SOCIETY OF CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHERS
MIDWEST REGIONAL MEETING
April 20 – 22, 2006 at the University of Notre Dame
Theme: Christianity and Mystery
Keynote Speakers:
William Wainwright
(Emeritus, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee)
Richard Cross
(Oxford University)
Merold Westphal
(Fordham University)
Christianity and Mystery
Historically, Christianity has both lauded human reason for its ability to discern truths and chided those who feel that reason is our sole avenue to truth. Some truths, it has insisted, can be known only by way of divine revelation; and even after they have been revealed, our grasp of these truths is expected always to be limited and halting, however important our acceptance of them might be. Truths of this sort are traditionally known as mysteries – “those divine things, as Aquinas describes them in the Summa Contra Gentiles, “that have been divinely revealed to us to be believed, since they transcend the human intellect"?
The notion of mystery raises a number of intriguing philosophical issues. Some of these have to do with specific beliefs traditionally seen as mysteries – the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Eucharist, the resurrection of the body, and so on. To what extent can such mysteries be understood? What models or analogies best illuminate them for us? What are the most powerful objections to the coherence of these specific beliefs, and how (if at all) can these objections best be countered? Other questions concern the very nature of mystery. What, precisely, makes something a mystery? How do we know when a certain belief should be so classified? What level of understanding concerning mysteries is to be expected? How is such understanding to be achieved? Is a religion that places such emphasis on mystery one that is rationally respectable? These questions and many more naturally rise to the surface when one considers the Christian emphasis on mystery and they will provide the theme for our SCP Midwest Regional Meeting.
Professor Philip Quinn Dies
Philip Quinn, John A. O'Brien Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, died the morning of November 15, 2004 at Saint Joseph's Medical Center after a long illness. He was 64.
His friends and colleagues at the Center sorely miss him. He was, as Alvin Plantinga, former Director of the Center said. "... a voice of sanity and reason, and a man of great integrity."
Center Re-names Fellowships in Honor of First Two Directors
The Notre Dame Center for Philosophy of Religion is pleased to announce the re-naming of two of its fellowships in honor of the Center's first two directors -- Frederick Crosson and Alvin C. Plantinga. Crosson, who led the Center from its founding in 1976 until 1984, is the John J. Cavanaugh Professor Emeritus in the Program of Liberal Studies. Still an active member of the Center, Crosson's myriad contributions to intellectual life at Notre Dame over the last half century, including his years as Dean of the College of Arts and Letters, have marked an extraordinary career. In his honor, the Center's Extraordinary Fellowship will henceforth be known as the Frederick J. Crosson Fellowship. Serving as the Center's director from 1984 until the summer of 2002, Alvin Plantinga is the John A. O'Brien Chair in the Department of Philosophy. He has been a member of Notre Dame's faculty for over twenty years and has earned an international reputation for his work in philosophy of religion, metaphysics and epistemology. The Center's Distinguished Scholar Fellowship is now rechristened the Alvin Plantinga Fellowship. These annual residential fellowships allow scholars to spend a year at Notre Dame taking part in the Center's activities and pursuing their own research programs. Plantinga Fellowships are intended to provide time for reflection and writing to those whose work is in the forefront of current research in the philosophy of religion and Christian philosophy. Crosson Fellowships are awarded to foreign scholars or to those outside the field of philosophy (e.g., theologians who want to enrich their understanding of philosophy of religion and theistic philosophy, humanists from other fields who could benefit by a deeper grasp of the sort of philosophy practiced at the Center, and scholars interested in a theistic approach to psychology, sociology, economics and other subjects.) We hope you will join us in congratulating our two colleagues on their years of exceptional service to Notre Dame, to the Center, and to the field of philosophy of religion.
Professor Al Plantinga turns 70
Professor Al Plantinga, former director of the Center for Philosophy of Religion, was recently honored by family, friends, and current Fellows of the Center, with a birhtday luncheon celebration where the re-naming of the Center's fellowships was offical announced. The luncheon hosted at the Morris Inn was attended by Frederick Crosson (first director of CPR), Paul J. Weithman (Chair of Philosophy), Thomas P. Flint (Current Director of CPR), Rev. David B. Burrell, CSC, and other friends and associates.