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.