encounter with a scholar) that has directly impacted the development of your academic work?
Ian Ker’s 2014 summer seminar on the thought of John Henry Newman. Newman’s Idea of a University had a small part in my Masters’ exams, but it wasn’t until the seminar in Oxford that I was able to study the entirety of Newman’s thought. Father Ker showed me the necessity of situating Newman’s university writings within his works as a whole in order to best appreciate Newman’s arguments about the relationship between Christianity and liberal education.
What do you plan to do after you have completed your degree from the University of Chicago?
I came to Chicago after four years as a high school teacher in Mississippi, wanting eventually to be a high school principal but believing I didn’t yet know enough about philosophy, history, or human nature to be a good one. Somewhere along the way, I was seduced by the idea of the academic life. To be fair, though, the prospect of being an administrator is never so attractive as when I’m trying to write my dissertation.
Please comment on the role you think the Institute plays on the University of Chicago campus.
As I understand it, the medieval university believed all knowledge to be ultimately inner-connected and part of a larger whole. There seems to be something fundamentally right about this belief, even if the modern university—with all its emphasis on specialization and ostensible “value neutrality” —is unable to see it. To that end, Lumen Christi keeps alive the possibility of a harmonization (or at least a productive tension) between humanistic and scientific inquiry in the modern university.
![[From Left to Right] Governor Pete Ricketts, his wife Susanne, and Executive Director of the Lumen Christi Institute Thomas Levergood](https://lumenchristi.org/img/wp/2015/01/d7079cea-1380-4cbb-b324-731303c5f07e.jpg)
Lumen Christi Institute Board Member and University of Chicago graduate J. Peter “Pete” Ricketts was sworn in as the 40th Governor of Nebraska on January 8, 2015.
Born in Nebraska City and raised in Omaha, Ricketts has deep ties to the city of Chicago. In 1982, he attended the University of Chicago where he earned his bachelor’s degree in biology, followed by an MBA in marketing and finance. While living in Chicago, Pete and his brother Tom fell in love with the Chicago Cubs. It probably fueled their passion that they shared an apartment over the “Sports Corner” at Addison and Sheffield, across the street from Wrigley Field.
The passion turned out to be a great one. Ricketts currently serves on the board of directors for the Chicago Cubs baseball team.
Ricketts is also the former Chief Operating Officer of Ameritrade (based in Omaha, Nebraska)—one of the largest online discount brokerages in the world—and presently serves on the TD Ameritrade Board of Directors.
After learning of the work of the Lumen Christi Institute, Ricketts attended the 2012 Economics and Catholic Social Thought Conference titled “Toward a Moral Economy: Policies and Values for the 21st Century.” Reinhard Cardinal Marx—the Archbishop of Munich—gave the opening remarks to the symposium, receiving responses from University of Chicago economists—Nobel Prize-winner Roger Myerson and MacArthur Fellow Kevin Murphy. Ricketts joined the Institute’s Board of Directors in March of 2013.
In addition to serving on the board of the Lumen Christi Institute, Ricketts also serves on the Global Advisory Board for the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, is a board member for the Chicago Cubs Charities, a member of the Knights of Columbus, and a Knight of the Holy Sepulchre. Ricketts lives in Omaha with his wife First Lady Susanne Shore and their three children.
What is your area of study and what is the focus of your current research?
I am a third-year undergraduate majoring in philosophy but studying French and Spanish as well. I have yet to settle on a specific area in philosophy to delve into in my final year here at the University of Chicago—still dabbling in a little bit of this and that—but I have thoroughly enjoyed classes on bioethics, moral theory, the relationship between faith and reason, and ancient philosophy. That said, I am interested in reading more about the relationship between positive and negative liberty as a potential topic for my BA paper.
How did you first hear about Lumen Christi? Which event did you first attend, and why?
I first heard about Lumen Christi through family friends who attended the University of Chicago several years ago. When they heard that I would be coming here, they told me that Lumen Christi lectures were one of the many gem opportunities here that I should not miss. The first event I attended was a talk given by Fr. Edward Oakes titled, “The Second Vatican Council and the Church’s Engagement in the Modern World” because it was one of the first events of the year and because at the time I knew very little about the history and influences of Vatican II but was interested in learning more.
How has your participation in Institute lectures, conferences, and seminars contributed to your growth as a scholar?
The speakers at Lumen Christi events are role models of Catholic intellectuals whose knowledge of the faith gives me something to aspire to have in the future. When I leave a Lumen Christi event, be it a fascinating discussion of natural law with Professor Russell Hittinger or Fr. Raymond Gawronski’s lecture on “Saint John Paul II and the Polish Catholic Experience,” I find that I come away with an appreciation for a new array of concepts and thoughts, but at the same time a sense that I have only skimmed the surface of the particular topic at hand. It is then that I am reminded that part of learning is coming to see how little one does know, and that finding some ideas difficult to comprehend but interesting nonetheless is a strong reason to study further on one’s own.
Is there a particular event (or encounter with a scholar) that has directly impacted the development of your academic work?
Fr. Paul Mankowski’s, “The Catholic Tradition of Prayer and Devotion” last February resonated with me because Fr. Mankowski emphasized the necessity of a strong prayer life in order to be successful in whatever one’s task is, in this case, the work of being a student at the University of Chicago. He observed that sometimes people don’t adopt a regimen of prayer because they don’t think that using formulaic prayers suit them, but, noting that that is a mistaken assumption, emphasized that devotions can provide regularity to our prayer lives and help sustain them. This talk reminded me to invite God into an area of my life in which I had rarely asked for His inspiration, namely, my development as a student. Relying on God to let Him shape me into the scholar He needs gives me a great sense of peace.
What do you plan to do after you have completed your degree from the University of Chicago?
After I complete my undergraduate studies here, I think I would like to do some research and writing at a think tank specializing in something relating to bioethics or religion. Recently I have been considering pursuing graduate studies in religion and philosophy, though where I would go for that I have yet to decide. I think in the long term I would like to teach something in the area of religion at the college level.
Please comment on the role you think the Institute plays on the University of Chicago campus.
From an undergraduate perspective, I have noticed that Lumen Christi has created a strong sense of camaraderie among the undergraduates who attend the lectures and enjoy discussing the topics of the events long afterwards. Students who love discussing the finer points of the Catholic intellectual tradition can delve into them in great depth at Lumen Christi events and have the opportunity to speak to scholars one-on-one. By providing this forum for discussion, the Institute is very concretely building the Catholic presence in higher education. In addition, Lumen Christi showcases the ways in which Christian thinkers have made significant contributions to the secular disciplines of philosophy, literature, and art, among other fields. In providing a space for these conversations—be it those regarding the changing notions of love, the sacredness of the human person, or the history of sacred music—Lumen Christi events are occasions to continue thinking about the complexity and beauty of the faith.
Fr. Robert Barron Offers Seven Ways to Share the Gospel
Fr. Robert Barron is one of the Church’s leading evangelists. But he doesn’t want to remain in the slim ranks of those who shoulder this burden.
In his lecture titled “Pope Francis and the New Evangelization” given on May 8th at the University Club of Chicago, Fr. Barron (Rector, Mundelein Seminary/University of Saint Mary of the Lake; founder, Word on Fire) encouraged his audience to learn about the faith so that they too can share it.
With Pope Francis as a model of how to spread “the joy of the Gospel,” Barron argued that Catholics have a duty to awaken the faith of the baptized and bring back those who have drifted. To become evangelists on fire for the Gospel, Barron suggested Catholics focus on seven areas.
1. Lead with the beautiful
Especially today, in our post-modern relativistic world, “to begin with the truth is a non-starter,” said Barron. Worse yet is to tell people how they should behave. “Begin with the beautiful.” It is “less threatening and more winsome.” Barron gave an example from his childhood. When he was seven years old, he was taken to Tiger’s Stadium in Detroit. He was captivated by the bright green grass and the crisp white jerseys. He immediately wanted to play baseball. But if someone introduced him to the game by telling him about the “infield fly rule,” it wouldn’t have been as appealing. Begin with Chartres Cathedral, the stained glass at Sainte-Chapelle, the work of Mother Teresa’s sisters, the music of Mozart, urged Barron. Draw people into the good and the true through that door. The debates in the Church after the Second Vatican Council have been similar to the “infield fly rule.” That’s not how we’re going to lure in the next generation. We have to start with beauty, as Pope Francis has said, “begin with the merciful face of Christ.”
2. Don’t dumb down the message
Among Barron’s greatest frustrations is when parishioners approach him after Mass complaining that they didn’t understand his homily. “Father, you’re speaking over our heads.” Barron pushes back against this kind of ‘the faith is too complicated’ mentality. Catholics today are doctors and lawyers, bankers and investors. They read high-level medical journals and complex case histories and take over businesses. “Why do you expect your religion to be spoon-fed?” Barron probed.
Urging his audience to take pride in coming from “the oldest intellectual tradition in the West,” he told them to learn about great thinkers such as Origen, Jerome, Augustine, Bonaventure, and John Henry Newman. Catholics should know that Vatican II was produced “by the cream of the intellectual crop at the time.” “Read those documents,” prodded Barron, “you will be struck by their intellectual richness.”
Indeed, Catholics need to stubbornly think about their faith, need to take it as seriously as any other aspect of their life. He insisted that we take example from those who elevate, who educate, who inspire: “I first read Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet when I was fourteen-years-old. Though I understood about ten percent of it, I was taught that there was such a thing, that there was rhetoric at that level.” He encouraged a similar approach to our passing down the faith: “Why aren’t we teaching fourteen-year-olds Dante and Augustine?”
3. Preach with ardor
John Paul II called for a new ardor, a new fire in preaching the faith. “Aristotle said long ago that finally people only really listen to an excited speaker,” Barron said, pointing to the TV advertisements where people muster “enormous enthusiasm” for second-rate products. He drew a contrast to his own experience at Mundelein where some of his students preach their sermons like they just rolled out of bed.
Where does the fire come from? The early Church was marked by a certain kind of fiery missionary ardor. Barron argues it comes from clarity about the Resurrection. Christianity isn’t about some “blandly abstract reflections” proposed by another spiritual guru. Neither is it about arguments, about people bickering about authority and sexuality (“that’s not going to be intellectually compelling,” he said). It’s about an experience so overwhelming that people want to “grab the whole world by the lapels and tell them, ‘Jesus Christ is risen from the dead!’”
“We’re here to let the light out. Christ is the Lumen Gentium: The Light of the people.” We understood Vatican II all wrong. “It wasn’t primarily to modernize the Church…it was to Christify the world,” he said. “Evangelization is about sharing that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.”
4. Tell the great story
Catholics should know their Old Testament. After all, “evangelization is that the great story of Israel has come to fulfillment,” Barron said. The story of Jesus Christ cannot be understood without placing him within the history of Israel. We have a thousand spiritual teachers, but Christ is the “New David, the fulfillment of the promises made to Abraham, the New Moses, New Adam.” Barron argued that evangelization takes on a sparkle and a snap when you realize that the Church is the new Israel.” Sadly, for many Catholics today, Israel has little relevance. “If you don’t get Israel, you don’t get him.” Is the Old Testament with all its genealogies and strange references to people and places we often cannot pronounce too daunting to tackle? Barron recounted that he once met an eight-year-old child who had memorized every subplot and character in the Stars Wars saga. Our children are capable of learning the timeless stories of Scripture.
5. Stress the Augustinian Anthropology
As Augustine famously stated: “Our heart is restless until it rests in You.” We all have been wired for God. There is nothing in this world that satisfies. “Secularism is soul destroying,” Barron said. It tells us that “we can find satisfaction in the goods of the world; it denies this hunger that can’t be met by anything in this world.” When we fall for the lie of secularism, “we hook the desire for God onto wealth, pleasure, power, and honor. We spend our lives hopping around those altars.” The destruction of our souls is a life and death matter. We need to stand up against this idolatry and “speak the language of the true God,” tell the world that only God can satisfy our deepest desires.
6. God Does Not Need UsGod’s love is perfect. St. Irenaeus—the 2nd century bishop of Lyon in today’s France—understood God to have loved the world into being. He can only relate in a loving way to the world. Unlike the destruction wrought by the ancient gods, our God is not a rival, nor does he want something out of us. Barron explained with the story of Moses who sees a bush that is on fire but not consumed. “When the true God comes close to us, we are set on fire, not crushed or incinerated. God’s love is perfectly selfless,” said Barron. He wants us to be “fully alive.” It is unfortunate that atheists are unaware of this deeply liberating view of God.
7. Use the new media
Before using new media, Catholic evangelists should have knowledge of the old media, namely books. “Stay with the old media so you have something to say,” he said. But once you have an intellectual foundation, figure out how to use these new tools. Barron shared several stories of how young people came across his website (and later came into the Church) through a random Google search. One young lady googled Charlie Sheen which brought her to Martin Sheen and then Fulton Sheen and then Barron’s website and then eventually into the Church. Kids become atheists today because they come across a great deal of secular content online, but usually very little Christian content.
Barron concluded his talk with John Paul II’s observation that “the new evangelization is really the old evangelization.” Throughout history, the Church preaches Christ. However, for us to evangelize in today’s world, our approach “has to be new in expression and method.” In other words, we are telling the same truths, but in different ways.
Mary Hirschfeld Suggests Economists and Theologians Have a Fundamentally Different Understanding of the Human Person
On hearing about the invention of the magnetic telegraph, Henry David Thoreau incisively observed that Maine and Texas could now communicate, but does Maine have anything to say to Texas?
Mary Hirschfeld, Assistant Professor of Economics & Theology at Villanova University, used this comment of Thoreau to emphasize the communication chasm between two disciplines in which she is an expert. “We obviously can communicate but do we have anything to say to each other?” asked Hirschfeld in her keynote address at the opening of the Sixth Annual Conference on Economics and Catholic Social Thought held at the University of Chicago.
Hirschfeld made a point to indicate the commonalities: economists and theologians share a concern about social justice; about material well-being for all people and an elimination of poverty.
But she worries that there is a “fair amount of static on the line” due to their divergent anthropologies, something that Francis Cardinal George, OMI, also outlined in his brief remarks at the start of the symposium.
Hirschfeld—who holds doctorates in both economics and theology—understands the magnitude of the communication problem because she dealt with this “crazy cacophony” in her own head as she tried to reconcile the issues raised by each discipline.
One area of misunderstanding is in the economic concept homo economicus (or the economic human). “Homo economicus is widely criticized within the tradition of Catholic Social Thought,” said Hirschfeld. Catholics are under the impression that he is selfish and ruthless, concerned only about himself. But in reality, economists mean that people pursue the goods they value (i.e. Mother Teresa, in serving the poor, was pursuing what she valued).
In her talk, Hirschfeld made clear that economists in fact do an admirable job of describing or “modeling” human behavior, but they fall short in not having a broader view of the human person that includes a hunger for the infinite (God) and an ability to cultivate the virtues and human excellence. She contrasted the economic model of the human person with a sketch of the human person from the perspective of St. Thomas Aquinas (she used Aquinas because he laid out his views in a model-like fashion).
Her most memorable illustration of the difference between the disciplines resulted from her explaining their understanding of the good. Both Catholics and economists believe that humans seek the good—but there is a striking disparity in how that good is defined.
For Catholics, the good that we seek in this life is genuine, but it is still a foretaste of what is to come. “The world is God’s love letter to us,” she said. With this in mind, she warned against mistaking the letter for the real thing. While on earth, our desire can only be temporarily satiated. What we see is a mirror, reflecting God’s beauty and goodness. So when confronted with the material goods of this world, our task is to discern and order those goods so that they create a “harmonious arrangement that reflects the beauty of God.”
Economists don’t share this transcendent view of human flourishing. They mathematically model behavior and believe we always want more (which upholds their rational choice model) and that infinite goods reach up like a ladder. “If only we had more time and money, we could get higher up the ladder,” explained Hirschfeld of the economic perspective.
The “rational choice model” adequately describes human beings as they are. Because of our “untutored passions,” we often aren’t very virtuous; we tend to forget about the infinite and desire instead more and more goods thinking they will make us happy. But it doesn’t leave room for a more extensive model in which human happiness consists in the perfection of our human nature, in the cultivation of virtue. “Prudence is the counterpart to the rational choice model in economics,” said Hirschfeld, “it guides us toward our happiness.”
Hirschfeld hopes that economists and theologians—having a better grasp of the thought process within each discipline—will start learning from one another. “Catholic theologians would do well to learn about the model of our ‘lower form of reason.’” Unfortunately, non-economists often reject policies proposed by economists because they don’t appreciate the insights economists have about human behavior (i.e. human beings respond to incentives). Though the language of economics is a secular one (it doesn’t talk about virtue, our desire for God, the tension between the temporal and spiritual, our being created as communal, social beings), it nonetheless excels in describing human beings in their fallen temporal state. “Economists have lots of value to teach us,” said Hirschfeld.
Over 500 people attended the April 3rd symposium on “The Human Person, Economics, and Catholic Social Thought.” In addition to Hirschfeld, Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I. (Archbishop of Chicago), Jesus Fernandez-Villaverde (University of Pennsylvania), Rachel Kranton (Duke University), and F. Russell Hittinger (University of Tulsa) offered
Of special note was the presence of the president of the USCCB, Archbishop Joseph Kurtz, and Bishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo—chancellor of the Pontifical Academies of Sciences and the Pope’s personal representative for the new anti-slavery Global Freedom Network. They joined other bishops and economists to elaborate upon the topic in greater detail at an all-day conference held in downtown Chicago on April 4th.
“The Institute is a crucial provider of Catholic intellectual resources at a secular campus like the University of Chicago. Its capability to invite prominent intellectuals and religious figures from across traditions to its events is remarkable, and it continues to draw the attention and respect of religious and non-religious academics alike.”
What is your area of study and what is the focus of your current research?
I am a Third-Year Economics and Philosophy undergraduate from Hong Kong, China. I am interested in behavioral economics, specifically on the analyses of decision-making. In philosophy, I focus on reading Aristotelian ethics and dabbling in action theory. I am also interested in comparing Catholic ethics and metaphysics with that of Chinese philosophy and religions.
How did you first hear about Lumen Christi? Which event did you first attend, and why?
When I first arrived at the University of Chicago, I soon heard about the Lumen Christi Institute through Calvert House, the Catholic student center at the University. I attended my first Lumen Christi event on the poetry and religious identity of Shakespeare, a lecture by John Finnis. I was drawn to the event primarily because of my interest in the lecturer, who is an internationally well-known expert in Thomism and natural law.
How has your participation in Institute lectures, conferences, and seminars contributed to your growth as a scholar?
One of the best ways Lumen Christi events have contributed to my scholarship is that they provide a view of all professional subjects from a perspective both internal and external to the subjects themselves. Internal, because the lecturers are themselves professionals in the fields of economics, theology, literature, and the natural sciences; external, because unlike the college which professes topics from a technically-minded view, Lumen Christi lectures reconcile subjects from across the academic spectrum. More importantly, it infuses the spirit of Catholic scholarship in its discussions and lectures, always providing viewpoints of the faith from the contributions of its student attendants and its guest speakers.
Is there a particular event (or encounter with a scholar) that has directly impacted the development of your academic work?
The annual programs on Economics and Catholic Social Thought is a great example of the reconciliation of subjects I have mentioned. Never too technical in its content, the programs’ inclusion of Catholic and non-Catholic economists on the panels allows for a genuine sharing of ideas among different beliefs in a science otherwise left to only the technocrats. At a university which takes pride in its economics’ program, Lumen Christi’s economics conference provides a crucial discussion on the much needed presence and development of a moral economy.
What do you plan to do after you have completed your degree from the University of Chicago?
I preliminarily plan to either enter investment banking as an analyst or work in corporate finance at an insurance company after graduation. I am also considering the continuation of my academic pursuits at think tanks or working in the civil service of the Hong Kong Government.
Please comment on the role you think the Institute plays on the University of Chicago campus.
The Institute is a crucial provider of Catholic intellectual resources at a secular campus like the University of Chicago. Its capability to invite prominent intellectuals and religious figures from across traditions to its events is remarkable, and it continues to draw the attention and respect of religious and non-religious academics alike. The University of Chicago needs Lumen Christi to continue to fuel the needs of Catholic students who are searching for an enriching, faith-based student life in their everyday work; it also answers the many concerns non-Catholic students might have on the Church and its relationship with the many facets of modern life in and outside of campus.
U of C Grad Creates Documentary Film That Gives a Unique View of the Life of Cloistered Monastic Nuns
Asceticism—its otherworldliness, its detachment, its stark and beautiful simplicity—has captured the imagination of many sensitive, artistic temperaments. From the 19th-century novelist Gustave Flaubert who attempted to write about the life of the hermit Anthony of the Desert (he failed badly) to the contemporary film director Philip Gröning whose Into Great Silence gave its viewers an intimate portrayal of the spiritual life of Carthusian monks, artists have used their abilities to open a window to a life otherwise hidden from view, lived only for God.
Cloistered monastic nuns have, until now, remained hidden. For their choice of vocation precludes them from (unlike active orders such as the Franciscans, Dominicans, and Jesuits) bearing witness in the world.
It took Abbie Reese—a recent University of Chicago MFA graduate—entering into the stillness so that those in the world could have a unique view of life within a cloister. In fact, prior to Reese’s work, there had never before been an oral history project and documentary film that deals with the lives of cloistered monastic nuns that observe monastic silence and take vows of enclosure.
For Reese, the cloister was a stark contrast to values in popular culture. Having worked as a journalist, she was used to people who wanted the spotlight, who couldn’t wait to have their fifteen minutes of fame.
She was further struck by women of her own generation who chose to live such counter-cultural lives: “What compels a woman—in this era of overexposure—at a time with the technological means to reach a global audience—to make a drastic, lifelong countercultural decision for her life, in favor of obscurity?” Reese asked in the introduction to her book, Dedicated to God: An Oral History of Cloistered Nuns.
Reese was drawn to the nuns’ desire for obscurity, and has been changed in the process of working with them.
Cloistered monastic nuns have, until now, remained hidden.
Throughout her brief career, she has also taken seriously the need for an artist to be invisible so that the other can come more clearly into focus. Whether she is working on photography projects, conducting oral history interviews, or creating documentary films, she has contended with the question of mediation—most recently handing over the video cameras to the nuns so that they can document their world from their perspective. Even though Reese was not present, the relationships she developed over the past nine years are embedded in the video footage.
Prior to her project on cloistered life, Reese traveled all over the globe (she has been to approximately forty countries in Europe, Asia, and Africa). She sought to bring to the surface stories that were neglected but needed attention. She devoted her time to journalistic projects that dealt with women’s issues, artistic work like Faces of West Africa (a traveling photographic exhibition), and the oral history and photographic exhibitionUntold Stories: Freeport’s African-American History, installed across from where Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas famously debated.
While at the University of Chicago, she was the Artist’s Salon Assistant at the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality. Her work contends with those who have been marginalized, whose voices would not otherwise be heard.
Her background as a journalist, oral historian, and advocate of women’s rights would lead her—surprisingly—to a cloister of Poor Clare nuns right in her home state of Illinois.
Reese isn’t Catholic. Raised Evangelical by converts (her mother had been a-religious and her father was raised Jewish), it was the contemporary culture, ironically, that first introduced her to the image of a Catholic nun. She remembers seeing nuns in I Love Lucy and The Flying Nun, as well as borrowing the film A Nun’s Story from her older sister who is a film buff.
Much later, in her college years now, she came across an article about young women in Italy who were becoming nuns. They wanted to wear traditional habits and some of them were the daughters of fashion designers. This juxtaposition of belonging to a cultural tradition and choosing something so counter-cultural made a significant impression on her.
In 2005, upon returning from a year living and volunteering on a hospital ship in West Africa, Abbie discovered a counter-cultural community of nuns less than an hour from where she grew up (the 800-year-old rule of the Poor Clares Colettine nuns in Rockford, Illinois, who abide by the strict monastic discipline of silence and anonymity and rarely set food outside the 25,000-square foot monastery and the 14-acres of their gated property).
She was intrigued that these women had chosen to be veiled, hidden from society—following a vocation for which there has been a steady erosion of interest (between 1970 to 2010, the number of religious sisters worldwide fell almost 30 percent). With her experience in oral history, she could document their lives, prevent them from being erased, not only from the landscape, but from memory. To the surprise of her colleagues and professors, she chose these cloistered nuns as the subject of her research at the University of Chicago.
The result was the book, Dedicated to God: An Oral History of Cloistered Nuns, in 2014—which attracted the attention of Casey N. Cep at The New Yorker. The review was glowing: “That is…one of monasticism’s surprises: where the world expects sorrow, the cloistered feel joy. Reese’s attentiveness and patience allows that joy to reveal itself. She also shows clearly that these women are not disingenuous: they know all they have left outside the cloister walls, and they acknowledge how hard it is to live together, not only in quotidian ways by sharing space and limited resources but in spiritual ways, praying for a peace that none of them may live to see.”
Reese is now engaged in a different artistic dimension of exploring cloistered life. As director/producer of the collaborative documentary film in-progress, Chosen (Custody of the Eyes), she is probing the mysteries of a religious vocation, returning to the original question How does it happen that a young woman chooses (or chooses not) to join an order? What are the ups and downs in the day-to-day life as a young woman transitions into cloistered contemplative life and assimilates into the religious community? Fascinatingly, in exploring such questions, Reese has found her own project imitating popular culture. By making a documentary film that echoes aspects of reality television, she is able to navigate the complexities of artistic involvement (how much does her own hand steer the direction of the film?) and abide by the rules of the order (only a community member can enter the cloister).
The concept for the film is deceptively simple. Reese met “Heather” in 2005. She interviewed her for six years as she deliberated whether she was called to enter a cloistered order. Since Heather grew up watching reality television—when Reese gave her a camera—the style of a self-revealing video diary came naturally to her. She took the camera into the cloister to document the simple joys, little trials, and great sacrifices that make up her experience there. The film, in a nutshell, follows “Heather”— the newest member of the community—as she evolves into her new identity as “Sister Amata” (both names are pseudonyms so as to reflect the Poor Clare pursuit of anonymity).
“I found her idea of passing the camera to one of the nuns (from a point of view of Visual Anthropology) especially intriguing,” remarks Dr. Luc Schaedler, a documentary filmmaker who resides in Switzerland, of Reese’s film. “There seems to be a dialogue, which not only works on the level of speech (conversations), but also on the visual level (camera). The potential for the field of Visual Anthropology that I find in this film project lies exactly in this double dialogue, which makes the film an ongoing experiment of collaboration and not just an insightful film about the nuns.”
As an artistic photographer and filmmaker, entering into the cloistered environment (as both an outsider to the faith and an outsider to the order) has been an incredibly profound experience.
Initially for Reese, approaching cloistered life was an intellectual pursuit. In time, the relationships she developed with the cloistered nuns kept her engaged.
With her desire to bring people’s stories to the surface, she wanted to truly understand why a modern young woman would leave everything she has—sometimes at the great cost of going against the wishes of her family—to live an austere life closed-off from the world.
Furthermore, to capture their experience, she was bringing modern devices (the camera, for still photography and the moving image, and microphone) into a space that throughout the history of the Church had been practically impenetrable. Humbled, she reflected upon her ability to mediate their experience. She found mediation to be all around her. “A nun is a mediator between heaven and earth,” she explains. “So I was looking into how the camera, film, and the form of my project mirrored the concept of a nun’s life.”
As she learned more about them, she became more and more intrigued by women who called this their vocation, their calling. What was that mysterious inner prompting that would inspire one to forge a path that is at odds with everything that is deemed important?
From the perspective of a non-Catholic who was earnest to learn the symbolism of religious life (the habit, the metal grille) and the paradoxes of sacrifice that bring about freedom and inner peace, she has been mesmerized by the quiet witness of young women of the twenty-first century who have given everything they have in the world because they believe with all their heart in what they cannot see and cannot touch.
Over the time she has known them, she has been impressed by their strength, by their discipline, by their self-sufficiency and independence. Her heart has been touched by their warmth and openness to her; by their following the treatise of their order that urges them to yearn for “fulfillment in God, in an uninterrupted nostalgia of the heart;” by their giving her special access to a hidden world where they live as “intermediaries between humanity and the invisible realm”—daring to become “saints on earth” and “mothers of souls.”
Reese’s project has utterly transformed her. Walking the streets of Chicago after immersing herself in a cloistered monastery for eight years has been jarring, occasionally uncomfortable. It has caused her to question the pace of the world beyond the enclosure. “I don’t want to feel the urgency of living in this world.” For a certain period of time, she deactivated her Facebook account and changed to a basic flip phone to “pare things down a bit.” She is looking to take meditation classes.
Additionally, shortly after she first started working with the nuns, she purchased a house built in 1888 in Northwest, Illinois, that she has turned into a place of retreat. “The nuns described the monastery as a sacred space,” she says—acknowledging she wants to imitate that sensorial environment, that sense of stillness that opens one to the spiritual realm.
She has tried to assimilate their practices into her own vocation, while recognizing the unavoidable tension that exists when one is surrounded by distractions. “I have struggled to define what place I can keep in this world,” she admits.
Whatever one’s vocation, she has learned that there are trials, struggles when you give your life to something (Reese, for example, is trying to overcome the financial strain of her project). She gathers strength from the quiet simple women who work and pray seven times a day for the souls of those they will never meet. The nuns—who have so cheerfully abandoned the world—have taught her to live more deeply, more gratefully in it.
