Undergrad Retreat Day | Integrating Faith & Learning: How to Bring Your Whole Self to College
Aug
30
8:30 AM08:30

Undergrad Retreat Day | Integrating Faith & Learning: How to Bring Your Whole Self to College

RSVP Here

Integrating Faith & Learning: How to bring your whole self to college

Can you excel in a secular course of study and grow in the knowledge of your faith? And what does it look like, and what does it take, to truly flourish as a university student?

Beatrice Institute invites undergrads — freshmen to seniors — to join faculty and fellow students for a day of good food, fun, and conversation around how to approach your college experience. The day concludes with an afternoon art excursion guided by faculty!

Schedule below. Breakfast, lunch, and any entrance fees are on us:

8:30 AM Breakfast Reception | Cathedral of Learning 501

9:00 AM Firm Foundations: Faith’s Role in College Life | Dr. Larry Heimann (Information Systems, CMU) | Cathedral of Learning 501

10:00 AM Mixer games! | Cathedral of Learning 501

10:45 AM Faculty-led Art Tour | Jeffrey McCurry (Phenomenology & Philosophy, Duquesne), Alison Immormino (English, Pitt), & Seth Strickland (Writing & Communications, CMU) | Carnegie Museum of Art (CMoA)

12:30 PM Lunch & Mentor Discussion | Irene Mena (Mechanical Engineering, Pitt) & Mercedes Nebroski (Beatrice Institute alumna) | CMoA Patio

View Event →
Welcome Back BBQ
Sep
1
5:00 PM17:00

Welcome Back BBQ

RSVP Here

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.

For Fellows, we will be having a brief orientation from 5-5:30 pm, where we’ll be distributing important information, materials for the semester, and t-shirts! Please let us know if you are unable to attend.

View Event →
Thomas More, Lawyer of the Millennium, Patron of Statesmen: His Vision of Peace and Prosperity through the Rule of Law
Sep
11
5:30 PM17:30

Thomas More, Lawyer of the Millennium, Patron of Statesmen: His Vision of Peace and Prosperity through the Rule of Law

  • Duquesne University, Power Center Ballroom A (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

RSVP HERE

October 31, 2025 marks the 25th anniversary of Thomas More’s becoming “Patron of Statesmen.” In 1999, he had already been elected “Lawyer of the Millennium” by the Law Society of Great Britain, and long before that he had been adopted worldwide as the patron of lawyers. What was More’s vision of the law? Why did he consider it essential to a country’s peace and prosperity? Why is the rule of law so difficult to achieve?

Join us for the lecture addressing these questions from 5:30-7:00PM and feel free to stay for a reception until 8:00PM!

Dr. Gerard Wegemer has served since 2000 as the founding director of the Center for Thomas More Studies. He has graduate degrees in literature and political philosophy from Boston College, Georgetown, and Notre Dame and has taught for over thirty-five years at the University of Dallas.

  • During England’s civil war, “The Wars of the Roses,” More’s father was a leading lawyer in London and a lecturer in law before becoming a high court judge. During times of civil unrest, young Thomas More practiced and taught law before becoming the most sought-after lawyer in London; he served for eight years as a judge in the sheriff of London’s court; he was invited several times to give guest lectures in advanced law and in the history and philosophy of law; he then served as judge in the King’s court before become Lord Chancellor of England, the highest judge of the land.

    Earlier, when he had completed his law studies at twenty-three, he took up ancient Greek, mastered it in three years so he could read Plato, Aristotle, Herodotus, Thucydides, and the Greek Church Fathers about the history, practice, and philosophy of our long tradition of law and justice. As a young lawyer, More wrote his own history of England modeled after the classical histories of Greece and Rome, and he wrote his own version of Plato’s Republic: On Justice and of Cicero’s Republic.

    More therefore combined an unusual blend of practice with historical and philosophic depth along with an intimate knowledge of the law that arose from working in a large commercial city and in a nation struggling with its own problems of war and peace, economic strains and political turmoil.

  • Dr. Gerard Wegemer co-edited The Essential Works of Thomas More published in 2020 by Yale University Press, and he organizes a yearly international conference on Thomas More at the University of Dallas. Among his publications are Young Thomas More and the Arts of LibertyThomas More’s Trial by Jury, A Thomas More Source BookThomas More on Statesmanship, and Thomas More: A Portrait of Courage.

    Dr. Wegemer has given many CLE presentations.

View Event →
Against the Machine with Paul Kingsnorth
Oct
6
5:30 PM17:30

Against the Machine with Paul Kingsnorth

  • Pittsburgh Theological Seminary (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

RSVP HERE

Join the Beatrice Institute in Pittsburgh for a special evening with acclaimed writer Paul Kingsnorth, celebrating the release of his latest book, Against the Machine: On the Unmaking of Humanity. In this live, podcast-style conversation, Kingsnorth will be interviewed by (BI Faculty Fellow) Grant Martsolf in a dynamic Q&A format exploring the book’s provocative reflections on technology, modernity, and the human spirit. The event offers a rare opportunity to engage directly with one of today’s most original and challenging thinkers.

Book signing to follow!

Limited spots for this event!

View Event →
Spring Salon
Apr
30
6:30 PM18:30

Spring Salon

Save the date!

Our Spring Salon will feature a movie viewing of The Inner Sea at Row House in Lawrenceville followed by a discussion with Kate and Casey Stapleton at the Port.

Attending the movie is not necessary to attending the discussion. Food and drinks provided at the Port.

More info coming soon.

View Event →

Undergraduate Colloquium
Apr
12
3:30 PM15:30

Undergraduate Colloquium

past event

Please join us for an end-of-semester celebration of our graduating seniors! This is one of Beatrice Institute's signature events: an undergraduate colloquium spotlighting our graduating seniors that brings together our community in celebration of what these students have accomplished. Come hear what our Christian Studies Fellows have been working on this year: short stories, poetry, essays and provocations, meditations and musings. Following the presentations and Q&A, we will have dinner and toast our graduating fellows.

Presentations will take place in the Cathedral of Learning room 501. The location for the dinner reception aftewards is TBD

View Event →
Cultural Event: Bach’s Lost Markus Passion
Apr
11
7:30 PM19:30

Cultural Event: Bach’s Lost Markus Passion

Past Event

Attend the first-ever staged production of J.S. Bach’s long-lost Markus Passion. Find more info on this traveling performance here!

Chatham Baroque is excited to partner with Concert Theatre Works and NYC based ensemble The Sebastians for a world-premiere of this important work as reconstructed by Malcolm Bruno and published by Breitkopf & Härtel. With an ensemble comprising 14 players and 4 singers dramatically supporting acclaimed actor Joseph Marcell as the Evangelist, this musical treasure is brought to life in a gripping theatrical format.

RSVP by March 21st.

View Event →
All Fellows Seminar | Flourishing in the Face of Suffering and Death: Insights from Psychological Science and Christ's Sermon on the Mount
Apr
4
6:00 PM18:00

All Fellows Seminar | Flourishing in the Face of Suffering and Death: Insights from Psychological Science and Christ's Sermon on the Mount

PAST EVENT

Beatrice Institute welcomes Dr. Brent Robbins — Licensed Psychologist and Program Director of the PsyD Program in Clinical Psychology at Point Park University — to close out our undergraduate seminars this spring with this final discussion topic. Dr. Robbins will look at the Beatitudes as an answer to the problem of evil, suffering, and death — applying them through the lens of psychological research on human flourishing. He will also offer and apply insights from several important theorists, e.g., Rene Girard, Viktor Frankl, Ernest Becker.


Dr. Brent Robbins

Brent Dean Robbins, Ph.D., is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and has served as President of the Society for Humanistic Psychology and the Society for Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology. His areas of expertise include the psychology of religion and spirituality, phenomenological and existential psychology, clinical psychology (humanistic, existential and psychodynamic psychotherapies), happiness and the joyful disposition, eudaimonia, human dignity, and death and dying. He is author of The Medicalized Body and Anesthetic Culture: The Cadaver, the Memorial Body and the Recovery of Lived Experience (2018, Palgrave Macmillan).

View Event →
Symphony & Lecture: Musical Form and the Portrayal of Salvation History
Mar
28
5:30 PM17:30

Symphony & Lecture: Musical Form and the Portrayal of Salvation History

PAST EVENT

Dr. Evan O’Dorney will give a lecture on the Christian roots of Western musical styles, touring how scales, melody, harmony, and form have operated in the music of various periods (Gregorian chant, Renaissance, Baroque, etc.) and stood the test of time for over 300 years.

In certain recurring structures, he argues for images of the story of salvation history, even in pieces of secular genres. These features distinguish Western music from the age-old traditions of non-Christian peoples, and they have challenged composers to create works of enduring beauty that have shaped Western culture and are now admired by many around the world. He argues that part of the work of evangelization is to reclaim these traditions, which are in danger of being copied mechanically and then abandoned for lack of appreciation. An infinite supply of new music lies in wait to be written.

We will then attend the PSO’s rendition of Beethoven’s “Pastoral.”

The seminar will go from 5:30-7:00PM. The symphony at Heinz Hall begins at 7:30PM.


Evan O’Dorney

Evan is a postdoctoral research associate in mathematics at Carnegie Mellon University, specializing in number theory. This is his second year living in Pittsburgh. He sings in the choir and plays the organ at Most Precious Blood of Jesus Parish in Pittsburgh. He also plays and composes piano music and can improvise in classical styles. While in graduate school at Princeton, he gave his fellow students occasional short talks on music theory which will be expanded upon in this talk.

View Event →
An Evening of Poetry: Feat. George David Clark
Feb
13
6:00 PM18:00

An Evening of Poetry: Feat. George David Clark

PAST EVENT

Join Beatrice Institute and The Port for an evening of poetry, cookies, wine, and friendship. We’ll enjoy poetry from up-and-coming poets as well as acclaimed poet George David Clark, poet, author and editor-in-chief and executive director of the journal 32 Poems.

This event is free and open to the public, so feel welcome to bring a friend for a delightful evening of Valentine’s themed poetry.

RSVP requested, but not required.

View Event →
Cultural Event: Thou Shalt Not Kill? Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Conflicted Pacifism
Dec
19
6:30 PM18:30

Cultural Event: Thou Shalt Not Kill? Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Conflicted Pacifism

  • Pittsburgh Theological Seminary (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

PAST EVENT

German pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a committed pacifist who eventually felt called to participate in a plot on Hitler’s life. Inspired by the release of the new movie on Bonhoeffer's life, Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin., we invite you to join the conversation this semester as we interrogate the tension in Christian ethics between a preference for non-violence and the responsibility to protect the innocent. (Seeing the movie is not necessary to attending the Salon, but click here for info on that cultural event!)

Our annual Winter Salon invites four panelists with a range of viewpoints to speak about Bonhoeffer's historical context and the theological commitments that swayed both pacifist and activist responses to Hitler's regime.

Drinks and heavy hors d’oeuvres provided!


The Bruderhof

Founded over a century ago in the wake of World War I in the small German village of Sannerz, the Bruderhof has been shaped and propelled in part by the political and social events of the Western world. Despite inter-continental migrations due to religious persecution during World War II, and many challenges and changes, God’s protection, guidance, and blessing have been evident over the decades since the hardscrabble beginnings in 1920.

View Event →
Can We Trust the Gospels?
Dec
9
7:00 PM19:00

Can We Trust the Gospels?

past event

In collaboration with the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, Prof. Ryan McDermott will address common questions surrounding the Gospels in this final seminar of the semester.

Did Jesus even exist? Why are there four Gospels? Why do they disagree on details? Can we trust the writers’ memories? What about the Gnostic Gospels? We will discuss a brief reading (found here) by New Testament scholar Richard Bauckham that addresses these and other questions.

This event is open to all undergraduate students in the Pittsburgh area. RSVP not required.

View Event →
All Fellows Seminar: Can We Trust the Bible?
Dec
6
5:00 PM17:00

All Fellows Seminar: Can We Trust the Bible?

PAST EVENT

Our All Fellows Seminar serves as the final seminar for all cohorts (taking the place of any seminars previously scheduled from December 2nd through the 10th) This is an opportunity for all of our fellows to come together to celebrate our work this fall.


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 (Pitt, English) 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. 

View Event →