[Message from our Executive Director, Daniel Wasserman-Soler]
Dear friends of the Lumen Christi Institute,
Professor Russell Hittinger, Senior Fellow and long-time collaborator of the Institute, once commented on what distinguished Lumen Christi from Newman centers and other Catholic campus ministries. Lumen Christi, as he put it, exists for scholarship. It is a place for professors, and students follow the professors.
All of our campus programs serve students, of course. Still, Professor Hittinger is right that Lumen Christi serves as an ideal gathering place for faculty because we are an intellectual ministry. When faculty members speak at a Lumen Christi program, they participate in a different kind of academic conversation. Because our programs are not for credit, participants share that they feel free to learn for the sake of learning.
Our conversations prioritize the integration of faith and reason. Students and faculty often do not share about their own faith commitments in a typical classroom. But Lumen Christi welcomes everyone to do so. It is a distinctive learning environment.
In this issue of the Beacon, I look forward to sharing with you the successes of our efforts in faculty formation. In the pages ahead, you can read about our seminars that form PhD students into future faculty. We also have a special interview with a Lumen Christi alumna, Dr. Rebekah Spearman. Rebekah is a University of Chicago PhD, now teaching at St. John’s College.
Thank you for your prayers and your support of our programs. Thank you for enabling us to form not only the next generation of students but also the next generation of faculty.
Yours in Christ,
Daniel Wasserman-Soler
Executive Director