Events

The Chesterton Speaker Series

These regular events sponsored by the Seattle G. K. Chesterton Society take place at the Catholic Newman Center at the University of Washington, located at 4502 20th Ave NE, Seattle, WA 98105.  Please see the map available here.

In Brief

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Thursday, October 20, 2011 at 7:30 PM, UW Newman Center

The Problem (or Problems?) of Faith and Science

Fr. Raphael Mary Salzillo, O.P.
UW Newman Center

Many people believe that faith and science contradict one another or at least that they are in tension. The so-called “problem of faith and science” is really a family of distinct problems that science raises (or seems to raise) in regard to faith. But which of these “problems” are really problems for the Christian? Does the advent of empirical science make it less rational to be a Christian? This evening the Society invites you to join us and our speaker in a lively discussion of these questions.

Fr. Raphael Mary Salzillo was raised as an Evangelical Protestant in a little town on the Oregon coast, and later converted to the Catholic faith. He did his undergraduate work in Applied Physics at Caltech and continued his studies in the Ph.D. program at UC San Diego. He left the PhD program to enter the Dominican Order in the fall of 2001. After eight years of studies and formation as a Dominican friar, Fr. Raphael Mary was ordained a priest on May 30th, 2009 and sent to Seattle for his first assignment at Blessed Sacrament Church and the UW Newman Center.

Thursday, November 17, 2011, at 7:30 PM, UW Newman Center

Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, and Christian Ministry

Dr. Miceal Vaughan
University of Washington

Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales is one of the greatest works of literature of the Middle Ages. With its colorful assortment of characters and stories, it symbolizes for many the culture of the medieval period. G. K. Chesterton regarded Chaucer’s stories as one of England’s greatest claims to glory and distinction. Dr. Miceal Vaughan of the University of Washington will speak to us about some of Chaucer’s characters (the Prioress, the Monk, the Friar, the Parson, the Pardoner) and what they teach us about Chaucer’s views on Christian ministry.

Professor Vaughan teaches in the Departments of English and Comparative Literature and has published a number of books and articles on medieval English literature, including works on Chaucer and Piers Plowman.

Thursday, February 23, 2012, at 7:30 PM, UW Newman Center

Hilaire Belloc:
How the Word Made Flesh
Vanquishes Barbarism, Servility, and Despair

Dr. Michael Matriotti
Seattle University

For Hilaire Belloc, the doctrine of the Incarnation was not an abstraction but a palpable historical event affecting the reality of all things. The Incarnation is the inspiration of the romanticism of the real so characteristic of Christian civilization. The loss of the sense of the reality of this historical event is destroying inevitably the ability to make traditions live anew, is bargaining away economic freedom, and is sapping the zest for life.

Dr. Michael Matriotti is an Assistant Professor in Matteo Ricci College at Seattle University and Head Cantor at St. John Chrysostom Catholic Church here in Seattle. Prof. Matriotti took his B.A. degree from St. Thomas Seminary in Kenmore, Washington, and his Doctorate in Theology degree from the Graduate Theological Union, at the University of California, Berkeley. His dissertation was a study of “The Relation between Science and Religion Viewed in the Light of the Evolutionary Notions of Julian Huxley, Carl Jung, and Friedrick Wilhelm von Schelling.”

Thursday, April 19, 2012, at 7:30 PM, UW Newman Center

What Might We Learn From Jane Austen?

Dr. Douglas Kries
Gonzaga University

Although a great many people still read Jane Austen’s novels or watch films based upon them, the wisdom and profound insight contained in her works remains largely unappreciated, for few people take Austen’s novels with the seriousness they deserve. This evening’s discussion seeks to begin to correct the current situation, for it takes Austen seriously by asking what we might learn about human existence from studying her books carefully. It turns out that she has a great deal to teach even modern human beings. This evening, Dr. Kries will especially focus on what she has to say to us about politics, family, marriage, and religion. His address will refer primarily to Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, which is the novel most widely-read, but it will also comment on the other novels as the occasion warrants.

Born and raised in rural Idaho, Douglas Kries completed his undergraduate work at Seattle University in 1982. He received his doctorate in theology at Boston College but – after some years as a stay-at-home dad – he has spent most of his professional life teaching philosophy at Gonzaga University. He writes on political philosophy and its relationship to Christian faith, treating especially figures such as Augustine, Cicero, Thomas Aquinas, and Alexis de Tocqueville. His most recent book is The Problem of Natural Law; his most recent article, “Tocqueville’s Unfinished Manuscript on Ireland.” In order to remain involved in the education of his daughters as they entered adolescence and adulthood, he has also cultivated an interest and expertise in Jane Austen.

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