Study Groups
Anselm’s Circle
This study group seeks to systematically explore many of the big questions of faith and life, including but not limited to the following:
- Do faith and reason conflict?
- Does God exist?
- Was Jesus more than a man?
- What about the problem of evil?
- And the perennial question, if you were a brain in a vat, could you know?
This study begins in the spring and meets one hour a week. WARNING: this study is not for the faint-hearted. However, it is open to big thinkers of all (or no) faith positions, and is truly a discussion group. To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, for those who like this sort of thing, it is just the kind of study they would love! Because of the systematic, cumulative and challenging nature of this discussion, it is closed after the first few sessions.To learn more, email Jarrett Knight at jwknig@email.wm.edu.
Cogito Book Club
Join us for weekly conversations about books we find significant. This semester, we’ll be reading short stories by Fyodor Dostoevsky, one of Russia’s greatest writers. Time TBA. To learn more, email Jarrett Knight at jwknig@email.wm.edu.
The Revelation of St. John (and coffee)
This group meets Thursday and Friday mornings in College Church to study the Revelation of John the Divine, one of the most misunderstood books in the New Testament. It includes free coffee (good coffee). For more information, email Jarrett Knight at jwknig@email.wm.edu.
The Nature of Love in the Western Tradition (Longwood)
What is the nature of love? What is its relationship to possession, union, knowledge, or beauty? What is the proper object of love? What makes love true or perverse? How should we understand love in relation to vulnerability and suffering? The Western tradition offers various answers to these questions. Plato considered love a recognition of transcendence. Later philosophers thought it madness, a disease that must be cured by proper teaching. According to the Christian tradition, love is salvific, for God is Love itself. In this group, we will read some of the most influential texts reflecting on the nature of love, including classical texts written prior to the advent of Christianity and texts in the Christian tradition. We’ll reflect on friendship, on romantic love, and the love of the divine, and continually consider how love in these texts is similar to and different from love as we think of it in our contemporary culture. For more information, contact Amanda Knight at amanda.abernathy.19@gmail.com.