Events

The Catholic Enlightenment in Europe, the Americas and Australia (1700– 1840)

Please join us for a two-day conference on “The Catholic Enlightenment in Europe, the Americas and Australia (1700– 1840): Balancing Loyalties between State, Nationality, Citizenship, and the Global Church.”

The Enlightenment, it has now been established, was as much a religious phenomenon as it was a secular one. This conference brings together leading scholars from around the world to interrogate the ways in which Catholics, in particular, interpreted and extended Enlightenment ideas to rethink and reform society, politics, the economy, education, science, and the arts on a global scale.

The conference will take place:

• Friday, September 20 (8:30am-3:30pm): Pere Marquette Gallery, 2nd Floor DuBourg Hall, Saint Louis University; piano recital at 5:30pm, Cupples House
• Saturday, September 21 (9am-5:30pm): Umrath Lounge, Umrath Hall, Washington University in St. Louis

Registration is free and open to the public. Please register here. Registrants are welcome to attend all or a portion of the conference. 

See here for more information and a detailed program listing speakers and topics. 

Please contact crgc@slu.edu with any questions or accommodations requests.

This conference is co-sponsored by Washington University in St. Louis (with support from the Center for the Humanities), Saint Louis University’s Center for Research on Global Catholicism, and the University of Münster.

Realistic Hope: American Democracy and the 2024 Election

The John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics is pleased to host a special Danforth Dialogues event focused on the 2024 presidential election. Realistic Hope: American Democracy and the 2024 Election will explore the place of faith and imagination in our current politics and public life.

The Danforth Dialogues will be held in Graham Chapel on the Danforth Campus of Washington University in St. Louis. The event will consist of a set of two conversations moderated by John Dickerson of CBS News. The first panel, with the poet Joy Harjo and novelist Valeria Luiselli, will prompt us to ponder how creativity and the arts can inflect our politics with hope that guides us through persistent dilemmas. The second panel, with New York Times Columnist Jamelle Bouie and former U.S. Congressman Adam Kinzinger, will concern the prospects for the 2024 presidential election—where it stands and what we can anticipate.

Our design is for these conversations to help us gain a deeper understanding of our national politics and do so with hopeful realism that equips each of us to play a part in sustaining American democracy.

Click on the button below to view the event schedule.