COME LEARN WITH US.
In our educational program we seek to explore the resources of the Christian Tradition and draw on critical scholarship in order to understand contemporary cultural change and address shared human questions in ways that enrich and challenge the university community. Our educational initiatives cover a broad range of issues, but we focus on several areas of inquiry that play a crucial role in modern culture.
TECHNOLOGY & THE HUMAN
CREATION CARE & SUSTAINABILITY
CREATIVITY & THE ARTS
SELF & SOCIETY
FAITH & VOCATION
HIGHER EDUCATION & THE UNIVERSITY
In addition to our lectures, classes, reading groups, publications, and podcast, the Study Center hosts Pascal’s Coffeehouse, an expression of Christian hospitality and an embodiment of the Christian understanding we seek to explore as a Study Center.
CLASSES
Spring 2021
ZOOM — Tuesdays beginning February 2 at 4:05 p.m.
RECOVERING THE PROPHETIC VOICE OF IVAN ILLICH
Director's Class — Michael Sacasas
Ivan Illich was a scholar, activist, and Roman Catholic priest, whose critical work on the major institutions of industrial society rose to international prominence in the 1970s. We no longer live in the 1970s, but for as much as the world has changed since then, Illich’s work has only grown more relevant and compelling. Illich was a radical thinker in the literal sense—his analysis got down to the root of things rather than focusing on symptoms and superficialities. He was also willing to challenge even our most sacrosanct institutions such as modern schooling and medicine. But Illich’s work was not merely critical. It was animated by a clear and vital vision for human flourishing grounded in a theological understanding of the human person.
Throughout this class, we will consider Illich’s life and work, while seeking to apply his insights to various aspects of our current situation including our relationship to technology, our political disorders, and the unfolding crisis of institutions.
Registration is now closed. You are welcome to listen to the audio recordings from past classes here.
ZOOM | Wednesdays starting January 27th at 10:40 a.m.
ZOOM | Wednesdays starting January 27th at 3:00 p.m.
READING THE GOSPELS, PART TWO: THE ROAD TO THE CROSS
Director's Class — Richard Horner
Beginning with the transfiguration and concluding with the resurrection of Jesus, we will continue to read the four New Testament gospels alongside each other in order to gain deeper insight into the distinctive agendas and interests of each gospel writer.
As we did last semester, we will once again be asking how the different agendas, perspectives, and editorial policies shape these books and how the differences among them enrich the picture of Jesus that they give us. Having focused on Matthew and Mark last fall, Luke and John will play a more prominent role this semester.
Registration is now closed. You are welcome to listen to the audio recordings from past classes here.
LOOKING FOR A PAST CLASS?
CHECK OUT OUR ARCHIVE.
LECTURES
Spring 2021
February 10, March 3, March 24 at 8:00 p.m. via Zoom
IVAN ILLICH, OUR PRESENT CRISIS, AND THE POSSIBILITIES OF A CONVIVIAL SOCIETY
Michael Sacasas
In these three lectures associate director Michael Sacasas will revisit the life and work of Ivan Illich, the 20th century scholar and activist who offered a radical critique of industrial society. Having fallen into relative obscurity during the heady 1990s, Illich's work now speaks with renewed urgency to a world reeling from the consequences of climate change, economic inequality, political polarization, and institutional crisis. Challenging both the usual suspects of industrial age corruption and degradation as well as the more ostensibly benign institutions of modernity such as schooling and medicine, Illich's work is both intellectually and morally demanding, urging us to alter radically how we imagine our relationship to the world and how we envision our political order. Now as society's fault lines have been exposed by a global pandemic, Illich's vision for a more convivial society has become all the more urgent and vital.
Use the link below to register for the third lecture, "Reclaiming the Senses: Perceiving the World With Ivan Illich," on March 24th at 8PM.
READING GROUPS
Spring 2021
Wednesday's at 12:00 p.m. beginning January 13
DANTE'S PARADISO
Michael Sacasas | Wednesdays at noon. via Zoom
The Divine Comedy tells the story of Dante's journey through hell, purgatory, and paradise. This journey is a spiritual and moral journey through which Dante is transformed. This spring we continue our reading of Dante with Paradiso (Hollander translation).
If you are interested in being a part of this group, please email Michael Sacasas, who will be coordinating and leading the group. You can reach him at mike@christianstudycenter.org.
February 1, 15 | March 1, 15, 29
READINGS IN THE CHRISTIAN IMAGINATION
Michael Sacasas
Sustaining the life of the mind can be challenging in ordinary times. Under pandemic conditions, the challenges can be overwhelming. Readings in the Christian Imagination is a reading group intended to help participants carve out the space to reflect on the life of the mind and put those reflections into practice. Each semester we will begin with a text devoted to explaining and defending the intellectual life before proceeding to a reading and discussion of various literary texts that reflect that diverse resources of the Christian imaginative tradition.
We will meet over Zoom twice-monthly on Monday evenings at 8PM beginning February 1st.
On March 29th, we will be discussing Ivan Illich's "Why We Must Disestablish School."
Please email Mike Sacasas for more information.
PODCAST
A NEWSLETTER OF THE
CHRISTIAN STUDY CENTER
Michael Sacasas
If you've not done so already, take a moment and subscribe to our weekly newsletter here. You can peruse past installments here. Every other week you'll receive a short essay from study center staff as well as recommended readings and resources.
The newsletter goes out every Friday morning. Additionally, by subscribing to the newsletter you will receive audio of Director's Classes, study center lectures, and occasional interviews.
The Newsletter is also available via Podcast on the following podcast listening apps:
GRADUATE ROUNDTABLE
Spring 2021
TBD
GRADUATE ROUNDTABLE
Brent Henderson | TBD
A reading group for graduate students led by Brent Henderson, Associate Professor of Linguistics, UF.
Please email the Study Center for details.