The Lumen Christi Institute interviewed Joshua Miller and Aaron Ebert, summer seminar alumni and founders of the St. Irenaeus Institute in Milwaukee, WI.

 

LCI: Explain the impetus for the St. Irenaeus Institute? How did it come about? Where did it start?

The concrete impetus for the St. Irenaeus Institute was a Lumen Christi summer seminar in 2021 on Irenaeus’ Against the Heresies (co-led by Fr. John Behr and Lewis Ayres), which we both attended. Joshua excitedly shared some insights from the seminar with seminarians from his hometown of Milwaukee, and they expressed a desire for a forum to learn more about Irenaeus and his work. Thus, the Fides Patrum (“Faith of the Fathers”) seminar was launched in September 2021 at the local Newman Center at UW-Milwaukee. Every few weeks, a small group -- led by Joshua – met in a homey living room-type space to read and discuss Against Heresies. People kept coming and the seminar grew. So, we moved on to other patristic texts and began inviting other scholars and students to help lead the seminar. It soon became evident that there was both a need and desire in the Milwaukee area for a larger institute devoted to cultivating and teaching the Catholic intellectual tradition. Out of conversations with various scholars, clergy, and lay people, the St. Irenaeus Institute was born.

 

LCI: What was Lumen Christi’s role in sparking this idea?

The Lumen Christi seminar encouraged us to press on with our broader vision of promoting and teaching the Catholic intellectual tradition in a forum outside the traditional bounds of the academy yet still engaged with it. Lumen Christi, with its history of offering opportunities for high-level study of the tradition from within the living, faithful community of the Church has been an exemplar for us. Lumen Christi’s early sponsorship for Fides Patrum was also invaluable—in donating books, giving advice for further growth, and providing credibility to a young initiative. 

 

LCI: Both of you have had some serious discernment of life (seminary/RCIA). What role, if any, did your summer seminar experience have in that?

Joshua: The summer seminars put on by Lumen Christi informed my vocational discernment by increasing a love for robust study and teaching of the Church’s intellectual tradition in a manner unbeholden to the expectations and priorities of the academic world today. My encounter with the work of Lumen Christi helped me envision ways in which scholarship and teaching could better serve the Church through continuing intellectual formation in non-traditional ways, set apart from a formal teaching position in a university. In this way, I consider my vocation to ordained ministry in the Church as compatible with my desire to promote the study and teaching of her intellectual heritage.

Aaron: The Lumen Christi summer seminars have been a radiant instance of one of the attractive forces that drew me back into the Catholic Church, and that is her rich intellectual tradition. Many factors went into my discernment of returning to the Church, but my study of the Church’s tradition—especially the Church Fathers—was a critical one. The Lumen Christi seminars I took on Irenaeus and Origen exemplified the theological and philosophical rigor combined with fidelity to the Catholic faith that you find in the Church’s great doctors and teachers. I found this combination deeply compelling, and I am grateful for the way Lumen Christi has so consistently and creatively sought to give it expression today.

 

LCI: What “gap” is the St. Irenaeus Institute filling locally?

Over the past twenty or so years, the Archdiocese of Milwaukee has been experiencing a spiritual renewal. Many have sensed both a need and a desire for an intellectual dimension to supplement, enrich, and deepen this renewal. We aim to provide a variety of forums in which Catholics and other Christians—students and scholars, priests and deacons, lay men and women—throughout the Milwaukee area can encounter and be enriched by the Catholic intellectual tradition. One example of this has been the planning of the 2025 Legacies Conference (on the anniversaries of Nicaea I and Vatican II) which, while spearheaded by the St. Irenaeus Institute, has brought together representatives from Marquette, Saint Francis Seminary, Sacred Heart Seminary, and the Archdiocese. Similarly, our Fides Patrum seminar has gathered local Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, and other scholars committed to the study of early Christianity.

 

LCI: What are people saying about it?

Here are a few testimonials:

Bella Hsu (young lay Catholic): “I first encountered the St. Irenaeus Institute as a non-Catholic who was looking for ways to grow in understanding of the faith. I had previously studied Catholic theology as an undergraduate student and was eager to delve into the rich teachings of the early Church fathers. Over the next few months, I was welcomed into an intellectual community that engaged more than just my mind. Now a baptized and confirmed Catholic, I know that the St. Irenaeus institute played a formative role in my conversion to the Catholic faith.”

Fr. Andrew Linn (Archdiocese of Milwaukee): “I am so excited for the growth of the Saint Irenaeus Institute. I am excited to see it become a locus of Catholic intellectual life in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, much like the Lumen Christi Institute is in Chicago.  The Church in Milwaukee is thriving in so many ways, and the Institute answers a real need for the Church both at UWM and in the wider community!”

 

LCI: Where do you want to go with the St. Irenaeus Institute? What is on the immediate horizon for the project and what are your aspirations?

For the upcoming academic year, we are planning an exploration of St. Augustine’s theology for our Fides Patrum seminar, and we are in the final stages of getting an accredited course on Early Christianity approved at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (with the help of Sacred Heart Seminary and School of Theology) for Spring 2025, to be taught by Aaron. In response to interest from local clergy, we are also developing a reading group for priests and deacons on patristics homilies. We hope to begin this soon. Though it is more than a year out, we are also deep into the planning of a major academic conference commemorating the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea together with the 60th anniversary of the closing of the Second Vatican Council. The conference, which is co-sponsored by the St. Irenaeus Institute, Marquette, Sacred Heart, Saint Francis de Sales, and the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, will take place on September 4-7, 2025 in Milwaukee. Two prominent bishops will deliver plenary addresses, and a few well-known scholars and theologians will give keynote lectures. (Registration and Call for Papers forthcoming!) Other ways of serving the Church and the academy in Milwaukee—such as summer seminars for high school students and training for catechists and lay ministers—are on the horizon. Ultimately, our aspiration is to put Milwaukee on the map as a place for Catholic intellectual renewal.

 

Explain the impetus for the St. Irenaeus Institute? How did it come about? Where did it start?

The concrete impetus for the St. Irenaeus Institute was a Lumen Christi summer seminar in 2021 on Irenaeus’ Against the Heresies (co-led by Fr. John Behr and Lewis Ayres), which we both attended. Joshua excitedly shared some insights from the seminar with seminarians from his hometown of Milwaukee, and they expressed a desire for a forum in which to learn more about Irenaeus and his work. Thus, the Fides Patrum (“Faith of the Fathers”) seminar was launched in September 2021 at the local Newman Center at UW-Milwaukee. Every few weeks, a small group, led by Joshua, met in a homey living room-type space to read and discuss Against Heresies. But people kept coming and the seminar grew. So, we moved on to other patristic texts and began inviting other scholars and students to help lead the seminar. It soon became evident that there was both a need and desire in the Milwaukee area for a larger institute devoted to cultivating and teaching the Catholic intellectual tradition. Out of conversations with various scholars, clergy, and lay people, the St. Irenaeus Institute was born.

The more general impetus for the St. Irenaeus Institute lies in our long-term search for a context in which theology can be done with both intellectual rigor and confessional faithfulness—theology with and for the Church. We both gained a great deal from our theological study in the academy, owing especially to the deep and lasting friendships we formed at Duke Divinity School, but we also found the university context dissatisfying, in part because of its increasing separation from the life of the Church. Without always being fully conscious of it, we have been dreaming of something like the St. Irenaeus Institute for years, and the realization of that dream is the fruit of our friendship and our joint love of patristic theology.

 

What was Lumen Christi’s role in sparking this idea?

As we said, the original Lumen Christi Institute seminar on Irenaeus, which was deeply formative for both of us, provided the impetus for the Fides Patrum seminar out of which the Institute was born. The Lumen Christi seminar encouraged us to press on with our broader vision of promoting and teaching the Catholic intellectual tradition in a forum outside the traditional bounds of the academy yet still engaged with it. Lumen Christi, with its history of offering opportunities for high-level study of the tradition from within the living, faithful community of the Church has been an exemplar for us. Lumen Christi's early sponsorship for Fides Patrum was also invaluable—in donating books, giving advice for further growth, and providing credibility to a young initiative. 

 

Both of you have had some serious discernment of life (seminary/RCIA)? Might you explain a little bit what role, if any, your summer seminar experience had in that?

Joshua: The summer seminars put on by Lumen Christi informed my vocational discernment by increasing a love for robust study and teaching of the Church's intellectual tradition in a manner unbeholden to the expectations and priorities of the academic world today. My encounter with the work of Lumen Christi helped me envision ways in which scholarship and teaching could better serve the Church through continuing intellectual formation in non-traditional ways, set apart from a formal teaching position in a university. In this way, I consider my vocation to ordained ministry in the Church as compatible with my desire to promote the study and teaching of her intellectual heritage.

Aaron: The Lumen Christi summer seminars have been a radiant instance of one of the attractive forces that drew me back into the Catholic Church, and that is her rich intellectual tradition. Many factors went into my discernment of returning to the Church, but my study of the Church’s tradition—especially the Church Fathers—was a critical one. The Lumen Christi seminars I took on Irenaeus and Origen exemplified the theological and philosophical rigor combined with fidelity to the Catholic faith that you find in the Church’s great doctors and teachers. I found this combination deeply compelling, and I am grateful for the way Lumen Christi has so consistently and creatively sought to give it expression today.

 

How do you see the St. Irenaeus Institute is helping you live out that vocation?

The St. Irenaeus Institute seeks to make the Catholic intellectual tradition a vital part of both the Church and the academy in the greater Milwaukee area. We have a burden for cultivating ongoing, robust intellectual formation for all Catholics, especially those tasked with teaching the faith. As I (Joshua) discern the priesthood, I have experienced a particular hunger for this among seminarians and clergy in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, and my work establishing the St. Irenaeus Institute has been directly in service to the Church in Milwaukee as an extension of my vocation in the Church. As I (Aaron) live out the married vocation in the Church and the academy, I have encountered many expressions of desire—especially among lay men and women—for a deeper encounter with the Catholic intellectual tradition, for opportunities to study the faith more seriously so that faith might be strengthened and our calling to be light and leaven in the broader, secular culture might be informed.

 

What “gap” is the St. Irenaeus Institute filling locally?

Over the past twenty or so years, the Archdiocese of Milwaukee has been experiencing a spiritual renewal on many fronts: we have a bursting seminary, many committed young priests, a thriving young adult community, a growing healing ministry, a center for renewal of women's religious vocations, an annual Archdiocesan lecture drawing more than 1,500 people—examples could be multiplied. But many have sensed both a need and a desire for an intellectual dimension to supplement, enrich, and deepen this spiritual renewal. Our hope is that the St. Irenaeus Institute will provide this. We aim to provide a variety of forums in which Catholics and other Christians—students and scholars, priests and deacons, lay men and women—throughout the Milwaukee area can encounter and be enriched by the Catholic intellectual tradition. In addition to our own programs and initiatives, we aspire to be a place where various people and groups can work together toward the goal of intellectual renewal in Milwaukee. One example of this has been the planning of the 2025 Legacies Conference (on the anniversaries of Nicaea I and Vatican II) which, while spearheaded by the St. Irenaeus Institute, has brought together representatives from Marquette, Saint Francis Seminary, Sacred Heart Seminary, and the Archdiocese. Similarly, our Fides Patrum seminar has gathered local Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, and other scholars committed to the study of early Christianity.

 

What are people saying about it? Clergy? Laity?

Here are a few testimonials:

Bella Hsu (young lay Catholic): “I first encountered the St. Irenaeus Institute as a non-Catholic who was looking for ways to grow in their understanding of the faith. I had previously studied Catholic theology as an undergraduate student and was eager to delve into the rich teachings of the early Church fathers. Over the next few months, I was welcomed into an intellectual community that engaged more than just my mind. Now a baptized and confirmed Catholic, I know that the St. Irenaeus institute played a formative role in my conversion to the Catholic faith.”

Fr. Andrew Linn (priest in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee): “I am so excited for the growth of the Saint Irenaeus Institute. I am excited to see it become a locus of Catholic intellectual life in the Archdiocese Of Milwaukee, much like the Lumen Christi Institute is in Chicago.  The church in Milwaukee is thriving in so many ways, and the Institute answers a real need for the Church both at UWM and in the wider community!”

 

Where do you want to go with the St. Irenaeus Institute? What is on the immediate horizon for the project and what are your aspirations?

For the upcoming academic year, we are planning an exploration of St. Augustine’s theology for our Fides Patrum seminar, and we are in the final stages of getting an accredited course on Early Christianity approved at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (with the help of Sacred Heart Seminary and School of Theology) for Spring 2025, to be taught by Aaron. In response to interest from local clergy, we are also developing a reading group for priests and deacons on patristics homilies. We hope to begin this soon. Though it is more than a year out, we are also deep into the planning of a major academic conference commemorating the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea together with the 60th anniversary of the closing of the Second Vatican Council. The conference, which is co-sponsored by the St. Irenaeus Institute, Marquette, Sacred Heart, Saint Francis de Sales, and the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, will take place on September 4-7, 2025 in Milwaukee. Two prominent bishops will deliver plenary addresses, and a few well-known scholars and theologians will give keynote lectures. (Registration and Call for Papers forthcoming!) Other ways of serving the Church and the academy in Milwaukee—such as summer seminars for high school students and training for catechists and lay ministers—are on the further horizon. Ultimately, our aspiration is to put Milwaukee on the map as a place for Catholic intellectual renewal.

 

Anything else you want to say?

We want to say a sincere word of thanks to the Lumen Christi Institute for the role it has played in inspiring the vision and supporting the work of the St. Irenaeus Institute.