2014-15 Bitar Memorial Lecture

March 25-26, 2015

Series Title: A Pre-Modern Response to the Post-Modern 'Lonely Mind’

• Abstracts

Dr. D. C. Schindler

Dr. Jonathan J. Sanford

This year′s Bitar Memorial Lecturer is Dr. D.C. Schindler. 

D.C. Schindler is Associate Professor of Metaphysics and Anthropology at the John Paul II Institute, in Washington, D.C. He received a BA in the Great Books from the University of Notre Dame, and a Masters in Sacred Theology from the John Paul II Institute, in Washington, D.C. He holds an additional M.A. and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from The Catholic University of America.

Dr. Schindler helped develop an interdisciplinary program of study in the Humanities Department at Villanova University, at which he taught for 12 years. In 2013, he joined the Faculty at the John Paul II Institute, and currently lives just outside of Washington DC with his wife, Jeanne, and three children.

Dr. Schindler has focused his study on the nature of the transcendentals (beauty, goodness, and truth) and their anthropological correlates (love, freedom, and reason), especially in the context of Greek, German, and contemporary Catholic philosophy. He is an editor of Communio: International Catholic Review, a French and German translator of works in philosophy and theology, and the author of several books, the latest of which is The Catholicity of Reason (Eerdmans, 2013).

Dr. Jonathan Sanford will serve as Respondent to Dr. Schindler's lectures. 

Jonathan J. Sanford is Professor of Philosophy and the Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs at Franciscan University of Steubenville. He received his doctorate from the University of Buffalo, State University of New York, under Jorge J. E. Gracia and was a post-doctoral teaching fellow at Fordham University before joining Franciscan in 2002. He served as chair of the philosophy department for five years before assuming his current administrative role. Dr. Sanford resides in Steubenville, Ohio, with his wife, Rebecca, and their eight children.

Dr. Sanford seeks to bring his expertise in ancient and medieval philosophy, and particularly the thought of Aristotle and Aquinas, to bear on contemporary problems. He is the editor of two books, the author of many journal articles and book chapters on questions in ethics and metaphysics, the founding director of the Franciscan University Press, and the author of Before Virtue: Assessing Contemporary Virtue Ethics (Catholic University of America Press (forthcoming)).

Past Bitar Lecturers include

• 2004-05: Dr. Stephen Evans, Baylor University – “Can Love be Commanded?: Kierkegaard on the Foundations of Moral Obligation”        
• 2005-06: Dr. Paul Helm – “John Calvin′s Big Idea”
• 2006-07: Dr. Nicholas Wolterstorff – "Love and Justice"
• 2007-08: Linda Zagzebski – "Self-Trust and Religious Belief"
• 2008-09: Dr. James K.A. Smith  – "A Liturgical Phenomenology for a Post-Secular Age"
• 2009-10: R.J. Snell – "Culture of Boredom, Culture of Death"
• 2010-11: Dr. Paul K. Moser  – “Expecting a Severe God.”
• 2011-12: Dr. Alvin Plantinga –  “Science, Religion and Naturalism”
• 2012-13: Dr. Nancey Murphy – "Human Nature at the Intersection of Science, Religion and Philosophy"
• 2013-14: Dr. Merold Westphal – "Getting from There to Here: From Modernity to Postmodernity"

Check out the schedule of public activities and their locations. For additional information, contact the Philosophy Program at 724-847-6700, or email rmfrazie@geneva.edu or emeek@geneva.edu.