Seminars in the Catholic Intellectual Tradition
Each year the Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts sponsors a series of seminars for Notre Dame faculty members addressing various themes in the Catholic intellectual tradition. The seminars grow out of Notre Dame’s mission to build a “Catholic community of learning animated by scholars who constructively engage the long tradition of Catholic learning and its meaning for the modern world.” Among other aims of the seminars, we want the participants to have a sense of how the Church draws on its own resources in responding to contemporary challenges. Through the process of reading both classic and contemporary texts in the Catholic tradition, participants will become familiar with how tradition is interpreted and passed on, how forgotten or neglected elements in the tradition may be retrieved in response to new situations, and how tradition is transformed and renewed in light of new knowledge and changing cultural circumstances. In other words, they will gain insight into how the Catholic interpretive community does its work of reflecting on revelation and inculturating it in quite different and complex cultural milieus, especially in the complex and interrelated world of the 21st century where Catholicism takes diverse expressions. Our hope is to create a vibrant community of Catholic intellectual life within our faculty by providing them with a broad background in the Catholic intellectual tradition.
During each academic year, up to 15 faculty members from across the university participate in a series of monthly seminars on topics that vary from year to year. The goal of the seminars is to present models of how Catholic thought can inform contemporary issues, how it critically draws on current thought, and how it can fruitfully relate to particular academic disciplines. Each seminar includes a set of readings, a lecture by a leading scholar, and lengthy discussions among the seminar participants. Leading scholars facilitate the seminars. Below is a list of past, current and projected future seminar topics:
Summer 2002: Introduction to Great Books in the Catholic Tradition
2003-04: Catholic Social Thought and the Curriculum
2005-06: The Catholic Ideal of Liberal Learning
2006-07: Theology and Science
2007-08: Social Science and Christian Perspectives on Human Personhood and Society
2008-09: Catholic Theology and Feminism
2009-10: Catholic Theology, Literature, and the Arts
2010-2011: The Church in a Global Context
For more information on the seminars, contact: Ken Garcia, Associate Director
Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts, 631-6494, kgarcia@nd.edu