Promoting Integral Human Development

Challenges and Opportunities for the Church and Catholic Organizations

December 15, 10:00—11:15 a.m.

This event is free and open to the public. It will be held online over Zoom.

This event is presented by the Lumen Christi Institute and the Catholic Research Economists Discussion Organization, and is cosponsored by the Saint Benedict Institute, Global Researchers Advancing Catholic Education, the International Office of Catholic Education, the International Federation of Catholic Universities, the World Organization of Former Students of Catholic Education, the World Union of Catholic Teachers, the International Catholic Child Bureau, the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame, America Media, the Harvard Catholic Forum, the Nova Forum, and the Saint Anselm Institute.

The concept of integral human development (IHD) is fundamental for the Catholic Church, and the role played by the Church in promoting IHD is essential to its mission. The term IHD emerged from Populorum Progressio, the encyclical on the development of people in which Pope Paul VI stated that “the development of peoples must be well rounded; it must foster the development of each man and of the whole man.” This webinar will feature a conversation on challenges and opportunities for the Church and Catholic organizations to promote IHD. This event will feature a presentation of the Global Report 2021 on Integral Human Development prepared by Quentin Wodon and soon to be available on the Global Catholic Education website, followed by a discussion with a panel of experts – Katherine Marshall, Patrizio Piraino, and Diana Filatova – and a question and answer session with participants.

#GivingTuesday 2021

November 30 is #GivingTuesday! Please consider making a gift to support our ministry at Hope College. Throughout the months of October and November we have shared several stories from our current students. They are beautiful accounts of community, prayer, worship, and intellectual and spiritual growth. When you give to the Saint Benedict Institute, your generosity will foster many new stories in the lives of students at Hope College in the years to come. 

Check out our featured students below!

Welcome Back!

“The seats were full of students excited to see one another as the new school year began. We gathered together and worshipped and became one through the Body of Christ, all together on our campus, in our space. Welcome back, Hope College! The Lord has great plans in store for us.”

Read Grace Brown's Story

Praying in Song

“I enjoy playing for the on-campus Mass as a way to give back to the community that has given me so many of the parts of life that matter, like real friendships, a deeper relationship with the Lord, and my faith as a whole.”

Read Kelli Trudeau’s Story

Letting Go

“We must let go of the things on this earth and keep our focus on the things above. This fueled my purpose, and this is what Exodus 365 taught me. I am forever changed.”

Read Dan Campbell's Story

Thomistic Circles Conference

Karlie: "Like a lot of students, I came into college thinking the only purpose of being here was to take the classes necessary to get a good job. But God has been gently redirecting me to see this as a unique time to think and learn about what is true, good, beautiful, and leads me to him, regardless of if it will help me get a particular job."

Kamaron: "I met amazing students who all sought to live faithfully and to grow in knowledge of heavenly things, and we had the opportunity to worship and pray with the Dominicans. During the retreat, the Holy Spirit fixed my eyes upon heavenly wisdom and the mysteries that God has given his Church to meditate on. I grew in my desire to know God more and to continually submit myself to him."

Read Karlie's and Kam's Stories

Student Stories: Thomistic Circles Conference

Last month, I traveled to Washington, D.C., with a fellow Hope student, Kamaron Wilcox, to attend a Thomistic Circles Conference and retreat at the Dominican house of studies. This event was hosted by the Thomistic Institute (TI), which is part of the Pontifical Faculty of the Dominican House of Studies and “exists to promote Catholic truth in our contemporary world by strengthening the intellectual formation of Christians at universities, in the Church, and in the wider public square.” Students, professors, and religious were invited to the conference to attend seminars and discuss the topic “virtue and divine grace.” The speakers, Professor Jacob Wood, Fr. Michael Sherwin, O.P., and Professor Angela Knobel, shared their interpretations of Aquinas’s work on infused and acquired virtue, a topic I was surprised to learn is quite nuanced and even divisive. Students attending the conference stayed at the Washington Retreat House run by the Franciscan Sisters of the Atonement. Aside from attending seminars, we joined the Dominican brothers for daily Mass, the Liturgy of the Hours, and a holy hour.

The TI retreat had a profound impact on me for several reasons. First, as a Biochemistry and Molecular Biology major, my studies thus far have been primarily focused on the natural sciences. I knew the Catholic Church had a beautiful intellectual tradition, but aside from some occasional reading and SBI events, I hadn’t had much exposure to it. The conference was a great opportunity to step out of my STEM bubble for a weekend, and I was absolutely captivated by the combination of faith and intellect. In fact, my experience at the retreat contributed to my decision to declare a second major in Christian History and Theology. Like a lot of students, I came into college thinking the only purpose of being here was to take the classes necessary to get a good job. But God has been gently redirecting me to see this as a unique time to think and learn about what is true, good, beautiful, and leads me to him, regardless of if it will help me get a particular job.

The second reason why the TI retreat meant so much to me was because it really deepened my relationship with God. Attending the Liturgy of the Hours, Mass, and a holy hour with the Dominicans was fantastic. It was a privilege to be able to devote so much time to prayer, especially surrounded by the admirable faith of the brothers and fellow students. I also grew a lot in trust of the Lord. Prior to the conference, I had never traveled alone, and I was understandably nervous. Yet, I felt called to go, so I put my trust in God and I went. The wonderful experience I had at the conference showed me that if the Lord is calling me to something, I can trust him to be with me in it. 

Karlie Platz is a sophomore from Sand Lake, MI. She is double majoring in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Religion.

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I felt uncertain about going all the way to the Thomistic Institute (TI) in Washington, D.C., for a few reasons: I didn’t want to miss school, which takes a lot of time—a scarce resource. I’ve never been to D.C. before, so I didn’t really know what I was doing to get around. Above all, I have never made a trip like this, so the thought of going to a conference in a place I had never been before with a bunch of people I had never met was daunting. It seemed exciting, too. I would not have gone alone, but because another student, Karlie, wanted to go, I felt encouraged to make the trip. It was the right choice.

When we got to D.C., we were scrambling to try to find a place to go to Mass. The best we could do was to get to Mass about fifteen minutes late if we hustled and made no mistakes in catching all the right metros. God knew better than us, of course. When we just missed the metro we needed to take to get to the Catholic University of America (CUA), we looked at the website of St. Patrick’s Parish—a five minute walk from our location—and they had Mass in ten minutes! In God’s providence, our mistake ended up allowing us to make Mass with a few minutes to spare. So far, it was a great start to the weekend.

At the retreat, we were welcomed generously by the sisters and TI staff. Everyone was so kind, and many other students attending the conference were intrigued to learn that two STEM majors from a mostly unknown small college in Michigan that doesn’t have a TI chapter were attending a conference about philosophy and theology.

The talks by the guest speakers baffled me because the level of philosophy was far beyond my knowledge. However, this encouraged me and awakened a deep desire to dive into Thomistic philosophy and theology rather than discouraging me from seeking to grow in philosophical endeavors. I learned about disagreements among Thomists regarding the compatibility of the acquired and infused virtues. Another area of disagreement is whether the existence of acquired virtues within a person can in any way aid the development and growth in infused virtue. These topics fascinated me as I tried to wrap my head around what these speakers were sharing. I loved every second of it.

Karlie and I also had the opportunity to participate in the Liturgy of the Hours and Mass with the Dominicans at their house of studies. This gave the conference grounding in spirituality. I took what I had been learning and allowed it to transform the way I worshiped. Furthermore, God brought me closer to him through praying the Liturgy of the Hours in that large community of people. I often felt drawn to spend time before the Blessed Sacrament, pouring my heart out before the Lord. Jesus pulled me in toward him, and I found great peace in his presence. Having a Blessed Sacrament chapel in the same building I was staying at made a huge impact! At night I would often go down to the chapel by myself just to be with Jesus, and I felt truly at rest in his presence.

Overall, the conference and retreat were wonderful. I met amazing students who all sought to live faithfully and to grow in knowledge of heavenly things, and we had the opportunity to worship and pray with the Dominicans. During the retreat, the Holy Spirit fixed my eyes upon heavenly wisdom and the mysteries that God has given his Church to meditate on. I grew in my desire to know God more and to continually submit myself to him.

Kamaron Wilcox is a senior majoring in Physics and minoring in Mathematics. Kam enjoys altar serving at Mass and is a member of the diving team.

Student Stories: Letting Go

Exodus 365 is something I would have never imagined doing in college, but here I am. At first, I saw it as a challenge. If I complete each discipline every week, I will be all set. In my eyes, this would be the ultimate level of discipline for self-improvement.

However, as I grew in my faith and talked with others who were sacrificing the same things, I learned that it wasn’t supposed to be looked at as some checklist challenge. My heart took a turn. The purpose of Exodus is really to sacrifice some of the things I enjoy doing and give them to the Lord. I also learned to give up "my time” and fill it by spending time with the Lord. Don’t get me wrong, this is a challenge, but my intention and pursuit are different from when I started.

Exodus put in perspective how worldly I am, and this scared me. But I needed this reality check. Right off the bat, I was struggling with giving up sweets, social media, and frivolous internet. However, it was necessary for my growth, considering that I would like to be able to lay down my life for my faith. It is crazy to think that I should be able to give up my whole life, but I struggle with making time for only twenty minutes of prayer each day.

Many people believe that to be a follower of Christ you must hold on for dear life because it will be tough living for him. But I say that being a follower of Christ is more like letting go for dear life, leaving all our desires behind to go serve him. We must let go of the things on this earth and keep our focus on the things above. This fueled my purpose, and this is what Exodus 365 taught me. I am forever changed.

Dan Campbell is a sophomore from Brighton, MI. He is studying Physical Education and Health. Dan runs on the cross-country team as well as the track team at Hope College. He loves nature, going on hikes, and exploring.

Genres, Tropes, and Satisfying Stories (Photos and Video)

By Piper Daleiden, a Junior at Hope College

Photos: Haniah Kring, a Senior at Hope College

Almost every reader has experienced the disappointment of reaching the end of a book just to feel dissatisfied with the conclusion. But what causes these novels to be unfulfilling? Why do they fail to meet our expectations?

On Thursday, October 21, 2021, Eleanor Bourg Nicholson and Rhonda Ortiz examined this topic in their presentation “Werewolves and Fainting Damsels: The Genius and Challenges of Genre Fiction,” hosted by the Saint Benedict Institute. Nicholson is an editor, educator, and the author of the Gothic novels A Bloody Habit and Brother Wolf. Ortiz is the author of the historical romance novel In Pieces. She is also a nonfiction writer and the founding editor of Chrism Press.

Ortiz began by defining the terms that she and Nicholson would return to throughout their presentation. “Genre” refers to a story’s content and overall form, and “genre conventions” are elements of a specific genre that are necessary to tell the story well. “Tropes” are characters, settings, premises, and plot devices that occur often in a genre but are not mandatory. Ortiz emphasized that it is impossible to write or find a story without tropes. However, although tropes and conventions might be common, they are not necessarily bad. “Conventions and obligatory scenes are form, not formulas, and tropes are tools, not clichés,” explained Ortiz. These components of a genre become well known for a reason: they reflect universal truths about the human story. For example, the “Who done it?” trope in detective fiction points to man’s natural inclination to search for truth. Overall, tropes allow readers to tap into something greater than themselves.

Nicholson held a magnifying glass over the progression of tropes and conventions in mystery and detective fiction. This genre relies on conventions so the reader will be satisfied at the conclusion of the story. Ronald Knox, a Catholic priest and author, summarized these conventions in his “Ten Commandments of Detective Fiction.” One of his rules is that the criminal needs to be mentioned in the early part of the story. However, Knox’s “Ten Commandments” proved to be controversial when other prominent authors, including Agatha Christie, formed the Detection Club with the goal of breaking Knox’s rules. While some of the Detection Club’s stories were successful, others struggled to please the readers without Knox’s conventions. Nicholson concluded that tropes in detective fiction should be tastefully used so that the reader is surprised but not incredulous about the identity of the culprit.

Ortiz flipped to a new chapter to explore tropes in romance fiction. The love story is extremely popular, even in genres outside of romance. Ortiz attributed this popularity to humanity’s natural desire to love and be loved, which stems from the romance between God and man. Within romance fiction, the conventions and obligatory scenes also find their roots in man’s relationship with God. For example, the trope of a damsel in distress reveals humanity’s deep need for a savior. Ortiz also discussed the challenges of writing with these tropes. In her recently released novel, she had to find a balance between using the damsel in distress trope and respecting the historical setting, characters, and plot. For Ortiz, this meant allowing her protagonist to be saved in a way that both followed the conventions of the romance genre and gave her protagonist independence.

Nicholson introduced the gothic genre, beginning with its historical context. This genre was a reaction to the Age of Reason, and even today, it encourages readers to consider what is beyond logic and empirical science. Gothic literature comes with its own set of tropes and conventions, and Nicholson stressed that there needs to be a sense that good can triumph in the end. Despite this genre’s darker themes and supernatural aspects, its tropes still reveal universal truths about man, especially by exposing the protagonist’s inner corruption and need for grace. Nicholson added that historically, gothic fiction has been grounded in anti-Catholicism. This can be seen in some of its tropes, such as “scary papists.” As a Catholic author in this genre, Nicholson balances these conventions by using tropes to “torture” her characters. In her novels, this might look like self-growth in the protagonist after having to rely on Catholic figures for help.

While stories of vampires and werewolves might be very different from an early American romance, Nicholson and Ortiz agreed that tropes and conventions can be artfully used to convey human universals and lead to a fulfilling conclusion, regardless of genre. Overall, they encouraged authors and readers alike to “unknot” a genre to explore the components of a satisfying story.

This event was co-sponsored by the Hope College Religion department and the Corpus Christi Foundation.

Student Stories: Praying in Song

When I was fourteen, I began playing at Mass once a month at my home parish, Holy Rosary in Cedar, MI. My older sister, Kirsten, who is also a Church musician, taught me how to plan music that was both appropriate for the liturgical season and fitting for the day's particular set of readings. A year later, Kirsten went off to study at the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music (PIMS) in Rome. This left me as the primary organist at Holy Rosary, a position I held until I graduated from high school in 2019. During that time, I planned music for both the Ordinary and the Extraordinary Forms of the Mass.

In June of 2018 I visited Kirsten in Rome. While I was there, the choir from PIMS went to the island of San Giulio in Northern Italy to sing a concert of Gregorian chant. Professor Prassl, the choir director, said that I could rehearse with them. After the first rehearsal, he invited me to sing the concert with the choir. I gladly accepted. Singing with the PIMS choir opened my eyes to a world of chant I had never been exposed to before. They sang the chant according to semiology, which means that each note gets a distinct value instead of each note being of equal value. It was on that trip that I realized I wanted to study Gregorian chant and its history on a deeper level.

There is such a wide variety of music for the liturgy, including chants, hymns, choral music, propers, Mass settings, and even instrumental music that, when used wisely, can elevate the Mass as a whole. My goal when planning music for the liturgy is to choose music that the congregation can participate in while directing their thoughts and prayers to God.

Leading a church full of people in worship in the liturgy, which is the source and summit of our faith, is something that I’m grateful to be a part of. My favorite part of playing for Mass is when the organ is blaring and everyone in the church is singing their hearts out. I enjoy playing for the on-campus Mass as a way to give back to the community that has given me so many of the parts of life that matter, like real friendships, a deeper relationship with the Lord, and my faith as a whole.

Kelli Trudeau is a junior from Suttons Bay, MI. She is studying Organ Performance and Classical Studies. Kelli works as the organist and music director at a parish near her hometown. At Hope College, she sings in the Chapel Choir. Kelli spent the summer working on a cherry farm.

Before You Were Born

October 27, 7 p.m. in Schaap Auditorim in the Bultman Student Center

Students Cherishing Life is hosting a talk by Dr. Donna J. Harrison, the CEO of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Dr. Harrison will deliver an address titled “Before You Were Born: The Beginning Stages of Pregnancy and Life According to Science.” The Saint Benedict Institute is co-sponsoring the talk.

RSVP is encouraged via QR code.

This event is free and open to the public. Due to Hope College’s COVID precautions, masks are required indoors on campus for all individuals who are vaccinated or unvaccinated.

Dr. Donna J. Harrison

Dr. Donna Harrison is a physician, board-certified in obstetrics and gynecology. She completed an Honors Bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry and Chemistry at Michigan State University and an M.D. from University of Michigan. She completed her residency training in obstetrics and gynecology from St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, an affiliate of University of Michigan. She was in private practice for 10 years.

She serves as CEO of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, AAPLOG, and has been active with the organization since 1996. AAPLOG is the largest non-sectarian pro-life physician organization in the world, with over 7,000 members across the U.S., and international members on every continent. 

Student Stories: Welcome Back!

These first few weeks at Hope have made me feel like I've begun freshman year all over again. I didn't realize how much I missed this last year until it was given back to me. Sunday Mass on campus, for example, has been such a blessing to return to. There is something so special that I can't quite articulate about having our own little parish community at Hope, something that was largely lost last year. Yes, we still gathered—in small groups, at St. Francis, in class—but it was all very aloof and unfriendly in many ways. In class, we may have been together, but we were asked to face forward and have minimal movement, putting a damper on socialization.

St. Francis was amazingly welcoming to all students as we became regular parishioners, but that small, tight-knit community was hard to come by in such a large space with distancing regulations. These all became the norm, however, and I think many of us began to forget that this isn't how it's supposed to be. I don't think I fully realized it until my first Sunday Mass back on campus, the first I've attended in Winants in eighteen months. We were all back again! The seats were full of students excited to see one another as the new school year began. We gathered together and worshipped and became one through the Body of Christ, all together on our campus, in our space. Welcome back, Hope College! The Lord has great plans in store for us.

Grace Brown is a junior from Grand Rapids, MI. She is studying public accounting. Grace is president of the pro-life group on campus, Students Cherishing Life. Grace and her mom started a podcast this summer called “Thanks Mom.”

The Gender Paradigm and the Genesis Paradigm (Photos and Video)

By Karlie Platz, a Junior at Hope College

Photos: Haniah Kring, a Senior at Hope College

What is a man? What is a woman? And why have these questions become so hard to answer? On Thursday, September 30, 2021, the Saint Benedict Institute was pleased to host Dr. Abigail Favale, whose lecture titled “The Genesis of Gender” explored these very questions. Favale is the Dean of Humanities at George Fox University in Newberg, Oregon. An evangelical convert to Catholicism, she outlined her conversion story in her memoir Into the Deep. Her scholarly work exploring the Christian understanding of reality, human identity, and sexual difference has been featured in several literary and academic journals.

The topics of sexuality, gender, and the body are undeniably controversial in our current culture, and Dr. Favale did not ignore the tension surrounding her lecture. Having previously identified herself as a postmodern feminist, Favale understands the perspective of those who oppose her and believes their views ultimately come from a place of goodwill. Nevertheless, she is steadfast in her belief that the only way to approach such a challenging and divisive topic is to “hold it up to the light of divine revelation.”

Favale opened by providing a brief overview of the history of gender. Up until the 1950s, she explained, gender was a binary category equated with sex. Males were men and females were women. However, things quickly became more complicated, in part due to the work of the French writer Simone de Beauvoir and New Zealand psychologist John Money. Both Beauvoir and Money believed that gender was a malleable social construct that we are taught at a young age. Money even tried to test this theory by prescribing gender reassignment to a boy named David Reimer after a failed circumcision. David rebelled against this reassignment and tragically committed suicide in his thirties, but Money’s social construct idea of gender had already been widely accepted by then.

This idea went one step further in the 1990s and early 2000s when philosophers such as Judith Butler began to propose that sex, in addition to gender, was a social construct. Butler argued that “nothing is real,” including sex. This resulted in a complete reversal of the roles of sex and gender. Rather than biological sex determining gender, the gender that one felt most aligned with was supposed to determine their sex. This isn’t problematic if sex “isn’t real,” as Butler claims, but Favale argues that the physical reality of our bodies invalidates that argument. In her eyes, this new concept of gender has “driven a wedge between body and identity” and created a new “gender paradigm” that is fundamentally at odds with our origin, identity, and purpose. Her solution? To replace the gender paradigm with what she calls the “genesis paradigm.”

The gender and genesis paradigms provide two different worldviews through which to understand ourselves, our bodies, and our purpose. They ultimately disagree on six main points, which Favale discussed in order: creation, reality, body, sexual difference, language, and freedom. Favale explained how the gender paradigm implies that we ourselves are the creator, free to choose our own identity at will. Conversely, the genesis paradigm identifies God as the creator. We “do not come from something” but “from someone,” and our first and most important identity is that of an image-bearer of the one from whom we came. Since we are not the creator, reality is not a malleable construct that we can grasp and recreate to our liking, but a gift we must receive and tend to.

Furthermore, as image-bearers, our bodies are not meaningless objects but sacraments, or visible signs of an invisible reality. Favale explained that sexual difference further communicates this invisible reality. Rather than being an “illusion,” as the gender paradigm would suggest, sexual difference is a revelation of God’s love. The physical complementarity of the two sexes that enables them to become “one flesh” (Genesis 2:24) allows our love to be a complete gift of self. This is a symbol on earth of Jesus’s love for us and the absolute, perfect union he desires to have with each of us in eternity.

One big problem with the gender paradigm’s view of sexual difference as “not real,” Favale argues, is that it attempts to assign reality using human speech. On the contrary, the genesis paradigm asserts that “divine speech makes reality, human speech identifies reality.” Favale believes that sexual difference was spoken into being by the Word of God when he made them “male and female” (Genesis 10:6), and therefore our language can only recognize and proclaim this reality rather than create a new one.

The final aspect of the two paradigms that Favale touched on was freedom. Ultimately, the gender paradigm views freedom as transgression: permissiveness, pushing the boundaries, and making our own meaning. The genesis paradigm views freedom as belonging and becoming who we are as God’s beloved creation.

After outlining the irreconcilable differences between the gender paradigm and the genesis paradigm, Favale offered a somber but important piece of wisdom: if we don’t make a conscious decision about which paradigm we inhabit, it will be made for us. Favale believes that our ultimate purpose is to give and receive love, but in order to do that, we must accept our bodies and the identity they give us as a gift from the Father. Therefore, she asserts that the genesis paradigm provides the best lens through which to understand our sexual difference. Man and woman must be defined by embodiment because it is the physical sign of our bodies that reveals our purpose: to bear God’s image and unite ourselves to him through self-giving love.

Jared Ortiz on "Outside the Walls"

Dr. Jared Ortiz, the Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Saint Benedict Institute, was recently interviewed on the “Outside the Walls” podcast. He discussed the work that SBI does with Catholic and non-Catholic students at Hope College and how it thrives in an ecumenical space.

One Child Nation: Film Screening and Discussion

Monday, October 25, 7:00 p.m. in Winants Auditorium

China’s one-child policy, the extreme population control measure that made it illegal for couples to have more than one child, may have ended in 2015, but the process of dealing with the trauma of its brutal enforcement is only just beginning. From award-winning documentarian Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang, One Child Nation explores the ripple effects of this devastating social experiment, uncovering one shocking human rights violation after another — from abandoned newborns (almost always girls), to forced sterilizations and abortions to government abductions. Learn more about the documentary by clicking here.

The film screening will be followed by a discussion with Dr. Dennis Feaster, Associate Professor of Social Work, and Dr. Gloria Tseng, Associate Professor of History.

This event is free and open to the public. Due to Hope College’s COVID precautions, masks are required indoors on campus for all individuals who are vaccinated or unvaccinated.

This event is co-sponsored by Markets and Morality.

Dr. Dennis Feaster

Dennis Feaster joined the sociology and social work department in fall 2013 as an assistant professor of social work. He primarily teaches Human Behavior in the Social Environment, Social Policy, Social Interventions 2, and Social Work Field Placement.

Dr. Gloria Tseng

Professor Tseng came to Hope in 2003 from the University of Oregon Honors College. She teaches Interdisciplinary Studies 171 and a series of upper-level history courses, including Modern China, Twentieth-century Europe, and World War II: Collaboration and Resistance.

Werewolves and Fainting Damsels: The Genius and Challenges of Genre Fiction

Click Here for Photos, Video, and a Student Reflection

Thursday, October 21, 7:00 p.m. in Winants Auditorium

When we first encounter a book, its genre raises certain expectations for what we, as readers, will find within the pages. In this talk, two authors pull back the creative curtain to show how novelists negotiate the complicated network of tropes and conventions that operate within the realm of popular genre fiction. Hear from two practitioners—Eleanor Bourg Nicholson, author of the Gothic novels A Bloody Habit and Brother Wolf, and Rhonda Ortiz, author of the historical romance novel In Pieces and founding editor of Chrism Press—what rules are to be observed, what rules are to be broken, and how genre and imagination combine to create a vivid narrative.

Books will be available for purchase at the event, and (barring an unexpected fainting fit) the authors will be available for book signing.

This event is free and open to the public. Due to Hope College’s COVID precautions, masks are required indoors on campus for all individuals who are vaccinated or unvaccinated.

This event is co-sponsored by the Religion department and the Corpus Christi Foundation.

Eleanor Bourg Nicholson

In addition to scholarly pursuits, Eleanor Bourg Nicholson occasionally strays into fiction, including her epistolary novella, The Letters of Magdalen Montague, and her Gothic novels, A Bloody Habit and Brother Wolf. Eleanor is the resident Victorian literature instructor at Homeschool Connections and with her husband homeschools their children. By night, she reads, writes, and cares for feral offspring. Visit her at eleanorbourgnicholson.com.

Rhonda Ortiz

Rhonda Franklin Ortiz is a Lay Dominican, novelist, nonfiction writer, and founding editor of Chrism Press. In Pieces, the first novel of her Molly Chase series, was the recipient of two awards, including the competitive ACFW Genesis Award. A native Oregonian, she attended St. John’s College in historic Annapolis, Maryland and now lives in Michigan with her husband and children. Find her online at rhondaortiz.com.