Von Hugel Institute: Recent Episodes
Cambridge University
The Von Hügel Institute for Critical Catholic Inquiry (VHI) is an interdisciplinary research hub inspired by Catholic thought and culture, focussed on contemporary global realities, and dedicated to encounter, dialogue, and transformation. It is based at St Edmund's College and organises an annual themed lecture series, high-level international conferences, public seminars and talks.
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
Cataphasis, Redemption and a Mucker Fog
Hilary Davies looks at the poetry of George Mackay Brown and Patrick Kavanagh through the lens of two key texts by the modernist poet and writer, David Jones: 'the Preface to The Anathemata' and 'Art and Sacrament'. All three writers were Catholic: the faith they had in common is inextricably bound up with their poetic vision, in which language becomes the medium used both to express the divine presence and to reaffirm the redemptive workings of God in an immanent and imperfect world.
This event took place on 24 November 2017 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
Michael D. Hurley explores a deep and unexpected dependency between John Henry Newman’s efforts and achievements in thought and word: a kind of dependency that is also a form of conflict, between thinking and feeling, argumentation and aesthetics. It will be suggested that Newman does not seek to translate ideas into language so much as he uses the act of writing itself to help forge his ideas. Correspondingly, his Grammar of Assent does not so much argue its thesis by syllogistic discipline, as it exploits the literary resources of language to dramatize its thesis, by implicating the reader into the imaginative experience of faith as a ‘semi logical’ mode.
This event took place on Friday 2 June 2017 and is part of the VHI 2016-17 series on Dynamics of Dis/Agreement. For more details visit http://www.vhi.st-edmunds.cam.ac.uk/events
How do disagreement and eventual agreement function in politics? Are the ways we conduct political discourse changing? The last year has arguably seen a loss of the virtues of reasonable, textured disagreement in politics globally, and a rise of either-or binary divisions. Peter Hennessy and Adrian Pabst will discuss the UK and US political scenes and suggest ways of improving political disagreement.
This event took place on Friday 5 May 2017 and is part of the VHI 2016-17 series on Dynamics of Dis/Agreement. For more details visit http://www.vhi.st-edmunds.cam.ac.uk/events
What roles do the various media play in encouraging greater agreement or fuelling fractious disagreement? Has social media changed the ways we agree and disagree? Do the media make it harder to disagree respectfully? Julian Baggini, Lorna Donlon, and Michael O'Loughlin consider such questions from the perspective of their experience in the public square, the BBC, and Catholic media.
This event took place on Thursday 9 March 2017 and is part of the VHI 2016-17 series on Dynamics of Dis/Agreement. For more details visit http://www.vhi.st-edmunds.cam.ac.uk/events
Most discussions of dialogue, consensus, disagreement and the like rest on an ideology of liberal pluralism. Terry Eagleton offers a critique of this ideology in general, and asks how agreement and disagreement appear in light of this.
This event took place on Friday 24 February 2017 and is part of the VHI 2016-17 series on Dynamics of Dis/Agreement. For more details visit http://www.vhi.st-edmunds.cam.ac.uk/events
'The Contributions of Catholicism in the Third Millennium to a Secular University' by H. E. Cardinal Luis Tagle, Archbishop of Manila
The Von Hügel Institute for Critical Catholic Inquiry exists to promote mutual enrichment between the best of the secular academy and the Catholic traditions of theology, philosophy and ethics through events, research, and contributions to the public square. This event took place on 10 February 2017 at St Edmund's College. For more details visit: http://www.vhi.st-edmunds.cam.ac.uk/events
Philip Allott discusses how the law acts as a permanent mechanism for resolving conflics and contradictions in the everyday creating of a given society; with a response from Mark Engelman.
This event took place on Friday 27 January 2017 and is part of the VHI 2016-17 series on Dynamics of Dis/Agreement. For more details visit http://www.vhi.st-edmunds.cam.ac.uk/events
Austen Ivereigh teases out Pope Francis’ encouragement of diversity, conversation, and disagreement in key aspects of his reforming papacy, with a response from Eamon Duffy.
This event took place on Friday 2 December 2016 and is part of the VHI 2016-17 series on Dinamics of Dis/Agreement. For more details visit http://www.vhi.st-edmunds.cam.ac.uk/events
Carrie Pemberton Ford, Sara Silvestri and Vlado Kmec discuss the ethical and practical dilemmas that states, international institutions, and Christian churches face in seeking to respond in a responsible and effective manner to the current migrant and refugee crisis. Chaired by Anna Rowlands.
Jointly organised by the Von Hügel Institute for critical catholic inquiry (VHI) and Centre for Catholic Social Thought and Practice on Friday 25 November 2016, this event is part of the VHI 2016-17 series on Dynamics of Dis/Agreement. For more details visit http://www.vhi.st-edmunds.cam.ac.uk/events
Launch of Dr Andrejč's book 'Wittgenstein and Interreligious Disagreement: A Philosophical and Theological Perspective' (2016), with responses from Ed Kessler MBE and Alban McCoy.
Jointly organised by the Von Hügel Institute for critical catholic inquiry (VHI) and the Woolf Institute on Thursday 10 November 2016, this event is part of the VHI 2016-17 series of lectures and events on Dynamics of Dis/Agreement. For more details visit http://www.vhi.st-edmunds.cam.ac.uk/events
VHI Lecture delivered by Manuel Castells and Philip Sheldrake on 8 June 2016, Faculty of Divinity. The VHI 2015-16 series of lectures and events seeks to explore the theme of mercy from the perspective of many disciplines, drawing out its possibilities, permutations, and problems. For more details visit http://www.vhi.st-edmunds.cam.ac.uk/events/lecture-series
First part of the VHI Lecture delivered by Ben Quash, and Maggi Hambling CBE in conversation with James Cahill, on 20 April 2016, St Edmunds College. Please find part two here: http://sms.cam.ac.uk/media/2256099 The VHI 2015-16 series of lectures and events seeks to explore the theme of mercy from the perspective of many disciplines, drawing out its possibilities, permutations, and problems. For more details visit http://www.vhi.st-edmunds.cam.ac.uk/events/lecture-series
Second part of the VHI Lecture delivered by Ben Quash, and Maggi Hambling CBE in conversation with James Cahill, on 20 April 2016, St Edmunds College. Please find part one here: http://sms.cam.ac.uk/media/2260765 The VHI 2015-16 series of lectures and events seeks to explore the theme of mercy from the perspective of many disciplines, drawing out its possibilities, permutations, and problems. For more details visit http://www.vhi.st-edmunds.cam.ac.uk/events/lecture-series
Guest Lecturer: Michael Waddell (Edna and George McMahon Aquinas Chair in Philosophy at Saint Mary's College of Notre Dame, IN), with a response from Daniel De Haan (Postdoctoral Fellow, Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge). This lecture draws on insights from Catholic anthropology, which regards human persons as comprised of body and soul and as profoundly relational beings, to address some of the issues that arise out of reflection on autistic existence. For more info visit: http://www.vhi.st-edmunds.cam.ac.uk/events/occasional/personhood-identity-and-autism
VHI Panel Discussion on Mercy and Migration, 02 June 2016, St Edmunds College. Speakers: Martina Liebsch (Caritas Internationalis), Rory Fox (EdLumino), Sara Silvestri (Cambridge University and City University London), and Elif Cetin (Cambridge University). The VHI 2015-16 series of lectures and events seeks to explore the theme of mercy from the perspective of many disciplines, drawing out its possibilities, permutations, and problems. For more details visit http://www.vhi.st-edmunds.cam.ac.uk/events/lecture-series
The Lattey Lecture 2016 delivered by Nicholas King SJ with a response from Christopher Rowland on 4 March 2016 at St Edmund's College. The Lattey lecture is devoted to Catholic Social Teaching and Catholic Biblical Studies and was endowed to commemorate the foundation of the Catholic Biblical Association of Great Britain by its first President, Fr Cuthbert Lattey, S.J. For more details see: http://www.vhi.st-edmunds.cam.ac.uk/events/Lattey
VHI Lecture delivered by Iain McGilchrist with a response from John Cottingham on 26 February 2016, St Edmunds College. The VHI 2015-16 series of lectures and events seeks to explore the theme of mercy from the perspective of many disciplines, drawing out its possibilities, permutations, and problems. For more details visit http://www.vhi.st-edmunds.cam.ac.uk/events/lecture-series
VHI Lecture delivered by James Alison on 19 February 2016, St Edmunds College. The VHI 2015-16 series of lectures and events seeks to explore the theme of mercy from the perspective of many disciplines, drawing out its possibilities, permutations, and problems. For more details visit http://www.vhi.st-edmunds.cam.ac.uk/events/lecture-series
VHI Lecture delivered by Prof Robin Kirkpatrick on 22nd January 2016, St Edmund's College. The VHI 2015-16 series of lectures and events seeks to explore the theme of mercy from the perspective of many disciplines, drawing out its possibilities, permutations, and problems. For more details visit http://www.vhi.st-edmunds.cam.ac.uk/events/lecture-series
VHI Lecture delivered by Austen Ivereigh on 6 November 2015, St Edmunds College. The VHI 2015-16 series of lectures and events seeks to explore the theme of mercy from the perspective of many disciplines, drawing out its possibilities, permutations, and problems. For more details visit http://www.vhi.st-edmunds.cam.ac.uk/events/lecture-series
The Von Hügel Annual Lecture delivered by Professor Denys Turner (Yale University) on 30 October 2015, St Edmund's College. For more details visit http://www.vhi.st-edmunds.cam.ac.uk
The concluding seminar of the Von Hügel Istitute Themed Lecture Series 2014-15: 'Ethical Standards in Public Life' (St Edmund's College, 28 May 2015). Speakers: Field Marshall Lord Guthrie, Professor Nigel Biggar (McDonald Centre for Theology, Ethics and Public Life, Christ Church, Oxford), Dr George R. Wilkes (Director of the Religion and Ethics in the Making of War and Peace project and Research Fellow in the School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh).
The concluding seminar of the Von Hügel Istitute Themed Lecture Series 2014-15: 'Ethical Standards in Public Life' (St Edmund's College, 28 May 2015). Speakers: Field Marshall Lord Guthrie, Professor Nigel Biggar (McDonald Centre for Theology, Ethics and Public Life, Christ Church, Oxford), Dr George R. Wilkes (Director of the Religion and Ethics in the Making of War and Peace project and Research Fellow in the School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh).
The concluding seminar of the Von Hügel Istitute Themed Lecture Series 2014-15: 'Ethical Standards in Public Life' (St Edmund's College, 28 May 2015). Speakers: Field Marshall Lord Guthrie, Professor Nigel Biggar (McDonald Centre for Theology, Ethics and Public Life, Christ Church, Oxford), Dr George R. Wilkes (Director of the Religion and Ethics in the Making of War and Peace project and Research Fellow in the School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh).
Public lecture by Baroness Williams of Crosby, former Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords and Professor Emeritus of Elective Politics at Harvard University. This lecture was held at St Edmund's College on Friday 26 June 2015 as part of the Themed Lecture Series: 'Ethical Standards in Public Life' co-sponsored by the Von Hugel Institute, Cambridge, St Mary’s University Twickenham and Las Casas Institute, Blackfriars, Oxford. Weblink: http://www.vhi.st-edmunds.cam.ac.uk/events/lecture-series2014-15/lecture2-2015
A special panel discussion on security and religion jointly organised by the Cambridge International Studies Association (CISA) and the Von Hügel Institute (VHI) on 20th January 2015. Speakers: Prof. Scott Thomas (University of Bath) "Culture, Religion and Violence and the contours of the 21st Century" Prof. Jeff Haynes (London Metropolitan University) "Religious transnational actors and their influence on national security" Dr Stacey Gutkowski (King's College London) "Interfaith dialogue, 'religious moderation' and political trust" Dr Steven Kettell (University of Warwick) "New Atheism, Religion and Violence"
Martin Westlake has worked in the Council of Ministers and the European Commission, with the European Parliament and in the European Economic and Social Committee, where he served as Secretary General, (2008-2013). He is currently Visiting Professor at the College of Europe, Bruges and Senior Visiting Fellow at the European Institute, London School of Economics. This lecture was part of the Themed Lecture Series: 'Ethical Standards in Public Life', jointly organised by the Von Hügel Istitute, St Mary's University Twickenham and Las Casas Institute, Blackfriars Oxford, on 26th February 2015. The event was co-sponsored by the European Centre at POLIS, University of Cambridge.
Professor Andrew Gamble FBA, Professor Emeritus of Politics at the University of Cambridge, was the first Head of the Department of Politics and International Studies, and Deputy Head of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences. This lecture is part of the VHI Themed Lecture Series 'Ethical Standards in Public Life', co-hosted with St Mary’s University, Twickenham, and took place on 28th November 2014.
Final lecture in the 2013-14 Seminar Series "Faith and Governance" on 23 May 2014. Professor Loughlin is Director of the Von Hügel Institute, Fellow of St Edmund's College and Senior Fellow in the Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Cambridge. He has carried out extensive research on territorial politics in Europe, the relationship between religion and politics, religious freedom in international affairs and the relevance of Christian personalism.
Speakers: Dr Rowan Williams (Lord Williams of Oystermouth, Master of Magdalene College, former Archbishop of Canterbury), Professor Paul Bew (Lord Bew, Chair of the Committee on Standards in Public Life), Paul Vallely (Journalist and Writer on Religion and Ethics). On 8 October 2014, St Edmund's College.
Professor Mary McAleese, former President of Ireland, Honorary Fellow of St Edmund's College and Patron of the Von Hügel Institute, delivered this year's VHI Lecture on the meaning of collegiality in the Church - Friday 28 February 2014
VHI Lecture Series 'Faith and Governance': Professor Ralf Wuestenberg (Flensburg University, Germany), Wednesday 4 December 2013
VHI Lecture Series 'Faith and Governance': Professor Cécile Laborde (UCL), Friday 29 November 2013
The Lattey Lecture 2013 by Fr Timothy Radcliffe OP "What Authority does the Word of God have in the Catholic Church?" on Wednesday 23 October 2013