St. Anselm Institute - Past Public Lectures
Claudio Monteverdi: The Man and His Music
(A Special Three Notch'd Road Ensemble Pre-Concert Lecture)
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Music lovers and novices, you're invited to hear Fiona Hughes (TNR violinist and Artistic Director) and Peter Walker (TNR bass soloist) speak about the music and achievements of Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643). The expressive power and structure of baroque music owes much to the work of this famous Italian priest-composer from Cremona, whose impact on the subsequent development of both sacred and secular music is unparalleled. This lecture will include a few live demonstrations, so come, listen and enjoy!
If the lecture leaves you wanting more, then on Saturday, Nov. 4 at 7:30pm, at First Presbyterian Church, 500 Park St., Three Notch'd Road will offer a special 450th commemorative "Monteverdi: Venetian Splendor" concert, featuring a larger, mixed consort of instruments and voices, including soprano Teresa Wakim. Tickets available online and at the door: Adults $20; Students are FREE.
The Most Reverend Wilton D. Gregory, S.L.D.
Metropolitan Archbishop of Atlanta
"We are All the Lord's"
Missed the lecture? Watch it here.
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ALL are invited to attend this public lecture, which will begin at 6:30pm in Minor Hall Auditorium, and to the post-lecture reception at the nearby Colonnade Club (Pavilion VII).
David Walsh
Catholic University of America
"Who and What is a Person?"
Talk about the inherent dignity and inalienable rights of the human person is as commonplace today as the classic definition of the Trinity as Three-Persons-in-One, but can we explain what we mean when we use the term "person"? Prof. Walsh contends it is a great error of modern philosophy to diminish a "person" to mean only our biological body, our consciousness, our freedom, our autonomy, our identity, or our relation to others. A "person" can never be described fully in these terms for the person extends beyond the material, the limits of what we can think and feel, and even the sum of our past. This never-complete, nearly indefinable quality of each person is not a philosophical dead end or an ineffable theological mystery; rather, it reveals and points us toward a new perspective, one that allows us to glimpse who and what a person truly is: the Apocalypse of History.
All are invited to attend this public lecture.
Kate Hennessy
Thursday, Sept. 14, 2017 (5:15pm)
UVA Minor Hall Auditorium
Missed this lecture? Watch it here.
Kate Hennessy will visit the University of Virginia September 14-15 to share her memories and new family biography, Dorothy Day: The World will be Saved by Beauty (2017). Kate is the granddaughter of Dorothy Day (1897-1980), a famous Catholic convert, cofounder of the Catholic Worker Movement and Houses of Hospitality, and a heroic American social activist who tirelessly advocated for peace and the poor among us. All are invited to attend this free public lecture, so bring a friend or attend and introduce yourself to someone new.
UVA Bookstore will offer Kate's family biography of Dorothy Day for purchase in the Lobby of Minor Hall before the lecture, starting at 4:45pm. Kate looks forward to meeting you and will happily sign these or any copies of her book upon request.
Ramón Mujica
St. Rose of Lima: The First Saint of the Americas
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Descartes and the Journey of the Mind to God
Jorge Secada
Professor of Philosophy
University of Virginia
Rene Descartes's Discourse on Method and his Meditations on First Philosophy are widely recognized as radical breaks from ancient and medieval ways of thinking, as revolutionary starting points for the Scientific Revolution and of new forms of mathematics and philosophy, and as the foundations from which the modern, liberated yet deeply skeptical self emerged.
For all this, Descartes's works were initially placed on the Church's Index librorum prohibitorum and he has ever since been both praised and decried for opening and legitimizing the intellectual pathway to modernity's pervasive materialism, atheism, and psychological reductionism. And yet..., Descartes understood himself to be a devout Christian and his Meditations as a defense of the Catholic Church, which creates the real possibility that perhaps we don't yet fully understand Descartes's larger project and its significance for us today. For the rest of this story, we'll see you on Thursday at 5:15pm.
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