2014 Fides et Ratio Seminars
Introduction to the Catholic Intellectual Tradition
“Christian Learning, Christian Living and Catholic Education”
August 10 – August 14, 2014
(version 07-09-2014)
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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History and Mission – Introduction to the Catholic Intellectual Tradition
2014 Seminar Facts
2014 Syllabus with Themes & Readings
2014 Nomination Form
Robert Royal, “Recovering Faith and Reason” The Catholic Thing, May 28, 2012
Nurturing the souls of young men and women by strengthening Catholic liberal education
Fides et Ratio Seminars
P.O. Box 539 | Warner NH 03278-0539
Patrick Powers | (603) 748-0195 | patrick.powers@frinstitute.org
Paul Jackson | (603) 748-4777 | pjackson@frinstitute.org
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HISTORY AND MISSION
Introduction to the Catholic Intellectual Tradition
(version 01-05-2014 – Solemnity of St. Joseph the Worker)
Since summer 2006, annual seminars devoted to offering an “Introduction to the Catholic Intellectual Tradition”
have been sponsored by the Fides et Ratio Seminars at the Faith and Reason Institute. Participants include faculty,
officers and other friends from Catholic – as well as non-Catholic – colleges, universities, institutes, seminaries, dioceses,
secondary schools and other education-related organizations in the United States, Canada, South America and Italy.
While most participants are professing cradle or convert Catholics, the Seminars have attracted an ecumenical
community of fellow travelers from other beliefs who are open to inquiry and dialogue on the Catholic Intellectual
Tradition.
In 2006, the Seminars were inaugurated with an annual offering on the “Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries.” In 2009,
a Seminar on “The Priesthood and Priests” was introduced. Two advanced Seminars debuted in 2010 and 2011 on the
“Church Fathers, Doctors, Popes and Sacred Art & Music I and II,” for alumni of the aforementioned introductory
Seminars. In 2010, the first Archdiocesan Immersion Seminar on the “Catholic Intellectual Tradition and America” was
inaugurated for participants living, working and teaching in a specific archdiocese. Summer 2012 saw the development
of two “Blessed John Henry Newman Seminars for Deans and Headmasters,” which focus on Newman’s reflections
concerning education and spirituality. In 2013, the current repertoire of Seminars was expanded to include a second
Archdiocesan offering on “Vocation: Marriage, Priesthood and the Religious Life,” which incorporated and expanded the
earlier Seminar on “The Priesthood and Priests.” Additionally, in 2013, “Weekend Snapshot” Seminars were introduced
on “Secondary Schooling and Liberal Education” and “Catholic Learning and Catholic Living.”
Since 2006, more than 400 participants have attended the Seminars from more than 75 colleges, universities,
seminaries, institutes, high schools and dioceses in 35 states, Italy, Argentina, Peru, Chile and Canada. Seminars have
been hosted by Benedictine College, Atchison, KS (06), University of Saint Francis, Fort Wayne, IN (07), University of
Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN (08, 09, 10), Providence College, Providence, RI (08), Convent of St. Birgitta, Darien, CT
(08), St. Malo Catholic Retreat Center, Allenspark, CO (09, 10, 11),Belmont Abbey College, Belmont, NC (09), Wyoming
Catholic College, Lander, WY (10, 11,12, 13) and Thomas More College, Merrimack, NH (10, 11, 12, 13). Archdiocesan
Immersion Seminars were held in 2010 at Notre Dame Seminary (New Orleans, LA), in 2011 at St. John Vianney Seminary
(Denver, CO) and in 2012 & 2013 at St. John Camarillio Seminary/Thomas Aquinas College (Camarillio and Santa, Paula,
CA). The two Blessed John Henry Newman Seminars for Deans and Headmasters were held at Thomas More College in
summer 2012. Thus far “Weekend Snapshot” Seminars have been offered for the Diocese of Springfield at St. Michael’s
Cathedral in Springfield, MA and for the Archdiocese of San Francisco at St. Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park, CA.
Since summer 2012, most of the annual week-long Fides et Ratio Seminars have been conducted on or near the
campuses of three leading colleges of integrated great books-based Catholic liberal arts and sciences education, whose
educational mission is kindred to that of the Seminars. Thomas More College of Liberal Arts (Merrimack, NH), the home
site of the Seminars, hosts the two advanced Seminars on the “Church Fathers, Doctors, Popes and Sacred Art & Music,”
as well as the “Blessed John Henry Newman Seminars for Deans and Headmasters.” Wyoming Catholic College (Lander,
WY) hosts the annual “Twentieth and Twenty-First Century” Seminar. Thomas Aquinas College (Santa Paula, CA), in
partnership with St. John Seminary (Camarillio, CA), has served as co-host of an “Archdiocesan Immersion Seminar.” As
well, every year a Seminar is offered on the campus of an Archdiocesan Seminary, with a special emphasis placed on
alternating between St. John Seminary in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles (Southern California) and St. Patrick Seminary
in the Archdiocese of San Francisco (Northern California).
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The Seminars, and the resources supporting faculty and others’ participation, are made possible by the generous
patronage of Dr. Donald and Mrs. Michele D’Amour of Big Y Foods, Springfield, MA, and with the assistance of Dr.
Robert Royal, President of the Faith and Reason Institute, Washington, DC.
The Seminar week is a distinctive kind of intellectual retreat carried out in the spirit of the early Christian “Letter of
Mathetes to Diognetus” - the seven days members spend together remind us that though we live in the world, by our
faith we do not truly of this world. Attending participants come together to share a common life in friendship of daily
reading, discussion, meals, conversation, prayer, Mass and silent reflection. The heart of the Seminar is the reading and
discussion of prominent works by time-tested authors on the essential topics of the millennia-old Catholic intellectual
and spiritual tradition.
The general aim of the Fides et Ratio Seminars is to strengthen faculty and other participants’ understanding of the
Catholic intellectual and spiritual tradition. The Seminar’s specific aim is to enrich participants’ appreciation of the
importance of Catholic liberal education for the future of the Catholic Church in the twenty-first century. The Seminars
cultivate conversation among college, university, seminary, secondary school and diocesan faculty or officials about the
reflections of leading authors who have formed and sustained the enduring Catholic intellectual tradition. The hope is
that, upon returning to their home institution, participants will contribute to nurturing Catholic liberal education by
incorporating the fruits of the reading, reflection and dialogue enjoyed during the Seminars in their undergraduate and
secondary school teaching, and their work with diocesan and other educational organizations.
The Fides et Ratio Seminars focus on works by modern and ancient poets, philosophers, historians, mathematicians,
scientists, artists and theologians who contributed and still contribute, often in opposing ways, to forming Catholic
culture in our times. These include authors who are faithful Christians and Catholics, those who are close to but do not
belong to the Church, as well as those who challenge or even oppose Christian faith and the Church. The spiritual
mission motto of the Seminars is borrowed from Venerable Emmanuel D’Alzon, founder of the Augustinians of the
Assumption: “You can be for Rome or against Rome, but you can never be without Rome.”
The intellectual and spiritual patrons of the Fides et Ratio Seminars are Blessed John Paul II, who shaped Catholic culture
during the last quarter of the twentieth century, Pope Benedict XVI, who inherited the mantle of sustaining Catholic
culture in this century, Blessed John Henry Newman, who inspired the revival of the study of the Fathers of the Church
in our times, and now Pope Francis I in ways that are unfolding in time and with prayer. As the name of the Seminars
implies, the guiding spirit of reflection and dialogue among attending faculty is taken from the opening lines of Blessed
John Paul II’s encyclical, Fides et Ratio. “Faith and Reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the
contemplation of truth…”
Essential to furthering the Seminars’ mission is the willingness of participants to continue the summer’s readings and
conversations - with the support of their home institutions, dioceses and fellow colleagues - in the coming years of their
vocations as professing Christians and Catholics faithful to the Magisterium of Holy Mother Church. Our hope is that
these annual gatherings will cultivate a growing community of discourse among faculty, officers and professionals across
disciplines and institutions about Catholic spiritual and intellectual culture, who recognize the need to promote in their
own work a “preferential option” for Catholic liberal education in the Church’s programs and institutions. Our prayer is
that, having been enriched by the Fides et Ratio Seminars, participants will be better prepared to dedicate themselves
to the vocation of ”nurturing the souls of young men and women by strengthening Catholic liberal education.”
”Nurturing the souls of young men and women by strengthening Catholic liberal education”
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2014 SEMINAR FACTS
Fides et Ratio Seminars at the Faith & Reason Institute cultivate a growing community of discourse among teaching faculty across
Catholic seminaries, colleges and universities about the intellectual and spiritual roots of our common devotion to Catholic liberal
education, the Catholic intellectual tradition and a shared Catholic culture. This program is made possible by the generous support of
Dr. Donald and Mrs. Michele D’Amour, Big Y Foods, Springfield, MA, the assistance of Dr. Robert Royal, President of the Faith &
Reason Institute, Washington, DC and the cooperation of host colleges, universities and seminaries.
WHAT:
WHEN:
WHERE:
WHO:
GUIDES:
HOW:

A three part seminar involving reading and discussion of selected works in “The Catholic Intellectual Tradition,”
which are relevant to the topic of “Christian Learning, Christian Living and Catholic Education.”
Sunday afternoon August 10 through Thursday afternoon August 14, 2014. Attendance can be for all or only
some days. (See Syllabus & Themes, as well as Nomination Form for specific details)
Elms College, 291 Springfield St, Chicopee, MA 01013
Up to twenty-five participants – faculty and administrators - from secondary Catholic schools in the Diocese of
Springfield MA, Archdiocese of Hartford CT and throughout New England and the Northeast
Patrick Powers, Paul Jackson & Jeffrey Lehman of the Fides et Ratio Seminars at the Faith and Reason Institute
Self-nomination or recommendation by the school administration
RESOURCES and FINANCIAL SUPPORT:
Fides et Ratio Seminars at the Faith & Reason Institute provides a participant:
 a stipend of $150.00 per day of attendance up to a maximum of $675.00
 Library of Works (valued at $100) - some are read in whole or part during the Seminar;
 Board and Room (if requested, for the four and half Seminar days.
Participants provide the following:
 travel expenses to and from the Seminar site;

DAILY READING/DISCUSSION SCHEDULE:
The Daily Schedule of Readings, including the Fides et Ratio Notebook (Word file), to be sent electronically, upon receipt of
nomination form.

DAILY SEMINAR ACTIVITIES INCLUDE:
Discussion sessions (4 or 5 per day); reading time; Mass; common meals; leisure

LODGING/MEALS: single rooms with linens provided, shared bathroom facilities, common meals buffet style

STAFF CONTACTS:
Executive Director: Patrick Powers; patrick.powers@frinstitute.org; (603) 748-0195
Assistant Director of Operations: Paul Jackson; pjackson@frinstitute.org; (603) 748-4777
“Nurturing the souls of young men and women by strengthening Catholic liberal education”
Fides et Ratio Seminars
P.O. Box 539 | Warner NH 03278-0539
Patrick Powers | (603) 748-0195 | patrick.powers@frinstitute.org
Paul Jackson | (603) 748-4777 | pjackson@frinstitute.org
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The Catholic Intellectual Tradition
CHRISTIAN LEARNING, CHRISTIAN LIVING AND CATHOLIC EDUCATION
Diocese of Springfield MA & Archdiocese of Hartford, CT Immersion Seminar
August 10 – August 14, 2014
(provisional syllabus 07-09-14)
SUNDAY: Welcome and Introduction to the Fides et Ratio Seminars
SUNDAY: FAITH, SCIENCE & REASON – THEOLOGY ON THE CUTTING EDGE
MORNING & AFTERNOON: Presentation by the Pope Benedict XVI Institute for Faith, Ethics and Science
(cf attachment: SLP 2013 READER.pdf)
MONDAY: VOCATION AND OBEDIENCE IN THE CHRISTIAN WAY
MORNING I: John Paul II, Rise and Let Us Be On Our Way
MORNING II: Fr. Raniero Cantalamesa, OFM, Obedience
AFTERNOON I: Hans Urs von Balthazar, The Christian State of Life
VOCATION AND FREEDOM IN THE AMERICAN WAY
AFTERNOON II: Woodrow Wilson, The New Freedom
TUESDAY: MARRIAGE IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
MORNING I & II: Owen Wister, The Virginian
CHRISTIAN MARRIAGE
AFTERNOON I: St. John Chrysostrom, On Marriage and Family Life
AFTERNOON II: Archbishop Futon J. Sheen, Three to Get Married
WEDNESDAY: PRIESTHOOD IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
MORNING I & II: Graham Greene, The Power and the Glory
THE PRIESTHOOD
AFTERNOON I: Josef Pieper, In Search of the Sacred (pp. 51-81; pp. 121-136)
AFTERNOON II: Saint John Paul II, Gift and Mystery
THURSDAY: THE SEVEN SACRAMENTS – FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIAN LIVING
MORNING & AFTERNOON: Professional Development Program Presentation by Sophia Institute for Teachers
(http://sophiainstituteforteachers.org/)
LATE AFTERNOON: Concluding Special Meal: August 14th starting at 4:00-4:30 pm
“Nurturing the souls of young men and women by strengthening Catholic liberal education”
Fides et Ratio Seminars
P.O. Box 539 | Warner NH 03278-0539
Patrick Powers | (603) 748-0195 | patrick.powers@frinstitute.org
Paul Jackson | (603) 748-4777 | pjackson@frinstitute.org
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NOMINATION FORM
2014 Seminar
The Catholic Intellectual Tradition
August 9 – August 14, Christian Learning, Christian Living and Catholic Education
Elms College, Springfield, MA
DAYS ATTENDING (check all relevant items –for details, see “syllabus” below)
1. SUNDAY - Faith, Science & Reason: Theology on the Cutting Edge : YES OR NO?
2. MONDAY through WEDNESDAY - Vocation, Marriage & Priesthood YES OR NO?
3. THURSDAY – The Seven Sacraments: Foundation of Christian Living YES OR NO?
Return by double E-mail to:
patrick.powers@frinstitute.org and pjackson@frinstitute.org
Office Telephones: 603-748-0195/603-748-4777
NOMINATING PERSON (Self-Nomination or School Administrator)
Officer:
Title:
Telephone number:
E-mail:
NOMINATED PARTICIPANT
Name:
Title/Department:
Telephone numbers (list below: Office “O”; Home “H”; and Cell “C”):
E-mail:
Mailing Address for Delivery of Library of Works:
IRS Stipend Information:
Social Security #:
Name used for Tax Filings:
Mailing address: (through 1/15/15):
AGREEMENT
We agree to the conditions of the Fides et Ratio Seminars, including provision of travel funds for our nominated faculty member(s)
and support to continue faculty reading and discussions at our institution to further the intellectual and spiritual roots of our
common devotion to Catholic liberal education and our shared Catholic culture.
Officer Name:
Title:
Date:
“Nurturing the souls of young men and women by strengthening Catholic liberal education”
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THE CATHOLIC THING
(http://www.thecatholicthing.org)
Monday, 28 May 2012
Recovering Faith & Reason
Robert Royal
A half century ago, the Catholic historian Christopher Dawson warned that, “if Christians cannot assert their right to exist in the
sphere of higher education, they will eventually be pushed not only out of modern culture, but out of physical existence.” Strong stuff
from a mild man, especially in a culture that claims to be “open” to all points of view – yet regards such warnings as evidence of
Catholicism’s extremism and narrowness of spirit.
But the intervening years have proved Dawson right. He predicted that even an extensive Catholic elementary system wouldn’t resist
secularizing trends and would be essentially swallowed whole by the “modern Leviathan.” Most Catholic colleges and universities
followed suit, with the result that it’s rare to come across a Catholic deeply educated in Catholic culture and the humanistic disciplines
that the Church has both learned from and fostered.
This dual absence is the single most important crisis in our culture, and it impacts both Catholic and non-Catholics. You don’t have to
dig very deep to see that the most burning questions in morals and in public life stem, at bottom, from the lack of adequate rational
and religious tools. But some of us have decided that we will not take this situation lying down.
Last week, about two dozen Catholic faculty from various institutions spent seven days together at Thomas More College in New
Hampshire, studying “The Catholic Intellectual Tradition: The Church Fathers, Doctors, Popes, and Sacred Art & Music.” This
involves reading and discussing texts by figures such as Athanasius, Gregory of Nyssa, Basil the Great, Augustine, Anselm, Bernard
of Clairvaux, Albertus Magnus, Bonaventure, Theresa of Avila, Francis de Sales, Leo XIII, John Paul II, Benedict XVI – to say
nothing of quite illuminating lectures on the development of sacred music in Gregorian chant, polyphony, and renaissance forms, and
the understanding of sacred art through study of the ancient basilicas.
This is just one of the many Fides et Ratio Seminars organized since 2006 by Dr. Patrick Powers, under the auspices of the
Faith & Reason Institute, the parent institution of The Catholic Thing, through the generous support of Michele and Donald D’Amour.
Patrick and Donald honed their own academic skills at Assumption College, under the legendary Fr. Ernest Fortin, and later at Notre
Dame with luminaries such as the late Ralph McInerny, one of TCT’s founding contributors.
Fredrick Crosson, another ND standout of the Liberal Studies Program, also had early influence on the seminars as has TCT’s own
James V. Schall, S.J. We’ve met at places as diverse as Benedictine College (Kansas), Providence College, Wyoming Catholic,
Belmont Abbey, Notre Dame Seminary (New Orleans), the University of Notre Dame, and others.
Over the years, we’ve come to formulate the mission as: “Nurturing the souls of young men and women by strengthening Catholic
liberal education.” Note: the emphasis is on forming young people, though the path to that goal lies in first forming – or reforming –
the teachers and administrators they will encounter as they move through higher education. Some of the participating institutions have
already been pursuing that same goal. But since 2006, more than 350 participants have attended the seminars from seventy-five
colleges, universities, seminaries, institutes, high schools, and dioceses in thirty-five states, as well as from Italy, Argentina, Peru,
Chile, and Canada. There’s nothing as broad-based and comprehensive, anywhere.
Some assume that professors at America’s Catholic institutions must be constantly talking among themselves about the Catholic
tradition and how to teach it rigorously. Sadly, that is not the case. In addition to the well-known ideological and professional
obstacles, many Catholic professors feel isolated or are consumed by teaching duties and administrative tasks.
The seminars give them time and space to reconnect with the tradition and with one another. Several of our alumni have gone back to
their own institutions and founded ongoing discussion groups with colleagues wanting to familiarize themselves more deeply with
different facets of the tradition. One of the most active is at the University of Dallas, where a dedicated group seeks to make an
already strong institution even better.
Among the many valuable dimensions of these discussions is the way they move smoothly between strict attention to texts created at
very different periods in Christian history and the ways they may still speak to someone living in modern-day America, both to
challenge and affirm.
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In June, for instance, a “total immersion” seminar for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles on “The Catholic Intellectual Tradition and
America,” will be hosted by St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo, CA – and co-hosted by Thomas Aquinas College. We did a similar
seminar last year in Denver. Participants, including seminary professors and people working for the archdiocese, read texts from
Bunyan and Hawthorne, Aquinas and Dante, Newman and Tocqueville, Allan Bloom and Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, as well as
novels like Willa Cather’s Death Comes for the Archbishop, Graham Greene’s The Power and the Glory, and Walker Percy’s The
Moviegoer. After all that, you get a wide appreciation of the challenges to Catholicism in modern America.
In a typical year there are six events, and this year is no different: an advance sequence – in two sessions – on the Fathers, etc. at
Thomas More College; one at Wyoming Catholic College on the Catholic tradition in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries; and the
fourth at St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo CA. In addition, for the first time, there are two “retreats” for headmasters and deans, also
at Thomas More, in which participants read Cardinal Newman together to get a clearer idea of their responsibilities.
So the next time you hear about yet another Catholic professor or university caving in to pressures that threaten both Catholicity and
the long tradition of the liberal arts, don’t despair. Yes, the big picture is troubling, and shouldn’t be taken lightly. But there are
serious energies of renewal afoot, at several levels, and they will come to fruition, in the next generation – and many more generations
to come.
Robert Royal is editor-in-chief of The Catholic Thing, and president of the Faith & Reason Institute in Washington, D.C. His most
recent book is The God That Did Not Fail: How Religion Built and Sustains the West, now available in paperback from Encounter
Books.
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