CHERISHING THE TRUTH AND EMBRACING THE GOOD
...in this Babelish Time

The motto of the Thomas More Institute is Cherishing the Truth. Is cherishing the truth still a viable spiritual aspiration? On what grounds might we claim that this is not only a possibility but a necessity as well? Can we agree any longer with Lonergan that the challenge of our age is to embrace the human good? How can we keep imagining that there is a good common to all? Must we abandon the desire to speak coherently about authenticity, progress, and self-transformation?

Glenn Hughes suggests with Lonergan that the remarkable inertia of common sense thwarts integration of the human good. To care for truth and differentiate oneself, must one become, in some sense, a different person? For Hughes, Lonergan, and Voegelin such a change demands a significant understanding of the horizons of the cultures founding and preceding it. Hughes warns especially about anti-historicalism. Among the readings will be selections from: Topics in Education and Method in Theology B. Lonergan, Transcendence and History: The Search for Ultimacy from Ancient Societies to Postmodernity G. Hughes, Freud and Philosophy: An Essay on Interpretation and Living up to Death P. Ricoeur, Not For Profit, Why Democracy Needs the Humanities M. Nussbaum, and two novels Point Omega D. DeLillo, A Visit from the Goon Squad J. Egan.

COURSE LENGTH: 12 weeks
DISCUSSION TEAM: Russell Baker, Jim Cullen, Nusia Matura
FIRST SESSION: Wednesday January 11, 2012 at 3:45 pm