The prayers of lay Catholics looking for intellectual stimulation in the faith may have been answered with the announcement last week of a series of dinner lectures to be given by some of the best Catholic minds Perth has to offer.
The newly-founded Dawson Society for Philosophy and Culture will present Christian Man in the Modern World on Tuesday, February 26, with lectures from Perth’s Dr Andrew Kania and Jing-Ping Wong, a recent Masters graduate of Melbourne’s John Paul II Institute.
The monthly series is the brainchild of of Dawson Society co-founders Thomas Gourlay and Daniel Matthys, inspired by the towering figure of the late Catholic historian Christopher Dawson and his exploration of the intersection between faith and culture around us.
“The idea was to provide an opportunity for primarily lay men and women in the Church to have a greater understanding of the theological and philosophical roots of some issues in contemporary culture,” Mr Gourlay told The Record.
“We hope it will translate the high and lofty ideas that are discussed in theological circles and really bring that to an everyday level while retaining the integrity of the message.”
Some of the inaugural event’s content would likely be similar to that of Pope Benedict XVI’s Address to the Curia on December 21 last year, Mr Gourlay said.
In that address, published in full in The Record last month, Pope Benedict said that many contemporary ailments, particularly with regard to family breakdown and sexuality, had their genesis in a mistaken idea of what it meant to be human.
“While up to now we regarded a false understanding of the nature of human freedom as one cause of the crisis of the family, it is now becoming clear that the very notion of being – of what being human really means – is being called into question,” Pope Benedict said.
“Can one bind oneself for a lifetime? Does this correspond to man’s nature? Does it not contradict his freedom and the scope of his self-realisation?
“Does man become himself by living for himself alone and only entering into relationships with others when he can break them off again at any time? Is lifelong commitment antithetical to freedom? Is commitment also worth suffering for?”
According to a Catholic understanding of what it means to be human, the Pope said, men and women can only find themselves in self-giving to others.
“This is one of the great themes that underpinned John Paul II’s pontificate,” Mr Gourlay said. “[It is also] one of the best ways to reach people, to teach them about their own dignity, as a creature of God, fallen, and redeemed by Christ.”
Mr Gourlay said he was in agreement with Melbourne Auxiliary Bishop Peter Elliott’s recent comment, as reported in The Record last week, that adult believers needed more than “some childish jumble of pious bits and pieces or sentimental feelings, lingering since primary school years”.
The foundation of the Dawson Society and the monthly dinner lecture series were attempts to meet the perceived gap in formation that Bishop Elliott identified.
Mr Gourlay said, in trying to meet that challenge, he was inspired by Christopher Dawson’s all encompassing view of history and culture and the part religion had in shaping culture.
“We saw the void and thought that this could be something to fill it, for people who wanted to engage intellectually as well as spiritually.”
The lecture series will not solely be about intellectual stimulation, however, with organisers hoping the choice of Rosie O’Grady’s, Northbridge, will provide a relaxed backdrop for socialising as well as lively discussion.
Details of future lectures in the series will be released in forthcoming weeks.
For more information or to confirm attendance (cost $25, inclusive of dinner), contact Thomas Gourlay, gourlayt@gmail.com or 0434 402 884.