July 22-26, 2013 at the University of Chicago
DEADLINE EXTENDED TO MARCH 15
The pursuit and transmission of knowledge in the contemporary academy is highly specialized, secular, and regarded as separable from the social circumstances and beliefs of scientists, scholars, and students. This seminar will analyze the historical and intellectual reasons for the secularization and specialized fragmentation of knowledge characteristic of the contemporary academy. Through reading and discussion of scholarship pertaining to the historical processes through which knowledge was secularized, participants will explore ways in which knowledge has been alternatively understood within a unifying philosophical and theological framework, and how such a framework might remain intellectually viable today.
In addition to primary sources, this seminar will include discussion of the works of Pierre Hadot, Jean LeClerq, Alasdair MacIntyre, John Paul II, George Mardsen, Mark Knoll, and Christian Smith.
Format: There will be two 2.5-hour sessions each day. The seminar will include presentations by Prof. Gregory and by participants on the readings assigned, followed by seminar style discussion.
Seminar Leader: Brad Gregory is professor of history and the Dorothy G. Griffin collegiate chair at the University of Notre Dame. He received his Ph.D. from Princeton University (1996) and was a Junior Fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows (1994-96). Before joining the faculty at Notre Dame in 2003, Gregory taught at Stanford University, where he received early tenure in 2001. Gregory has two degrees in philosophy as well, both earned at the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium. Gregory’s research focuses on Christianity in the Reformation era, the long-term effects of the Reformation, secularization in early modern and modern Western history, and methodology in the study of religion. He most recently published The Unintended Reformation: How a Religious Revolution Secularized Society.
Location: The seminar will be held at the University of Chicago, home of the Lumen Christi Institute. Students will be provided with accommodations and meals in the dormitories on campus for the duration of the seminar. Funds are also available to provide for student travel.
Application Information: This seminar will be open to currently enrolled graduate students in the humanities and theology. Applicants will be required to submit:
- A completed online application form.
- An updated CV.
- At least one and as many as two letter(s) of recommendation from a member of the program in which the student is currently enrolled or employed.
- A statement of research interest no longer than 750 words, which includes an explanation of how this seminar might bear on the student’s current or future research plans.
- One example of written, academic work (25-30 pages maximum).
Letters of recommendation can be emailed to mfranzen@lumenchristi.org or mailed to: Lumen Christi Institute, Graduate Seminars, 1220 East 58th Street, Chicago, IL 60637. Incomplete applications will not be considered.
APPLY HERE
We will admit 15 students to this seminar.
Application materials must be received by Friday, March 15, 2013.
Any further questions can be directed towards Mark Franzen at mfranzen@lumenchristi.org.
