St. Anselm Institute - Past Public Lectures
"Enlightenment Saints in the Age of Reason"
Ulrich Lehner
Marquette University
Propelled by advances in the mathematical and practical sciences in the 17th and 18th centuries, the Enlightenment reshaped the contours and content of Western thought in ways that still define the modern era. This "Age of Reason" also yielded immense social upheaval that included anti-clerical and anti-religious thought and violence, especially by political actors intent on consolidating the powers of their states. Yet as Marquette University Professor Ulrich Lehner argued during his snow-filled (!) visit March 5-6, the Enlightenment was a time of intense religious zeal and fervor, and an era in which the reforms of the Council of Trent (1545-1563) finally were implemented. The Church, moreover, was aided and enriched by the saints of this era, who emerged to challenge not only the agendas of the most secular Enlighteners, but also the prevailing theological establishment through their insistence on the universal call to holiness and the need for reform of moral theology and pastoral care.
"On the Road to Emmaus: Catholicism, Art, and the Incarnational Imagination"
Anthony J. Godzieba, Villanova University
Thursday, Feb. 5 (5:15pm)
UVA - Minor Hall Auditorium
View this lecture here.
On the road to Emmaus, a village near Jerusalem, Cleopas and another unnamed traveler were discussing and debating what recently happened to Jesus the Nazarene when, as St. Luke relays, "Jesus himself drew near and walked with them." The two, at least initially, did not recognize him, even as he explained the meaning of recent events. What happened next marks a still remarkable and indelible turning point in the development of Catholic belief and practice.
Villanova University Theology Professor Anthony Godzieba will use several paintings of Christ's post-Resurrection appearance on the road to Emmaus to guide us in an exploration of the necessary connections between the Catholic incarnational and sacramental imagination and the visual arts.
All are invited and welcome to attend this free public lecture, which will begin at 5:15pm on Thursday, Feb. 5.
David Lantigua
Catholic University of America
Bishop Bartolomé de las Casas, O.P. (1484-1566), the Church of the Poor, and the Origins of Human Rights
Friday, 5:00pm - Minor Hall - UVA
View this lecture here.
Since the United Nations adopted the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, recognition of the inherent "dignity and worth of the human person" has been accepted, especially in the West, as a necessary condition for "the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear." The deeply Catholic origins of a world renewed by universal respect remain obscured or forgotten, and their subsequent articulations too easily overlooked or misunderstood. One of the richest resources for beginning a recovery of this current and for deepening our understanding of early efforts to evangelize the New World is the life, writings and legacy of Chiapas Bishop Bartolomé de las Casas, O.P.(1484 –1566), a former slave-owning entrepreneur turned Dominican friar advocate and official "Protector of the Indians." All are invited and welcomed to attend this timely public lecture by Catholic University of America assistant professor of moral theology David Lantigua, co-editor and co-translator of The Essential Bartolomé de las Casas: A Brief History with Documents (Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2015).
Carlos Eire
Professor of History and Religious Studies, Yale University
"Discerning the Gulf between the Protestant and Catholic Reformations: The Case of Sor Maria de Agreda"
5th Annual Robert Louis Wilken Lecture
Thursday, April 7, 2016
UVA Minor Hall Auditorium, 5:15pm
The life of Sor Maria de Agreda (1602-1665) provides us with a superb case study in the differences between the Protestant and Catholic Reformations. More specifically, Sor Maria provides us with a lens through which to examine the most significant metaphysical and theological assumptions rejected by Protestants. A cloistered nun who never left her home town of Agreda in northern Spain, Sor Maria led a life that reified Catholic belief in miracles. Her claims were extreme, even for her day and age, and proved somewhat controversial. Her two most extreme mystical claims involved bilocation and divine revelations: she was believed to have visited New Mexico over five hundred times, where she evangelized the Jumano natives --without ever physically leaving her convent in Spain -- and she was also believed to have taken dictation from the Blessed Virgin Mary, who narrated a 2,800-page autobiography to her. How her claims were handled by the Catholic Church brings into stark relief the most profound differences that distinguished Catholics from Protestants.
Carlos Eire
T. Lawrason Riggs Professor of History
& Religious Studies, Yale University
"The Very Strange Case of Sor Maria de Agreda: Discerning the Gulf between the Protestant and Catholic Reformations"
Thursday-April 7, 2016
Minor Hall Auditorium, 5:15-7:00pm
Missed the lecture?: Watch the video.
The life and writings of Sor Maria de Agreda (1602-1665) provide us with a superb case study to examine the differences between the Protestant and Catholic Reformations. A cloistered nun who never left her home town of Agreda in northern Spain, Sor Maria led a life that reified Catholic belief in miracles. Her two most extreme mystical claims involved bilocation and divine revelations: she was believed to have visited New Mexico over five hundred times, where she evangelized the Jumano natives--without ever physically leaving her convent in Spain--and she was also believed to have taken dictation from the Blessed Virgin Mary, who narrated a 2,800-page autobiography to her. How her claims were handled by the Catholic Church brings into stark relief the most profound differences in the registers of Catholic and Protestant thought during the 17th century.
This is the final St. Anselm Institute public lecture of the 2015-16 year: we hope to see you on April 7!
Veronica Mary Rolf
"Julian's Gospel: Illuminating the Life & Revelations of Julian of Norwich"
Wednesday, March 19, 2014 (12:00pm) Harrison Institute, University of Virginia
Over six hundred years ago, in an enclosure attached to a church in Norwich, England, a woman known only as Julian wrote a book detailing sixteen mystical encounters with Christ on the cross. At the time few women could read or write, and the writing or teaching of theology by “unlettered” lay people in the vernacular was strictly forbidden. Despite the immediate and long-term improbabilities, Julian’s Revelations endured and her theological insights and spiritual direction are now compared to those of St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross.
But who really was Julian of Norwich? And what are we to make of her visionary experiences and writings? To answer these questions, Veronica Mary Rolf draws on her extensive research to reconstruct the life, times, and writings of one of Christianity’s most extraordinary voices.
All are invited to this midday Virginia Festival of the Book talk and book signing.
Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap.
Archbishop of Philadelphia
"City Upon a Hill: Augustine, John Winthrop and the soul of the American Experiment Today "
William Cavanaugh
Professor of Theology, DePaul University
Senior Research Professor, Center for World Catholicism and Intercultural Theology
Senior Research Professor, Center for World Catholicism and Intercultural Theology
"Economics and Christian Desire:
Milton Friedman, St. Augustine, and the Local Development of a Global Moral Economy"
UVA - Minor Hall Auditorium - 5:15pm
Miss the lecture? See the video here.
Do the personal and communal beliefs and commitments of Christians really end at the instrumental edges of our economic desires, decisions, and institutions? A deep current of Scripture and Catholic thought and practice--from St. Paul through Augustine, Aquinas, and their successors--points with conviction and clarity beyond market-based indifference and the vagaries of "globalization" towards a more authentic, Eucharist-inspired understanding of consumption and economic relationships. Prof. William Cavanaugh is widely recognized and respected as the author of five books and scores of scholarly articles that seek to bridge the gaps between common contemporary presumptions and practices and the fuller, perhaps presently obscured, richness of faith-inspired ways of thinking and acting within the Christian tradition. If you haven't yet been exposed to or challenged by any of his writings, please know that all are welcome to the opportunity to see and hear him in person. 
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Fr. David Link
"Mercy, Justice, and the Imprisoned:
Serving the Least, the Last, the Lost, and the Lonely"
Minor Hall Auditorium / UVA
Video recording now available
The Catholic intellectual tradition understands Works of Mercy as acts of charity by which we love our neighbor by aiding their spiritual and bodily needs.
Spiritual works of mercy include acts of forgiving, the patient bearing of wrongs, and the careful instruction, advising, consoling, and comforting of others in need. Corporal works of mercy often take the form of almsgiving for the poor, but their more active, proximate and personal forms include feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned, and burying the dead.
For most, volunteer opportunities abound for performing each of these charitable works of mercy, save one: visiting the imprisoned. Whereas both justice and prudence require some formal separation of those legally convicted of crimes, especially violent injustices against others, the Catholic tradition has consistently taught that however corrupt and broken the sacred vessel these individuals remain our neighbors with their own acute set of spiritual and bodily needs. For as St. Augustine wisely counseled:
Antonin Scalia
Associate Justice, U.S. Supreme Court
"Not to the Wise: The Christian as Cretin"
The St. Anselm Institute for Catholic Thought opened its thirteenth Annual Public Lecture Series at the University of Virginia on Thursday, Oct. 3 (at 5:30pm) in Newcomb Hall Ballroom.