The Lumen Christi Institute

David Cloutier on April 8, 2026 at Ruth Lake Country Club. In this lecture, David Cloutier traces the development of Catholic social teaching (CST) from Rerum Novarum through Quadragesimo Anno to Centesimus Annus and beyond. Through many papacies and much change in the world, CST develops a unique and distinctive social vision that speaks to both the hopes and the perils of the contemporary world.

Scott Roniger on March 18, 2026 at Ruth Lake Country Club. In this lecture, Prof. Scott Roniger outlines the historical context that instigated the development of modern Catholic social doctrine during the pontificate of Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903). He discusses some of Leo’s most important contributions to Magisterial teaching on social issues, contributions that illuminate perennial principles that transcend the circumstances prompting their articulation. He focuses on Leo’s presentation of the dignity of society in all its complementary forms – a social dignity based upon the truth of the human person, created in the image and likeness of God and redeemed by Jesus Christ. Finally, he briefly shows how these principles have already been put to good use in the nascent pontificate of Pope Leo XIV.

Martin Shaw on February 4, 2026 at the Lumen Christi Institute. Drawing on his experience as a professor, mythographer, and widely respected storyteller, Martin Shaw locates us in the deeper dimensions of how a modern person approaches an ancient story through the telling of "The Birth of Ossian," an Irish fairy tale. This story is the second part of Shaw's event titled "Mythopoetics and Faerie Stories: Theory and Practice of Mythmaking." To listen to the full event audio, click here: https://soundcloud.com/lumenchristi/mythopoetics-and-faerie-stories-theory-and-practice-of-mythmaking

Martin Shaw on February 4, 2026 at the Lumen Christi Institute. In his newly published "Liturgies of the Wild," acclaimed mythographer and storyteller Martin Shaw argues that we live in a myth-impoverished age and that such poverty has left us vulnerable to stories that may not wish us well. Drawing on the “ancient technologies” of myths and initiatory rites, Shaw provides a road to wholeness, maturity and connection. In this event for UChicago students, Dr. Shaw explores both the theory and practice of mythmaking. In the first section Shaw guides us through myth’s relationship to initiation rites and oral storytelling, explaining these “ancient technologies.” In the second we tilt directly into the telling of an Irish fairy tale, The Birth of Ossian. Drawing on his experience as a professor and widely respected storyteller, Shaw locates us in the deeper dimensions of how a modern person approaches an ancient story.

Dr. Martin Shaw on February 5, 2026 at the Graduate by Hilton Evanston Hotel. There’s an old Irish belief that if you aren’t wrapped in a cloak of story you will be unprepared for what the world will hurl at you. You remain adolescent at just the moment a culture worth its salt requires you to become a real, grown, human being. Myths from antiquity are vivid in describing the conditions of life. Christianity goes a step further in providing the most extraordinary example of how to live that life. Working out of examples from Arthurian and fairy tale motifs, acclaimed mythographer Martin Shaw shows how, if ‘all true is God’s truth’, profound Christian resonances can be found in many mythic traditions. How do stories assist us in the making of a real human being? In troubled times how could we forge a deeper life? In this event, we welcome Dr. Martin Shaw to celebrate the release of his new book "Liturgies of the Wild."

Erika Kidd on November 12, 2025 at Ruth Lake Country Club. Doctor of the Church, Saint Augustine of Hippo, has a lot to say about teaching. He writes memorably about the way his early teachers failed him, teaching him to love praise and worldly success. He writes too about the vocation of the teacher, a vocation he lived in many different ways as rhetorician, father, priest, and bishop. In his early work “On the Teacher” he insists teaching is not a matter of passing along information. Instead, he writes, true teaching is an invitation to attend to the voice of Christ. Join Dr. Erika Kidd to learn more about Augustine’s timeless teaching wisdom and its continued relevance today.

Season Finale - Special Episode by The Lumen Christi Institute

Carlos Eire on October 30, 2025 at Saint Ignatius College Prep. Two of the most significant features of Catholic Christianity are its focus on holy men and women and the miracles ascribed to them. What is it that makes saints and miracles so significant? What difference does this characteristic of Catholicism make, not just for its history, but for us, here and now? Asking such questions is absolutely necessary for Catholics, and in this talk we explore why this is so. --- This project was made possible through the support of In Lumine Tuo: Expanding and Sustaining the Catholic Intellectual Tradition Nationwide (grant #63614) from the John Templeton Foundation and the generous support of the Bollandist Society and St. Ignatius College Preparatory School. The opinions expressed in this publication ​are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the John Templeton Foundation.

Carlos Eire and Kirsten Macfarlane on October 29, 2025 at the University of Chicago's Swift Hall. Levitation. Bilocation. Witchcraft. Demonic Possession. Europe in the early modern era was simultaneously the site of Kepler, Newton, Copernicus–and of eyewitness accounts of levitating saints and nocturnal witches’ sabbats. In his history of the impossible, award-winning historian Carlos Eire mines the firsthand accounts and archival evidence of the miraculous and demonic. How did an increasingly skeptical and scientific culture account for events deemed impossible by its leading intellectuals? What does this say about the supposed boundaries between the natural and supernatural that marked the transition to modernity? In this lecture, Carlos Eire explores the major themes of "They Flew" and asks: what makes something impossible? And is there more to reality than meets the eye? University of Chicago Divinity School professor Kirsten Macfarlane offers a response and engages Eire in a conversation. --- This project was made possible through the support of In Lumine Tuo: Expanding and Sustaining the Catholic Intellectual Tradition Nationwide (grant #63614) from the John Templeton Foundation and the generous support of the University of Chicago Divinity School and the Workshop on the Early Modern World. The opinions expressed in this publication ​are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the John Templeton Foundation.

Romans (Episode 3/3) by The Lumen Christi Institute

Romans (Episode 2/3) by The Lumen Christi Institute

Romans (Episode 1/3) by The Lumen Christi Institute

Matthew (Episode 5/5) by The Lumen Christi Institute

Matthew (Episode 4/5) by The Lumen Christi Institute

Prof. Scott Moringiello on October 15, 2025 at Ruth Lake Country Club. The twentieth century philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein said that Augustine’s Confessions was possibly the most serious book ever written. There’s good reason to think he was right. In the book – equal parts memoir, prayer, philosophical treatise, and theological masterpiece – Augustine explores the nature of goodness, the puzzle of sin, and the necessity of friendship. He savors the love of God that is offered in Christ and his Church. He even realizes (as we all do eventually) that his mother was right all along. In this lecture, Prof. Moringiello introduces the Confessions, one of the greatest books in the Western canon, and one especially dear to Pope Leo’s heart. He talks about his experience teaching it to undergraduates at Villanova University and DePaul University. And he focuses on how one of the most famous lines in the book — “our hearts are restless until the find rest in You, Lord” (1.1.5) – speaks to his students and to all of us who live in a world dominated by restlessness and who continually search for the rest that God’s love provides.

Matthew (Episode 3/5) by The Lumen Christi Institute

Matthew (Episode 2/5) by The Lumen Christi Institute

Matthew (Episode 1/5) by The Lumen Christi Institute

Jeremiah (Episode 1/1) by The Lumen Christi Institute

Isaiah (Episode 2/2) by The Lumen Christi Institute

Isaiah (Episode 1/2) by The Lumen Christi Institute

Amos and Hosea (Episode 1/1) by The Lumen Christi Institute

Ezekial and Daniel (Episode 1/1) by The Lumen Christi Institute

Elijah (Episode 1/1) by The Lumen Christi Institute

Judges (Episode 7/7) by The Lumen Christi Institute

Judges (Episode 6/7) by The Lumen Christi Institute

Paul Kingsnorth and James Matthew Wilson on September 25, 2025 at the University Club of Chicago. “Our culture is not in danger of dying; it is already dead, and we are in denial. This, now, is the reality we have to wrestle with—and transcend.” We all experience how the rapid advance of technology, especially AI, has affected the way we live, think, and experience the world. But has it also changed who we are? In his new book, "Against the Machine: on the Unmaking of Humanity," Paul Kingsnorth explores the consequences of hyper-technologized society. With the deftness of an essayist who is also a poet, Kingsnorth takes us through the historical and theological roots of post-Industrial Revolution advancement. He ultimately suggests that the dangers we face have a spiritual cause, and spiritual consequences. “If you knock out the pillars of a sacred order,” he writes, “the universe itself will change shape.” This technological reshaping will lead man to become the machine—unless we can learn to transcend it.

Judges (Episode 5/7) by The Lumen Christi Institute

Judges (Episode 4/7) by The Lumen Christi Institute

Judges (Episode 3/7) by The Lumen Christi Institute

Judges (Episode 2/7) by The Lumen Christi Institute

Judges (Episode 1/7) by The Lumen Christi Institute

Genesis (Episode 2/2) by The Lumen Christi Institute

Genesis (Episode 1/2) by The Lumen Christi Institute

BXVI- Jesus of Nazareth (Episode 6/6) by The Lumen Christi Institute

Jared Ortiz on September 10, 2025 at Ruth Lake Country Club. In the City of God, Augustine eloquently speaks about “two cities” that are divided by their two loves. In God’s city, there are angels and humans united in their love of God. In the earthly city, there are demons and humans united in their devotion to their own wills. For Augustine, the city of God on earth is the Church, but in this life it is a church which intermingles citizens of the two cities. It is a church on pilgrimage which longs to be fully united and secure with the heavenly city of God. But even now, in the Eucharist and in the miraculous intercession of the saints, the Church can achieve a foretaste of the unity it will experience in heaven.

BXVI- Jesus of Nazareth (Episode 5/6) by The Lumen Christi Institute

BXVI- Jesus of Nazareth (Episode 4/6) by The Lumen Christi Institute

BXVI- Jesus of Nazareth (Episode 3/6) by The Lumen Christi Institute

BXVI- Jesus of Nazareth (Episode 2/6) by The Lumen Christi Institute

BXVI- Jesus of Nazareth (Episode 1/6) by The Lumen Christi Institute

David Novak and Melanie Barrett on May 9, 2025 at the University Club of Chicago. David Novak, one of the most distinguished Jewish theologians in the world, offers a new interpretation of how the Jewish people and the Jewish tradition talk about God. What does the Torah say about God? How does the God of the Torah talk about Himself? And how does the God of the Torah talk about human beings? The book traces the history and theology of God-talk in Judaism, and how it remains relevant, now more than ever, and speaks directly to contemporary issues such as human rights. Melanie Barrett, professor of moral theology at the University of Saint Mary of the Lake, interviews David Novak on his new book on God-talk in Judaism.

Professor Clark Power on April 24, 2025 at Butterfield Country Club. "I was his delight day by day, Playing before him every moment, playing in his inhabited world, delighting in Adam’s offspring." Proverbs 8:30-32 (trans. Brown, 2012: 28-29) Drawing on Brown’s exegetical exploration of Wisdom’s paideia in the Book of Wisdom, Clark Power explores the relationship between Christianity and culture (following Remi Brague) with a focus on sports and more specifically youth sports. He argues that sports is play and as such fosters children’s development of the theological and cardinal virtues. In childhood as well as adulthood, sports should lead us to a transcendent joy that is rooted in freedom, love, and hope for the future of the human community.

Sarah Crow on May 14, 2025 at Ruth Lake Country Club. “In everything which gives us the pure authentic feeling of beauty there is really the presence of God…all art of the highest order is religious in essence” – Simone Weil Beautiful art reflects the glory of the living, incarnate God, Jesus Christ, whether or not explicitly religious in subject matter. Art is not only an instrument and expression of culture, but also has a prophetic capacity to “prepare the way for the Lord” and transform the hearts of those who encounter it. This lecture will look at great works of art, both sacred and secular, and demonstrate how they can lead us to God.

Dr. Michael Naughton on November 20, 2024 at Ruth Lake Country Club. If we do not know where we come from, it is hard to know what role we play. In this lecture, Dr. Michael Naughton provided a compelling narrative of Catholic education that drew upon our personal, institutional, and cosmic stories. This narrative gave us a vision both to see our current educational challenges more clearly, and to act with confidence and creativity to renew the mission and culture of our Catholic schools.

Professor Lu Ann Homza on February 9, 2024 at the University of Chicago. What did the practice of Christianity look like in a place shadowed by an inquisition? Were personal preferences, conversations, spiritual friendships, and religious questions off the table by default? Did clergy under the Spanish Inquisition neglect their duty to care for souls? Sixteenth-century Spaniards — regardless of their vocation, gender or education — defended and practiced a Catholicism that was rich in individual discretion, human communication, and theological inquiry. This talk lays out the evidence for an “inductive Catholicism,” which even Spanish inquisitors sometimes endorsed.

Prof. Shannen Dee Williams on April 27, 2023 at the University of Chicago. For most people, Whoopi Goldberg's performance as Sister Mary Clarence in Sister Act is the dominant interpretation of an African American nun and the desegregation of white Catholic sisterhood in the United States. In this presentation, Dr. Shannen Dee Williams will explore the story of America's real sister act: the story of how generations of Black women and girls called to the sacred vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience fought against racism, sexism, and exclusion to become and minister as consecrated women of God in the Roman Catholic Church. --- This event is co-presented by the Lumen Christi Institute and the Martin Marty Center for the Public Understanding of Religion, and cosponsored by St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church in Chicago, America Media, the Center for Gender Studies, the Center for Race, Politics and Culture at the University of Chicago, the History Department at the University of Chicago, the Thea Bowman Foundation, and the Catholic Theological Union.

This lecture is entitled Catholicism: A Global History from the French Revolution to Pope Francis. It was presented by John McGreevy of the University of Notre Dame on February 8, 2023, at the University of Chicago's Swift Hall.

Russell Hittinger, Scott Roniger, Mary Hirschfeld, and R. H. Helmholz on November 7, 2024 at the University of Chicago's Swift Hall. Prof. Hittinger has long been one of the world’s leading scholars of Catholic social teaching and natural law theory. His most recent book, "On the Dignity of Society," presents the fruit of his mature thinking on fundamental issues in Catholic political thought. Rooted in Thomistic philosophy and natural law theory, but also animated by his study of St. Augustine and thus sensitive to historical contexts and arenas for moral and theological disputation, Hittinger articulates the deepest principles of the Church’s social teaching and sheds considerable light on their historical applications. At this symposium, Professors Scott Roniger, Mary Hirschfeld and R. H. Helmholz discuss Hittinger’s latest work, and the panel concludes with a response from Professor Hittinger. --- This event was cosponsored by Catholic University of America Press.

Jennifer Newsome Martin on September 25, 2024 at Ruth Lake Country Club. Western culture owes a great deal to Christianity, but Christianity does not require any culture, as a culture, to be built with Christian materials. This does not reflect a weakness or defect in Christianity. It is a consequence of its genius. Christianity can and should inform every human undertaking. In our West Suburban Catholic Culture series, we explored various arenas where human existence is played out and discovered how Christianity can transform them.