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,…
Master Class: Clashing over Mysticism: Balthasar and Rahner on Bonaventure
Open to current students and faculty. Others interested in participating should contact info@lumenchristi.org. Registrants will receive copies of the prepared reading. In an era of outstanding theologians who made the teachings of Vatican II possible, Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905-88) and Karl Rahner (1904-84) emerge as titans. Both were German speaking: Rahner came from Baden and Balthasar from Switzerland. Rahner died as a Jesuit, having taught in Innsbruck, Munich, and Muenster. Balthasar left the order in mid-life to serve as chaplain to a secular institute in Basel. Both were prolific writers. Rahner’s chief works are Spirit in the World (1957),…
Synodality in Perspective: Traditions Past and Present
This online symposium series is being organized by the American Cusanus Society, Nova Forum and the Lumen Christi Institute. Additional Cosponsors include Commonweal, America Media, St. Anselm Institute for Catholic Thought and the Collegium Institute. Participation and Registration | All are invited to participate. To attend, please register online. Registration links are provided by each session and date below. Each session will be a dialogue with a moderator hosting a conversation between two scholars. About the Series | In light of Pope Francis’ call for global Catholic communities to enter into a two-year process on synodality, this six-part series will examine both the history…
Synodality Series Session 6 | The Synod of 2023: Process and Prospects
Free and open to the public. This online symposium series is being organized by the American Cusanus Society, Nova Forum and the Lumen Christi Institute. Additional Cosponsors include Commonweal, Harvard Catholic Forum, America Media, the St. Anselm Institute for Catholic Thought and the Collegium Institute. About the Series | In light of Pope Francis’ call for global Catholic communities to enter into a two-year process on synodality, this six-part series will examine both the history of synods and the current dialogue around the future of synodality in the Church. This series is an opportunity to learn more about the topic in advance of the October 2023 Rome summit, “For a Synodal Church.” Pope Francis…
The Contribution of Theology to Rationality: a Conference in Honor of Jean-Luc Marion
This event is co-sponsored by the Lumen Christi Institute and organized by the Martin Marty Center. For more information about the speakers, visit https://martycenter.org/events/the-contribution-of-theology-to-rationality This conference is held in honor of Jean-Luc Marion (Andrew Thomas Greeley and Grace McNichols Greeley Professor of Catholic Studies and Professor of the Philosophy of Religions and Theology, and Professor in Social Thought and Philosophy). It brings together scholars to give lectures that reflect Marion’s past and current interests, highlight and honor his many contributions, and outline and define what he has meant for the Chicago tradition of doing theology as a conversation between reason and…
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…
Winter Non-Credit Course | Heresies, Ancient and Modern: The Truth about Error
Tuesdays, Jan. 10-Feb. 28 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. What is “heresy?” At first glance, the term “heresy” might be dismissed as anachronistic, or even as repellent as the term “inquisition” or “auto-da-fe.” Surprisingly, the Greek root of the term “heresy” does not mean “error,” but “choice.” Heresy entails a selective partiality that in one way or another rejects the integral fullness of catholic truth. Certain heresies are…
Retribution and St. Thomas Aquinas’s Teaching on Justice
Open to current students and faculty. This event is co-sponsored by the St. Thomas More Society at the University of Chicago Law School. Others interested in participating should contact info@lumenchristi.org. This event is in-person only. All registrants will receive pdfs of the selected readings, which should be read in advance of the class. An optional wine and cheese reception will follow. Thomas Aquinas assigns two functions to punishment, retributive and medicinal. He sees the retributive function as the primary one, pertaining to the very idea of punishment, and it will be the focus of this master class. The aim will…
Catholic Culture Series on “A Catholic Vision of the Person and the World”
The Lumen Christi Institute’s West Suburban Catholic Culture Series returns in 2023 with a monthly series on the theme of “A Catholic Vision of the Person and the World.” REGISTER HERE THEME | In a 1965 address to the United Nations General Assembly, Pope Paul VI described the Catholic Church as “an expert in humanity.” The Church could teach the U.N. because the Church understood human hearts and human institutions. Bishop Robert Barron has explained the pope’s words in the following manner: “The Church has two thousand years of watching the human condition unfold – two thousand years of saints and sinners,…
Spring Non-Credit Course | Shame, Suffering, and the Scandal of the Cross
Tuesdays, March 28-May 16 6:00pm: Dinner 6:30pm: Presentation This event is in-person only. 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 human experiences of suffering, shame, and evil are assaults on our deepest desire for happiness. The atrocities that darken human history, especially the Holocaust, and disasters like the recent earthquakes in Turkey & Syria call into question the Christian belief in God’s Providence. Correspondingly, Christ’s public passion and tortured death have always been a scandal…