Through the academic Spring Quarter, the Lumen Christi Institute made its spring non-credit course on “Reason and Wisdom in Medieval Christian Thought” available to the broader public as a live-webinar series. Ultimately, this programming reached thousands of eager students, faculty, and life-long learners, revealing both the great potential of online education as well as the desire for quality programming in the Catholic intellectual tradition. 

This summer, the Lumen Christi Institute is collaborating with the American Cusanus Society to continue our online weekly programming, moving beyond the Medieval Period and into the Renaissance with a webinar series on "Reason and Beauty in Renaissance Christian Thought and Culture". Seminars will be held on Tuesdays, starting on June 16th with "Dante as Poet and Philosopher," with professors Jason Aleksander and Arielle Saiber.

No preparation is necessary and participants can attend according to their availablity. Register for each event on the event page.
 

2020 Summer Webinar Series on "Reason and Beauty in Renaissance Christian Thought and Culture"

What do reason and beauty have to do with each other? Since the modern Enlightenment and Romantic movements, it has been tempting to see reason and beauty as separate or even opposed. In the Renaissance, however, rational and artistic pursuits bloomed together and even fed each other. Renaissance culture, including fine art, poetry, architecture, astronomy, and humanistic thought, both drew upon and extended ancient and medieval Christian intellectual traditions. This webinar course will examine different aspects of renaissance Christian thought and culture to explore how pursuits of reason interwove with the love of beauty.

This series is cosponsored by the Beatrice Institute, Calvert House, the Collegium Institute, the Genealogies of Modernity Project, Harvard Catholic Center,  the Nova Forum for Catholic Thought, and St. Paul's Catholic Center.


Series Lectures

Tuesday, June 16, 7 p.m. CDT
Dante as Poet and Philosopher | Jason Aleksander (San Jose State University) and Arielle Saiber (Bowdoin College)

Tuesday, June 23, 7 p.m. CDT
Alberti and Renaissance architecture | Il Kim (Auburn University)

Tuesday, June 30, 7 p.m. CDT
Marsilio Ficino and the philosophy of Plato | Denis Robichaud (University of Notre Dame)

Tuesday, July 7, 7 p.m. CDT
Women Humanists in the Renaissance: Paradise and Free Speech in Moderata Fonte | Tamara Albertini (University of Hawai’i at Manoa)

Tuesday, July 14, 12 p.m. CDT
Measure and mathematics in Renaissance Philosophy | Richard Oosterhoff (University of Edinburgh)

Tuesday, July 21, 7 p.m. CDT
Titian's Icons: Logos and Kairos in Renaissance Devotion | Christopher Nygren (University of Pittsburgh)

Tuesday, July 28, 12 p.m. CDT
Giordano Bruno and the Poetry of the cosmos | Valentina Zaffino (Pontifical Lateran University; Rome Global Gateway, University of Notre Dame)

Tuesday, August 4, 12 p.m. CDT
Reason and beauty in Cambridge Platonism | Douglas Hedley (Cambridge University)

Tuesday, August 11, 7 p.m. CDT
Richard Hooker’s sapiential theology: Reformed Platonism? | Torrance Kirby (McGill University)

Tuesday, August 18, 7 p.m. CDT
Passage to Modernity: Renaissance Christianity Today | Peter Casarella (Duke University)