To pour forth benefits for
the common good is divine.

– Benjamin Franklin

Perry Scholars-Collegium Institute

Engaging Faith & Reason in the University and the Modern World

Partners for Sacred Places

Empowering community-serving religious organizations.

Common Ground for Common Good

Elevating Contemporary Church-State Debates

Program for Empirical Studies and Surveys

Examining Religion and spirituality empirically

Transnational Religious Organizations

Exploring global religion and transnational FBOs

Spring 2021 & Fall 2020 Events

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Probing the Shallows of the Unknown: A Magi Project Evening Conversation

April 8, 2021 | 7:00 – 9:00pm

At the heart of the human quest for understanding lies a paradox: the more we discover, the more we realize how much is yet unknown. From a young age, Marcelo Gleiser writes of his attunement to this paradox: “Growing up in Rio de Janeiro, I couldn’t possibly neglect the vast expanse of the Atlantic Ocean right in front of me…To me the beach was a portal into the unknown. I marveled at the joining of the ocean and the sky at the horizon, the huge ships emerging from behind top-first, proof of the curvature of the Earth. There was more to it than just the sand and the waves. There was a vast network of living creatures underneath the surface, mysterious and unreachable.”

The State of Religious Freedom: A 2021 Global Survey

March 23, 2021 | 10am – 12:00pm

This past year, religion has been re-envisioned in many quarters as part of a public health problem. What implications does that have for the future of religious freedom? Must communities hereafter confront a difficult decision to make themselves either safe for religion or safe from it? How does this issue in the United States look different when approached from a global perspective? These questions and more will be considered by a multi-faith panel of leading thinkers, activists, and international field workers.

Religion after the Pandemic: Forecasting the Global Future of Faith

March 5, 2021 | 12pm – 1:30pm

Even before 2020, religions worldwide were enduring a period of turbulence, marked by rapid demographic change, a transformation of attitude to gender and sexuality, and a larger crisis of institutional and organizational faith. Already, we were hearing grim prophecies about imminent secularization, and the growth of those citing their religious affiliation as “None.” Since 2020, the pandemic has raised fundamental questions about collective worship, about participation, and how we “do” religion. What will all this mean for the future of faith, not just in the United States, but globally?

Deep in History: On Christian Genealogical Thinking

December 9, 2020 | 7-8:30pm

How can the study of history be a source of deepening theological commitments? What are the roots of Christian interest in history? Ultimately, how can a consideration of time lead us to a better understanding of the timeless? Join PRRUCS and the Collegium Institute for an evening conversation exploring how and why Catholics can think about history in order to deepen our understanding of the faith.

Manufacturing Minds? An Evening Conversation with Profs. William Hurlbut and William Newsome

November 17, 2020 | 7pm – 8:30pm

Can human minds be manufactured? What is the meaning of consciousness, and how might neuroscientists resolve the mysteries of mind and its implications for decision making? Please join us for a conversation with two eminent Stanford neuroscientists, Prof. William Newsome (Vincent V.C. Woo Director of the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute) and Prof. William Hurlbut, MD (Stanford Medical School) on these questions.

Just Price and a Coronavirus Vaccine: Perspectives from Modern Economics, Public Health, and the Thomistic Tradition

October 26, 2020 | 7pm – 8:30pm

What happens when we finally find the vaccine that the world has been waiting for since the year began: who gets it? Just as importantly, who determines who gets it and on what basis? If our pluralist society lacks a common ethical framework, how much more challenging will it be to settle on one that adequately addresses a global pandemic. Which traditions of moral philosophy can we draw from to derive judgments about the distribution of the coronavirus vaccine that are fair and just and that also account for the conditions of production?

The United Nations at 75: Catholic Perspectives

October 22, 2020 | 3pm – 4pm

This panel discussion explores the history of the Holy See’s relations with the United Nations, the role of lay Catholics and Church leaders in developing the human rights tradition, and the growing role of Catholic NGOs as they work alongside the UN for justice, peace, religious freedom, and integral human development around the world. Moderated by Paolo Carozza (Notre Dame)

Writing Between Cultures: Catholicism of Endō, Greene, McKay & Xuelin

September 17, 2020 | 7pm – 8:30pm

Join the Collegium Institute and PRRUCS for an online evening panel discussion as we look at how literature can help us understand Catholicism in global contexts by exploring the complexity of living and writing between cultures. Endo, Greene, McKay, and Xuelin wrote from their own experiences of transnational life while also expressing differing relationships to Catholicism. Each of these authors had deep, though complicated, relationships with the Church and found powerful ways to express that in their writing. We hope, in looking to these writers, to see new ways of dealing with contemporary issues, while also dealing with the beauty and meaning of their literary creations.

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Humanities for Humanity: Towards an Ethic of Encounter & Civic Engagement

September 10, 2020 | 7:30pm – 9pm

Join the Collegium Institute and PRRUCS we as explore the ways in which the humanities—both as a field of study and as an area of creative expression—provides ways of thinking that strengthen our civic engagement. The hope is to consider the deep value of humanities for human life in a way that does not subordinate it to politics but also does not detach it from the life of political communities. We will consider the value of humanistic study both as a timeless pursuit and in relation to the pressing challenges of civic engagement that confront us now.