The Spring Semester at the CSC

Friends,

We trust that this first installment of the study center newsletter for 2021 finds all of you healthy and well. We’re glad to be launching into our spring program, and below you’ll find a guide to what we will be offering.

Reading Dante

Our Dante reading group has just begun to work its way through Paradiso, the last section of the Divine Comedy. In this portion of the poem, Dante makes his way through the heavenly spheres until he reaches the throne of God. Paradiso is a challenging work, but equally rewarding. The reading group meets over Zoom at noon on Wednesdays. It will meet for only the second time next week to discuss cantos 2-4. If you are interested in joining, you can contact me by replying to this email or else writing to mike@christianstudycenter.org.

Director’s Classes

Next Wednesday (1/27) will also be the start date for Dr. Horner’s director’s class, “Reading the Gospels, Part Two: The Road to the Cross.” Beginning with the transfiguration and concluding with the resurrection of Jesus, this class will continue to read the four New Testament gospels alongside each other in order to gain deeper insight into the distinctive agendas and interests of each gospel writer. Dr. Horner is offering two sections of the class via Zoom. The first section will meet Wednesday morning at 10:40, and the second section will meet Wednesday afternoon at 3:00.

I will be teaching a class on the life and work of the 20th century Christian social critic Ivan Illich. Illich was a radical thinker in the literal sense—his analysis got down to the root of things. His work, however, was not merely critical. It was animated by a clear and vital vision for human flourishing grounded in a theological understanding of the human person. Throughout the class, we will seek to apply his insights to various aspects of our current situation including our relationship to technology, our political disorders, and the unfolding crisis of institutions. The class will be offered at 4:05 on Tuesdays beginning February 2nd and will also meet via Zoom.

You can register for either or both of the classes here.

Readings in the Christian Imagination

This bi-weekly Monday evening reading group will start the semester on February 1st at 8 p.m. with a discussion of Alan Jacobs’s recently published book, Breaking Bread With the Dead: A Reader’s Guide to a More Tranquil Mind. The group will also meet via Zoom. Once again, shoot me an email for more details.

Evening Lectures

Finally, along with the Illich director’s class, I will also be offering three evening lectures (February 10th, March 3rd, March 24th) more specifically considering Illich’s insights for our cultural moment. We’re offering these lectures as Zoom webinars and the registration link will be available soon. Here is the longer description of the lecture series:

In these three lectures associate director Michael Sacasas will revisit the life and work of Ivan Illich, the 20th century scholar and activist who offered a radical critique of industrial society. Having fallen into relative obscurity during the heady 1990s, Illich's work now speaks with renewed urgency to a world reeling from the consequences of climate change, economic inequality, political polarization, and institutional crisis. Challenging both the usual suspects of industrial age corruption and degradation as well as the more ostensibly benign institutions of modernity such as schooling and medicine, Illich's work is both intellectually and morally demanding, urging us to alter radically how we imagine our relationship to the world and how we envision our political order. Now as society's fault lines have been exposed by a global pandemic, Illich's vision for a more convivial society has become all the more urgent and vital.

While we are certainly eager to be able to meet face-to-face again, we are glad that offering our program online makes it possible for friends both near and far to join in, and we hope you’ll take the opportunity to do so.

Finally, this newsletter will also be the online hub for audio from the classes and lectures. Just as we did last semester, we will send out audio of the classes and lectures as they happen. You can also look forward to the regular essays and links from this newsletter beginning next week.

Please do feel free to share this email with anyone you know who might be interested in our program.

Peace,

Mike Sacasas
Associate Director