Controversies: Faith and Reason [Spring 2026]
Description Our guiding questions: Is the act of faith or belief in revelation distinct in kind from the operations of reason? Can reason prove faith? Can reason disprove faith? Can reason show faith as compatible with reason? | How is the faith to be made known? Sacred texts, whether the Bible, Qur’an, or Torah, have […]
Who is My Enemy?
A Philosophical Happy Hour inquiring into the nature of enmity, the distinction of public and personal enemies, and the morally rightful manner of holding oneself in opposition to others. We hear a lot these days about friends and enemies, and—it seems—not unreasonably. The world seems awash in hostility. But what is it, in fact, that […]
On Christianity and the Interpretation of Philosophy
A Philosophical Happy Hour on the influences of Christian belief on philosophical interpretation, and of philosophical wisdom on the practice of the Christian faith. Is there such a thing as “Christian philosophy”? Today, thinking of antiquity draws new interest. The texts of Plato and Aristotle, Plotinus and Porphyry—even the fragments of Parmenides and Heraclitus, the […]
On the Problem of Education
A Philosophical Happy Hour concerning the problem of universal education: should we educate everyone? To what extent? How? Why (not)? If we look today at the results of universal education, particularly over the past century, we may think that its institution was a mistake. The results are those of decline. High test scores in a […]
On the Renaissance and Human Dignity
A Philosophical Happy Hour on the notion of human dignity as conveyed through thinkers of the Renaissance. The philosophy of the Renaissance—a somewhat deceptive but now inescapably common name for the movement, occurring roughly (with some notable outliers) between 1350–1650, to retrieve Platonic thinking, emphasize the arts of grammar and rhetoric over that of logic, […]
On the Admission of Bad Taste
In lieu of Happy Hour on this Ash Wednesday, a brief reflection on the admission that we have “bad taste” in popular society, and the embarrassments that prevent our honesty. Since it is always unpleasant to have to admit the lack of something that everyone has as a matter of course, and which therefore properly […]
On Contemporary Atheism
A Philosophical Happy Hour centered around a reading of Jacques Maritain’s essay, “The Meaning of Contemporary Atheism”. Included in a collection of essays under the title, The Range of Reason, we find Jacques Maritain’s, “The Meaning of Contemporary Atheism”. We will gather this Wednesday (2/26/25) to discuss this essay’s primary intention—explaining what it means and […]
The Problem of Christian Philosophy
In the second of the Lyceum Institute Colloquia in 2022, we present Dr. James Capehart, who brings us discussion of Christian Philosophy as it has been viewed in the Christian Middle Ages as well as transmitted through the debates of the 20th century. How in fact is Christian philosophy a problem? The wording itself has […]
The Breakdown of Secular Democracy and the Need for a Christian Order
The question has been raised as to whether or not secular liberalism can sustain itself, especially as it seems to be breaking down in our present time, both from the perspective of anti-modernists who uphold tradition, but also from modernists themselves who have fallen into totalitarian ideologies, Marxism being the most common among them.
