The Riddle of the Ring: Dark Magic & Spiritual Danger in Tolkien
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…
Fall Non-Credit Course: “The Living Jesus at the Intersection of History and Faith”
REGISTER HERE 6:00 Dinner | 6:30 Lecture This weekly non-credit course is open to current students and faculty. Registrants are free to attend as many sessions as they choose. Sessions do not presuppose previous attendance or prior knowledge of the subject. Jesus of Nazareth, a Galilean Jew crucified in a remote corner of the Roman Empire nearly 2,000 years ago, is considered one of the world’s greatest teachers and the founder of its oldest institution. More books and films have been produced about Jesus than any other historical person. This non-credit class will consider both what historical methods can ascertain about Jesus…
The Search for God: Testimonies to Grace
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This weekly non-credit course is open to current Chicago area students and faculty. Others interested in attending should contact us. Registrants are free to attend as many sessions as they choose. Sessions do not presuppose previous attendance or prior knowledge of the subject. One hundred and fifty years ago, Matthew Arnold described the receding of “the Sea of Faith” in the poem “Dover Beach.” Today the culture of unbelief is even more pervasive, especially in secular academia. The stories of those who have struggled with intellectual doubts and personal conflicts in their quest for God and religious faith have much to teach and to inspire…
Master Class: “Adventures of a Primary Care Theologian” with Fr. Roch Kereszty
Open to current students and faculty. Others interested in participating should contact info@lumenchristi.org. Registrants will receive copies of the prepared reading. An Online Master Class with Fr. Roch Kereszty, O. Cist For over 40 years, Fr. Roch Kereszty has taught and published in nearly every area of theology—Christology, ecclesiology, and interreligious dialogue to name a few. During this master class, Fr. Kereszty will discuss selected texts from his own work and discuss his life and vocation: a clandestine novice in Communist Hungary, a student during the years of the Second Vatican Council, long-time professor at the University of Dallas and form…
Magis Lecture | Pro and Con: Does Faith Ignore Reason?
Free and open to the public. Every Sunday, Christian worshipers profess the Nicene Creed. The Creed formulates and supports our belief in one God, but there appears to be scant empirical evidence for many of its claims that we acknowledge to be true. We don’t profess the Creed because we’ve been persuaded by overwhelming evidence. Is it reasonable, then, to believe that the Creed’s claims are true? Or does our profession of faith shove our reason into exile? So says Sam Harris, a recent “popular atheist,” who argues that faith is by nature unreasonable. But William James, the 19th-century American psychologist,…
Fall Noncredit Course | Modern Mystics Oct. 4 – Nov. 15
Tuesdays, Oct. 4 – Nov. 15 6:00pm: Dinner 6:30pm: Presentation Intended for university students and recent graduates. Others interested in attending please contact info@lumenchristi.org. Registrants are free to attend as many sessions as they choose. Sessions do not presuppose previous attendance or prior knowledge of the subject. “The devout Christian of the future will either be a ‘mystic’ – one who has ‘experienced’ something – or he will cease to be anything at all” – Karl Rahner, Theological Investigations VII Who is the modern mystic? The study of the history of mysticism, pioneered…
Our Troubled Minds, Our Anxious Age, and the Ancient Alternative of Cistercian Spirituality: An Interdisciplinary Dialogue
Watch the Recording Here This event is co-presented by the Lumen Christi Institute and the St. Anselm Institute for Catholic Thought at the University of Virginia. Find out more at their website: https://www.stanselminstitute.org/index.php/publicectures/upcominglectures/270-march-18-2023-public-lecture Have you ever been afflicted by a lack of focus, feelings of loneliness, debilitating anxieties, or inexplicable bouts of sadness, anger or despair in the midst of great personal achievements? Can advances in neurological medicine and pharmaceutical therapies heal our broken hearts, fix our troubled minds, and lead us to even greater personal triumphs? Many hope so, turning to neuro-chemical treatments that soothe our brains without bringing clarity…
Waiting for Jesus in Havana
Theologian’s illustrious career a response to the human need for the mystical
On the day before the publication of his ninth and final volume on the history of mystical theology in Christianity, Bernard McGinn was discussing plans for his next writing project — a brief, more popular book on 19th- and 20th-century mystics. At 84, the native New Yorker and renowned professor emeritus of the University of Chicago Divinity School said his series would need a few more volumes to complete the history of mystical theology, from 1700 to the present, but he believes this work is best left for others to do. “I just don’t have the time to…
Institute Pairs with Bollandist Society for Lecture Series on the Saints
