The Lumen Christi Institute

The Lumen Christi Institute
The Lumen Christi Institute

The Lumen Christi Institute for Catholic Thought was founded by Catholic scholars at the University of Chicago in 1997 to bring the light of Christ and the Catholic intellectual and spiritual tradition to the secular academy and the general public. On this station we make available our many lectures and programs, as well as interviews with visiting scholars. To support our work, visit www.lumenchristi.org/donate

  1. Race and Justice In America

    08/05/2021

    Race and Justice In America

    A panel discussion with Herschella Conyers(University of Chicago Law School), Darren Davis (University of Notre Dame), andBrandon Viadyanathan (Catholic University of America), moderated by Judge Thomas More Donnelly (Cook County). This event is part of the Lumen Christi Institute's Catholic Criminal Justice Reform Network. --- National conversation about racial bias in law enforcement has become increasingly polarized over the last year. Some deny the existence of any widespread discrimination, while others see systemic racism as an inextricable part of American criminal justice, and call for defunding or even abolishing police forces. Professor Brandon Vaidyanathan says that racial bias in the criminal justice system is more complicated. A number of factors, including personal prejudice, laws and policies with racist origins, and broader cultural disparities that reflect the history of American racial discrimination, all contribute to a system that is neither irredeemably racist nor free from racial bias. Recognizing this complex interplay of problems, says Vaidyanathan, can help us move toward solutions. Join Brandon Vaidyanathan, Herschella Conyers, and Darren Davis for a conversation moderated by Cook County Judge Tom Donnelly, as they discuss race in contemporary American criminal justice and a path to equality in a fractured nation. This event is cosponsored by the Institute for Human Ecology, and was originally broadcast as a live webinar June 23, 2021.

    1h 12m
  2. Claudia Herrera and Jose Matos Auffant - Latino Youth and Evangelization

    05/24/2021

    Claudia Herrera and Jose Matos Auffant - Latino Youth and Evangelization

    A webinar conversation with Claudia Herrera (ACHTUS) and Jose Matos Auffant (St. Mary's University). Originally delivered May 4, 2021. Part of a Lumen Christi Institute webinar series on Hispanic Theology. There are complex dynamics to account for when examining the intersectionality of religious identity, social context, and the lived experience of young Latinx in the U.S. Current research shows that almost half of Catholics in the United States self-identify as Hispanic, and that more than half of those Hispanic Catholics are young. To better understand the religious dynamics of young Latinx, we first must identify those who are affiliated as Catholics and examine how they understand their relationship with the faith. This requires a process of listening, reflection and participatory-action. There is a large group of young Latinx who self-identify as Catholics and no longer affiliate nor participate in a local church or any form of pastoral activity. In some cases, their faith identity and daily practice as Catholics is a pilgrimage where the Church is the streets, their home, and other everyday spaces, and the practices of their everyday life represent Catholicism. This conversation aims to provide both practical and theological insight emerging from the particularities of pastoral and research work with young Latinx and their familias/comunidades. There is a great need to open concrete spaces in which young Latinx are listened to and are affirmed as active agents in the sharing of the good news of the Gospel.

    1h 12m
  3. Was Something Lost? Thomas Aquinas, Intellectual Disability, & the 16th c. Spanish Colonial Debates

    05/12/2021

    Was Something Lost? Thomas Aquinas, Intellectual Disability, & the 16th c. Spanish Colonial Debates

    A webinar lecture with Miguel Romero (Salve Regina University). Originally delivered April 27, 2021. Part of a Lumen Christi Institute webinar series on Hispanic Theology. In the 16th century, there was a subtle shift in the way the Spanish Dominican interpreters of Thomas Aquinas spoke about the anthropological and moral significance of our rational faculties. Historical and textual markers, indicating both the origin and development of this interpretive shift, present amid the fierce engagement of the Spanish colonial debates. Much has been written on the specific topic of those debates: i.e., the allegations concerning the rational status and moral aptitude of the Amerindian peoples and, by extension, the justice or injustice of the Spanish colonial enterprise in the Americas. However, it is difficult to find any scholarly work on the subject of the Spanish colonial debates: i.e., the anthropological and moral questions relevant to persons who seem to “lack the full use of reason.” Bearing that distinction in mind, between the topic and subject of the debates, this presentation for Lumen Christi is focused on persons who actually (and not allegedly) lack the full use of reason. Key interpretations, appropriations, and arguments about Aristotle and Aquinas—in the writing of John Mair, Francisco de Vitoria, and Bartolome de las Casas—will be retraced to show how Aquinas’s way of thinking about the intellectual dignity and inalienable contemplative aptitude of persons who “lack the use of reason” came to be displaced from the main currents of Thomistic theological discourse.

    1h 14m
5
out of 5
15 Ratings

About

The Lumen Christi Institute for Catholic Thought was founded by Catholic scholars at the University of Chicago in 1997 to bring the light of Christ and the Catholic intellectual and spiritual tradition to the secular academy and the general public. On this station we make available our many lectures and programs, as well as interviews with visiting scholars. To support our work, visit www.lumenchristi.org/donate

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