Reasoning for our hope

Image: St. Basil's Church at the University of St. Michael's College, 50 St. Joseph St.,Toronto Print of an engraving by Maclear & Co. Lithographers, 1855; published in Ure's "Handbook of Toronto," 1858. Photographs Special Collection, PH 0045/15P

The project.

http://www.el-greco-foundation.org/

“Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence.” 1 Peter 3:15-16, NRSV

The word translated here as “accounting” is the Greek term logos, which speaks to the power of reasoning and rationality in the world and in the human mind. And the “hope” of this passage does not refer to some vague optimism or faith in human progress. Far from it. Instead, it evokes Christians’ eager expectation for the inbreaking of God’s reign, already begun in the life, death and resurrection of Christ. Until his glorious return, Christians are called to worship, to raise our voices in prayer, to strive for solidarity and justice, and, yes, to exercise our logos—our reason—in faith, in love, and in yearning hope.

“Reasoning for Our Hope” is an exploration of the nature and mission of Catholic Liberal Education, in dialogue with the Special Collections and Archives of the University of St. Michael’s College and yearning toward the eschatological horizon of God’s reign.

Archival Research

Archives are the places that house the historical records of an organization or person that are deemed to be of value. They represent a living memory and resource for thinking about institutional mission and values.

Learn more about Kelly Library Archives here.

https://stmikes.utoronto.ca/kelly/

The John M. Kelly Library Special Collections and Archives include several collections of prominent Catholic intellectuals and movements of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. On this website, our student research team has selected representative texts and arguments and explored their relevance to liberal education and Catholic faith in the contemporary academy.

John Henry Newman

https://www.franciscanmedia.org/blessed-john-henry-newman/

John Henry Newman (1801-1890) was a Catholic theologian and cardinal from London, England. In December 1816, he matriculated at Trinity College in Oxford and in 1825 he was ordained as an Anglican priest, how ever in 1845 he wrote the Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine which led him to convert to Catholicism. In the 1850's he established a New Catholic university in Ireland where he began to develop his theories on education, while developing a strong defence of the Roman Catholic Church in spite of rising distaste for the papacy.

Discover more here.

G.K. Chesterton

Gilbert Keith Chesterton was born in London, England, and was a writer, critic, apologist and illustrator. He came from a non-practicing Anglican family and attended the London Slade School of Art in London where he began to develop and deepen his faith. In 1922 he converted to Roman Catholicism, and established a newspaper, G.K.'s Weekly, which included nearly three thousand pieces of his original poetry. In 1936, Pope Pius Xi granted him the title of Defender of the Catholic Faith for his apologetics. He is known for being an inspiration to writers such as C.S. Lewis and Ronald Knox.

Discover more here.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/G-K-Chesterton

Etienne Gilson

http://www.pims.ca/academics/calendar-of-events/event/the-2017-etienne-gilson-lecture-etienne-gilson-formation-and-achievement-

Etienne Henry Gilson was born in Paris, 1888, and was a medieval scholar and theorist throughout the 20th century. After supervising trench-digging on the front lines during World War I, he became a lecturer at the University of Lille in France. In 1929 he crossed the pond to Canada where he co-founded the Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, which would become the leading institute for the study of history and philosophy of the Middle Ages. Throughout his career he was involved in several aid initiatives, including after World War II, through helping to found the United Nations and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). Gilson was an active contributor to several publications, commenting on contemporary politics, the value of Quebecois literature, and regarding Vatican II, questioning specifically the use of the vernacular in Mass.

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Marshall Mcluhan

https://www.marshallmcluhan.com/biography/

Herbert Marshall McLuhan completed his PhD at Cambridge, and then moved to Toronto and joined the English Faculty at the University of St. Michael's College. Some of his best known books include The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962), Understanding Media (1964), and The Medium is the Massage (1967). He remained at the University of Toronto for the rest of his career where he taught, wrote and served as the director of the University's Centre for Culture and Technology.

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Sheila Watson

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/sheila-watson/

Sheila Martin Watson worked as a teacher, author and professor of English, born into a Roman Catholic family but was non-practicing most of her adult life until, in August of 1966, she returned to the Church. One of her best known pieces of writing is The Double Hook, lauded today as one of the first modern, Canadian novels. In 1961, she earned her Doctorate of Philosophy at the University of Toronto, under the supervision of Marshall
McLuhan, for her thesis titled “Wyndham Lewis and Expressionism”.

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Jean Vanier

Jean Vanier was born in Canada in 1928, the son of the Governor General Georges Vanier. Vanier served in the British navy as a young man, however chose to leave in 1950 to deepen his spiritual life. He joined the lay spiritual formation community Eau Vive where he met Dominican Father Thomas Philippe. He completed his PhD on the Ethics of Aristotle and then returned to Canada in 1964 to teach Philosophy at St. Michael's College. It is at this time that he encountered several people at the psychiatric hospital in a suburb of Paris. Moved by their horrible living conditions he invited a few men to live with him, thus unwittingly beginning the organization he would later entitle, L'Arche.

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http://larchefmrindia.org/about-us/jean-vanier/

Henri nouwen

http://henrinouwen.org/contact/

Born in Holland, 1932, Nouwen felt called to the priesthood at a very young age, and was ordained in 1957 as a diocesan priest and studied psychology at the Catholic University of Nijmegen. In 1964 he moved to the United States and went on to teach at the University of Notre Dame, and the Divinity Schools of Yale and Harvard. In 1985 he was called to join L’Arche in Trosly, France, the first of over 100 communities founded by Jean Vanier where people with developmental disabilities live with assistants. A year later Nouwen came to make his home at L’Arche Daybreak near Toronto, Canada.
Nouwen believed that what is most personal is most universal; he wrote, “By giving words to these intimate experiences I can make my life available to others.” (http://henrinouwen.org/about-henri/)

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