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On 21 November 2024, Cyril O’Regan, professor of Theology a the University of Notre Dame (USA) and the 2024 recipient of the prestigious Ratzinger Prize, has given the 2024/2025 Opening Lecture of the PhD Program “Contemporary Humanism”, entitled “The Drama of Christian Humanism“.
Download the Flyer.
On Wendsday 28 February 2024, a joint-meeting of the doctoral programme in Contemporay Humanism and the post-doctoral programme in Integral Human Development (DHI) took place at LUMSA University in Rome.
Led by professor Peter Hanenberg and professor Stefano Biancu, about thirty fellows of the two programmes gathered togheter to share insights and friendship along with some Faculty from the involved institutions (LUMSA University, Catholic University of Portugal). A representative of Porticus Foundation, Cristina Robledano, took also part at the meeting.
As interdisciplinary research environments, and moving from the ideas of humanism and human development, the two programmes share a common focus on the urgent question, what does it mean to be human?
Rome, 2–5 September 2024
The seminar was hosted by LUMSA University within the framework of the international project New Humanism at the time of Neurosciences and Artificial Intelligence (NHNAI – coordinated by Lyon Catholic University under the aegis of the International Federation of Catholic Universities) and in collaboration with the Ecumenical French-speaking Association of Moral Theologians and Ethics Experts (ATEM). The last session of the conference took place at Notre Dame Rome.
Detailed programme and practical information here.
Download the poster here
Greetings
Francesco Bonini, Rector of LUMSA University (Italy) (video)
Silvia Dall’Olio, Director of the University of Notre Dame Rome (USA) (video)
Introductions
Mathieu Guillermin, Coordinator of NHNAI project, Lyon Catholic University (France) (video)
Dominique Coatanea, President of ATEM, Facultés Loyola Paris (France) (video)
Stefano Biancu, Coordinator of the PhD program “Contemporary Humanism”, LUMSA University (Italy) (video)
Keynote lectures (click on the title to watch the video)
Mario De Caro,University of Roma Tre (Italy), The problem of Freedom and today’s challenges
Dominique Lambert, University of Namur (Belgium), Ethics of AI
Thierry Magnin, Catholic University of Lille (France), Christian Thought, Humanism, AI and Neurosciences
Patricia Churchland, University of San Diego (USA), Neurosciences and Human Freedom
Fiorella Battaglia, University of Salento (Italy), Democracy and Education at the Time of AI and Neurosciences
Laura Palazzani, LUMSA-University of Rome (Italy), Health at the Time of AI and Neurosciences
PhD Students’ Presentations (click on the title to watch the video)
On 12 April 2023, Professor Megan Cassidy-Welch, Program Director of Medieval and Early Modern Studies (Australian Catholic University, Melbourne), gave a seminar on Medieval Humanisms.
The Encyclical Fratelli tutti is rich in suggestions. The text works on a “rhizomatic” basis, that corresponds to its inspiring principles, i.e. fraternity and social friendship. The ultimate goal of these principles is extending to all human beings the grace of a bond that projects the light of Salvation on human history. Pope Francis tells us that it’s only by going beyond genos and blood ties that we will be able to open doors to the Christian revolution. Doors will also open up to a form of paternity and maternity that engages all men of good will in the quest for justice and in the safeguard of creation. Blood and cultural ties are just the tools through which individuals and groups contribute to the species survival. Nonetheless, they do not exhaust the human “generating power” and, above all, they can’t be put forward as the bedrock of the Church, a spiritual community that lives inside history, precisely to guide it and also to witness that history itself will be ultimately overpassed.
Nevertheless, fraternity can be the new world frontier only if we start from the awareness that humanity is going through some hard times and if we are able to compare present and past. It is clear that every age had their difficulties. But the current period is characterized exactly by the refusal to look at models from the past, as it was always done before, for thousands of years. Our age rejects what a great Catholic historian, Henri-Irenée Marrou, called the “sadness” of the job of the historian, facing all the time human weaknesses and miseries. Globalization has masked identities that close off to defend what they are without understanding how and why they are that way. It makes many peoples captive of dictators and adventurers. It generates some absurd forms of inequality and injustice.
Against a naive use of the idea of fraternity, typical of simplistic revolutionary ideologies; and against an unscrupulous, phony use of democracy, the fraternity the Encyclical puts forth is founded on the historical consciousness that, not only religions, but also humanity itself, are at risk. Besides, those who seek fraternity are exactly the people who are not “naturally” siblings and know they are not. So, fraternity is a civil virtue that requires maturity and awareness, especially from those who have the possibility to judge and act without depending on despair. The practice of fraternity is a paramount challenge for the rich ones and the wise ones. A strong historical consciousness of personal and collective experience is the indispensable premise of a staunch practice of fraternity. Historical knowledge of the past teaches us that fraternity is always difficult, all the more so if we want to extend it to humankind. But historical consciousness suggests to us that the past will not influence the future, unless we allow it to last. Past and future are projections of men on time. They exist because they are filled with meanings that men share. Historians document the past and build up historical knowledge, but historical knowledge rises when people head to the future in light of a faith.
Originally published on Educa. International Catholic Journal of Education. Read here the rest of this article.
Peter Howard, the Director of the Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry (IRCI) at the Australian Catholic University, gives a seminar on “Flourishing and Humanists in Renaissance Florence”. Click on the image to watch the video.
Fraternity
Social Friendship during the Time of Social Distancing
September 6th-10th, 2021
(to watch the videos click on the title of each conference)
Jérôme de Gramont, professor of Philosophy at the Institut Catholique de Paris, gives a seminar on Humanism and Phenomenology in dialogue with Emmanuel Levinas.
