Registration Full

The Dante Society is our group for graduate students and anybody beyond college interested in fostering the Christian intellectual life in Pittsburgh.

This year marks the 750th anniversary of Dante's first encounter with the flesh and blood Beatrice who would become la donna gloriosa of Dante's mind. In the chivalric mode, Dante fell in love with Beatrice at the age of nine, and throughout his life and career, he would revisit the importance of this encounter. Beatrice dies at a young age, and Dante makes her his guide through Paradise in his masterwork, The Divine Comedy. Of course, Beatrice's role in The Divine Comedy inspires our own Beatrice Institute.

To commemorate this anniversary, we are reading the entirety of The Divine Comedy in a year. The goal is to take a slow, ruminating walkthrough of this text — often hailed as the greatest work of imagination in the Western world — and to come to terms with Dante's grand synthesis of the cosmos and the human heart. Reading only six cantos every two weeks, we will aim to finish Inferno and half of Purgatorio this semester and the other half of Purgatorio and Paradiso in the Fall Semester.

We will meet every 1st and 3rd Thursday at 4 pm on Zoom. RSVP here.

Date: Thursday, April 19th

Time: 4:00 - 5:00 pm EST

RSVP Here!

The Dante Society is our group for graduate students and anybody beyond college interested in fostering the Christian intellectual life in Pittsburgh. This spring, we’re continuing our “Podcasts and Picklebacks” series. We will preview an episode of the new Genealogies of Modernity Podcast and then discuss. The podcast’s main host and Beatrice Institute Senior Research Fellow Ryan McDermott will lead the discussions. Please fill out this form to RSVP!

Race is sometimes treated as a biological fact. It is actually a modern invention. But for this concept to gain power, its logic had to be spread—and made visible. Art historian Ilona Katzew tells the story of how Spanish colonists of modern-day Mexico developed theories of blood purity and used the casta paintings—featuring family groups with differing skin pigmentations set in domestic scenes—to represent these theories as reality. She also shares the strange challenges of curating these paintings in the present, when the paintings’ insidious ideologies have been debunked, but when mixed-race viewers also appreciate images that testify to their presence in the past.

Registration Full

The Dante Society is our group for graduate students and anybody beyond college interested in fostering the Christian intellectual life in Pittsburgh.

This year marks the 750th anniversary of Dante's first encounter with the flesh and blood Beatrice who would become la donna gloriosa of Dante's mind. In the chivalric mode, Dante fell in love with Beatrice at the age of nine, and throughout his life and career, he would revisit the importance of this encounter. Beatrice dies at a young age, and Dante makes her his guide through Paradise in his masterwork, The Divine Comedy. Of course, Beatrice's role in The Divine Comedy inspires our own Beatrice Institute.

To commemorate this anniversary, we are reading the entirety of The Divine Comedy in a year. The goal is to take a slow, ruminating walkthrough of this text — often hailed as the greatest work of imagination in the Western world — and to come to terms with Dante's grand synthesis of the cosmos and the human heart. Reading only six cantos every two weeks, we will aim to finish Inferno and half of Purgatorio this semester and the other half of Purgatorio and Paradiso in the Fall Semester.

We will meet every 1st and 3rd Thursday at 4 pm on Zoom. RSVP here.

Date: Thursday, April 4th

Time: 4:00 - 5:00 pm EST

Registration full

The Dante Society is our group for graduate students and anybody beyond college interested in fostering the Christian intellectual life in Pittsburgh.

This year marks the 750th anniversary of Dante's first encounter with the flesh and blood Beatrice who would become la donna gloriosa of Dante's mind. In the chivalric mode, Dante fell in love with Beatrice at the age of nine, and throughout his life and career, he would revisit the importance of this encounter. Beatrice dies at a young age, and Dante makes her his guide through Paradise in his masterwork, The Divine Comedy. Of course, Beatrice's role in The Divine Comedy inspires our own Beatrice Institute.

To commemorate this anniversary, we are reading the entirety of The Divine Comedy in a year. The goal is to take a slow, ruminating walkthrough of this text — often hailed as the greatest work of imagination in the Western world — and to come to terms with Dante's grand synthesis of the cosmos and the human heart. Reading only six cantos every two weeks, we will aim to finish Inferno and half of Purgatorio this semester and the other half of Purgatorio and Paradiso in the Fall Semester.

We will meet every 1st and 3rd Thursday at 4 pm on Zoom. RSVP here.

Date: Thursday, March 21st

Time: 4:00 - 5:00 pm EST

Registration full

The Dante Society is our group for graduate students and anybody beyond college interested in fostering the Christian intellectual life in Pittsburgh.

This year marks the 750th anniversary of Dante's first encounter with the flesh and blood Beatrice who would become la donna gloriosa of Dante's mind. In the chivalric mode, Dante fell in love with Beatrice at the age of nine, and throughout his life and career, he would revisit the importance of this encounter. Beatrice dies at a young age, and Dante makes her his guide through Paradise in his masterwork, The Divine Comedy. Of course, Beatrice's role in The Divine Comedy inspires our own Beatrice Institute.

To commemorate this anniversary, we are reading the entirety of The Divine Comedy in a year. The goal is to take a slow, ruminating walkthrough of this text — often hailed as the greatest work of imagination in the Western world — and to come to terms with Dante's grand synthesis of the cosmos and the human heart. Reading only six cantos every two weeks, we will aim to finish Inferno and half of Purgatorio this semester and the other half of Purgatorio and Paradiso in the Fall Semester.

We will meet every 1st and 3rd Thursday at 4pm on Zoom. RSVP here.

Date: Thursday, March 7th

Time: 4:00 - 5:00 p.m. EST

RSVP Here!

The Dante Society is our group for graduate students and anybody beyond college interested in fostering the Christian intellectual life in Pittsburgh. This spring, we’re continuing our “Podcasts and Picklebacks” series. We will preview an episode of the new Genealogies of Modernity Podcast and then discuss. The podcast’s main host and Beatrice Institute Senior Research Fellow Ryan McDermott will lead the discussions. Please fill out this form to RSVP!

What is the “traditional American family?” Popular images from the colonial and pioneer past suggest an isolated and self-sufficient nuclear family as the center of American identity and the source of American strength. But the idea of early American self-sufficiency is a myth. Caro Pirri tells the story of the precarious Jamestown settlement and how its residents depended on each other and on Indigenous Americans for survival. Early American history can help us imagine new kinds of interdependent and multi-generational family structures as an antidote to the modern crisis of loneliness and alienation.

RSVP Here!

In today's academic climate, it can be difficult to navigate how to be a Christian graduate student. Specializing programs emphasize — and all but demand — a siloing of one's personal beliefs and one's professional concerns. In effect, becoming a highly specialized and competent professional seems to mandate that one be a Christian and a graduate student, but not a Christian graduate student.

What role can and ought one's faith take in navigating academia? How do friendships, relationships, and mentorships help one overcome the challenge of an ideologically secular academy?

In this panel discussion, four academics will describe how they have managed to integrate their faith commitments and their specialized work. Offering both pragmatic advice and theoretical framings, these successful Christian academics will offer some advice on becoming Christian Graduate students. 

Registration full

The Dante Society is our group for graduate students and anybody beyond college interested in fostering the Christian intellectual life in Pittsburgh.

This year marks the 750th anniversary of Dante's first encounter with the flesh and blood Beatrice who would become la donna gloriosa of Dante's mind. In the chivalric mode, Dante fell in love with Beatrice at the age of nine, and throughout his life and career, he would revisit the importance of this encounter. Beatrice dies at a young age, and Dante makes her his guide through Paradise in his masterwork, The Divine Comedy. Of course, Beatrice's role in The Divine Comedy inspires our own Beatrice Institute.

To commemorate this anniversary, we are reading the entirety of The Divine Comedy in a year. The goal is to take a slow, ruminating walkthrough of this text — often hailed as the greatest work of imagination in the Western world — and to come to terms with Dante's grand synthesis of the cosmos and the human heart. Reading only six cantos every two weeks, we will aim to finish Inferno and half of Purgatorio this semester and the other half of Purgatorio and Paradiso in the Fall Semester.

We will meet every 1st and 3rd Thursday at 4pm on Zoom. Registration for this event is currently full.

Date: Thursday, February 15th

Time: 4:00 - 5:00 p.m. EST

Registration Full

The Dante Society is our group for graduate students and anybody beyond college interested in fostering the Christian intellectual life in Pittsburgh.

This year marks the 750th anniversary of Dante's first encounter with the flesh and blood Beatrice who would become la donna gloriosa of Dante's mind. In the chivalric mode, Dante fell in love with Beatrice at the age of nine, and throughout his life and career, he would revisit the importance of this encounter. Beatrice dies at a young age, and Dante makes her his guide through Paradise in his masterwork, The Divine Comedy. Of course, Beatrice's role in The Divine Comedy inspires our own Beatrice Institute.

To commemorate this anniversary, we are reading the entirety of The Divine Comedy in a year. The goal is to take a slow, ruminating walkthrough of this text — often hailed as the greatest work of imagination in the Western world — and to come to terms with Dante's grand synthesis of the cosmos and the human heart. Reading only six cantos every two weeks, we will aim to finish Inferno and half of Purgatorio this semester and the other half of Purgatorio and Paradiso in the Fall Semester.

We will meet every 1st and 3rd Thursday at 4pm on Zoom. RSVP here.

Date: Thursday, February 1st

Time: 4:00 - 5:00 p.m. EST

Zoom Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/9582671672

Meeting ID: 958 267 1672

Passcode: beatrice

RSVP here!

The Dante Society is our group for graduate students and anybody beyond college interested in fostering the Christian intellectual life in Pittsburgh. We’re calling this fall’s series “Podcasts and Picklebacks.” We will preview an episode of the new Genealogies of Modernity Podcast and then discuss. The podcast’s main host and Beatrice Institute Senior Research Fellow Ryan McDermott will lead the discussions. Please fill out this form to RSVP!

In Darwin’s terms, genealogy is the study of “descent with modification.” Taken as an analogy for the study of history, genealogy can challenge the dangerous aspects of modernity claims. Against the effort to erase the past, genealogy asserts that our genetics will always be with us, even if we try to disavow our ancestry. Against the effort to master the past, genealogy reminds us that our descendants have the freedom to create new futures. Sociologist Alondra Nelson tells the story of African-Americans' use of DNA-informed genealogy to partially overcome slavery’s erasure of family history by recovering African identity—in this case, by gaining dual citizenship in Sierra Leone. Genealogical thinking can help us shape a disposition to the past that recognizes the legacy of sin while also fostering human flourishing in the future.

RSvp here!

The Dante Society is our group for graduate students and anybody beyond college interested in fostering the Christian intellectual life in Pittsburgh. We’re calling this fall’s series “Podcasts and Picklebacks.” We will preview an episode of the new Genealogies of Modernity Podcast and then discuss. The podcast’s main host and Beatrice Institute Senior Research Fellow Ryan McDermott will lead the discussions. Please fill out this form to RSVP!

We often think of modernity as a time period in history. But people have been claiming to be modern since at least c. 550 AD, when the Roman writer Cassiodorus used the term modernus to mark off everything that had happened since the fall of the Roman Empire. Harvard scholar Michael Puett takes us back much further, to the third century BC in ancient China, when a series of emperors claimed modernity to consolidate their rule. Puett argues that modernity is best understood as a claim to freedom from the past. By recognizing two forms of modernity claim—one that tries to erase the past and another that tries to master it—we can better understand what is at stake in our own invocations of “modernity."

RSvp here!

The Dante Society is our group for graduate students and anybody beyond college interested in fostering the Christian intellectual life in Pittsburgh. We’re calling this fall’s series “Podcasts and Picklebacks.” We will preview an episode of the new Genealogies of Modernity Podcast and then discuss. The podcast’s main host and Beatrice Institute Senior Research Fellow Ryan McDermott will lead the discussions. Please fill out this form to RSVP!

This episode introduces the problem of modernity through the test case of mountain climbing and rock climbing, which have featured prominently in claims to modernity since the eighteenth century. Claims to becoming modern through climbing often point back to Italian humanist Francesco Petrarch’s ascent of Mt. Ventoux in 1341, a climb that made him, according to many historians, “the first modern man.” But Petrarch was by no means the first person to climb Mt Ventoux, and his own account is, if anything, counter-modern. By surveying evidence of much earlier climbing in Europe and pre-contact North America, the episode argues that humans have always been climbing mountains and scaling cliffs for a wide variety of reasons. Only recently did they start to think of these achievements as making themselves “modern.”

In the ancient world, it was commonplace to see all of nature as meaningful, full of signs of divine intentions for men. In this enchanted world, everything had its place. The Christian world was no exception, refashioning this system into a biblical frame. As Renaissance astrologers and alchemists pressed the boundaries of the craft to illuminate this system, the system became less and less able to accommodate these observations. The New Philosophy reordered the cosmos, taking these experimental findings and structuring them into a mechanical and mathematical form. Divine intentions became superfluous, even if God still remained the mover. However, it was only a small step from here to render God an epiphenomenon in this disenchanted universe.

Unhappily we have lived, with Christians in feeble spurts trying pitifully to advocate for the Intelligent Designer or the uniqueness of humans over other animals. As Christians fail to move their culture back to a belief in an enchanted universe, or better, life in harmony with it, humanity still suffers ironically in a deep longing for communion with God and nature. We pine away for meaning and purpose, but have excluded their possibility from the start. What then is the solution? Is it to reject ideas which disenchanted the world? Is re-enchantment a return to, say, a Medieval Christian model of the world with all of its pagan trappings? If not, how then can we learn again to see, yet with our modern eyes, what Paul insists we can see (Rom 1), but struggle so much more now to see than in former times?

This seminar will be led by Dr. Jason Rampelt (History of Science and Medicine Archivist, University of Pittsburgh)

Dr. Rampelt completed a PhD in History and Philosophy of Science at Cambridge University on John Wallis (1616-1703), the Oxford mathematician and theologian. This was followed by post-doc at the newly formed Faraday Institute for Science and Religion, St. Edmund’s College, Cambridge. The research from his PhD was published by Brill.

Dr. Rampelt worked for over three years as a lab technician/manager in the Departments of Neurobiology and Neuroscience at the University of Pittsburgh then for six years as a lecturer in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science. He is currently the History of Science and Medicine Archivist in Archives & Special Collections in the University of Pittsburgh Library System.

Since Pacem in Terris (1963), Catholic Social Doctrine has attempted to bolster the project of global governance by way of a development of its own basic principles—particularly the principles of the common good and subsidiarity. In the most recent contribution to this strand of social doctrine, Caritas in Veritate (2009), Pope Benedict XVI conspicuously used the language of classical politics, albeit with equally conspicuous imprecision, when he spoke of the polis and res publica. Focusing especially on Caritas in Veritate, this talk will consider how social doctrine might be in need of political philosophy understood as a study of political forms to adjudicate the impasses that arise in the project of global governance, a task implied but not fully developed in Benedict XVI's landmark Social Encyclical.

Patrick Jones is a PhD candidate in moral theology at the Catholic University of America, though he currently lives in Latrobe, PA where his wife Jessica is a professor of philosophy at St. Vincent College. He grew up in Baltimore. He received his BA from St. John's College in Annapolis, MD and his MA from the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, DC, and is currently working on a dissertation entitled "The Nation-State and Global Governance: A Question in Modern Catholic Social Doctrine."

This seminar will be led by Dr. Tanner Capps

Acts 17:26 famously declares that "God has made from one [blood] every nation (ethnos) to dwell on all the face of the earth, and allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live ..." Like debates over the Christian doctrine of God's life in Trinity, Acts 17 underscores the uncomfortable tension that accompanies human diversity across the shared "unity" of the earth. Come hear Tanner Capps reflect on Acts 17 in conversation with questions of the "idols of blood and soil," community displacement, ethnic hybridity, and God's ongoing mission in the world.

Join Beatrice Institute as we discover the art and prayer of icon writing on February 4th, 2023. As we do so, creating a reminder to pray that can be placed in our everyday living space.  Each participant will come home with their own 5X7” glass icon.

Iconography has a long-standing tradition in Christianity of providing a “window to heaven,” both a sacred presence and a reminder to pray.  Though traditionally associated with egg tempera paint on wood, a long process that takes at least a week for a small icon, icons have also been painted in egg on glass, especially in Romania and Eastern Europe during the 19th and 20th centuries.  This was done in family workshops by what we would consider “folk artists,” and so creates an easier tradition to dip into for a 3-hour workshop.

This event is free for our Graduate Fellows—just RSVP at this link. The deadline to RSVP is January 27, 2023.

Presentation Focus

Dr. Gerald McDermott will discuss a central theme of Jesus' teaching in the gospels, the Kingdom of God.  The talk will address such questions as the relative importance of the Kingdom as an early Christian theme, whether it had already arrived in Jesus or was future, whether it was visible or invisible--more internal to the heart or external in the world, whose Kingdom it is--the Father's or the Son's, and what it has to do with a future earthly restoration of Israel.

Bio

Dr. Gerald McDermott is retired from the Anglican Chair of Divinity at Beeson Divinity School where he taught for five years after teaching world religions and Christian theology at Roanoke College for 26 years.  He is the author, co-author, or editor of two dozen books and hundreds of articles on three principal subjects--Jonathan Edwards, world religions, and the meaning of Israel. He and his wife Jean have three grown sons and twelve grandchildren.

We are so pleased to announce The Beatrice Institute Salon, an evening of elegant conversation and elevated conviviality. Salons have a long history as a refined format for the exchange of ideas. Unlike an academic discourse or lecture, the main event of a salon is the conversation generated by a single theme and animated by the attendees (and their wine). Usually turning around a work of art or a single idea, salons cultivate intellectual friendship in an atmosphere equal parts leisure and sharp thinking. This year, four panelists will ignite the conversation with reflections on the merits and demerits of Terrence Malick's 2019 film, A Hidden Life. Is this film a glorious affirmation of the secret life of faith? Or is it a visionless affirmation of pseudo-Gnosticism? What do we make of Terrence Malick's spiritual vision? 

Featuring insights from Prof. Ryan McDermott (Pitt, English), Dr. Elise Lonich Ryan (Pitt, English), Dr. Jake Grefenstette (St. Vincent, Theology), and Russell Lucas, Esq. (Andrews and Price). 

Map: we will be in building #7.

Faculty presenter: Dr. John Slattery (Duquesne, Grefenstette Center of Ethics).

Topic: Eugenics Past, Present, and Future: Dangerous Intersections of Race, Science, and Technology

What is eugenics, why did it become so popular, and why does it still matter today? Eugenics went from being one of the most popular scientific and political movements in the early 20th century to a forbidden word in the 1960 and 70s. Did eugenics really disappear? What parts continue to live on today, and why does this matter in conversations of racism and technology? In this talk, Dr. John Slattery, Director of the Grefenstette Center for Ethics in Science, Technology, and Law at Duquesne University, will delve into the historical intersections of race, science, and technology in the 19th and 20th centuries. Dr. Slattery will offer a vision of eugenics that marks it as a corrosive combination of racism, cultural progressivism, and evolutionary theory that is still very much alive today. He will conclude with an ethical vision for science and technology that seeks to counteract the forces at the heart of a eugenic vision.

Faculty presenter: Dr. Katherine Lynch (CMU, History).

Topic: How Christianity Shaped Western Society

Abstract: Christian practices in the social world of medieval and early modern Europe -- along with other key features -- lent this area several distinctive and enduring characteristics. My work explores these features, focusing on men and women as they lived their daily lives, especially in Europe's towns and cities.

Drinks and snacks will be provided, and there will be plenty of time for discussion. Friends are welcome!

Join us at Beatrice Institute for an evening with artist, Ann Schmalstieg Barrett, as she guides us through her work An Illuminated Requiem: Meditations on Love and Mortality. Inspired by the tradition of illuminated manuscripts, the Proper Chants of the Requiem Mass are presented with images that reveal the content of each prayer. Through the work, the viewer is invited to consider the origin of death in scripture, God’s response through Christ, the relationship between justice and mercy, and the significance of prayer for the departed.

Created in honor of the artist’ late husband (KIA Afghanistan 2010), the exhibit also includes still life paintings to express the experience of the heart in sorrow. With sensitivity to those currently grieving, the exhibit seeks to help reconcile our understanding of God, Who is Love, with the heartbreak caused by death.

RSVP

Requiem Series

With the publication this year of American Workman: The Life and Art of John Kane, Pittsburgh's own self-taught painter, John Kane, is enjoying a renaissance of sorts. This October, Professor Grant Martsolf and Dr. James DeMasi will introduce the art and context of John Kane at The Senator John Heinz History Center, which is hosting an exhibit of 37 of Kane's works among other works from his contemporaries. To answer the question, "What would John Kane paint today?" Professor Martsolf and Dr. DeMasi will dig into the genius of this 20th century master to confront his vision of homo laborans.

Topic: Gerard Manley Hopkins: Theology as Agony

With Dr. Jake Grefenstette, Cambridge / Beatrice Institute

Undergrads and Grads - Welcome Back! Join us September 5th at 5 PM to eat delicious food, get to know each other, hear about our fall programming, and meet some of our faculty staff.

With Dr. James DeMasi, Associate Director of Beatrice Institute.