“The Making of Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae”
Co-sponsored by the Medieval Studies Workshop The Summa Theologiae of Thomas Aquinas stands among the finest expressions of the Catholic “understanding of faith” (intellectus fidei). Over a thousand commentaries have been written on it. A leading historian of Medieval Christian thought, Bernard McGinn explores Thomas’s reason for writing the Summa and its principles, structure, and originality.
“The Second Vatican Council and the Church’s Engagement with the Modern World”
Cosponsored by the University of Chicago Ethics Club After decades of ideological upheaval that often placed the Catholic Church in conflict with modernity, Pope John XXIII convened the Second Vatican Council in part to open a dialogue with modern culture. This lecture will reflect on the theological developments that led to Vatican II’s Pastoral Constitution on the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes, the document’s text itself, and the history of its reception, and offer a perspective on the current health of the Church and its prospects for bringing the light of Christ to the world.
“The Book of Psalms” Non-Credit Course
Lecture: 7:00PM Informal Dinner: 6:30PM October 16: The Prayer Book of Jesus What are the psalms and how did they become a psalter? The introductory class will address the nature of Jewish prayer and Hebrew poetry, lay out the various genres of psalms, and discuss the compilation of psalms into a book of the Old Testament and a keystone of the Church’s liturgy. Particular attention will be given Psalms 6, 19, and 27. October 23: Songs of Wrath God’s anger and man’s find full-throated expression in the Psalms, often in ways that shock or bewilder us. In coming to grips with the…
“The Dialogue of Economics and Catholic Social Thought”
Cosponsored by the University of Chicago Ethics Club The presence of two Catholic candidates for vice-president have raised questions about Catholic social thought and American free market economics. In this symposium, an economist and a theologian consider how the Church’s teaching bears on contemporary economic questions. The questions to be explored will include: What does the Catholic social thought developed by popes from Leo XIII and Pius XI to John Paul II and Benedict XVI say about economic issues? How can economists engage the principles of Catholic Social Thought and reflect on questions such as the just wage, social solidarity and the market…
“Augustine and the Doctrine of Universal Restoration”
Cosponsored by the History of Christianity Club The great theologian Augustine of Hippo (354-430) is known to have condemned the doctrine of universal restoration and salvation (apokatastasis) devised by Origen of Alexandria (255ca.) as heretical. But in his earlier defense of Christian Orthodoxy against Manicheism, Augustine adhered to this doctrine. This lecture will show how Augustine’s later polemic against the Pelagians and his ignorance of Greek played a significant role in his eventual rejection of Origen’s doctrine.
“Benedict XVI on the Liturgy”
Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) has long cherished Catholic liturgy, and his writings on the subject illuminate the man as well as the meaning of Christian ritual. This talk is intended as an introduction to the concept of liturgy as understood by Catholics and of the contributions Ratzinger-both as theologian and as worshiper-has made to its authentic development and reception within the Church. This event is intended for University students. An informal dinner will be served. Please contact mfranzen@lumenchristi.org with any questions.
Sacred Study Circle, Introduction to the Devout Life by St. Francis de Sales
Sacred study is the prayerful and attentive reading of a work with the initial goal of understanding it, the intermediate goal of reflectively appropriating it, and the final goal of making its teaching concrete in a life devoted to God. Sacred study is study because it puts questions to the text, as an apprentice questions the master, so as to come to grips with the deeper meanings. With these aims we will study St. Francis de Sales’s Introduction to the Devout Life this winter quarter. In this classic work of spirituality the reader is presented with counsels and practices to aid him…
“Reason and Wisdom in Medieval Christian Thought,” Non-Credit Course
Informal Dinner: 6:00PM Lecture: 6:30PM Intended for University students, faculty, and recent graduates. Others interested in attending, contact info@lumenchristi.org. With the recovery of the works of Aristotle in the Latin West, the development of the scholastic method of reasoning, and the creation of the universities, a style of academic philosophy and theology developed in the late medieval period in which the practice of reasoning about Christian revelation was developed independent of spirituality and, often, the search for wisdom. Previously, in the works of the Church Fathers and the great monastic writers, theology was rooted in a spiritual life uniting prayer and…
Book Symposium on “Francis of Assisi: A New Biography
Cosponsored by the Department of History and the Medieval Studies Workshop with Augustine Thompson, O.P., Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology, Berkeley Karen Scott, DePaul University Lawrence Cunningham, University of Notre Dame In this authoritative and engaging new biography, Augustine Thompson, O.P., sifts through the surviving evidence for the life of Francis using modern historical methods. The result is a complex yet sympathetic portrait of the man and the saint. Francis emerges from this account as very much a typical thirteenth-century Italian layman, but one who, when faced with unexpected crises in his personal life, made decisions so radical that they…
“Francis of Assisi: Lost Between Myth and History”
Cosponsored by the Department of History and the Medieval Studies Workshop Among the most beloved of saints, Francis of Assisi is celebrated for his dedication to poverty, his love of nature, and his desire to follow perfectly the teachings and example of Christ. His followers compiled numerous, often legendary, accounts. The man and his own concerns seem lost to view. Fr. Augustine Thompson, O.P. will speak on the “Quest for the Historical Francis” and attempt to portray beyond the legends the man who was Francis of Assisi.