Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity

Vatican Astronomer Rev. David Brown, S.J. talks about his work on star evolution at the Vatican's Observatory outside Rome and current research areas in astronomy, and considers how questions of the universe fit in with Catholic belief.

Robert Ellsberg, publisher of Orbis Books and editor of Dorothy Day's selected writings, diaries and letters, speaks about Day, social justice activist and founder of the Catholic Worker movement, and in favor of her case for canonization. George Horton, Catholic Charities' director of social and community development for the Archdiocese of New York, shares an update on the process of canonization in New York and expectations for taking the case to Rome.

Shaji George Kochuthara, CMI, is a Catholic priest, associate professor of moral theology at Dharmaram Vidya Kshetram in Bangalore, India and the chief editor of "Asian Horizons, Dharmaram Journal of Theology." He describes the increasing incidences of sexual violence in India and the prevalent patriarchal social structure that exacerbates it. He points to recent protests and the beginnings of a cultural shift in gender roles and attitudes.

William T. Cavanaugh is director of the Center for World Catholicism and Intercultural Theology and professor of Catholic Studies at DePaul University. He is author of "The Myth of Religious Violence: Secular Ideology and the Roots of Modern Conflict" (Oxford University Press, 2009).

Paul Bloom, Brooks and Suzanne Ragen Professor of Psychology and Chair of the Cognitive Science Program at Yale University, draws upon his research into psychopathy, criminal behavior, charitable giving, infant cognition, cognitive neuroscience and Buddhist meditation practices to argue that empathy is a poor moral guide and we are better off without it. He is author of "Just Babies: The Origins of Good and Evil" (Crown Publishers, 2013).

Vincent J. Miller, the Gudorf Chair of Catholic Theology and Culture at the University of Dayton, talks about how globalization has resulted in shallow consumer relationships where people don't know where or how the things they buy are made. He explains why this is a Catholic concern and what the popes since Vatican II have had to say about it, and suggests ways that individuals can become more mindful consumers.

Rev. Bryan Massingale, professor of theological ethics at Marquette University and author of "Racial Justice and the Catholic Church" (Orbis, 2010) talks about Catholic Social Thought post Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown. He explains that an unconscious, unintentional, racial bias creates a culture where the shooting unarmed black men is considered a reasonable response. He reflects on faith as way to promote solidarity and compassion for all people.

David Yamane, associate professor of sociology at Wake Forest University and author of "Becoming Catholic: Finding Rome in the American Religious Landscape," talks about the significant numbers of American adults converting to Catholicism and their motivations why, and explores the process and success of the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults introduced by Vatican II.

Vern Bengtson, researcher for the Edward R. Roybal Institute on Aging at the University of Southern California, reports the findings of the largest-ever survey of religious faith across generations. He is author of the 2013 book "Families and Faith: Generations and the Transmissions of Religion."

Legal scholar and moral theologian M. Cathleen Kaveny, the newly named Darald and Juliet Libby Professor at Boston College, discusses how Catholics in a pluralistic society should frame their public discussion of controversial issues.

The popular former president of Ireland, Mary McAleese, combines her personal history and governing experience in Ireland with her study of canon (church) law to make a case for change in the governance of the Catholic Church. She advocates for an increased decision-making role by the College of Bishops, a theme highlighted at the Second Vatican Council, and a Church that actively listens to its 1.2 billion followers.

Martin Nowak is professor of biology and of mathematics and director of the program for evolutionary dynamics at Harvard University. His latest book, "SuperCooperators," was published by Simon & Schuster in 2011. In this talk, he proposes that cooperation is the third fundamental principle of evolution after mutation and selection. He also addresses the tension between science and religion and suggests that science does not disprove the existence of God, and evolution should pose as little a problem for religion as gravity.

Robert P. George is the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and founder and director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University. In this lecture, he explains that, according to natural law theory, all persons possess irreducible capacities for reason and freedom, and that moral norms are rooted in the good of human beings.

Pericles Lewis, professor of English and comparative literature at Yale University, is assuming duties as president of the New Yale liberal arts college in Singapore. His talk explores the theme of the burial of the dead in the work of such authors James Joyce, Marcel Proust, Virginia Woolf, Franz Kafka, Thomas Mann, and William Faulkner.

Kenneth Parker, associate professor of historical theology at Saint Louis University, discusses how competing accounts of historical narrative are used to define the church today.

Bishop Robert W. McElroy is auxiliary bishop of San Francisco and the author of "Morality and American Foreign Policy" (Princeton, 1992). He holds degrees in history, political science and moral theology from Harvard, Stanford and the North American College in Rome.

Rev. Paul Mariani, S.J., assistant professor of history at Santa Clara University, talks about religious policy and conflict in the People's Republic of China since 1950 and how Catholics in China understand their faith today. He is author of "Church Militant: Bishop Kung and Catholic Resistance in Communist Shanghai" (Harvard University Press, 2011).

Journalist and poet Eliza Griswold, author of "The Tenth Parallel: Dispatches from the Fault Line Between Christianity and Islam," talks about her travels and research in North Africa and Central Asia, where high concentrations of Christians and Muslims live together.

Lisa Sowle Cahill, the J. Donald Monan Professor of Theology at Boston College, talks about access to health care in the U.S. and globally from the perspective of a theological ethicist and progressive Catholic.

Philip Endean, S.J., who teaches theology at Campion Hall, Oxford University, suggests that knowledge of God is more than any encounter with Jesus Christ and that Ignatian spirituality calls on believers to continue where Jesus left off.

Monica Duffy Toft, associate professor of public policy at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and director of the Initiative on Religion in International Affairs, offers fresh perspectives on how and why religion's influence on politics is surging.

Diana Hayes, professor of systematic theology at Georgetown University, speaks on womanist theology and themes in her 2010 publication, Standing in the Shoes My Mother Made: A Womanist Theology.

J. Matthew Ashley, who chairs the Department of Theology at the University of Notre Dame, shares a first glimpse of his new book on the impact of Ignatian spirituality on three 20th-century Jesuit theologians.

Stanley Hauerwas, Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics at Duke University Divinity School, a distinguished contemporary ethicist and pacifist, asserts that war is a moral practice and its Christian alternative is worship.

Elizabeth Johnson, C.S.J., Distinguished Professor of Theology at Fordham University, explores the traditional role of Jesus Christ as Savior of the human race and considers if his teachings can be applied to a more bio-centric or cosmos-centric theology. Part of the yearlong series "In Our Lifetimes: Environmental Changes and Stewardship."

Christian Smith, director of the National Study of Youth and Religion, shares findings from the third wave of NSYR data collection of 18-23 year olds.

Peter C. Phan, the Ignacio Ellacuria Chair of Catholic Social Thought at Georgetown University, provides an overview of the history and current situation of Catholicism in South and East Asia and then discusses how Christian mission is to be understood in that context.

Smita Lahiri, associate professor of anthropology at Harvard University, talks about her research at Mt. Banahaw, a major center of folk-Catholic pilgrimage in the Philippines.

David Sorkin, Professor of History and Frances and Laurence Weinstein Professor of Jewish Studies at University of Wisconsin-Madison, presents a comparative Jewish, Protestant and Catholic intellectual history, and suggests that the Enlightenment, which gave birth to Modernity, should best be understood as a religious, not an anti-religious project.

Archbishop Agostino Marchetto, secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People, visits from the Vatican to talk about the church's understanding of Christian responsibility for migrants, refugees and itinerant people.