As in summers past, Collegium will once again be hosting our summer seminars, taking on longer works afforded by the break in the academic year. For the month of July, we will dive into the Christian philosophical and theological tradition. We will be exploring Romano Guardini's The End of the Modern World.
Romano Guardini was a diagnostician of modernity. His goal, in The End of the Modern, world is to understand what modernity is and to argue that we are transitioning from modernity into something new and uncertain. He attempts to understand these changes and to envision what the future will be and how Christians ought to respond to these changes. As readers, our task will be assessing Guardini’s vision and see how we can apply his ideas to our own responses to the contemporary world.
Romano Guardini (1885-1968)—Italian-born German priest—was one of the great Catholic minds of the 20th century. He helped shape Catholic theology between the two world wars and after, as well as the thinking of many non-Catholics of the period. He contributed to the Liturgical Movement and influenced the reforms of the Second Vatican Council. His legacy continues to be felt through Pope Benedict, who studied with him, and Pope Francis, who researched Guardini's work as part of his graduate study. In the classic work The End of the Modern World Guardini presents a historical, philosophical, and theological inquiry into the nature of the modern age.
Collegium is also glad to read this text in connection with it's sponsorship of the Genealogies of Modernity Project which explores the questions we tell about how we became modern. Along with hosting summer seminars for this project the last three summers, the "GenMod" project also has an exciting blog and podcast which you can check out here: https://genealogiesofmodernity.org
Please submit this form by Thursday, June 25 at 12pm noon. Participants who can commit to attending 3 or more sessions by Thursday at noon will receive a copy of the book, courtesy of Collegium Institute. If you can attend at least 3 sessions and would like to receive a book, please include your mailing address at the bottom of the form. If you cannot commit to 3 sessions or more, but would still like to attend some of the sessions, you can can purchase the book or borrow it from Hathitrust.
In order to sustain the conditions for an intimate seminar environment with a high degree of participant involvement, we must cap the size of the group. *All are very welcome to register below*, but -- in addition to order of registration -- preference will be given on the following basis: (a) University of Pennsylvania and Philadelphia-area undergraduate and graduate students and (b) those who commit to attending all four sessions.
As noted above, we can provide books for those who commit to 3 or more sessions.
Admitted participants will be notified on Monday, June 29th.
Date: Wednesdays, July 8, 15, 22, and 29
Time: 5:00-6:00pm
Place: Via Zoom (info will be emailed out to participants)