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Join us for this lecture from Beatrice Institute founder, Dr. Ryan McDermott. We will gather in the Cathedral of Learning in Oakland, room 332 (3rd floor).

It’s a basic axiom of Christianity that we wouldn’t have knowledge of God’s plan for salvation without the Bible. The Apostle Paul said that “all Scripture is God-breathed” (2 Tim. 3:16). But Peter acknowledged that humans collaborated in the writing of the Bible (2 Peter 1:21). The tools of modern scholarship have opened windows onto the human element of the Bible’s composition and, as with all things human, there is a lot of evidence of screwiness. Manuscripts got lost or corrupted. The Bible is rife with contradictions of fact. From a modern scientific and historical outlook, the Bible seems supremely unreliable. How could such a mess of a book be the Word of God?

In this talk, Prof. Ryan McDermott examines what Christians claim and don’t claim about the Bible’s reliability as history. He will compare different Christian understandings of how humans collaborated with God to compose the Bible and will draw on recent research in anthropology, oral history, literary studies, and classical history writing to contrast the Bible’s claims to truth with modern standards of history and science. Prof. McDermott argues that in the 21st century, we often need a conversion of mind in order to be able to trust the Bible. 

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Beatrice Institute invites the public to join us for a viewing of the new Angel Studios movie on Dietrich Bonhoeffer! Undergraduate students will see this movie as one of the required cultural excursions, but the film will also provide great context for anyone interested in or planning to attend our Winter Salon (although seeing the movie is not needed to participate in the Salon).

If interested in a late night discussion on the movie, we will be hosting a debrief of the topics examined in the film at First Trinity Church (led by Pastor Eric Andrae, a published scholar on Bonhoeffer) upon returning with our group to Oakland. Feel free to join us for free pizza and good conversation!

Note: Only tickets for undergraduate students are covered by Beatrice Institute; but we welcome company in this viewing!

Movie Description: As the world teeters on the brink of annihilation, Dietrich Bonhoeffer is swept into the epicenter of a deadly plot to assassinate Hitler. With his faith and fate at stake, Bonhoeffer must choose between upholding his moral convictions or risking it all to save millions of Jews from genocide. Will his shift from preaching peace to plotting murder alter the course of history or cost him everything?

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This is a free event; RSVP requested but not required. Through the link above, you will have the option to purchase a ticket for a pre-event reception at Soldiers & Sailors.

Is the work of the composer and musician a distinctively human act? For all of human history until only recently the answer was an obvious yes. But as we find ourselves in a brave new world of machine learning and artificial intelligence, many no longer see art as so specifically human. In the era of AI, can we still speak of art as essentially human? 

Who better to address these questions than Maestro Manfred Honeck, now in his 17th season as Music Director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and known the world over for his acclaimed performances and Grammy-winning recordings. 

Maestro Honeck will explore the richness of the creative process. What does the composer bring to the creation of a new musical work? What is the role of the composer’s imagination? The composer’s musical and cultural context? What about the performing musician, and the conductor in particular? How do they approach a musical score? How does their knowledge of the composer’s life and intentions shape their interpretation of the music they perform? 

No prior knowledge of classical music is required for this evening. Maestro Honeck will make these themes come alive in speech and sound. To highlight the various dimensions of the musical works and to showcase the creativity involved in the performing musician, he will play excerpts from several recordings of the same works of music. 

Maestro Honeck will be joined by John Henry Crosby, Founder and President of the Hildebrand Project, for a one-on-one interview and discussion of these topics, and we will end the evening with a brief time for Q&A from audience members.

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Kick off the start of the fall semester with us as we welcome back old students, onboard new ones, and enjoy time with faculty, parents, and members of the Pittsburgh community.

RSVP requested by August 25th but not required.

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Join Beatrice Institute and The Port for an evening of poetry, cookies, wine, and friendship. We’ll hear poems from Ryan Wilson, author of How to Think Like a Poet and editor-in-chief of Literary Matters and others. Whether you’re new to Beatrice Institute or an old friend, you’re welcome to join us for what will be a delightful summer evening.

This event is free and open to the public, so feel welcome to bring a friend! RSVP requested, but not required

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Beatrice Institute’s Spring Salon asks the question: What constitutes human thriving, and how would these general prescriptions apply to those without the security of basic needs?

When many of us consider the homeless community here in Pittsburgh, very often we are led to think of a monolithic problem. Although we might recognize upon reflection that many of those who live on the streets are there for different, nuanced, complex, individuated reasons, our approach to the question can become uniform and directed at survival: shelter, food, clothing, warmth, medicine, etc. Very seldom are we encouraged to think about the needs of those living on the streets as needs of thriving not simply surviving.

Three panelists will investigate these questions and discuss what thriving on the streets looks like and how it is possible:

• Dr. Brent Robbins, a professor of psychology and director of the Psy.D. in Clinical Psychology at Point Park University.

• Rev. Jerrel T. Gilliam, the Executive Director of Light of Life Mission in the North Side.

• Ms. Sara Castellano, the Director of Social Services at St. Michael the Archangel Parish in Mt. Lebanon.

We will meet in the John Knox Room at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, which is in building 7 on this map.

Tickets are $15. Food and wine provided.

If you are interested in the inspiration for this salon, read presenter Brent Robbins' piece in the Post Gazette from 2022. 

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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.

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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.

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Beatrice Institute’s Winter Salon asks the question: do we need to get off our phones to be happy? The event will feature four panelists: Grant Martsolf, Marta Peciña, Elizabeth Cochran, and Cecile Ladouceur, each representing different mediums, fields, traditions, and historical epochs. We will investigate how smartphones have created new challenges and opportunities for human flourishing.

We will meet in the John Knox Room at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.

Tickets are $15 until November 17th, after which they will be $20. Wine and food provided!

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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.

NOTE: due to scheduling changes, this event is now at 2:30 pm, not 2 pm

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Join Beatrice Institute for a tour of the arresting murals of Maxo Vanka at St. Nicholas Catholic Church. Beatrice Institute is excited to welcome Dr. William Scott (Pitt, English) for a presentation on immigrant literature and labor history in Pittsburgh (including a glimpse into immigrant liturgical music and art).

Following Dr. Scott's presentation, Dr. James DeMasi (Beatrice Institute) will provide a brief introduction to Maxo Vanka's theological vision and a reading of his murals in context.

Join us for beers and appetizers after the tour at Strange Roots Experimental Ales.

Beatrice Institute's Welcome Back BBQ will be held at the pavilion at Anderson Playground in Schenley Park. Come and go as you please — bring friends, bring family! Get to know our programs and our community! RSVP here.

(#1 on the map https://pittsburghparks.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Schenley-Entrances.pdf)  

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. 

The Beatrice Institute Spring Salon asks the question: How does the popular TV series The Chosen compare to other re-imaginings of the Gospel narratives? Four panelists--representing different mediums, fields, traditions, and historical epochs--will investigate this question with reference to various portrayals of the Nativity narrative and the character of Mary Magdalene. Join panelists Ann Schamlstieg Barrett, Josie Hoover, Tanner Capps, and Ryan McDermott as they spark our conversation!

Please note: You don't have to have watched The Chosen to benefit from this conversation. While the popular TV show has provoked the animating questions, the evening will be about so much more than the TV show. 

Logistics: Parking is FREE in the lot on 37th Street across from the doors to Hyacinth Epp Hall.

Menu: Wine and water will be served, along with cheese, fruit, maple bourbon chicken skewers, jumbo curry shrimp skewers, marinara meatballs, smoked BBQ beef brisket sliders, and spicy black bean croquettes. Dessert and coffee will also be available.

Ever since Mozart's untimely death interrupted its completion, his Requiem (K. 626) has attracted an enormous number of myths, mistruths and exaggerations. Although some of these were promulgated by his wife Constanza, a whole panoply of actors have muddied the waters surrounding historical details of the Requiem's commissioning, composition, completion and reception. At the same time, the music itself has mesmerized generations of audiences for its outstanding dramatic setting of the Requiem Mass. In this talk, Dr. Paul Miller (Duquesne University) will dispel many of the myths surrounding Mozart's Requiem, suggest some ways of hearing it that deepen listeners' appreciation of its music, and contextualize it within the Roman burial rite.

Join Beatrice Institute for this lecture delivered by Dr. Paul Miller (Musicianship, Duquesne University) on Thursday, March 16.

5th Floor Map

AI is becoming ubiquitous. Whatever its arrival portends for our future, whether riches or ruin, it cannot be avoided. The Artifice of Intelligence explores two questions at the heart of a theological response to AI. Is it possible for human beings to have authentic relationships with an AI? How does the increasing presence of AI change the way humans relate to one another? In pursuing answers to these questions, Herzfeld explores what it means to be created in the image of God and to create AI in our own image. It utilizes and expands Karl Barth's relational understanding of the imago Dei to examine humanity's relationship both with AI and, through it, with one another. Barth's injunctions--look the other in the eye (embodiment), speak to and hear the other (communication), aid the other (agency), and do it gladly (emotion)--provide the basis for the main chapters, each of which concludes with a case study of a current AI application that exemplifies the difficulties AI introduces into human relationality. The Artifice of Intelligence concludes with an examination of the incarnation, one that points toward the centrality of embodiment for full relationality.

Join Beatrice Institute and The Carl G. Grefenstette Center for Ethics in Science, Technology, and Law as Noreen Herzfeld (St. John's University, Theology) shares her research and talks about her new book, The Artifice of Intelligence. Her presentation will begin at 4:30pm, followed by a brief response by John Dolan (CMU Robotics, Principal Systems Scientist). Herzfeld will then welcome questions during a Q and A and end the evening by signing books. 

All are welcome to this free event. 

This event will be live-streamed—you can register for that stream here.

Our event will be on the 5th floor. If you are driving to this event, you are welcome to park in the Forbes Avenue Parking Garage directly across the street from the Power Center. You can enter the 5th floor of the Power Center directly through that parking garage by taking the garage elevator to the 8th floor and walking across the Skylar Skybridge. On the other side of the skybridge, you will be entering the 5th floor of the Power Center. There will be "Grefenstette Center" signs once you arrive inside the Power Center, and you can follow those signs to the appropriate room.

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 Workshop is geared towards adults, but mature children can participate with their parents. 

If you're not sure if this is for you, you can click here to learn more about Randi and her process. Additionally, you can find a brief introduction to icons and Randi's work at this WQED youtube link.

This event is open to the public for $7—cost of materials. You can purchase a ticket here:

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.

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’s 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.

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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. The lecture is free, but the museum charges for admission.

On the 500th anniversary of the publication of Martin Luther’s German translation of the New Testament, Beatrice Institute features four TED-style talks on the history of the Bible. By academics, for non-academics, these brief object-lessons are followed by a round-table discussion. What did Bibles look like and how did they work before Luther? How did Reformation-era Jewish communities reproduce and interact with the Hebrew Bible? How did authorities regulate the circulation of Luther’s revolutionary translation? And how did Luther teach lay people to read the Bible in translation?

• Prof. Ryan McDermott (Pitt, English) on the reading technology of medieval Bibles

• Prof. Adam Shear (Pitt, Religious Studies) on early modern Hebrew Bibles

• Prof. Allyson Creasman (CMU, History) on the circulation of Luther’s first translation

• Prof. David Luy (North American Lutheran Seminary) on Luther’s instructions for reading the Bible in translation

Join Beatrice Institute on April 3rd at 3pm for an afternoon of Appalachian Mountain music and Ohio River Valley hymns as we contemplate Easter from this cultural perspective. This event will feature performances by Penny Anderson and Pittsburgh Shape Note Singers, Joel Brady, Art Lindsay, and the Bruderhof Shalom Choir!

Street parking is free on Sunday, but if you have any trouble finding parking, the garage on the corner of Ruskin and Bayard is free if you mention you are with First Baptist Church of Pittsburgh.

Join Beatrice Institute and Dr. Susan Rice (University of Pittsburgh) for a lecture on the upcoming PSO performance of Rachmaninoff and Bruckner.

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Join Collegium Institute for an interview with Dr. Benjamin M. Friedman, William Joseph Maier Professor of Political Economy, and formerly Chairman of the Department of Economics, at Harvard University.

The interview will cover the ideas explored in Dr. Friedman's new book, Religion and the Rise of Capitalism, which challenges the common assumption that economics is a purely secular Enlightenment project and elucidates the significant role that religious thought played in the discipline's foundations and the role it continues to play in contemporary economic thought. In elucidating this unexpected yet deeply-rooted, ongoing relationship between religion and economics, Friedman offers insights into a variety of current economic issues. Click here to read more about Dr. Friedman's new book and listen to a sample of the audiobook.

The interview will be conducted by Dr. Mike Kane, Director of Collegium Institute's Philosophy of Finance Initiative.

This event is co-sponsored by Beatrice Institute.

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Few people have done more to form the moral imaginations of children—indeed, today’s adults—than Mister Rogers. Ordained as a Presbyterian minister, Mister Rogers drew on theological resources to speak to all manner of moral issues, including the obligation to care for the created order.

Join Beatrice Institute for a webinar on the environmental ethics of Mr. Rogers. The panel will feature Prof. Jason King (Theology, St. Vincent College) and Prof. Sara Lindey (English, St. Vincent College), authors of the forthcoming book, Mister Rogers’ Green Neighborhood.