The Cross and Politics: Friendship and Responsibility in an Age of Dysfunction
Tuesday, March 3, 2020
On Monday, March 23, the Bernard J. Lonergan Institute of the Center for Catholic Studies will host "The Cross and Politics: Friendship and Responsibility in an Age of Dysfunction" at 4 p.m. in the Beck Rooms of the Walsh Library.
This lecture by Jeremy Wilkins will explore how we should approach the problem of civic responsibility at a time of cultural conflict, declining trust, and political dysfunction. A republic is an experiment in collective self-government. We often imagine our responsibilities in terms of the particular issues and interests we care about. But political dysfunction is a breakdown in civil conversation, which is the very possibility of collective self-government. Therefore, to be responsible today, we have to ask not what side we should take in a partisan brawl, but rather how we can foster genuine civil conversation. And, if we are Christians, we have to do so mindful that the touchstone of our activity is the cross, that is, a readiness to endure suffering so that a greater good may come of it. To be a true friend to others — and to oneself — requires us to remember that the worst harm that could befall us is the mutilation of our own moral being.
Jeremy Wilkins is Associate Professor of Systematic Theology at Boston College where he teaches undergraduate courses in the great books program and graduate seminars on the person and work of Christ, the problem of development in doctrine and theology, and other topics. His book, Before Truth: Lonergan, Aquinas, and the Problem of Wisdom (CUA, 2019) explores the factors of permanence and change in a religious tradition that knows it has developed and is developing still. He is also co-editor of two volumes in the Collected Works of noted Canadian Jesuit thinker Bernard Lonergan, and author of numerous articles on theological and philosophical topics.
About the Bernard J. Lonergan Institute
The Bernard J. Lonergan Institute at Seton Hall University is dedicated to the study of Bernard Lonergan's Generalized
Empirical Method — GEM — and its application to contemporary culture. Such a method
is based not only in the data of sense but also the data of consciousness. It seeks
to understand not only the method of empirical sciences but also the methods of human
studies and theology.
Bernard Lonergan, S.J., (1904-84) was a twentieth century Catholic philosopher and theologian whom Newsweek cited as among "the finest philosophical thinkers of the twentieth century." In November 2006, the Center for Catholic Studies at Seton Hall University launched the Bernard J. Lonergan Institute dedicated to the study of his ideas and their application in contemporary culture. The Institute contains: all of Lonergan's published works; copies of his most significant unpublished writings; doctoral dissertations on Lonergan's work; the most significant secondary literature on Lonergan; and Lonergan's "memorabilia."
In addition to ongoing research and scholarship, the Institute focuses on faculty development and sponsors graduate study, faculty and student reading groups, ongoing programs and the publication of the acclaimed journal, The Lonergan Review. For more information please visit, Bernard J. Lonergan Institute website.
Categories: Campus Life, Faith and Service
