Session 1:
Prof. Jason Blakely: Thomas More and Catholic Utopian Humanism
In our first session, Professor Jason Blakely leads a final discussion centered around St. Thomas More’s Utopia. Blakely begins by identifying two ways in which Utopia is often interpreted by readers, both those who perceive the text as conservative and those who perceive it as radical. He suggests a third way of interpreting the text that takes Utopia as a way of thinking rather than a political doctrine. He then outlines four senses of this third way to approach Utopia. These four senses include viewing Utopia as social ontology, as humanist authority, as critique, and as serious play. Prof. Blakely concludes by posing the question of whether those who prefer realism over More’s Utopia might already benefit from a relatively comfortable, if exclusive, utopia of a kind.
Please find all material referenced during the seminar below:
Desiderius Erasmus
Michelangelo, Sistine Chapel ceiling
Jorge Luis Borges and magical realism
Quentin Skinner on More and Cicero
Thomas Aquinas and scholastic theology
Seneca
Polybius
Vitruvius
Session 2:
Prof. David Albertson hosting Fr. Greg Boyle SJ (Homeboy Industries): Hope in Los Angeles
In the second session, Professor David Albertson hosted Fr. Greg Boyle, S.J., a Jesuit priest and founder of Homeboy Industries, the most successful gang-intervention and rehabilitation program in the world. During their discussion, Fr. Boyle begins by describing the work, and civic economic presence, of Homeboy Industries since its start in 1988. At its core, Homeboy Industries has spent the last thirty-three years providing a space of healing for former gang members by fostering radical kinship. As Fr. Boyle explains, many of the members who arrive at Homeboy Industries have experienced trauma and suffered from an array of mental health issues. While Homeboy Industries provides employment through its many enterprises and mental health services, ultimately it is the sense of community that directs the healing process. By providing former gang members with a sense of belonging, past traumas of isolation and exclusion can be healed.
Please find all material referenced during the seminar below.
Henri Nouwen and the L’Arche community
Wallace Stevens, “Description without Place”