RSVP HERE

Join us at the home of Dr. Ryan McDermott to close our series on The Brothers Karamazov! It’s been a joy to read this book with you.

Please feel free to join for this last session regardless of past attendance. All are welcome and we’d love to see you there!

Register Here

Join our Zoom group to study a novel that remains one of the most provocative, poignant, and pressing literary explorations of the human condition. The Brothers Karamazov, telescopic and microscopic all at once, lays bare a wide swath of human experience for our consideration:  familial, political, religious, economic, artistic, social, and intellectual.

In the words of scholar Malcolm Jones—who fought for Dostoevsky’s international reputation throughout The Cold War—"In Dostoevsky...the novel finds its true vocation."

In Spring 2026, Dr. Elise Lonich Ryan will give our annual All Fellows Seminar on the Problem of Evil, taking as her subject The Brothers Karamazov. It is in anticipation of this lecture that The Dante Society will read this masterpiece of world literature. 

Whether you're reading The Brothers Karamazov for the first time or have enjoyed it before, this is a fantastic opportunity for a guided encounter with the ‘carnival of Dostoevsky’ (as Mikhail Bakhtin called it) alongside like-minded peers and expert visiting faculty from across the country. 

Meetings will take place over Zoom every other Thursday at 7:00 PM from September 4, 2025 to March 19, 2026. You are more than welcome to sign-up with the intention of coming to only a few meetings. The sign-up list will not close, so join at any point. 

Find the reading schedule here.

RSVP Here

Issuing Citations is public-facing event series aimed at fostering research connections, nurturing inchoate projects, and providing an organizational catalyst for future conferences and publications. It's a space for graduate students and early career faculty alike to co-present, interact, and form connections across disciplinary lines.

March’s event will feature one talk!

Beatrice Institute will provide apps and the first round of drinks for attendees, after which interlocutors are on their own. 

Tip your bartenders, chase the rabbit, and see you on Thursday, January 15th!

Register Here

Join our Zoom group to study a novel that remains one of the most provocative, poignant, and pressing literary explorations of the human condition. The Brothers Karamazov, telescopic and microscopic all at once, lays bare a wide swath of human experience for our consideration:  familial, political, religious, economic, artistic, social, and intellectual.

In the words of scholar Malcolm Jones—who fought for Dostoevsky’s international reputation throughout The Cold War—"In Dostoevsky...the novel finds its true vocation."

In Spring 2026, Dr. Elise Lonich Ryan will give our annual All Fellows Seminar on the Problem of Evil, taking as her subject The Brothers Karamazov. It is in anticipation of this lecture that The Dante Society will read this masterpiece of world literature. 

Whether you're reading The Brothers Karamazov for the first time or have enjoyed it before, this is a fantastic opportunity for a guided encounter with the ‘carnival of Dostoevsky’ (as Mikhail Bakhtin called it) alongside like-minded peers and expert visiting faculty from across the country. 

Meetings will take place over Zoom every other Thursday at 7:00 PM from September 4, 2025 to March 19, 2026. You are more than welcome to sign-up with the intention of coming to only a few meetings. The sign-up list will not close, so join at any point. 

Find the reading schedule here.

Register Here

Join our Zoom group to study a novel that remains one of the most provocative, poignant, and pressing literary explorations of the human condition. The Brothers Karamazov, telescopic and microscopic all at once, lays bare a wide swath of human experience for our consideration: familial, political, religious, economic, artistic, social, and intellectual.

In the words of scholar Malcolm Jones—who fought for Dostoevsky’s international reputation throughout The Cold War—"In Dostoevsky...the novel finds its true vocation."

In Spring 2026, Dr. Elise Lonich Ryan will give our annual All Fellows Seminar on the Problem of Evil, taking as her subject The Brothers Karamazov. It is in anticipation of this lecture that The Dante Society will read this masterpiece of world literature. 

Whether you're reading The Brothers Karamazov for the first time or have enjoyed it before, this is a fantastic opportunity for a guided encounter with the ‘carnival of Dostoevsky’ (as Mikhail Bakhtin called it) alongside like-minded peers and expert visiting faculty from across the country. 

Meetings will take place over Zoom every other Thursday at 7:00 PM from September 4, 2025 to March 19, 2026. You are more than welcome to sign-up with the intention of coming to only a few meetings. The sign-up list will not close, so join at any point. 

Find the reading schedule here.

Register Here

Join our Zoom group to study a novel that remains one of the most provocative, poignant, and pressing literary explorations of the human condition. The Brothers Karamazov, telescopic and microscopic all at once, lays bare a wide swath of human experience for our consideration:  familial, political, religious, economic, artistic, social, and intellectual.

In the words of scholar Malcolm Jones—who fought for Dostoevsky’s international reputation throughout The Cold War—"In Dostoevsky...the novel finds its true vocation."

In Spring 2026, Dr. Elise Lonich Ryan will give our annual All Fellows Seminar on the Problem of Evil, taking as her subject The Brothers Karamazov. It is in anticipation of this lecture that The Dante Society will read this masterpiece of world literature. 

Whether you're reading The Brothers Karamazov for the first time or have enjoyed it before, this is a fantastic opportunity for a guided encounter with the ‘carnival of Dostoevsky’ (as Mikhail Bakhtin called it) alongside like-minded peers and expert visiting faculty from across the country. 

Meetings will take place over Zoom every other Thursday at 7:00 PM from September 4, 2025 to April 16, 2026. You are more than welcome to sign-up with the intention of coming to only a few meetings. The sign-up list will not close, so join at any point. 

Find the reading schedule here.

Register Here

Join Dante Society to study a novel that remains one of the most provocative, poignant, and pressing literary explorations of the human condition.

This year, Dr. Elise Lonich Ryan will give our annual All Fellows Seminar on the Problem of Evil, taking as her subject The Brothers Karamazov. In anticipation of that lecture, to be held in Pittsburgh on April 24, 2026, The Dante Society will read this masterpiece of world literature over the course of the academic year. 

Whether you're reading Brothers K for the first time or have enjoyed it before, this is a fantastic opportunity for a guided encounter with the ‘carnival of Dostoevsky’ (as Mikhail Bakhtin called it) alongside like-minded peers and expert visiting faculty from across the country. 

Meetings take place every other Thursday at 7:00 PM from September 4, 2025 to April 16, 2026. You are more than welcome to sign-up with the intention of coming to only a few meetings. The sign-up list will not close, so join at any point. 

Find the reading schedule here.

RSVP Here

Issuing Citations is public-facing event series aimed at fostering research connections, nurturing inchoate projects, and providing an organizational catalyst for future conferences and publications. It's a space for graduate students and early career faculty alike to co-present, interact, and form connections across disciplinary lines.

January’s event will feature 2 talks!:

Beatrice Institute will provide apps and the first round of drinks for attendees, after which interlocutors are on their own. 

Tip your bartenders, chase the rabbit, and see you on Thursday, January 15th!

Register Here

Join Dante Society to study a novel that remains one of the most provocative, poignant, and pressing literary explorations of the human condition.

This year, Dr. Elise Lonich Ryan will give our annual All Fellows Seminar on the Problem of Evil, taking as her subject The Brothers Karamazov. In anticipation of that lecture, to be held in Pittsburgh on April 24, 2026, The Dante Society will read this masterpiece of world literature over the course of the academic year. 

Whether you're reading Brothers K for the first time or have enjoyed it before, this is a fantastic opportunity for a guided encounter with the ‘carnival of Dostoevsky’ (as Mikhail Bakhtin called it) alongside like-minded peers and expert visiting faculty from across the country. 

Meetings take place every other Thursday at 7:00 PM from September 4, 2025 to April 16, 2026. You are more than welcome to sign-up with the intention of coming to only a few meetings. The sign-up list will not close, so join at any point. 

Find the reading schedule here.

Register Here

Ryan McDermott is hosting an in-person get together for all our local reading group members at his home in Bellevue. If you are available, please join in! There are no new readings for this event.

Address forthcoming.

Register Here

Join our Zoom group to study a novel that remains one of the most provocative, poignant, and pressing literary explorations of the human condition. The Brothers Karamazov, telescopic and microscopic all at once, lays bare a wide swath of human experience for our consideration:  familial, political, religious, economic, artistic, social, and intellectual.

In the words of scholar Malcolm Jones—who fought for Dostoevsky’s international reputation throughout The Cold War—"In Dostoevsky...the novel finds its true vocation."

In Spring 2026, Dr. Elise Lonich Ryan will give our annual All Fellows Seminar on the Problem of Evil, taking as her subject The Brothers Karamazov. It is in anticipation of this lecture that The Dante Society will read this masterpiece of world literature. 

Whether you're reading The Brothers Karamazov for the first time or have enjoyed it before, this is a fantastic opportunity for a guided encounter with the ‘carnival of Dostoevsky’ (as Mikhail Bakhtin called it) alongside like-minded peers and expert visiting faculty from across the country. 

Meetings will take place over Zoom every other Thursday at 7:00 PM from September 4, 2025 to April 16, 2026. You are more than welcome to sign-up with the intention of coming to only a few meetings. The sign-up list will not close, so join at any point. 

Find the reading schedule here.

RSVP Here

Issuing Citations is public-facing event series aimed at fostering research connections, nurturing inchoate projects, and providing an organizational catalyst for future conferences and publications. It's a space for graduate students and early career faculty alike to co-present, interact, and form connections across disciplinary lines.

November’s event will feature 2 talks!:

Beatrice Institute will provide apps and the first round of drinks for attendees, after which interlocutors are on their own. 

Tip your bartenders, chase the rabbit, and see you on Thursday, November 20th!

Register Here

Join our Zoom group to study a novel that remains one of the most provocative, poignant, and pressing literary explorations of the human condition. The Brothers Karamazov, telescopic and microscopic all at once, lays bare a wide swath of human experience for our consideration:  familial, political, religious, economic, artistic, social, and intellectual.

In the words of scholar Malcolm Jones—who fought for Dostoevsky’s international reputation throughout The Cold War—"In Dostoevsky...the novel finds its true vocation."

In Spring 2026, Dr. Elise Lonich Ryan will give our annual All Fellows Seminar on the Problem of Evil, taking as her subject The Brothers Karamazov. It is in anticipation of this lecture that The Dante Society will read this masterpiece of world literature. 

Whether you're reading The Brothers Karamazov for the first time or have enjoyed it before, this is a fantastic opportunity for a guided encounter with the ‘carnival of Dostoevsky’ (as Mikhail Bakhtin called it) alongside like-minded peers and expert visiting faculty from across the country. 

Meetings will take place over Zoom every other Thursday at 7:00 PM from September 4, 2025 to April 16, 2026. You are more than welcome to sign-up with the intention of coming to only a few meetings. The sign-up list will not close, so join at any point. 

Find the reading schedule here..

Interest Form

Issuing Citations is public-facing event series aimed at fostering research connections, nurturing inchoate projects, and providing an organizational catalyst for future conferences and publications. It's a space for graduate students and early career faculty alike to co-present, interact, and form connections across disciplinary lines.

Presentation Options…

1. A pairing of presentations provided by either the Chair of IC or BI staff. Q&A to follow.

2. A graduate student OR early-career faculty pitches a talk paired with someone of a different rank. Think of this as the Sadie Hawkins option — it’s your chance to give an opportunity to, say, an advisee or prospective advisee to present their research alongside you. Likewise, graduate students are encouraged to invite their advisors or prospective advisors (or faculty you admire) to present a companion paper. Q&A to follow.

3. The Salon Option. Aimed at fostering community, a presenter will choose a brief reading or other decipherable object (artistic, academic, or otherwise), present a talk related to it, after which the audience will divide into small groups and discuss the talk, object for study, and anything that arises afterward. 

Issuing Citations will meet at a regular location (still TBA!), where BI will provide a first round of drinks for participants, after which interlocutors are on their own. 

Tip your bartenders, chase the rabbit, and see you at the first meeting on October 24th.

*Academic service opportunities and leadership roles will be available to BI Graduate Fellows.*

Register Here

Join our Zoom group to study a novel that remains one of the most provocative, poignant, and pressing literary explorations of the human condition. The Brothers Karamazov, telescopic and microscopic all at once, lays bare a wide swath of human experience for our consideration:  familial, political, religious, economic, artistic, social, and intellectual.

In the words of scholar Malcolm Jones—who fought for Dostoevsky’s international reputation throughout The Cold War—"In Dostoevsky...the novel finds its true vocation."

In Spring 2026, Dr. Elise Lonich Ryan will give our annual All Fellows Seminar on the Problem of Evil, taking as her subject The Brothers Karamazov. It is in anticipation of this lecture that The Dante Society will read this masterpiece of world literature. 

Whether you're reading The Brothers Karamazov for the first time or have enjoyed it before, this is a fantastic opportunity for a guided encounter with the ‘carnival of Dostoevsky’ (as Mikhail Bakhtin called it) alongside like-minded peers and expert visiting faculty from across the country. 

Meetings will take place over Zoom every other Thursday at 7:00 PM from September 4, 2025 to April 16, 2026. You are more than welcome to sign-up with the intention of coming to only a few meetings. The sign-up list will not close, so join at any point. 

Find the reading schedule here..

Register Here

Join our Zoom group to study a novel that remains one of the most provocative, poignant, and pressing literary explorations of the human condition. The Brothers Karamazov, telescopic and microscopic all at once, lays bare a wide swath of human experience for our consideration:  familial, political, religious, economic, artistic, social, and intellectual.

In the words of scholar Malcolm Jones—who fought for Dostoevsky’s international reputation throughout The Cold War—"In Dostoevsky...the novel finds its true vocation."

In Spring 2026, Dr. Elise Lonich Ryan will give our annual All Fellows Seminar on the Problem of Evil, taking as her subject The Brothers Karamazov. It is in anticipation of this lecture that The Dante Society will read this masterpiece of world literature. 

Whether you're reading The Brothers Karamazov for the first time or have enjoyed it before, this is a fantastic opportunity for a guided encounter with the ‘carnival of Dostoevsky’ (as Mikhail Bakhtin called it) alongside like-minded peers and expert visiting faculty from across the country. 

Meetings will take place over Zoom every other Thursday at 7:00 PM from September 4, 2025 to April 16, 2026. You are more than welcome to sign-up with the intention of coming to only a few meetings. The sign-up list will not close, so join at any point. 

Find the reading schedule here.

Register Here

Join our Zoom group to study a novel that remains one of the most provocative, poignant, and pressing literary explorations of the human condition. The Brothers Karamazov, telescopic and microscopic all at once, lays bare a wide swath of human experience for our consideration:  familial, political, religious, economic, artistic, social, and intellectual.

In the words of scholar Malcolm Jones—who fought for Dostoevsky’s international reputation throughout The Cold War—"In Dostoevsky...the novel finds its true vocation."

In Spring 2026, Dr. Elise Lonich Ryan will give our annual All Fellows Seminar on the Problem of Evil, taking as her subject The Brothers Karamazov. It is in anticipation of this lecture that The Dante Society will read this masterpiece of world literature. 

Whether you're reading The Brothers Karamazov for the first time or have enjoyed it before, this is a fantastic opportunity for a guided encounter with the ‘carnival of Dostoevsky’ (as Mikhail Bakhtin called it) alongside like-minded peers and expert visiting faculty from across the country. 

Meetings will take place over Zoom every other Thursday at 7:00 PM from September 4, 2025 to April 16, 2026. You are more than welcome to sign-up with the intention of coming to only a few meetings. The sign-up list will not close, so join at any point. 

Find the reading schedule here.

Register Here

Join our Zoom group to study a novel that remains one of the most provocative, poignant, and pressing literary explorations of the human condition. The Brothers Karamazov, telescopic and microscopic all at once, lays bare a wide swath of human experience for our consideration:  familial, political, religious, economic, artistic, social, and intellectual.

In the words of scholar Malcolm Jones—who fought for Dostoevsky’s international reputation throughout The Cold War—"In Dostoevsky...the novel finds its true vocation."

In Spring 2026, Dr. Elise Lonich Ryan will give our annual All Fellows Seminar on the Problem of Evil, taking as her subject The Brothers Karamazov. It is in anticipation of this lecture that The Dante Society will read this masterpiece of world literature. 

Whether you're reading The Brothers Karamazov for the first time or have enjoyed it before, this is a fantastic opportunity for a guided encounter with the ‘carnival of Dostoevsky’ (as Mikhail Bakhtin called it) alongside like-minded peers and expert visiting faculty from across the country. 

Meetings will take place over Zoom every other Thursday at 7:00 PM from September 4, 2025 to April 16, 2026. You are more than welcome to sign-up with the intention of coming to only a few meetings. The sign-up list will not close, so join at any point. 

Find the reading schedule here.

PAST EVENT

It’s common for people to associate modernity and modernization with secularization. But Christians have a unique understanding of the secular. The Latin root saeculum can be variously translated as “epoch (this age),” “historical time,” “the world,” and “the time that remains between Christ’s redemptive work on earth and the full restoration of the Kingdom of God in the parousia, the end for which God made the world.” To be secular, in this Christian sense, is just to live in human history—in, but not of, the world. 

“Modern” has a parallel Christian meaning. The Latin root modernus was used in a historical sense as early as 550 AD. “Modern” means this time, this saeculum, rather than the age that came before. For Christians, it’s fitting to say that modernity is every AD date, all the time after Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. And before the Second Coming. 

With this expansive perspective on modernity, the Dante Society asks, What does it mean to be modern? How has Christianity shaped modernity? What challenges and opportunities do various modernities present to the Church? And how and when do the language and concepts of modernity become hindrances rather than aids to understanding life in time?

We will explore these and other questions in conversation with brief, highly readable essays from the Genealogies of Modernity Journal. Each essay takes up some aspect of modern life, or some particular understanding of what it means to be modern, and considers it in light of the Christian intellectual tradition. Discussion will be led by Ryan McDermott. 

Participants should read the essay before the seminar. Each seminar stands on its own, so don’t worry about jumping in whenever you are able. 

3/30 “The Angel in the Top-Hat,” by Richard Yoder

This case illustrates the complex entanglement of enchantment and disenchantment in the 19th century, a dynamic participated in by Church and State, physicians and spiritualists—and angels in top-hats, too. Richard Yoder on an angelic apparition.

past event

NOTE THE LOCATION CHANGE

It’s common for people to associate modernity and modernization with secularization. But Christians have a unique understanding of the secular. The Latin root saeculum can be variously translated as “epoch (this age),” “historical time,” “the world,” and “the time that remains between Christ’s redemptive work on earth and the full restoration of the Kingdom of God in the parousia, the end for which God made the world.” To be secular, in this Christian sense, is just to live in human history—in, but not of, the world. 

“Modern” has a parallel Christian meaning. The Latin root modernus was used in a historical sense as early as 550 AD. “Modern” means this time, this saeculum, rather than the age that came before. For Christians, it’s fitting to say that modernity is every AD date, all the time after Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. And before the Second Coming. 

With this expansive perspective on modernity, the Dante Society asks, What does it mean to be modern? How has Christianity shaped modernity? What challenges and opportunities do various modernities present to the Church? And how and when do the language and concepts of modernity become hindrances rather than aids to understanding life in time?

We will explore these and other questions in conversation with brief, highly readable essays from the Genealogies of Modernity Journal. Each essay takes up some aspect of modern life, or some particular understanding of what it means to be modern, and considers it in light of the Christian intellectual tradition. Discussion will be led by Ryan McDermott. 

Participants should read the essay before the seminar. Each seminar stands on its own, so don’t worry about jumping in whenever you are able. 

2/23 “On Divine Space,” by JD Lyonhart

There is a genealogical case to be made that the solidity of the modern scientific world picture may have been unwittingly grounded upon a theistic metaphysic. JD Lyonhart on Henry More and the origins of modern space.

CANCELLED

It’s common for people to associate modernity and modernization with secularization. But Christians have a unique understanding of the secular. The Latin root saeculum can be variously translated as “epoch (this age),” “historical time,” “the world,” and “the time that remains between Christ’s redemptive work on earth and the full restoration of the Kingdom of God in the parousia, the end for which God made the world.” To be secular, in this Christian sense, is just to live in human history—in, but not of, the world. 

“Modern” has a parallel Christian meaning. The Latin root modernus was used in a historical sense as early as 550 AD. “Modern” means this time, this saeculum, rather than the age that came before. For Christians, it’s fitting to say that modernity is every AD date, all the time after Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. And before the Second Coming. 

With this expansive perspective on modernity, the Dante Society asks, What does it mean to be modern? How has Christianity shaped modernity? What challenges and opportunities do various modernities present to the Church? And how and when do the language and concepts of modernity become hindrances rather than aids to understanding life in time?

We will explore these and other questions in conversation with brief, highly readable essays from the Genealogies of Modernity Journal. Each essay takes up some aspect of modern life, or some particular understanding of what it means to be modern, and considers it in light of the Christian intellectual tradition. Discussion will be led by Ryan McDermott. 

Participants should read the essay before the seminar. Each seminar stands on its own, so don’t worry about jumping in whenever you are able. 

1/26 “The Sacredness of the Person,” by Sharon Kuruvilla

Only a dialectical approach between the Enlightenment and Christianity is capable of grasping the historical dynamics of the emergence of human rights within the European context. Sharon Kuruvilla reviews Hans Joas’s The Sacredness of the Person.

PAST EVENT

It’s common for people to associate modernity and modernization with secularization. But Christians have a unique understanding of the secular. The Latin root saeculum can be variously translated as “epoch (this age),” “historical time,” “the world,” and “the time that remains between Christ’s redemptive work on earth and the full restoration of the Kingdom of God in the parousia, the end for which God made the world.” To be secular, in this Christian sense, is just to live in human history—in, but not of, the world. 

“Modern” has a parallel Christian meaning. The Latin root modernus was used in a historical sense as early as 550 AD. “Modern” means this time, this saeculum, rather than the age that came before. For Christians, it’s fitting to say that modernity is every AD date, all the time after Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. And before the Second Coming. 

With this expansive perspective on modernity, the Dante Society asks, What does it mean to be modern? How has Christianity shaped modernity? What challenges and opportunities do various modernities present to the Church? And how and when do the language and concepts of modernity become hindrances rather than aids to understanding life in time?

We will explore these and other questions in conversation with brief, highly readable essays from the Genealogies of Modernity Journal. Each essay takes up some aspect of modern life, or some particular understanding of what it means to be modern, and considers it in light of the Christian intellectual tradition. Discussion will be led by Ryan McDermott. 

Participants should read the essay before the seminar. Each seminar stands on its own, so don’t worry about jumping in whenever you are able. 

“History Wobbles,” by Duncan Reyburn
"In our own time, somewhat in contrast with G. K. Chesterton’s, the watchword decline is more prevalent than progress. We commonly hear of managed decline—although in many instances it does not seem to be managed at all. We still hear of progress, of course, but pervasive political precarity makes progress less trustworthy as a popular category. Chesterton’s philosophy offers a healthy antidote to any historicist fatalism, though, whether it happens to be overly pessimistic (as it is for declinists) or overly optimistic (as it is for progressives)."

REGISTRATION FULL

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've been 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. 

This semester (September 5th), we will pick up where we left off in Purgatorio (Canto 10) and make it all the way through the rest of the Divine Comedy, finishing Paradiso December 5th.

Dates: Every other Thursday starting September 5th
Time: 4:00 - 5:00 PM ET
Location: Zoom

Syllabus

9/5 - Purg. Cantos 9 - 16
9/19 - Purg. 17 - 27
10/3 - Purg. 28 - 33 (end)
10/17 - Pard. 1 - 9
11/7 - Pard. 10 - 22
11/21 - Pard. 23 - 27
12/5 - Pard. 28 - 33 (end)

REGISTRATION FULL

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've been 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. 

This semester (September 5th), we will pick up where we left off in Purgatorio (Canto 10) and make it all the way through the rest of the Divine Comedy, finishing Paradiso December 5th.

Dates: Every other Thursday starting September 5th
Time: 4:00 - 5:00 PM ET
Location: Zoom

Syllabus

9/5 - Purg. Cantos 9 - 16
9/19 - Purg. 17 - 27
10/3 - Purg. 28 - 33 (end)
10/17 - Pard. 1 - 9
11/7 - Pard. 10 - 22
11/21 - Pard. 23 - 27
12/5 - Pard. 28 - 33 (end)

PAST EVENT

It’s common for people to associate modernity and modernization with secularization. But Christians have a unique understanding of the secular. The Latin root saeculum can be variously translated as “epoch (this age),” “historical time,” “the world,” and “the time that remains between Christ’s redemptive work on earth and the full restoration of the Kingdom of God in the parousia, the end for which God made the world.” To be secular, in this Christian sense, is just to live in human history—in, but not of, the world. 

“Modern” has a parallel Christian meaning. The Latin root modernus was used in a historical sense as early as 550 AD. “Modern” means this time, this saeculum, rather than the age that came before. For Christians, it’s fitting to say that modernity is every AD date, all the time after Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. And before the Second Coming. 

With this expansive perspective on modernity, the Dante Society asks, What does it mean to be modern? How has Christianity shaped modernity? What challenges and opportunities do various modernities present to the Church? And how and when do the language and concepts of modernity become hindrances rather than aids to understanding life in time?

We will explore these and other questions in conversation with brief, highly readable essays from the Genealogies of Modernity Journal. Each essay takes up some aspect of modern life, or some particular understanding of what it means to be modern, and considers it in light of the Christian intellectual tradition. Discussion will be led by Ryan McDermott. 

Participants should read the essay before the seminar. Each seminar stands on its own, so don’t worry about jumping in whenever you are able. 

"Modernity and the Evolution of Consciousness" (Part I and Part II), by Ashton Arnoldy
Owen Barfield believed that with the advent of Christ, humanity entered a new phase of its development as a species: this constitutes modernity. "Barfield’s alternative conception of modernity harbors the potential for a renewal of participation—a rediscovery of meaning in a divinely-minded world. . . . His experience was that poetry—Romantic poetry in particular—had the potential to expand perception by rousing the imagination in a way that forged a new unity of self and world."

REGISTRATION FULL

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've been 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. 

This semester (September 5th), we will pick up where we left off in Purgatorio (Canto 10) and make it all the way through the rest of the Divine Comedy, finishing Paradiso December 5th.

Dates: Every other Thursday starting September 5th
Time: 4:00 - 5:00 PM ET
Location: Zoom

Syllabus

9/5 - Purg. Cantos 9 - 16
9/19 - Purg. 17 - 27
10/3 - Purg. 28 - 33 (end)
10/17 - Pard. 1 - 9
11/7 - Pard. 10 - 22
11/21 - Pard. 23 - 27
12/5 - Pard. 28 - 33 (end)

PAST EVENT

It’s common for people to associate modernity and modernization with secularization. But Christians have a unique understanding of the secular. The Latin root saeculum can be variously translated as “epoch (this age),” “historical time,” “the world,” and “the time that remains between Christ’s redemptive work on earth and the full restoration of the Kingdom of God in the parousia, the end for which God made the world.” To be secular, in this Christian sense, is just to live in human history—in, but not of, the world. 

“Modern” has a parallel Christian meaning. The Latin root modernus was used in a historical sense as early as 550 AD. “Modern” means this time, this saeculum, rather than the age that came before. For Christians, it’s fitting to say that modernity is every AD date, all the time after Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. And before the Second Coming. 

With this expansive perspective on modernity, the Dante Society asks, What does it mean to be modern? How has Christianity shaped modernity? What challenges and opportunities do various modernities present to the Church? And how and when do the language and concepts of modernity become hindrances rather than aids to understanding life in time?

We will explore these and other questions in conversation with brief, highly readable essays from the Genealogies of Modernity Journal. Each essay takes up some aspect of modern life, or some particular understanding of what it means to be modern, and considers it in light of the Christian intellectual tradition. Discussion will be led by Ryan McDermott. 

Participants should read the essay before the seminar. Each seminar stands on its own, so don’t worry about jumping in whenever you are able. 

“Ghoulish Genealogies,” by Terence Sweeney
"The genealogical description insists on erasing hundreds of years of Christian life. The writer awkwardly alludes to Christianity but cannot imagine that it has any real importance except as a machine for appropriating pagan practices.” Terence Sweeney critiques pop-genealogies of Halloween.

REGISTRATION FULL

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've been 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. 

This semester (September 5th), we will pick up where we left off in Purgatorio (Canto 10) and make it all the way through the rest of the Divine Comedy, finishing Paradiso December 5th.

Dates: Every other Thursday starting September 5th
Time: 4:00 - 5:00 PM ET
Location: Zoom

Syllabus

9/5 - Purg. Cantos 9 - 16
9/19 - Purg. 17 - 27
10/3 - Purg. 28 - 33 (end)
10/17 - Pard. 1 - 9
11/7 - Pard. 10 - 22
11/21 - Pard. 23 - 27
12/5 - Pard. 28 - 33 (end)

REGISTRATION FULL

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've been 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. 

This semester (September 5th), we will pick up where we left off in Purgatorio (Canto 10) and make it all the way through the rest of the Divine Comedy, finishing Paradiso December 5th.

Dates: Every other Thursday starting September 5th
Time: 4:00 - 5:00 PM ET
Location: Zoom

Syllabus

9/5 - Purg. Cantos 9 - 16
9/19 - Purg. 17 - 27
10/3 - Purg. 28 - 33 (end)
10/17 - Pard. 1 - 9
11/7 - Pard. 10 - 22
11/21 - Pard. 23 - 27
12/5 - Pard. 28 - 33 (end)