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.
COME LEARN WITH US.
IN PERSON | Tuesday's at 4:10 p.m.
ZOOM | Wednesday's at 11:45 a.m.
READING THE GOSPELS: DISTINCTIVES, CONTRADICTIONS & COMMONALITIES
Director's Class — Richard Horner
What happens when you read the four New Testament Gospel accounts alongside each other? How do their agendas, perspectives, and editorial policies distinguish them from each other? How shall we make sense of the contradictions that appear when we place them alongside each other? What themes and aims do they share? What shall we make of these four books that have given us the picture of Jesus of Nazareth that has made him as famous an individual as anyone who has ever lived?
Rooted in a careful reading of the text, this survey will keep all four Gospels in view in a way that will highlight both the challenges and the richness that follow from setting the four accounts alongside each other and allowing their different styles, perspectives, audiences, and agendas to emerge.
Whether you have never read the gospels before and would like to know what they actually say, or you have read them many times and puzzled over what to make of them, you are welcome in this class.
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READING GROUPS
Fall 2020
Wednesday's at 1:00 p.m.
DANTE'S PURGATORIO
Michael Sacasas | Wednesdays at 1:00 p.m. 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 fall we continue our reading of Dante with Purgatorio.
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.
Monday's at 8:00 p.m.
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 September 14th. This semester we will begin with Zena Hitz's Lost in Thought: The Hidden Pleasures of an Intellectual Life.
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. Each 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.
The Newsletter is also available via Podcast on the following podcast listening apps:
GRADUATE ROUNDTABLE
Fall 2020
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.