Bishop Robert Barron
Diocese of Diocese of Winona-Rochester
Founder, Word on Fire Ministries
"The Catholic Intellectual Tradition"
Missed this Event: watch it here.
The Catholic Intellectual Tradition offers an immensely rich, 2,000-year-old way of thinking about God, Nature, Society, and the Human Person. This tradition invites us to appreciate the historical continuity of the Church's beliefs and practices as well as the reality of the communion of holy men and women who have aided the Church in Her thinking across the ages. The Catholic intellectual tradition is not today's fleeting and disjointed stream of TikTok videos, but a fuller and more integrated way of seeking answers to our enduring questions about the Source and existence of all things visible and invisible as well as the meaning of our experiences and the purposes of our lives. The tradition's way of thinking flows from its Christology--that is, our understanding of who Jesus Christ is. As St. Bonaventure once summarized this central point: the Church began with the powerful experiences and wisdom of "simple fishermen, and it was enriched by distinguished and wise teachers" who carried the tradition forwarded, but it is Christ who was and is at the center of all knowledge, learning and wisdom, including every academic interest pursued within the modern university. In our highly fragmented world defined by its chaotic and ever-changing set of expressions, the Catholic intellectual tradition distinguishes itself from the alienation, disjointedness and popular noise of today by maintaining there is a common, unifying Source of every truth. This Source, as revealed in the Gospel of John, is Christ the Logos Who was “In the Beginning,” Who is the “Life” and “the Light that shines in the darkness” for “all humankind."
Co-sponsored with the Harvard Catholic Forum, the Collegium Institute @ UPenn, COLLIS Institute for Catholic Thought and Culture @ Cornell University, Nova Forum for Catholic Thought @ University of Southern California, and the Lumen Christi Institute @ University of Chicago.
