The School of Theological Studies at Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary previously announced the 2017-2018 Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary Lecture Series featuring nationally renowned scholars and authors. This series encompasses the Archbishop’s Lecture Series, the Theology Lecture Series, the Philosophy Lecture Series, and the Cardinal Foley Lecture Series. It is an opportunity to come to a deeper understanding of the Catholic faith, its authentic content, and its orientation toward the transformation of the world around us.
The next lecture is a Philosophy Lecture and is detailed below:
Monday, March 19, 2018
Presenter: Mary Hirschfeld, Ph.D.
Topic: Creation and Transcendence: Laudato Si’s Challenge to the Technocratic Paradigm
Time: 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary
Vianney Hall Auditorium
100 East Wynnewood Road
Wynnewood, PA 19096 (Montgomery County)
All lectures are free and open to the public.
About the Lecture
In his encyclical Laudato Si, Pope Francis challenges us to both respect the environment and attend to the needs of the poor. On the standard economic view, the two goals are in tension. Economic growth is the best remedy for poverty, yet economic growth also puts pressure on the environment. That tension has led some to reject the pope’s message as hopelessly naive. But in the key chapters of the encyclical, Francis challenges the dominant world view of our age, which he calls the ‘technocratic paradigm’, implicitly arguing that environmental degradation and economic injustice are rooted in its faulty understanding of creation. As long as we are mired in the technocratic paradigm, we will be unable to develop a genuinely just and sustainable economy. If that is right, there is an urgent need to reclaim the creation paradigm. To come into right relationship with the material world, we need to be reminded that it is a reflection of God’s superabundant goodness.
Background on Presenter
Mary Hirschfeld, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Economics and Theology in the Department of Humanities at Villanova University. Dr. Hirschfeld holds a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in theology from the University of Notre Dame. Her work focuses on developing an approach to economics grounded in the thought of Saint Thomas Aquinas, with applications to questions of consumption, economic justice, the common good, and the nature of practical reason. In addition to her many scholarly articles in various journals, Dr. Hirschfeld is working on a book, Toward a Human Economy: Aquinas and the Modern Economy, in which she develops a theological framework for economics while respecting the best that modern economics has to offer.
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Editor’s Note: For additional information on this lecture series, please contact the School of Theology Studies at [email protected] or visit http://www.scs.edu/lectures