Poetry and Wonder | Hilary Davies

This event took place on 28 November 2019 and was jointly organised by the Von Hügel Institute for Critical Catholic Inquiry at St Edmund's College and the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion. Rupert Shortt is religion editor of The Times Literary Supplement and a Research Associate at the Von Hügel Institute, University of Cambridge. His books include Christianophobia: A Faith Under Attack (2012), Rowan’s Rule: The Biography of the Archbishop (2014), God Is No Thing: Coherent Christianity (2016), and Does Religion Do More Harm Than Good? (2019). James Orr is University Lecturer in Philosophy of Religion at the University of Cambridge and Founder and Director of ‘Trinity Forum Cambridge’. He is the author of The Mind of God and the Works of Nature: Laws and Powers in Naturalism, Platonism, and Classical Theism (2019).

This event took place on 3 May 2019 and is part of the VHI 2019 series on 'Catholicity: Crises and Opportunities'. For more details visit: www.vhi.st-edmunds.cam.ac.uk John McGreevy is Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame. He is the author of Parish Boundaries: The Catholic Encounter with Race in the Twentieth Century Urban North (1996), Catholicism and American Freedom: A History (2003) and American Jesuits and the World: How an Embattled Religious Order Made Modern Catholicism Global (2016). A fourth book on global Catholicism is under contract. He has received fellowships from the Mellon Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Louisville Institute, and the Erasmus Institute, and has published in the Journal of American History, New York Review of Books, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and other venues.

This event took place on 1 March 2019 and is part of the VHI 2019 series on 'Catholicity: Crises and Opportunities'. For more details visit: www.vhi.st-edmunds.cam.ac.uk Dr Philip McCosker, FRSA is Vice-Master of St Edmund's College and Director of the Von Hügel Institute for Critical Catholic Inquiry, University of Cambridge. He is Director of Studies in Theology at Magdalene College, Murray Edwards and St Edmund’s College, Cambridge, and is an Affiliated Lecturer in the Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge. He edits the journal Reviews in Religion and Theology (Wiley-Blackwell), and he was the editor of What is it that the Scripture Says? Essays in Biblical Interpretation, Translation, and Reception in Honour of Henry Wansbrough OSB (T&T Clark, 2006) and co-editor (with Denys Turner) of The Cambridge Companion to the Summa Theologiae (CUP, 2016). He is currently completing Christ the Paradox: Expanding Ressourcement Theology (CUP).

A lecture-recital by Steven Isserlis CBE, accompanied by Tom Poster. Isserlis explores the themes of innocence and wonder in music, the most universal of arts. How does music evoke and encourage senses of wonder? Can music open us up to wonder in our world and lives when they are numbed by the speed, routine, and commodification of life? He concludes with a performance of César Franck’s Cello Sonata. This event took place on 1st June 2018 at St Edmund's College and was the concluding event of the Von Hugel Institute's series of events on the theme ‘grammars of wonder’. For more details visit https://www.vhi.st-edmunds.cam.ac.uk/events/lecture-series-2017-18

Apocalypse Forgotten? The Book of Revelation as a Neglected Resource for Catholic Social Teaching The Book of Revelation remains a largely closed book to many contemporary Christians, despite its significant impact on the Catholic Christian imagination in earlier centuries. Yet there are indications of a renewed interested in John’s Apocalypse among mainstream Christians, not least, surprisingly perhaps, in reflection upon contemporary ecological concerns. This lecture will explore some of these recent trends, and reflect on the theological potential of this fascinating yet difficult visionary text.

Love and Wonder: Relationships between Ideal and Reality Christians are called to discern the will of God in the concreteness of the situations in which they find themselves. There they have to look for God’s grace, love and wonder. This applies to all families even those in the situations that do not conform to the ideal of lifelong heterosexual marriage. It is crucial now to promote a spirituality for all marriages and all families.

The lecture explores digital dualism and cybertranscendence in view of the mystics and the role of divine presence in the pursuit of catholicity. Ilia Delio, OSF currently holds the Josephine C. Connelly Endowed Chair in Theology at Villanova University and has authored or co-authored eighteen books and numerous articles. Her recent books include 'Making All Things New: Catholicity, Cosmology and Consciousness' (Orbis, 2015) and 'The Unbearable Wholeness of Being: God, Evolution and the Power of Love' (Orbis 2013) which received the 2014 Silver Nautilus Book Award. She lectures nationally and internationally in the areas of science, religion and culture with a particular focus on faith and evolution, artificial intelligence and human becoming. She is the general editor for the series "Catholicity in an Evolving Universe ' published by Orbis Books and directs the Omega Center website. This event took place on 27 April 2018 and is part of the VHI 2017-18 series on 'Grammars of Wonder'. For more details visit: www.vhi.st-edmunds.cam.ac.uk

The Dearth of Astonishment and Thinking as Negativity Philosophers since Plato and Aristotle have emphasised that our thinking about reality starts in wonder, but what does that mean? Is wonder some subjective fluffy feeling, an emotional response to particular aspects of reality, or something more vital, complex and even ontological? William Desmond will explore diverse facets of wonder as astonishment to help us appreciate the many aspects of its importance and the dangers of its absence or suppression; his lecture will be responded to by Catherine Pickstock. This event took place on 23 February 2018 and is part of the VHI 2017-18 series on Grammars of Wonder. For more details visit: http://www.vhi.st-edmunds.cam.ac.uk/events

'Pope Francis' Revolution of Mercy: Amoris Laetitia as a New Paradigm for Catholicity' HE Cardinal Blase Cupich, Archbishop of Chicago Friday 9 February 2018 Von Hügel Institute for Critical Catholic Inquiry, St Edmund's College, University of Cambridge

The official launch of The Archbishop of Canterbury Lent Book 2018 'Say it to God: In Search of Prayer', introduced by Professor Sarah Coakley and the book's author, Dr Luigi Gioia. LUIGI GIOIA is a lecturer in Systematic Theology and a spiritual writer. He did his doctoral studies at Oxford University on Augustine’s 'De Trinitate'. He taught for many years at the Pontifical University of Sant’Anselmo in Rome and is now Research Associate of the Von Hügel Institute at the University of Cambridge. SARAH COAKLEY is Norris-Hulse Professor of Divinity at Cambridge University. Prayer and contemplation are at the heart of her ongoing 4- volume systematic theology 'God, Sexuality and the Self: An Essay On the Trinity' (CUP 2013) and 'Sin, Racism and the Contemplative Life: An Essay On Human Darkness' (CUP 2019). She also is the author of 'The New Asceticism: Sexuality, Gender and the Quest for God' (Bloomsbury, 2015). This event took place on 16 January 2018 at St Edmund's College. For more details visit: http://www.vhi.st-edmunds.cam.ac.uk/events