EDI's 2022 Symposium: "Sex and Lies: Delusions of the Self in the 21st Century"

Our Eighth Day Institute 2022 Symposium was a wonderful event, held Friday and Saturday, January 14 and 15 at St. George's Orthodox Cathedral in Wichita, Kansas. Of course there were some glitches--the main one being that Rod Dreher, one of the plenary speakers, could not come to Wichita because he had tested positive for Covid and had lost his voice so he couldn't even participated digitally. All of the speakers spoke to everyone attending because we had no breakout sessions. And the presentations were wonderfully balanced between practical matters of current issues and theological explorations of the true model and how we should imitate Him: Jesus Christ. Thus, the icon for the event: The Pantocrator from Saint Catherine's Monastery.

Carl R. Trueman, from Grove City College in western Pennsylvania, a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in DC, and author of The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution among other books offered two presentations, analyzing the cultural changes in the way we identify ourselves. Dr. J (Jennifer Roback Morse) of the Ruth Institute also gave two presentations on the effects of those changes on the family, on fathers and mothers, on children, on schools, etc, etc. While he outlined the situation we face, Dr. J offered tactics, ways of thinking and responding, all at the service of renewing the true doctrine of the family: a man and woman who marry for the sake, not of their appetites and whims, but for the loving stability of a home for children, who know who their parents are, know their identities, and live with both parents, unless a tragedy occurs.

Then Father Alexis Torrance and the Reverend Hans Boersma offered some theological and spiritual foundations--above and beyond the practical steps we have to take to help our culture to return to the reality of humanity, the family, and the common good--upon which to base our efforts. Boersma outlined how Hugh of St. Victor offered his monks a model of lectio divina based on spiritual analogies within the structures of Noah's Ark:

Sex and the Imagination: Focusing the Mind: Delusions of the self—and the sexual problems linked to them—do not just happen. They are caused by a wandering imagination. This talk discusses how the 12th-century spiritual master Hugh of Saint Victor tried to anchor his students’ character: through a mural painting of Noah’s Ark. We will turn to Noah’s Ark in our own 21st-century pursuit of focus and stability.

Here's another version of his presentation.

And the final presentation, by Father Torrance, was based on his 2020 book from Oxford University Press, Human Perfection in Byzantine Theology: Attaining the Fullness of Christ. He offered some insights from four saints based on chapters from that book:

2. Perpetual progress or eternal rest? Contemplating the eschaton in St Maximus the Confessor
3. Perfection before our eyes: St Theodore the Studite on the humanity of Christ
4. I am called by two names, human and divine: dogma and deification in St Symeon the New Theologian
5. The energy of deification and the person of Jesus Christ in St Gregory Palamas

We were disappointed that Rod Dreher could not come and that he was ill. Nonetheless, I though it was a very successful gathering--in part, just because we gathered--in which we confronted issues Catholics, Protestants, and Orthodox Christians face in our families, workplaces, churches, and friendships and were reminded and consoled by the victory of Jesus Christ over sin and death through His Incarnation and Paschal Sacrifice.

I think the Symposium, of all the events we present at Eighth Day Institute, is the most accessible and important. Ad Fontes--the summer theological week--purposefully emphasizes the differences between and among Catholics, Protestants, and Orthodox Christians (our different views of Baptism, Salvation and sin (this summer's topic) and is the more scholarly gathering. The Inklings Festival is a family Oktoberfest event, celebrating Tolkien, Lewis, Chesterton, Sayers, et al. It's fun and literary at the same time, which as an English major I appreciate.

The Symposium, though, gives us all a chance to gather and think about our lives as Christians, the challenges we face inside and out, and thus offers renewal so we may do as St. Peter the Apostle advises:

But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated, but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defence to anyone who demands from you an account of the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence. Keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who abuse you for your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame. (1 Peter 3:14-16)

I certainly hope that anyone reading this could come to an Eighth Day Symposium some day: perhaps next January?!?

At 11:30 a.m. Today

I'll be at the seventh annual Eighth Day Institute Symposium making my presentation on "Long Live the Queen: John Henry Newman and the Place of Theology in a Liberal Arts Education". My reflection is live on the EDI website and will be included in the January issue of Synaxis:

Reading Newman’s Idea and his vision of university education now, so many years later, I am struck by how timely his defense of Theology as a field of study with a body of knowledge is for us today. In the mid-nineteenth century he saw that if Theology was not accepted as an academic subject, with content and knowledge to impart, religious doctrine and practice would devolve into mere feeling. Then religious doctrine and morality will be “based, not on argument, but on taste and sentiment” and “nothing [is] objective”; in fact “everything [is] subjective”. Newman saw that if Theology is only a matter of “taste and sentiment” and Christian doctrine “the bane of true knowledge”, theologians will be rejected. Theologians—the watchmen—will face “a feeling, not merely of contempt, but of absolute hatred” if they dare state that what they say is true and based not on opinion or affection, but on knowledge and experience. Newman seems a prophet in that vision, as in many other things.

Here's the schedule in case you want to come! Of course, bad winter weather is forecast for this weekend in Wichita, so caution is advised, especially on Saturday! 

Newman and Theology in January 2017

Registration for the 2017 Eighth Day Institute Symposium is open:

Earlier this year, Alan Jacobs wrote a piece in the September issue of Harper's Magazine titled "The Watchmen: What Became of the Christian Intellectuals?" Jacobs notes that only half a century ago serious Christian intellectuals held a prominent place on the national stage of America. Back in the 1930s the Hungarian sociologist Karl Mannheim argued that these intellectuals had a "special task to provide an interpretation of the world," to "play the part of watchmen in what otherwise would be a pitch-black night."

So, for our seventh annual Eighth Day Symposium, we ask "Where are the watchmen?" And, "What is the role of theology in the public square?"

We hope you can join us as Frederica Mathewes-Green, Bishop James Massa, Brian Zahnd and others lead us in a wonderful dialogue of love and truth on January 12-14, 2017.

I am one of the "others", as I am going to present on the gap that's left in the Liberal Arts education of a secular university because theology as an academic subject is not included. Blessed John Henry Newman's The Idea of a University and his insistence that theology is necessary for a complete education will be essential to my presentation. You may see the schedule here: my presentation is one of the first Saturday breakout sessions.

Frances Chesterton @ Sisters of Sophia

We'll have a panel discussion of Frances Chesterton tonight at the monthly meeting of the Sisters of Sophia at the Ladder, the headquarters of the Eighth Day Institute. Two of my colleagues and friends, with whom I read Nancy Carpentier Brown's biography of G.K. Chesterton's wife, and I will pose questions to each other and discuss with the attendees. Dinner will be served. More info here:

If you aren't familiar with the Sisters of Sophia, we walk with women of wisdom as we learn from their lives. We meet every third Tuesday of the month. Our gathering of ladies is both challenging and refreshing, as is the camaraderie along the way!

6:15 Doors Open
6:30 Food and Fellowship
7:30 Eighth Day Convocation and Lecture* (sic) on Frances Chesterton by Jeri Holladay, Stephanie Mann & Laurie Robinson
8:15 Q&A and Closing Prayer

Please come to break bread with us, learn with us, or both! We will end promptly at 8:30, but women are welcome to chat long after that!

*We're not really going to offer a lecture at all!

Speaking of the Eighth Day Institute, its January 2017 Symposium theme has been announced:

Earlier this year, Alan Jacobs wrote a piece in the September issue of Harper's Magazine titled "The Watchmen: What Became of the Christian Intellectuals?" Jacobs notes that only half a century ago serious Christian intellectuals held a prominent place on the national stage of America. Back in the 1930s the Hungarian sociologist Karl Mannheim argued that these intellectuals had a "special task to provide an interpretation of the world," to "play the part of watchmen in what otherwise would be a pitch-black night."

So, for our seventh annual Eighth Day Symposium, we ask "Where are the watchmen?" And, "What is the role of theology in the public square?"

We hope you can join us as Frederica Mathewes-Green, Allan Carlson, Bishop James Massa, and others lead us in a wonderful dialogue of love and truth on January 12-14, 2017.

I'm looking forward to seeing Bishop James Massa of the Brooklyn Diocese. He was the chaplain at Newman University when I worked with at the Gerber Institute for Catholic Studies during the twentieth century!

February 2017 in Fort Scott, Kansas

The Prairie Troubadour has announced the theme and speakers for the February 2017 symposium: "The Restoration of the Imagination" with Anthony Esolen, Dale Ahlquist, Christopher Check, Alan Hicks, Lisa Bergman.

The issue for the 2nd Annual symposium is "In an age aglow with screens, the battle for the imagination, particularly of our youth, is a battle we are almost universally losing. Why does it matter and what is at stake?"

I'm sure that Professor Esolen, who was here in Wichita earlier this year for the annual Catholic Culture Conference, will refer to his book on children and imagination published by ISI Books:

Play dates, soccer practice, day care, political correctness, drudgery without facts, television, video games, constant supervision, endless distractions: these and other insidious trends in child rearing and education are now the hallmarks of childhood. As author Anthony Esolen demonstrates in this elegantly written, often wickedly funny book, almost everything we are doing to children now constricts their imaginations, usually to serve the ulterior motives of the constrictors.

Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child takes square aim at these accelerating trends, in a bitingly witty style reminiscent of C. S. Lewis, while offering parents—and children—hopeful alternatives. Esolen shows how imagination is snuffed out at practically every turn:
--in the rearing of children almost exclusively indoors
--in the flattening of love to sex education, and sex education to prurience and hygiene
--in the loss of traditional childhood games
--in the refusal to allow children to organize themselves into teams
--in the effacing of the glorious differences between the sexes
--in the dismissal of the power of memory, which creates the worst of all possible worlds in school—drudgery without even the merit of imparting facts
--in the strict separation of the child’s world from the adult’s
--in the denial of the transcendent, which places a low ceiling on the child’s developing spirit and mind

But Esolen doesn’t stop at pointing out the problem; he offers clear solutions as well. With charming stories from his own boyhood and an assist from the master authors and thinkers of the Western tradition, Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child is a welcome respite from the overwhelming banality of contemporary culture. Interwoven throughout this indispensable guide to child rearing is a rich tapestry of the literature, music, art, and thought that once enriched the lives of American children.

Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child confronts contemporary trends in parenting and schooling by reclaiming lost traditions. This practical, insightful book is essential reading for any parent who cares about the paltry thing that childhood has become, and who wants to give a child something beyond the dull drone of today’s culture.

The dates have not been announced but the proposed schedule and other information is available.

I spoke at this year's conference and recommend the program highly. The new hotel in Fort Scott, a Sleep Inn & Suites, was excellent, the people hosting and attending the symposium were great!

Whatever Happened to Wonder? in Wichita

This Friday and Saturday we attended the fifth annual Eighth Day Institute Symposium here in Wichita, Kansas at St. George's Orthodox Cathedral, which included a Festal Banquet celebrating St. Athanasius of Alexandria, Blessed John Henry Newman's favorite saint. Two members of the St. Petersburg String Quartet, resident musicians at Wichita State University and the choir of St. George's performed during the banquet. The topic of this year's symposium was Whatever Happened to Wonder: The Recovery of Mystery in A Secular Age with three main speakers delivering plenary sessions and several breakout speaker sessions. You can read all about the schedule here and the speakers here.

St. Athanasius and St. Anthony of Egypt were the patron saints of the event, while Blessed John Henry Newman was often mentioned--but perhaps the real patron of the weekend was C.S. Lewis. What Erin Doom, the President of the Eighth Day Institute, wants to promote during these weekends and the other programs the Institute presents, is Lewis's Mere Christianity through ecumenical, loving dialogue among Catholics, Orthodox, and Protestants. This dialogue cannot ignore the differences between us but seeks to celebrate our common Trinitarian faith and look to the Fathers of the Church to help us understand our shared and divided history.

Because we have a shared history with Eighth Day Books and many of the people who attended were friends and acquaintances, it was a wonderful experience. Perhaps the other name mentioned most often during the weekend was Charles Taylor, author of a huge book about secularism.

Throughout the weekend, the hymn I carried in my mind was Charles Wesley's "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling":

Love divine, all loves excelling,
Joy of heaven to earth come down;
Fix in us thy humble dwelling;
All thy faithful mercies crown!
Jesus, Thou art all compassion,
Pure unbounded love Thou art;
Visit us with Thy salvation;
Enter every trembling heart.

Breathe, O breathe Thy loving Spirit,
Into every troubled breast!
Let us all in Thee inherit;
Let us find that second rest.
Take away our bent to sinning;
Alpha and Omega be;
End of faith, as its Beginning,
Set our hearts at liberty.

Come, Almighty to deliver,
Let us all Thy life receive;
Suddenly return and never,
Never more Thy temples leave.
Thee we would be always blessing,
Serve Thee as Thy hosts above,
Pray and praise Thee without ceasing,
Glory in Thy perfect love.

Finish, then, Thy new creation;
Pure and spotless let us be.
Let us see Thy great salvation
Perfectly restored in Thee;
Changed from glory into glory,
Till in heaven we take our place,
Till we cast our crowns before Thee,
Lost in wonder, love, and praise.

Constantine in Wichita, Kansas

No--not the Keanu Reeves's movie; I mean the Emperor Constantine!

Some major speakers are going to be in Wichita next weekend to discuss "Constantine, Christendom, and Christian Renewal", according to The Wichita Eagle:

“Constantine, Christendom and Christian Renewal” is the theme of the fourth annual Eighth Day Symposium, Jan. 16 to Jan. 18 at St. George Orthodox Cathedral in Wichita.

The symposium is sponsored by Eighth Day Institute, a nonprofit effort to renew culture through faith and learning. Speakers from four traditions will headline the event: Peter Leithart, president of Trinity House and adjunct senior fellow at New St. Andrews College; Vigen Guorian, professor of religious studies at the University of Virginia; Alan Kreider, professor of church history and mission at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary; and Benjamin Wiker, faculty associate at the Veritas Center for Ethics and Public Life and visiting associate professor of theology at Franciscan University.

The cost of the symposium is $40 a day or $75 for two days; lunch is included. A banquet on Jan. 17 at 7 p.m. is $35. Register online at http://www.eighthdayinstitute.com/, by calling 316-573-8413, or in person at Eighth Day Books, 2838 E. Douglas. Registration will also be available at the door; the cathedral is at 7515 E. 13th St.

You can find out more about the speakers--really major academic presenters and authors--here.

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2014/01/07/3216000/eighth-day-symposium-jan-16-18.html#storylink=cpy