The Alcuin Institute seeks to return to this kind of education, one that is at once broad and deep, yet light and whimsical, and thoroughly grounded in the primary sources of the Christian West; the deer and pheasant to be found in our very own precincts. Such a feast among friends in Christ is “the best that life can offer.”
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St. Thomas Lecture
Come celebrate the feast of St. Thomas Aquinas with the Alcuin Institute for Catholic Culture. On Jan 28th, Dr. Richard Meloche, President of the Alcuin Institute, will be delivering a lecture entitled "Thomistic Necessity: Why We Still Need St. Thomas Aquinas", tracing the historical importance of Thomistic thought in the life of the Church, and arguing (very persuasively) why he is still very much needed today. As is our custom, the lecture will be preceded with all manner of good food and drink.
Do join us in raising a glass to the 'Angelic' (yet 'Common') Doctor!
Bl. Alcuin of York Lecture & Award Ceremony
Christ’s kingdom is not like Caesar’s; it is not like the kingdoms of the world. But this does not mean that it leaves these kingdoms alone to dominate the lives of humanity. Rather, the reality of the crucifixion and resurrection and their recapitulation in the lives of the faithful, most spectacularly through martyrdom, undoes the very foundations of tyrannical power. Christianity overcomes fear through hope, and the powers of the world rule only through fear.
This talk begins in the New Testament, moves through the age of Roman martyrdom, and through to the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas, with an eye always toward our current predicament.
Join the Alcuin Institute on October 7th for our annual Bl. Alcuin of York Lecture & Award Ceremony! This year, we are honoring Dr. Andrew Willard Jones, who will in turn honor us with a lecture entitled “The Weakness of Caesar and the Power of the Cross: How Martyrdom Defeats Tyrants.” The event will begin with Mass at 5:00pm, followed by a social, dinner, lecture, and the presentation of our signature Our Lady of Victory Medal. We hope you will be able to join us as we honor a robust Catholic thinker and his promotion of Catholic culture!
Andrew Willard Jones is the Director of Catholic Studies at Franciscan University and is a founding editor of the website and journal, New Polity. He is the author of Before Church and State: A Study of Social Order in the Sacramental Kingdom of St. Louis IX and most recently of The Two Cities: A History of Christian Politics. Andrew’s work focuses on a re-evaluation of our current social predicament through an authentically Catholic vision of reality. Andrew was raised in Washington State, attended Hillsdale College, earning degrees in history and economics, followed by a PhD in Medieval Church history from St. Louis University. He lives in Steubenville with his wife, Sara, and their nine kids.
Join the Alcuin Institute on October 7th for our annual Bl. Alcuin of York Lecture & Award Ceremony! This year, we are honoring Dr. Andrew Willard Jones, who will in turn honor us with a lecture entitled “The Weakness of Caesar and the Power of the Cross: How Martyrdom Defeats Tyrants.” The event will begin with Mass at 5:00pm, followed by a social, dinner, lecture, and the presentation of our signature Our Lady of Victory Medal. We hope you will be able to join us as we honor a robust Catholic thinker and his promotion of Catholic culture!
Andrew Willard Jones is the Director of Catholic Studies at Franciscan University and is a founding editor of the website and journal, New Polity. He is the author of Before Church and State: A Study of Social Order in the Sacramental Kingdom of St. Louis IX and most recently of The Two Cities: A History of Christian Politics. Andrew’s work focuses on a re-evaluation of our current social predicament through an authentically Catholic vision of reality. Andrew was raised in Washington State, attended Hillsdale College, earning degrees in history and economics, followed by a PhD in Medieval Church history from St. Louis University. He lives in Steubenville with his wife, Sara, and their nine kids.
Bishop Konderla: “When Did God Make Time?”
Join the Alcuin Institute on September 17th to hear Bishop Konderla give his annual Inaugural Address to teachers! Bishop David Konderla will be speaking on the subject of God and His relationship to time, arguing that “the truths of faith and the facts of science cannot be in conflict with each other; for God is the Author of both.”
Brief socials will precede and follow Bishop’s talk, so please join us for this great night of fellowship as we kick off the new academic year!
“Gird up your loins now, like a man; I will question you, and you tell me the answers! Where were you when I founded the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its size? Surely you know? Who stretched out the measuring line for it? Into what were its pedestals sunk, and who laid its cornerstone, while the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?”
—Job 38:3-7
Alcuin Short Course: Latinitas; Learning Latin Loquaciously
Latin is the language of both Western Civilization (Greek is a close second) and the Catholic Church. To know Latin is to know and understand Western Civilization from within and to better understand the mind, heart and voice of the Church.
Contrary to common thought, Latin is not a dead language; it is meant to be spoken. All languages are meant to be spoken, not translated from a textbook. The Latin etymology of the word “language” is lingua which means tongue. Tongues speak and you can even “speak in tongues,” but textbooks don’t have tongues and therefore are dead. Thus, one can argue that textbooks are deadly (but that is a rather morbid topic).
Since it's not possible to meet daily, which is the best way to learn a language, the Alcuin Institute for Catholic Culture, in conjunction with the Diocese of Tulsa and Eastern Oklahoma, is offering a once-a-week, 90-minute Latin instruction session with instructor Mr. David Dean, Superintendent of Catholic Schools for the Diocese of Tulsa and Eastern Oklahoma. Mr. Dean has taught Latin with the oral method for more than 30 years.
The class will begin with the oral method for two weeks or more, then (with some remorse) move to a textbook—although still engaging in oral practice and recitation. Though difficult to learn any language with only one class a week, the benefit to studying Latin (and particularly Ecclesiastical Latin) is that it is more recognizable for those who have heard Gregorian Chant or the great hymns that have been composed for the Church.
Mirabile dictu, Latin will lift your hearts, Sursum corda, minds and imaginations upwards! It is the lingua angelorum, thus making all other languages the linguae barbaricae. If you don’t understand these Latin words, use your imagination! It is good to be confused for a time! Learning Latin helps you to enhance your vocabulary, think more logically, improve your knowledge of history but most importantly, it is good for its own sake, for goodness sake!
Please contact Mr. David Dean at david.dean@dioceseoftulsa.org if you are interested in attending. Classes meet weekly at the Chancery Offices in Broken Arrow on Thursdays, 6:30-8pm, beginning on September 9th and continuing through December 9th. The cost of the course (including provided texts) is $50.00.
Alcuin Short Course: Reason; One God
The founders of the 16th century Protestant movement and the 18th century French Enlightenment both maintained that faith and reason are irreconcilably opposed. The conflict between fideism and rationalism, which erupted in the French Revolution, is the origin of the modern secular state that casts its shadow across the West.
But the Roman Catholic Church has taught since ancient times that faith and reason are both from God, who is Truth itself, and truth cannot contradict Truth. The Eternal Light of God was made flesh in “ the fullness of time,” when the ancient Greek and Roman reason-based philosophy reached its apex, and its limit, anticipating the fullness of Revelation. Modern science was sprung from the natural philosophy of the Medieval Church that serves as a foundation to natural theology.
Vatican I solemnly defined the natural knowability of God; that is, man’s ability to know God’s existence and his properties with certitude by reason alone. In this short course, we will look at how philosophy and science enable us to know the preambula fidei—the culmination of reason’s investigation into truth about the cosmos and its Creator —as we explore St. Thomas’ Treatise on the One God.
Please contact Mr. Eli Stone at eli.stone@dioceseoftulsa.org if you are interested in attending. This 8-week course, taught by Mr. William Dunn, meets every Wednesday at the Chancery Offices in Broken Arrow, 7:00-8:30pm, beginning on October 6th and continuing through November 24th. The course is free to attend, and will use the Summa Theologiae of St. Thomas Aquinas as a primary reading source.
Please contact Mr. Eli Stone at eli.stone@dioceseoftulsa.org if you are interested in attending. This 8-week course, taught by Mr. William Dunn, meets every Wednesday at the Chancery Offices in Broken Arrow, 7:00-8:30pm, beginning on October 6th and continuing through November 24th. The course is free to attend, and will use the Summa Theologiae of St. Thomas Aquinas as a primary reading source.