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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20250701T090000
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SUMMARY:Symposium – Thomism\, Creativity and the Arts: Jacques and Raïssa Maritain
DESCRIPTION:A one-day symposium on artistry\, religion and culture in the modern world. \nTuesday 1 July\, 2025\, 9am – 6pm. Blackfriars Hall\, Oxford. \nBuilding on last year’s landmark conference on the lives and legacy of Jacques and Raïssa Maritain\, this exciting collaborative day symposium draws together philosophers\, theologians\, musicians\, poets\, liturgists and other artists\, to converse around the theme of human creativity. The Maritains remain at the heart of our dialogue\, being uniquely well-situated to confront the problems\, principles and complexities of artistry in the modern era – illuminated by the wisdom of St Thomas Aquinas. Jacques Maritain’s belief in the artist’s mission to ‘shelter the prayer\, instruct the intelligence\, and rejoice the eyes and the soul\,’ provides an inspiring mandate to investigate art-making in the present age\, in all its depth and variety. \nThe conference includes plenary talks\, panel discussions\, poetry reading\, music and film\, and gathers a rich and diverse range of presenters from across the UK and USA\, with the final keynote talk given by Sir James MacMillan\, renowned Scottish composer and conductor. Registration is open to scholars\, students\, lay and religious: in fact\, anyone with an interest in the creative arts\, and those whose scholarship or praxis lies at the convergence of aesthetics and faith. Attendees are warmly invited to join in the midday Office of Readings and Evening Mass and Vespers with sacred choral and organ music. Lunch is provided\, and the day will end with a drinks reception for those attending in person. \n  \n\n\n\n8.30\nRegistration\n\n\n9.00 – 9.15\nWelcome & Introduction: Fr Dominic White OP\n\n\n9.15-10.00\nPlenary with questions\nProf Alice Ramos\, Professor Emerita of Philosophy at St. John’s University in New York: Jacques Maritain on the Artist’s Vision and Moral Character\n\n\n10.00-11.00\nPanel: 2 philosophers\nRev Dr Brad Elliott OP\, Professor of Moral Theology\, Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology in Berkeley: Art and Imitation: The Role of Nature in the Human Artistic Act\nDr Jan Bentz\, Lecturer in Philosophy\, Blackfriars Studium\, Oxford: Creative Intuition and Being in Art: Maritain and Gilson on Beauty\n\n\n11.00-11.30\nCoffee\n\n\n11.30-12.15\nPlenary with questions\nProf James Matthew Wilson\, Cullen Foundation Chair in English Literature: Form as ‘Ontological Secret.’\n\n\n12.15-1.00\nPlenary with questions\nDr Katja Frimberger\, Senior Lecturer in Education Studies at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow: Learning to just be there:  Film as Public Pedagogy.\nThe recent Sci-Fi feature film “The Silent Messenger” (Dir. Simon Bishopp)\, in which Katja collaborated as performer\, was nominated for the Heimspiel Award at BIFF (Braunschweig International Film Festival\, Germany) in November 2024. [The Silent Messenger – Trailer]\n\n\n1.00-1.30\nMidday Prayer with the Dominican Community\, including choral music by James MacMillan\, directed by Peter Carter of the Catholic Sacred Music Project.\n\n\n1.30-2.15\nLunch (sandwiches)\n\n\n 2.15-3.15\nPanel: Raïssa Maritain\nFr Albert Robertson OP\, assistant chaplain at Fisher House\, the Catholic Chaplaincy to the University of Cambridge; Lector in Anthropology\, Blackfriars Studium: Raïssa Maritain at Prayer: Suffering\, Virtue\, and Religious and Creative Perception.\nProf Emma Mason\, Professor of English and Comparative Literary Studies at the University of Warwick: ‘Nocturnal navigations’: Raïssa Maritain’s poetic and mystical gifts.\n\n\n3.15-3.35\nTea\n\n\n3.35-4.35\nPanel: Maritain\, Poetics and Music\nDr Chris Grey\, Research Fellow at Margaret Beaufort Institute of Theology\, and Lecturer in Theological Aesthetics at London School of Theology: The Underscore of Maritain’s Poetics\nProf Greg Kerr\, Associate Professor of Philosophy\, DeSales University: Imitation and Distortion: Jacques Maritain and Flannery O’Connor and the Power of the Story.\nProf Margarita Mooney Clayton\, Associate Professor in the Department of Practical Theology\, Princeton Theological Seminary: Imitation and Creativity: Music as Formative and Expressive.\n\n\n4.45-5.30\nKeynote Plenary with questions\nSir James MacMillan\, Setting the words of the Mass to music in the secular environment of our time: a Catholic composer’s experience.\nJames MacMillan is the pre-eminent Scottish composer of his generation. He first attracted attention with the acclaimed BBC Proms premiere of The Confession of Isobel Gowdie (1990). His percussion concerto Veni\, Veni Emmanuel (1992) has received over 500 performances worldwide by orchestras including London Symphony Orchestra\, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra\, New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics and Cleveland Orchestra. Other major works include the cantata Seven Last Words from the Cross (1993)\, Quickening (1998) for soloists\, children’s choir\, mixed choir and orchestra\, the operas Inès de Castro (2001) and The Sacrifice (2005-06)\, St John Passion (2007)\, St Luke Passion (2013) and Symphony No.5: ‘Le grand Inconnu’ (2018).\n\n\n5.30\nClosing remarks: Fr Dominic White OP\n\n\n5.40\nClose\n\n\n6.00\nMass and Vespers with the Dominican Community\, including choral and organ music by SirJames MacMillan\, Peter Carter and Dominic White OP.\n\n\n7.00\nDrinks reception\n\n\n\n  \nBook Now via EventBrite \nWant to know more about Jacques and Raïssa Maritain?\nWho was Jacques Maritain? As the Canadian philosopher William Sweet succinctly puts it: ‘Jacques was perhaps the best-known and most admired Catholic philosopher of the mid-twentieth century.’ A convert from agnosticism\, Jacques Maritain (1882-1973) authored over seventy books\, passionately advocating the perennial wisdom of St. Thomas Aquinas\, and influencing philosophers\, theologians\, politicians\, popes\, painters\, and poets. At the time\, his sphere of influence was spectacularly wide\, yet he remained somewhat under the radar – in old age describing himself as ‘a secret agent of the King of Kings.’ Maritain’s well-known masterworks include The Degrees of Knowledge\, The Range of Reason\, The Person and the Common Good\, Integral Humanism\, Art and Scholasticism\, and Creative Intuition in Art and Poetry; but most corners of philosophy were subject to his Thomist interpretation – sometimes well-received\, sometimes less so. \nWho was Raïssa Maritain? Raïssa was a Russian-Jewish émigré who also converted to Catholicism following extreme disillusionment with the prevailing winds of logical positivism at the turn of the last century. She wrote of her Sorbonne professors: ‘they despaired of truth\, whose very name was unlovely to them.’ Dramatically\, she and Jacques agreed to throw themselves into the Seine unless their nihilism could be relieved – which\, thankfully it was\, at the hands of Leon Bloy and Aquinas. Although an academic\, Raïssa’s true vocation was more intimate – as a poet and contemplative; and having married Jacques in 1904\, she remained his ‘muse’ in the most elevated sense\, until her death in 1960. As one contemporary noted: Jacques ‘attached a peerless value to her vigilant and penetrating judgement.’ Decades of illness and intense suffering marked her life. \nThe Maritain home was a place of prayer\, hospitality\, and intellectual discovery. The very idea of a Thomistic study circle was born in the Maritain’s living room in Paris\, and their Sunday afternoon meetings in Meudon drew visitors from every walk of life. A cause for the canonization of both Maritains began in 2011\, although this has not yet been advanced. \nPartnerships\nBlackfriars Hall\, Oxford is pleased to partner with The Margaret Beaufort Institute ; the Scala Foundation; the Thomistic Institute; and the Catholic Sacred Music Project for this event. \nTickets\nBookings via EventBrite. Concessions for students and for online participants.
URL:https://www.bfriars.ox.ac.uk/event/symposium-thomism-creativity-and-the-arts-jacques-and-raissa-maritain/
LOCATION:Blackfriars Hall\, St Giles\, Oxford\, OX1 3LY\, United Kingdom
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250702
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SUMMARY:Conference: Law\, Nature & the Bible. Between Principles and Conventions
DESCRIPTION:Olivier Catel (EBAF & Hebrew University) \nRethinking the Dynamics Between Law and Narrative\, Halakhah and Aggadah: The Case of y. Ta?an. 1:4\, 64b \n  \nBruno Clifton (Blackfriars\, Oxford) \nDoing Right in One’s Own Eyes: Natural Virtue at Biblical Dan \n  \nSimon Dürr (Angelicum) \n“A Law to themselves”? Paul\, the Law\, and the Human Vocation in Ancient Philosophical Tradition \n  \nWojciech Golubiewski (Polish Academy of Sciences) \nImitation of Nature: Aquinas and Mozi on the Foundations of Legal Order \n  \nPhillip Lasater (Angelicum & Blackfriars\, Oxford) \nLegal Thinking\, or Thinking Legally\, in 4 Maccabees \n  \nHindy Najman (Oriel College\, Oxford) \nLaw and Nature in the Writings of Philo of Alexandria \n  \nJohn O’Connor (Blackfriars\, Oxford) \nNatural Law Ethics and Contemporary Ethics: Definitions\, Narratives\, & Perspectives \n  \nJoan O’Donovan (University of St Andrews) \nA Reformation Response to the Crisis of Natural Rights \n  \nJean Porter (Notre Dame) \nNatural Law\, Judicial Precepts\, and the Unity of the Canon: A Case Study in the Use of Natural Law in Biblical Interpretation \n  \nWenyue Qiang (St Cross College\, Oxford) \nThe Ideal Kingship in the Temple Scroll: the Nature of Law Between Tradition and Innovation \n  \nKonrad Schmid (Universität Zürich) \nWhere and Why did the Notion of Laws of Nature Emerge in the Hebrew Bible? \n  \nJordan Schmidt (Dominican House of Studies) \nThe Legal Texture of the Book of Wisdom \nFull Details and Registration
URL:https://www.bfriars.ox.ac.uk/event/conference-law-nature-the-bible-between-principles-and-conventions/
LOCATION:Blackfriars Hall\, St Giles\, Oxford\, OX1 3LY\, United Kingdom
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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20250716T160000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20250716T170000
DTSTAMP:20260514T071611
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SUMMARY:Can the United States be Trusted by the Rest of the World?
DESCRIPTION:These online panel discussions will take place at 4pm on a Wednesday once a month\, but the topics are decided according to world events and are announced at the previous month’s event. Recordings are available on YouTube via the Global Georgetown channel: https://www.youtube.com/@GlobalGeorgetown/videos. \nPresident Donald Trump’s second\, nonconsecutive term has been marked by several controversies. A military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities has left everyone in a state of suspense. Unpredictable “on-again\, off-again” tariffs on several countries\, including the United States’ largest trading partners\, have shaken up diplomacy. A Cold War-era law has been deployed to deport non-citizens\, even when they have not been convicted of a crime. Millions of dollars have been cut from key government departments – allegedly to combat “wokeism” – and billions more in cuts have been proposed. Meanwhile\, Trump continues to direct vendettas at people and organizations he dislikes\, including law firms\, higher education institutions\, and even legislators. \nAs the United States engages in what seems like ongoing uncertainty\, how should the international community strengthen democracy throughout the rest of the world? As global problems require global solutions\, can the United States be regarded as a trustworthy partner? \nThis discussion is part of the ongoing event series Free Speech at the Crossroads: International Dialogues. These events are sponsored by the Free Speech Project (Georgetown University) and the Future of the Humanities Project (Georgetown University\, the Las Casas Institute and Campion Hall\, Oxford)\, hosted by Georgetown University on Zoom. \nOnline. Free and open to all. Registration required. \nAnne Lonsdale\, a British sinologist and higher education expert\, served as the President of New Hall (now Murray Edwards College)\, University of Cambridge\, from 1996 to 2008. Previously\, she was the secretary-general of the Central European University and joined the team creating Nazarbayev University in Astana\, Kazakhstan\, where she was appointed founding provost from 2010 to 2012\, returning to that position in 2015. She is a long-standing member of the Council for At-Risk Academics. \nAlynna J. Lyon\, a professor of political science at the University of New Hampshire\, has authored several books and articles\, including US Politics and the United Nations\, The United Nations: 75 Years of Promoting Peace\, Human Rights\, and Development (with Kent Kille)\, and The United Nations in the 21st Century.She is editor-in-chief of Global Governance and a faculty fellow for the Global Racial and Social Inequality Lab at UNH. \nTerry Peach\, a historian of political economy\, teaches economics at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics. His research interests include the history of economic thought\, principally classical economic theory\, and ancient Greek and Chinese thought. He previously taught at the University of Manchester and was a lecturer in economics at Corpus Christi College\, Oxford. He studied at the University of Oxford\, where he obtained a B.A.\, B.Phil.\, and D.Phil. \nPanelist #4 – TBA \nMichael Scott (moderator)\, senior dean\, fellow of Blackfriars Hall\, Oxford\, college adviser for postgraduate students\, and a member of the Las Casas Institute. He also serves as senior adviser to the president of Georgetown University. Scott previously was the pro-vice-chancellor at De Montfort University and founding vice-chancellor of Wrexham Glyndwr University. \nSanford J. Ungar (moderator)\, president emeritus of Goucher College\, is director of the Free Speech Project at Georgetown University\, which documents challenges to free expression in American education\, government\, and civil society. Director of the Voice of America under President Bill Clinton\, he was also dean of the American University School of Communication and is a former co-host of “All Things Considered” on NPR.
URL:https://www.bfriars.ox.ac.uk/event/can-the-united-states-be-trusted-by-the-rest-of-the-world/
CATEGORIES:Las Casas Institute
ORGANIZER;CN="Las Casas Institute with Georgetown University":MAILTO:lascasas@bfriars.ox.ac.uk
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