St Anslem Institute

Elizabeth Schiltz
University of St. Thomas Law School

"Taking Complementarity Seriously:
A Catholic Approach to Gender Differences, Feminism, and Public Policy"

University of St. Thomas Law Professor Elizabeth Schiltz provocatively engages us to consider: "What difference would being different really make?"  Although the question carries a rich history, contemporary discussions of gender identity and of the complementarity principle readily embrace the view that there are innate differences between men and women.  Prof. Schiltz contends that feminists from a faith tradition like Catholicism, which takes embodiment seriously, are necessarily active and fellow participants in these discussions of gender identity.  By closely exploring ways in which a Catholic understanding of complementarity is similar to and different from secular feminist versions of this idea, Prof. Schiltz will reveal how Catholic (and Christian) feminists extend and broaden ongoing debates about engendered verities and whether gender-based differences are legally relevant to pressing issues like workplace discrimination and family leave policies. 

The St. Thomas More Society is a cosponsor of this public lecture. All are invited to attend.

CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA 
CHAMBER CHOIR CONCERT
CANCELLED DUE TO WEATHER CONDITIONS

Leo Nestor, Conductor
Verena Anders, Assistant Conductor
William Atwood, Organ 

• Newcomb Rd.,behind Alderman Library (20 spaces)
• Rugby Rd., behind Madison Bowl (34 spaces)
• Madison Hall (31 spaces)
• Chancellor St. Lot (40 spaces - NOT on deck)
• Elliewood Parking lot (Elliewood Ave. - 44 spaces)
• Behind College Inn (72 spaces)
• 14th St. Parking Deck (175 spaces)
• Hospital Drive/Barringer lots (45 spaces).

Paul Mariani
Boston College

"The Life and Poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins, S.J."

October 22, 2009 / Minor Hall / University of Virginia/ 5:00pm

"Sometimes a Lantern moves along the night
That interests our eyes."
-- GMH, SJ

On Thursday evening (Oct. 22), the St. Anselm Institute warmly embraced and welcomed Boston College Professor Paul Mariani to the University of Virginia.  Prof. Mariani is a widely acclaimed and prolific authority on British and American poetry and literature, including his sixteenth and latest book: Gerard Manley Hopkins, A Life (Viking, 2008).  Among numerous awards, Mariani has received the John Ciardi Lifetime Achievement Award in Poetry, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts award, and two National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowships. 

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889), a Catholic convert from Anglicanism while a student at Oxford, entered the Society of Jesus at the age of 24 and lived the rest of his life as a Jesuit priest. He taught Latin, Greek and the Classics in several secondary schools and served as a parish priest in several working class parishes in Dublin, Wales and England.  Interestingly, in late 1878, Hopkins was assigned to St. Aloysius Gonzaga Church in a working class neighborhood near Oxford University, where he participated in the founding of the Catholic Club, which later was renamed the Newman Society in honor of John Henry Cardinal Newman (1801-1890). Hopkins died in Dublin in 1889, at the age of 44, likely from typhoid fever.
 

Brendan McAnerney, O.P.
Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology, Graduate Theological Union

"Holy Icons - Holy Churches"

 Minor Hall / University of Virginia
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMEBER 30, 2009, 7:00-8:30pm 

"In the study of revealed truth East and West have used different methods and approaches in understanding and confessing divine things.  It is hardly surprising, then, if sometimes one tradition has come nearer to a full appreciation of some aspects of a mystery of revelation than the other, or has expressed them better.  In such cases, these various theological formulations are often to be considered complementary rather than conflicting" (Second Vatican Ecumencal Council)*.

Fr. Brendan McAnerney, O.P.--a Dominican priest with additional priestly faculties in the Melkite Greek Catholic Church --visited the University of Virginia on September 30-October 1, 2009.  Trained as an artist and art historian in the Byzantine tradition, with a deep reservoir of experiences as  a Dominican, former gallery employee and director, and in his present position leading DominICON Ministry in Sacramento,  Fr. Brendan exposed his UVA audiences to the theology, history, grammar and techniques that comprise the holy art of icons, from its origins in the Eastern Roman Empire through its development in the Eastern Catholic and Orthodox Churches.

    Icons, Fr. Brendan made clear, are not created by artists as immediate forms of self-expression or commodities for self-promotion. By contrast, artists associated with the iconographic tradition see their efforts as a form of service to the Church and their artistic "property" as the property of the community.  Icons, moreover, are not simply painted pictures of Christ, saints, or Biblical figures.  Instead, icons are part of a tradition of knowing whereby both the narrative and meaning of Scriptural stories are captured and learned, and also a medium in which  the material world becomes transparent of its ultimate origin and future.  For example, this Burning Bush icon depicts not only a familiar Biblical event, but also the relationship between the Divine and humanity in terms of Moses's willingness to heed God's command to remove his earthly sandals as he approached, thereby ensuring the  transcendent contact and character of his experience.

Icons, thus, do not exist as mere representations of the material world or to evoke fleeting emotional responses from their audiences.  They, rather, are revelatory experiences for the artist and the audience in that they offer foretastes and transcendent glimpses beyond the present moment and space.  Properly understood, the effect is transformative and restorative because the new and ultimate nature revealed necessitates a radical reviewing of the rest of the material world and, especially, of humanity. The iconographic tradition sees this process as a vicarious experience that is open to all,but its underlying metaphysics demand a lot of heavy lifting for unfamiliarized audiences--especially in the West --who seek to think their way back to this fascinating and still vibrant part of the Christian tradition.

   Following Pope John Paul II's call for promoting greater unity between the Western and Eastern Churches in Orientale Lumen (1995), Fr. Brendan further encouraged his attentive audience to become more familiar with and appreciative of the artistry of sacred icons and the interpretative grammar and vocabulary of the iconographic tradition.  As an aide to a fuller understanding of icons, Fr. Brendan explained how the lack of external light sources, the simultaneous representation of different events, the idea of luminous darkness, and the use of reverse perspectives, shallow spaces, and gold  were common iconographic techniques that were intended to reinforce the transmaterial and transtemporal purposes that all icons aim to effect.  To conclude his talk, Fr. Brendan also explained the meaning of several of the most common iconographic hand gestures. 

 




* Second Vation Ecumenical Council, Decree on Ecumenism Unitatis Redintegratio.