Programs: Generations in Dialogue

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Over eighteen months, Institute Associates meet for three weekend-long meetings to dialogue about topics in their discipline, vocational formation, and the role of scholarship in the life of faith community. Participants receive ongoing mentorship, communicate with each other in between, and have begun organizing independent scholarly presentations.

The first GID group of Institute Associates comprised of historians is led by John O’Malley, S.J., Georgetown University professor and well-known author.

The second GID group of Institute Associates is led by Bernard McGinn, professor emeritus at the University of Chicago Divinity School. This group is exploring the theme, “Spirituality and Modernity.”

Future disciplinary areas include the arts, poetry, biological science, and social science.

At its spring meeting of 2009, the Institute Board of Trustees approved the creation of the “Generations in Dialogue” research program. This unique program invites a widely-recognized senior Catholic scholar to share his or her time, expertise, and wisdom with several junior scholars in the same discipline. Over a two-year period these scholars convene for three weekend dialogues that include discipline-specific discussions, personal reflection, shared prayer, and presentations from other scholars and public intellectuals. In the early stage of their academic careers, young scholars will benefit immensely from two years of mentorship with a renowned Catholic scholar, as well as from establishing relationships with other dedicated scholars.

During the course of their two-year appointments, these young scholars – Institute Associates – will regularly share their ideas, report their progress, and discuss with the senior scholar and each other the directions that their research could go. The setting of collegial dialogue will foster a deeply connected scholarly community and influence scholarship that is both more grounded in Catholic tradition and more forward-looking in the relevance and application of that tradition for ordinary believers. Institute Associates and the senior scholar will enhance their continuing dialogue through online video conferencing, email, and phone communications, continuing to support each other’s progress.

The Institute does not require that Institute Associates be Catholic, or that their field of study be religion. Anyone seeking to deepen their area of scholarly interest through a substantive and critical engagement with Catholicism’s multiple intellectual traditions will be encouraged to join the robust community of scholars committed to deepening the Catholic tradition. This innovative program offers those who are seeking to explore and deepen the connection between personal religious belief and intellectual study an unusually rich intellectual and spiritual opportunity.

The Benefits of the Generations in Dialogue Program

The ongoing success of these dialogues will have far-reaching consequences. First, it will form a network of young and senior scholars practiced in dialogue with each other and the Catholic tradition. Second, it will enable young scholars, drawing on the wisdom and guidance of a senior scholar, to produce even better scholarship than they would on their own. Third, vibrant and bright young scholars selected to participate in the program will tell others at their home institutions about the value of this Institute initiative. Fourth, each of these young scholars will be able, through personal testimonies either on videotape or in writing, to make visible and compelling the mission of the Institute. And finally, this dialogue between senior and junior scholars represents, on a much smaller and less intense scale, exactly what the Institute as a residential center will facilitate: a nine-month-long conversation between generations of scholars seeking to understand better, and develop further, intellectual life for the benefit of the Church, other religions, and society.

Inaugural Generations in Dialogue Program hosted by Georgetown University, July 16-18, 2010

From July 16 to 18, several scholars gathered for the inaugural Generations in Dialogue Program (GID). This program provides two things that will benefit the next generation of Catholic scholars: a place for them to form a closer relationship with each other and with senior scholars, and a forum for both generations to explore their academic vocation as Catholic scholars. This first cohort met at Georgetown University, the home institution of senior scholar John O’Malley, S.J., author of many important studies, including The First Jesuits and What Happened at Vatican II. The weekend was framed by shared worship, prayer, and the hospitality of the Georgetown’s Jesuit Community.

The participants, all historians pictured here, discussed the dynamics of producing first-rate historical research while also contributing to the Church’s reflection on its history and contemporary challenges. Their topics of study varied from the worldviews of 16th-Century missionaries in the New World to the Thomistic influence on early Italian universities. Besides original research, John O’Malley encouraged the young scholars to ask the question, “so what?” Answering that question helps historians reveal often forgotten strands of a complex story in ways that most benefit contemporary readers. Fr. O’Malley described struggles and challenges that he faced early in his very successful career as a historian, and stressed his conviction that serious historical work sheds light on the challenges of the present.

Peter Steinfels, Institute board member and former New York Times religion columnist, joined the group for half a day to offer comments on the role of public intellectuals in the Church and American society, while Georgetown’s Carole Sargent, director of scholarly and literary publication, gave advice on publishing to different audiences. This group will stay in touch and meet several more times in the coming months; meanwhile, the Institute is planning several more GID Programs in a variety of other academic disciplines.