We look forward to cosponsoring the third installment of the Lumen Christi Institute’s Spring Webinar Series, Reason and Wisdom in Medieval Christian Thought. Professor Brian Carl, who teaches philosophy at the University of St Thomas in Houston, will present on the thought of Saint Thomas of Aquinas, O.P. (d. 1274) on the ways to know God.
On April 17—the 5th anniversary of the death of Cardinal Francis George O.M.I.—the Lumen Christi Institute will host a major web event that takes stock of the American contribution to Catholic Social Thought and how it applies in our current situation.
Thursday, April 17, 2020
8:00PM ET
Registration required
Join us on Thursday, April 16th, at 8:00PM ET (7:00PM CT) for the second installment of the Lumen Christi Institute’s Spring Webinar Series, Reason and Wisdom in Medieval Christian Thought. Professor Aaron Canty, who teaches theology and medieval thought at Saint Xavier University, will present on “Anselm of Canterbury and the Rationality of Faith” on Zoom. The Saint Benedict Institute is a cosponsor of this event.
Anselm was a startlingly original monastic writer and thinker who drank deeply of Augustinian and patristic theology but formulated his own theological and philosophical writings in spare and compelling chains of reasoning. His Why God Became Man, Monologion, and Proslogion each chart new ways to practice 'believing in order to understand (credo ut intelligam).'
This event is free and open to the public, but online registration is required. For more information and to register for this webinar, click here.
Aaron Canty is professor of religious studies at Saint Xavier University. His current research focuses on the development of medieval Christology, eschatology, and scriptural exegesis. He is author of Light and Glory: The Transfiguration of Christ in Early Franciscan and Dominican Theology (Catholic University of America Press, 2011), A Companion to Job in the Middle Ages, eds. Franklin T. Harkins and Aaron Canty (Leiden: Brill, 2017), and an edition of excerpts from John of La Rochelle’s commentaries on the Synoptic Gospels (in Archivum Franciscanum Historicum).
How can scripture guide our search for wisdom? Bernard McGinn, professor emeritus in the Divinity School of the University of Chicago, begins the Lumen Christi Institute’s webinar series on Reason and Wisdom in Medieval Christian Thought by presenting on Gregory the Great and reading scripture for wisdom. The Saint Benedict Institute is a cosponsor of this event.
Thursday, February 27, 2020
7:00PM
Mulder Chapel, Western Theological Seminary
101 E. 13th Street, Holland, MI 49423
On Thursday, February 27, Western Theological Seminary is welcoming Dr. Gregory Lee, who will present a talk on “An Augustinian Theology of Mass Incarceration.” The lecture will be held at 7:00PM in Western Theological Seminary’s Mulder Chapel (101 E. 13th Street, Holland, MI 49423). This event is hosted by the Girod Chair of Western Theological Seminary and the Saint Benedict Institute is a co-sponsor.
The United States incarcerates far more individuals than any nation in the world, at radically disparate rates for different racial groups. This lecture draws on the thought of Augustine to encourage new approaches toward criminal justice. Augustine’s understanding of personal sin stresses the possibility of redemption for individual wrongdoers, and his account of collective evil exposes systemic injustice as a pervasive feature of humanity’s fallen condition. These insights commend Christians’ solidarity with oppressed communities, and the exercise of mercy and restorative practices in response to criminal offenses.
Dr. Gregory Lee is associate professor of theology and urban studies at Wheaton College and a core faculty member for Wheaton in Chicago, a residential program in the Woodlawn neighborhood of Chicago. His scholarship draws on Augustine’s theology to analyze contemporary social issues, focusing especially on race, class, and justice. He lives with his family in the inner city of Chicago, where he is theologian in residence at Lawndale Christian Community Church.
This event is co-sponsored by the Girod Chair of Western Theological Seminary, the Hope-Western Prison Education Program, and the Saint Benedict Institute.
On Monday, February 17th at 7:00PM, Dr. David Deavel presented his talk, "Taking Advantage of Freedom: What to Do with Liberty When You Have It” in Winants Auditorium (Graves Hall, 263 College Ave., Holland, MI 49423). This event was co-hosted by Markets & Morality and the Saint Benedict Institute.
While political, economic, and intellectual freedom is a precious gift to humans, our long history shows that we are ready to give it away. Why is that? One answer might be given from the Nobel-Prize-winning Russian writer, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008): when people don’t understand and use the freedom they have, they will throw it away to the detriment of themselves and their loved ones. This lecture will give a brief introduction to the life and career of Solzhenitsyn and then outline four enemies of freedom along with the way to defeat them. The goal is to take advantage of freedom in order to preserve it and flourish as individuals and societies.
David Paul Deavel, Ph.D. is editor of Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture and a visiting assistant professor at the University of St. Thomas. His Ph.D. is in historical theology from Fordham University. The 2013 winner of the Novak Prize, his book, Solzhenitsyn and American Culture: The Russian Soul in the West, co-edited with Jessica Hooten Wilson, is forthcoming this fall. He is a senior contributor at The Imaginative Conservative and has written over 300 articles and reviews in a wide variety of books and popular and scholarly journals including: America, First Things, Journal of Markets & Morality, Library of Law and Liberty, National Review, Nova et Vetera, and the Wall Street Journal.
Co-sponsors for this event include Hope College’s departments of History, Political Science, and Religion, and the Tocqueville Forum.
On Wednesday, January 29th at 7:30PM, the Saint Benedict Institute hosted a Traditional Latin Mass in Winants Auditorium (Graves Hall, 263 College Ave., Holland, MI 49423) commemorating the Feast of Saint Francis de Sales, the patron saint of our parish in Holland. The Mass was sung by Gaudete Grand Rapids, a brand new professional choral ensemble dedicated to propagating the beautiful chant and polyphony of the Roman Rite. They sang the Mass for Four Voices by William Byrd, motets by Anton Bruckner and Maurice Duruflé, as well as Gregorian chant.
This event was free and open to the public.
Gaudete Grand Rapids is a small, professional choral ensemble dedicated to performing perennial Latin liturgical music in the context for which it was written, the Traditional Latin Mass. Director Jonathan Bading ('18) converted to the Catholic faith upon witnessing the Traditional Latin Mass in all its musical splendor, his main impetus for founding Gaudete. While now a choir of 12, their five founding members recorded a promotional album, Woman, Behold Thy Son, which can be purchased at gaudetegr.bandcamp.com (digital and CD) or following Mass. All funds will go towards supporting their first season, of which this Mass is the inaugural event.
Jonathan Bading recently shared his conversion story on the Journey Home. You can watch his beautiful testimony here.
Co-sponsors of this event included the Departments of Music and Religion at Hope College.
Start Date: January 29, 2020 (Registration closes January 26)
End Date: April 26, 2020
The Exodus 90 program is built on the pillars of fellowship, prayer, and sacrifice. It is for those who are looking to seriously live their faith, to encounter Christ in a new way, and to overcome sinful habits. The program is demanding and that is point. To make room for Christ in our hearts requires clearing other things out. If you register for this program please know that it is a serious commitment to a weekly group meeting, to daily accountability, at least 20 minutes of daily prayer and a serious regimen of ascetic practices. If you are not interested then please do not sign up. If you do then give it your all, knowing that Jesus will not be outdone in generosity. Anyone is welcome to participate.
How To Register:
Watch the intro video below and read the list of the Exodus 90 sacrifices.
Fill out the registration form below. REGISTRATION CLOSES JANUARY 26.
Sign up for a group.
Email exodus90@hope.edu if you have any questions.
On Thursday, January 16, the Saint Benedict Institute founder and executive director, Dr. Jared Ortiz, stepped up to the podium. He spoke on “Turning Worshipers into Gods: Liturgy and Salvation in the Early Church.”
What is worship and what is it for? What is salvation and what does worship have to do with it? In this talk, Jared Ortiz, associate professor of religion at Hope College, will address these questions by examining the prayers and rituals of the early Christian baptism liturgy. In these rituals, early Christians understood that they were entering into Paradise, given a foretaste of the true Promised Land (heaven!), and were "being filled with all the fullness of God" (Eph. 3:19). They prayed that they might "become partakers of the divine nature" (2 Pet. 1:4). In short, the early Church believed that through their worship they could become divine. Dr. Ortiz's reflections will be drawn from his recent volume Deification in the Latin Patristic Tradition (Washington D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2019). The Catholic World Report published this interview with his comments on his latest book and the subject of this talk.
Dr. Jared Ortiz is associate professor of religion at Hope College, author of You Made Us for Yourself: Creation in St Augustine’s Confessions (Fortress Press, 2016), and editor of Deification in the Latin Patristic Tradition (The Catholic University of America Press, 2019). He is also founder and executive director of the Saint Benedict Institute.
This is the first time in my life that I have been able to go to Mass each day and doing so has impacted my life in such a profound way.
Lectio Divina is the convergence of two core practices of Christianity that I had not directly associated before: reading the Bible and prayer.
During my time in college, I have come to have a greater awareness of the power of participating in the sacraments often and the meaning that this has for my spiritual life. Attending Mass throughout the week and going to confession on a regular basis provides a rhythm to my life and keeps me grounded in peace throughout my week. I feel very fortunate to have so many opportunities to participate in the sacraments here on campus. I typically go to daily Mass a few days a week and it is always refreshing to be able to enter into prayer, hear the Word of God, and receive the Eucharist in the middle of my day. It is also a joy to see the familiar faces of classmates, professors, and friends from the community and to know that we are coming before the Lord together. Going to confession and daily Mass has contributed much to my spiritual growth and I am grateful to have Fr. Nick on campus to give us these opportunities. It is also a blessing to be a part of a devoted Catholic community here at Hope and to be able to share in this aspect of living out our faith.
Rachel is a senior from Ann Arbor. She is studying education and plans to student teach in Denver, CO this spring. She hopes to create 'The Great American Catholic Cross-Country Road Trip,' a guidebook highlighting important Catholic sites across the U.S.
![Gregory the Great on Reading Scripture for Wisdom [VIDEO]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/577d3bb79de4bbf977f473cc/1585791822396-U3B57KLH9R8IGEIODMR8/Francisco_de_Goya_-_Saint_Gregory_the_Great%2C_Pope_-_Google_Art_Project.jpeg)
