IV. Talks - Issuu

from Faculty Research Report 2020-2023

by Holy Cross College

III. Exhibitions

Conscience In The Thought Of Karol Wojtyła - Pope John Paul II

By Adrian Reimers, Ph.D., Department of Humanities

Talk: A Response to the Pontifical Academy for Life’s Publication Etica

Teologica della Vita, December 2022, Rome

Abstract: Examining Pope St John Paul II’s understanding of conscience I was able to draw upon his pre-papal philosophical writings, especially Person and Act. And his papal encyclical Veritatis Splendor (1993) was especially important for the light it shed on conscience. There were three main points to the talk.

First is that, as Thomas Aquinas said, conscience is not a faculty by is simply the application of knowledge to an act. Therefore the activity of conscience is to determine what is the truth about the good in a particular case. I don’t need to check on my deepest feelings to determine whether I should embezzle fund from my employer or engage in an adulterous affair. Instead I must look at the truth of the matter.

The second point is that the knowledge that conscience depends on is not simply a set of propositions (the 7th and 6th commandments, for instance) but is the entire nexus of truths and understanding in my mind. Ordinarily one doesn’t run down a list of do’s and don’t’s. We know what is right and wrong. This knowledge constitutes an ethos that we have learned from others and worked out on our own. This is tricky, because I may have learned some bad values. (E.g. the son of a slaveholder will probably have a distorted conception of human dignity). So, although we are influenced and even formed by the ethos if our society, we cannot accept it as infallibly correct. Indeed, we need to be critical of our own culture in which consumerism and pleasure are determining values. We need to be aware and critical of the moral values of our cultural ethos.

The third point was a look at Winnipeg Statement by the Canadian bishops right after Humanae Vitae, in which the bishops acknowledged (wrongly) that Catholics could “in good conscience” disobey Pope Paul VI. I examined this with an eye to seeing what resources a “hypothetical Canadian couple” might avail themselves of. Essentially, they would have to find an authority higher than that of the Church. In reality, they will avail themselves of the ethos of Canadian (and American) culture, which values reasonable pleasures, the avoidance of hassle and inconvenience, and so on.

I closed by citing JP II’s encyclical on the Holy Spirit, which teaches that we can rely on the Holy Spirit to illuminate our consciences.

Cybergnosticism And Integral Human Development

By David Lutz, Ph.D., Department of Humanities

Talk: Conference on Integral Human Development in the Digital Age, Ukrainian Catholic University, Lviv, Ukraine, 26-28 February 2020.

Abstract: Cybergnosticism, a new form of the ancient religion and heresy of Gnosticism, is the hope that we will someday be able to achieve immortality by copying our minds to more durable hardware than the frail, feeble bodies with which we were born. This is a mistake, based on an incorrect understanding of what it means to be a human being.

Ubuntu, Liberal Individualism, And Justice

By David Lutz, Ph.D., Department of Humanities

Talk: Interdisciplinary Conference: “Ubuntu – A Comparative Study of an African Concept of Justice,” Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts & University of Colorado Boulder, 27-28 August 2021 (virtual).

Abstract: The reason Ubuntu is an appropriate philosophical foundation for human institutions and societies, not only in Africa but also in the rest of the world, is that it is consistent with human nature. Although some Western philosophers have rejected the belief that human nature exists, it is the reason there is only one human race. It is because all human beings share in a common nature that slavery and racial discrimination are unethical. Liberal individualism is inconsistent with human nature. The essence of Ubuntu is that what is good for the individual human is good for the human community, and what is good for the community is good for the individual. Only philosophical traditions consistent with human nature can stand the test of time. Since African cultures have endured for centuries, they are consistent with human nature. Ubuntu is consistent with Asian and European traditions that have stood the test of time. Liberal individualism cannot stand that test, which is the reason Western European and North American cultures are disintegrating. Ubuntu can serve as a guide, not only for Africa, but also for the rest of the world.

The Catholic Just War Tradition And Russia’s War Against Ukraine

By David Lutz, Ph.D., Department of Humanities

Talk: International Conference on “Religion and War: Modern Challenges,” Department of Religious Studies, Faculty of Philosophy, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Kyiv, Ukraine, 31 October 2022 (virtual).

Abstract: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is unjust and Ukraine’s defense is just. Although Pope Francis has written that “we can no longer think of war as a solution” and has said that “wars are always unjust,” he has also recognized the right of Ukrainians to defend their country by military means. The tragic war between Russia and Ukraine is an opportunity to reconsider the relevance of the just war tradition to contemporary realities.

On Classical And Progressive Education

By David Lutz, Ph.D., Department of Humanities

Talk: Second Congress of Classical Education, Ministry of Education and Science, Warsaw, Poland, 16 November 2022.

Abstract: A debate between defenders of classical education, led by Robert Maynard Hutchins and Mortimer Adler, and proponents of progressive education, led by pragmatist philosopher John Dewey, took place in the United States in the twentieth century. Dewey argued that educators should replace the philosophical tradition of Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas with knowledge rooted in a philosophy of experience and the methods of the empirical sciences. Despite the efforts of Hutchins, Adler, and others, progressive education prevailed, resulting in an educational system characterized by pragmatism and positivism. One reason progressive education was successful is that the tradition of classical education originated in aristocratic societies, with a distinction between the liberal and servile arts, while progressive education appeared to be more appropriate for a democratic society. What we need today is integration of liberal and professional education, so that all students, including students of business and other profes- sions, can be classically educated and understand what it means to live a virtuous life while working for a living. Neo-Thomist philosopher Jacques Maritain can assist us in thinking about how to achieve this integrated education.

Social Emotional Learning: The Journey Of Niles Community Schools

By Ann Bigham, Ph.D., Department of Social Sciences

Talk: MEMSPA 2021

A Wild Goose Chase: Differentiating Learning For All Educators

By Ann Bigham, Ph.D., Department of Social Sciences

Talk: MiCoOp Summer Conference 2021

A Case For Change: How Assessment Data Can Improve Instuctional Responses

By Ann Bigham, Ph.D., Department of Social Sciences

Talk: Michigan Council of Teachers of Mathematics 2021

What Do We Want All Kids To Know And Be Able To Do?

By Ann Bigham, Ph.D., Department of Social Sciences

Talk: Andrews University Teaching and Learning Conference 2021

“They Were Savagely, Intellectually Curious”: Evaluating Rigor And Equity In A College-In-Prison Program

By:

Paturalski, L. & Seroczynski, A. D., Ph.D., Moreau College Initiative

Talk: Paper presented at the 47th annual Association for Moral Education, October, 2021, virtual.

Evaluating Rigor And Equity In College-In-Prison Programs

By: Paturalski, L. & Seroczynski, A. D., Ph.D., Moreau College Initiative

Talk: Paper presented at the American Association of Colleges & Universities, Washington, D.C., January 2022

“A Habit Is As Dangerous As Anything”: Incarcerated Student Perspectives On The Transformative Power Of A Liberal Arts Education

By Serocyznski, A. D., Ph.D. & Paturalski, L., Moreau College Initiative

Talk: Paper presented at the 48th annual Association for Moral Education, Birmingham, United Kingdom, 2022.

Carmina Spoliata: Late-Antique Inscriptional Verse In The Poetry Of Bede

By Chris Scheirer, Ph.D., Department of Humanities

Talk: CLASP Anglo-Latin Colloquium, The Anglo-Latin Poetic Tradition: Sources, Transmission, and Reception, 2022 (Zoom conference)

Abstract: Ample evidence exists for the strong influence that Rome’s monumental poetry had upon the imaginations of early Anglo-Saxon pilgrims. Yet for all this, very little attention has been given to understanding how this Roman epigraphic verse, once it arrived in England near the end of the 7th century, contributed meaningfully to the development of a native Anglo-Saxon literary culture. This paper seeks to further our understanding of this development by examining Bede’s knowledge of Roman epigraphic poetry and the use to which he put it in his own poetic compositions.

"Hell And Hiroshima:" Vassily Grossman, John Hersey And The 'Not So Good' War"

By Thomas T. Spencer, Ph.D., Department of Humanities

Talk: Campus Wide Presentation. Indiana University, South Bend. October 27, 2022.

Abstract: Soviet author Vassily Grossman and American writer John Hersey were two of the most prolific and influential journalists of World War II. Grossman traveled with the Red Army from Stalingrad to Berlin, while Hersey covered the war in the Pacific as well as Europe. They produced two of the most powerful and influential histories of World War II. Grossman’s “Hell of Treblinka” and Hersey’s Hiroshima remain classic and timely works on the holocaust and the dropping of the atomic bomb. They were among the first to detail the horrific impact of those two events. They later published many novels set in WWII. Their writings detail much about what we know about World War II, and two of the more impactful and world changing events that demonstrate it was the “Not So Good War.”

Take And Eat: Re-Imagining Augustinian Friendship In Tolkien’s Fellowship Of The Ring.

By Br. Robert McFadden, CSC, Ph.D., Department of Humanities

Talk: De Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture Fall Annual Conference, University of Notre Dame, November 2021.

Abstract: Although many employ the word human dignity, it is difficult to come to a unified understanding of it in a fragmented secular culture. During his lifetime, J.R.R. Tolkien witnessed the difficulties of living without a common notion of human dignity. In order to recover what it meant to be made in the image and likeness of God, Tolkien adapted an Augustinian worldview, and emphasized that friendship is essential to human dignity, because it allowed individuals to answer a central philosophical problem: death. Taking his cue from this Latin Father, Tolkien shows that human beings assert their human dignity, when they see their own friendships in light of the Eucharist through myth-making. Therefore, I will argue that Tolkien learned from Augustine that maintaining human dignity means to overcome one’s fear of death by remaining rooted in the unconditional love of Christian friendships as offered in the Eucharist.

I begin by analyzing Augustine’s understanding of friendship as it is depicted in the Confessions. According to Augustine, a person exercises his human dignity due to his abilities to form friendships in Christ and to understand that God created human beings as “literary creatures.” Events in a person’s life depends on God, and that the story of a friendship becomes real, if it is understood in light of the story of the Incarnation. By relating the stories of him and his friends, Augustine distinguishes between friendships which give life and those which lead to the death of the soul. In this way, Augustine shows how the story of Christ’s love, particularly as found in the Eucharist, enabled him to see the Church as the community of friends, which could raise one to new life.

With Augustine’s understanding human beings as “literary creatures” and friendship delineated, I turn to Tolkien and Lord of the Rings. Tolkien points out that human beings can reach God through the art of storytelling. Whenever human beings seek to reflect back the light of the Creator through myth-making, they are able to stare death in the face and assert their own dignity as creatures of God. Within the myth of the Lord of the Rings, Tolkien shows that the love of friends enables human beings to conquer their fear of death. Drawing upon Augustine, Tolkien indicates that the Fellowship of the Ring is the embodiment of friendship, because it seeks to unite one another in faith, hope, and love through the quest of destroying Sauron’s Ring of Power. As they undertake their journey, Tolkien emphasizes that the Fellowship’s friendships possess Eucharistic overtones, and thereby create the opportunity to affirm their identities as beings made for unconditional love.

In his life, Tolkien found a willing partner in Augustine for his own critical reflections. He internalized Augustine’s ideas in his works and daily life. This ressourcement demonstrates the value and fruit of the thought of the Church Fathers for the modern world. As a result, I will briefly conclude, by considering how Tolkien’s sanctification of myth and friendship in light of the Eucharist helps us to come to a deeper understanding of human dignity in the present age.

Ave Crux Spes Unica: St. Augustine And The Hope Of The Cross

By Br. Robert McFadden, CSC, Ph.D., Department of Humanities

Talk: Edith Stein Project Annual Conference, University of Notre Dame, March 2022.

Abstract: In the Confessions, St. Augustine sets out to show how Christ’s offer of unconditional love on the Cross moved him to join the Church. The Bishop of Hippo emphasizes that the Church, as the body of Christ, brings about the integration of the human person through its witness to this cruciform love. While Augustine offers many events of his life as evidence of this love, he stresses that he found it particularly when he dismissed his common law wife, the mother of his son Adeodatus. In this paper, I argue that this relationship with the common law wife and the subsequent abandonment of her by Augustine compelled him to see his life through the lens of Cross, and recognize his true desire for integration and community through membership in the Church.

I begin by analyzing Augustine’s understanding of the Church in terms of its capacity to recreate humanity through the Holy Spirit. For Augustine, the Holy Spirit is the love which the Father and Son show to one another. When the Holy Spirit is poured into the hearts of individuals, they can begin to practice the love of the Cross within their daily lives. As Augustine makes clear, this love can only be practiced, if a person comes to accept the need for the Church and the hope of God’s unconditional love in the most vulnerable moments of his or her suffering.

With Augustine’s conception of the Church delineated, I move to his relationship with his common law wife. As soon as Augustine sends his common law wife away, he makes clear that he sees her loss in terms of the Cross and creation. Despite the tragedy of his sin and the disintegration of himself, Augustine is still able to hold on to the love of his wife and recognize his own need for healing. In seeing this love in terms of the Cross and creation, I show how Augustine’s common law wife stirs his imagination so that he sees the Church as the locus of true love and the community by which he can finally accept redemption through the waters of baptism and the blood of Christ.

Throughout his entire life, Augustine loved his common law wife and the mother of his son. He did not come to an understanding of cruciform love of the Church by means of a commentary or long treatise, but arrived at it paradoxically through the suffering of sin and losing a loved one. Augustine’s life and his relationships reveals that despite sin’s apparent power, Christ and his Church trains a new generation to overcome the objectification of the other and find the love of God not just in texts, but in the world he created, and the people around us.

From Death To New Life: St. Augustine And Christian Friendship

By Br. Robert McFadden, CSC, Ph.D., Department of Humanities

Talk: Faculty Research Seminar, Holy Cross College- November 2021

Abstract: St. Augustine came not only to understand the importance of friendship, but also that these relationships were key to rise from death to new life in Christ. In this talk, I explore how Augustine saw his conversion to Christianity in terms of friendship, and the way in which he tried to form a community of Christian friends in his first works known as the Cassiciacum dialogues. I discuss the influence of Cicero’s Hortensius, which taught him that friendship is agreement on divine and human matters in love (Laelius.20). In my analysis of the Cassiciacum dialogues, I analyze how Augustine is influenced by Cicero’s project, and tries to create a community of Christian friends by means of philosophical discussion through the love of the Holy Spirit. I conclude by showing that Augustine’s best friend is his mother Monica, because they are able to overcome their fear of death, and rise to new life in Christ through philosophical discussion inspired by the Spirit.

Knowing And Loving Christ: Augustine In Anselm’s Proslogion

By Br. Robert McFadden, CSC, Ph.D., Department of Humanities

Talk: North American Patristics Society Annual Meeting, Chicago, May 2022.

Abstract: In this paper, I trace the Augustinism of Anselm’s Proslogion, by examining his theological method. Both Anselm and Augustine were devoted and engaged in philosophia, that is to say, the love of Wisdom. Pierre Hadot writes that that a way of life is at the heart of philosophical activity for the ancients and those of the medieval world, because it arises from one’s impulse to respond to existential challenges. By drawing upon Hadot’s conception of philosophy as “a way of life” and “spiritual exercises,” we are able to broaden our understanding of Augustine’s influence on Anselm, and see that influence both includes ideas but the theological method needed to justify those ideas. Within in his own life, Augustine invented the soliloquy and the confessions in order to come to a deeper understating of what it means to have faith and to comprehend the unconditional love of Christ. Similarly, Anselm dramatizes in what a way a Christian undertakes the proslogion. Within this paper, we will show how the proslogion is similar and different from the soliloquy and the confession in order to trace how Anselm was influenced by Augustine’s of theological method of “faith seeking understanding.” I will move towards the conclusion that Anselm blends the strengths of the soliloquy and confession together, and shows that the prayer and rational arguments found within proslogion show how the coherence to the narrative of one’s life depends solely on God’s mercy enlightening both mind and heart.

Come Holy Spirit: St. Augustine And Christian Friendship

By Br. Robert McFadden, CSC, Ph.D., Department of Humanities

Invited talk: Augustine Institute, Dinner and Formation Night with the Master of Theology Graduate Students.

Abstract: St. Augustine is known as one of the deepest thinkers on friendship in the Catholic Tradition, believing that the best of friends are united together in love through the power of the Holy Spirit. Augustine prayed to God to send his Spirit upon him so that he could find a genuine community of friends within the Church and thereby live out his vocation as a bishop of Hippo in North Africa. In this talk, we shall explore Augustine’s journey of friendship as a gift of the Holy Spirit so that we not only can see the importance of friendship for him, but also understand our own vocation as ministers and evangelists in the Church today.

Reversal Symmetries For Cyclic Paths In Markovian Systems Far From Thermodynamic Equilibrium

By John Biddle, Ph.D., Department of Natural and Quantitative Sciences

Talk: Informal Statistical Physics Seminar, the Institute for Physical Science and Technology University of Maryland, Feb 13 – 14, 2023

Abstract: If a system is at thermodynamic equilibrium, an observer cannot tell whether a film of it is being played forward or in reverse: any transition between states, and any sequence of transitions between states, will occur with the same frequency in the forward as in the reverse direction. However, if expenditure of energy maintaining the system away from equilibrium changes the rate of even a single transition, such time-reversal symmetry undergoes a widespread breakdown reaching far beyond the point at which the energy is expended. System properties that are locally determined at equilibrium then come to depend in a complicated manner on the rate of every transition in the system. Cyclic paths, however, have reversibility properties that remain locally determined, and which can exhibit reversal symmetry, no matter how far the system is from thermodynamic equilibrium. Specifically, given any cycle of reversible transitions, the ratio of the frequencies with which the cycle occurs in one direction versus the other is determined, in the long-time limit, only by the thermodynamic force on the cycle itself. In particular, if there is no net energy expenditure on the cycle, then the cycle occurrence frequencies are the same in either direction in the longtime limit.

Discovering The Creator Through Science And Mathematics

By Deborah Arangno, Ph.D., Department of Natural and Quantitative Sciences

Talk: de Nicola Center 2022 Fall Conference, Notre Dame University, Nov 10, 2022

Abstract: “Ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds of the air, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish of the sea inform you. Which of these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.” Job 12:7-10

Albert Einstein eloquently observed that “the most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible.”

In this paper I will argue that the universe is comprehensible, that the universe was conceived in such a way as to be intelligible to human reason, and that we are capable through our rational capacity to grow in an understanding of truth which redounds to a discovery of the Creator. Indeed, it is the scientist who attests to this transcendental reality beyond the physical world – by relying on the assumption that there is in fact an order in the universe. Logically speaking, if there were no order, science itself would be rendered moot.

Mathematics in particular relies upon an implicit faith that there must be some intrinsic order and logic to the Universe. Both the scientist and the mathematician are left to wonder at the rationality of the Universe, the symmetry and simplicity of its physical laws, in awe at the complexity and beauty of the real world those laws govern.

Furthermore, I argue that there should never be any disparity between knowledge gleaned by science and mathematics, and Revelation as obtained by Faith. In this wise we acquire wisdom, which itself transcends mere knowledge and the limits of Human reason.

Finally, I will hold that the existence of order in the universe bears witness to Truth, which arguably is absolute and objective; viz., that all reality has God as its first cause, it purpose, and its final end. Hence, it follows that the pursuit of knowledge is our natural desire for a vision of God. And it follows that as humans are spiritual, rational creatures made in the image of God (imago Dei), they capable of knowing and valuing self, others, creation and Creator. In the words of astrophysicist Paul Davies, “The equations of physics have in them incredible simplicity, elegance and beauty. That in itself is sufficient enough to prove to me that there must be a God who is responsible for these laws and also responsible for the universe.”

How Can We As Faculty Make A Positive Impact On Adjunct And FullTime Faculty Loading And Pay To Improve Student Outcomes?

By Matthew Cloud, MS, BME, Department of Natural and Quantitative Sciences

Talk: CCSC Midwest Conference, Oct. 2022

Escaping Gen Ed Hell

By Matthew Cloud, MS, BME, Department of Natural and Quantitative Sciences

Talk: Western Academic Support and Training Winter Conference, San Jose, CA, Jan, 2020

Student Decision Making About Programs And Careers: Pathways Into It Careers

By M. Cloud, MS, BME and M. Van Noy, Department of Natural and Quantitative Sciences

Talk: National Council for Workforce Education, Oct. 2020

Nontypeable Haemophilus Influenzae (Nthi) Newly Released From Biofilm Residence Exhibit Unique Phenotypes

By Elaine Mokrzan, Ph.D., et. al, Department

Natural and Quantitative Sciences

Poster presentation: the 2022 ASM Conference on Biofilms, Nov. 13-17, 2022, Charlotte, NC.

Feeling The Life Of Christ: Ludolph Of Saxony’s Best-Selling Legacy On The Early Modern Press

By Emily Ransom, Ph.D., Department of Humanities

Talk: the Renaissance Society of America Annual Meeting, San Juan, 2023.

Abstract: As part of a panel from the NEH seminar “Printing

And

the

Book

During the Reformation,” this study explores the popularity of the Vita Christi of Ludolph of Saxony from the perspective of book history in order to understand the wide popularity of this medieval text throughout the age of reformations on both sides of the confessional divide. By studying the print history and signs of readership, we see evidence for a wide primarily lay movement of affective devotion within Catholicism that complicates simplistic characterizations of confessionalism, periodization, and the history of the emotions.

The Sacrament Of Suffering In Robert Southwell’s Mary Magdalene

By Emily Ransom, Ph.D., Department of Humanities

Talk: the Sixteenth Century Society Conference, Minneapolis, 2022.

Abstract: As part of a series of panels on literature and religion in the sixteenth century, this paper reframes discourses about sacramentality in St. Robert Southwell’s Mary Magdalens Funerall Teares in terms of contemporaneous disputes about the efficacy of tears and Catholic sacramentals. While the Funerall Teares was dedicated to a recusant woman discerning a vocation, Southwell was transforming medieval sermon into English grand style to connect his intended Protestant readers to the sacrament Christ’s body that the Magdalene could only access through her suffering. In Southwell’s transformation from medieval sermon to English literary grand style, he invites Protestant readers affectively into a sacramental view of human suffering with far-reaching influence decades after his death.

Defending Divine Sadness: More, Erasmus, And Ludolph Of Saxony

By Emily Ransom, Ph.D., Department of Humanities

Talk: the Renaissance Society of America Annual Meeting, Dublin, 2022.

Abstract: As part of a panel on Thomas More and Erasmus, I demonstrate that the fourteenth-century Ludolph of Saxony’s Vita Christi, a prominent text for both the devotio moderna of Erasmus’s youth and the Carthusians of More’s adulthood, offered the humanists a devotional and methodological grounding for the defense of superabundant passion.

St. Ignatius In The Affective School Of Ludolph Of Saxony

By Emily Ransom, Ph.D., Department of Humanities

Talk: the Sixteenth Century Society Conference, San Diego, 2021.

Abstract: This paper explores Ludolph of Saxony’s Vita Christi, the work that inspired the conversion of St. Ignatius of Loyola, not only as meditative guide but also as literary theory. Specifically, I show how Ludolph’s affective meditations outlined a baptism of the senses that brought the extremities of human passion, especially grief and suffering, into service of the greater glory of God. In Ludolph’s incarnational aesthetic, affective meditation is an experience of intimacy, as Ignatius would articulate in his Contemplation to Attain Love and his third degree of humility. In affective meditation, love desires to share all things with the beloved, even suffering.

Combative Piety In The Margins: Robert Southwell’s De Magdalena

By Emily Ransom, Ph.D., Department of Humanities

Talk: the Renaissance Society of America Annual Meeting, virtual, 2021.

Abstract: This paper explores Southwell’s autograph manuscript translation of De Beata Magdelena, housed at Stonyhurst College in Lancashire, as the provocation for his much longer and highly popular Mary Magdalens Funerall Tears. Comparing Southwell’s working draft to both the Latin original and the later Funerall Teares reveals his pioneering embrace of human passion and feminine devotion. This paper explores both the affective devotion of De Magdalena and the significant breaks Southwell makes from the Latin text for his English audience, particularly in giving the Magdalene more voice to express a combative piety valorized by the end of the Funerall Teares.