6th Annual
Ad Fontes Academic Week
Formerly known as Florovsky-Newman Week
"Wider than the Heavens"
Patristic Views of Mary
Postponed until 2024 - Wichita, KS
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Ad Fontes Academic Week 2024
June 2024 date TBA
"Wider than the Heavens" Patristic Views of Mary
Co-sponsored by the Eighth Day Institute and The Gerber Institute for Catholic Studies, the Ad Fontes Academic Week promotes a “return to the sources for Christian unity.” Heeding Fr. Florovsky's advice, rather than simply overlooking differences, this conference seeks to overcome the different views of Mary. And we do so by returning to the common Tradition, by learning to read the Fathers as living masters, rather than as historical documents.
In years past, this conference has been known as the Florovsky-Newman Week. This year we have decided to broaden our perspective by honoring Thomas F. Torrance together with our other two patrons. Torrance was a Protestant who, like the Orthodox Fr. Georges Florovsky and Catholic St. John Henry Newman, called for a return to patristic sources as a guide for the modern Church..
Join us for this unique event as we return to the sources—ad fontes—in order to explore, challenge, and encourage one another to better love God and neighbor, and to work towards unity by way of the Fathers.
Man is still spreading death and desolation. One may expect even worse things to come. For the root of death is sin. No wonder that there is, in many and diverse quarters, a growing understanding of the seriousness of sin. The old saying of St Augustine [actually Anselm!] finds anew echoes in the human soul: Nondum considerasti quanti ponderis sit peccatum, "you never understand of what weight is sin". ~Fr. Georges Florovsky
Eighth Day Seminar
Mary in the Bible, the Fathers, the Liturgy, & Literature
This four-session Seminar will be conducted in a Shared Inquiry format, the method of approaching texts used in the classrooms of St. John's College, Thomas Aquinas College, and other "great books" curriculum schools.
A good friend once said, "shared-inquiry is a way to read a book with more than one brain." This is an apt description, because one often discovers that a passage which proves difficult is illumined by someone else, and vice versa. Shared-inquiry facilitates a communal engagement with a given text so that we are informed and transformed together.
Seating is limited to first 12 registrants.
Notebook of readings will be delivered upon registration. See schedule below for details.
PLENARY DIALOGUE PRESENTERS
Fr. John Behr
University of Aberdeen
John Behr is a British Eastern Orthodox priest and theologian. Since 2020, he has served as the Regius Professor of Humanity at the University of Aberdeen. He is the former dean of St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary, where he was the director of the Master of Theology Program and the Father Georges Florovsky Distinguished Professor of Patristics. He was ordained to the diaconate on 8 September 2001 and the priesthood on 14 September 2001. He is the editor of the Patristic Series released by St. Vladimir's Press. He was elected dean of the seminary on 18 November 2006 and served from 2007 until 2017 when he was named Father Georges Florovsky Distinguished Professor of Patristics.
Dr. Tim Perry
Former associate professor of theology at Providence College
Tim Perry, PhD, was formerly an associate professor of theology at Providence College, Otterburne, Manitoba, Canada. He is the author of Mary for Evangelicals, Pope John Paul II: An Evangelical Assessment, (both InterVarsity Press), Blessed Is She (Morehouse), and Radical Difference: A Defense of Hendrik Kraemer's Theology of Religions (Wilfrid Laurier University Press).
He is active in parish ministry around Winnipeg and the South East, though not currently serving in a pastoral role. His areas of interest include ecumenical dialogue and Mariology. He lives in Grunthal with his wife, Rachel, and their family.
Dr. Robert Fastiggi
Sacred Heart Major Seminary
Dr. Robert Fastiggi, Bishop Kevin M. Britt Chair of Dogmatic Theology and Christology, has been at Sacred Heart Major Seminary since 1999. Prior to coming to Detroit, he taught at St. Edward's University in Austin, Texas from 1985-1999.
During his time at Sacred Heart, Dr. Fastiggi has taught courses in Ecclesiology, Christology, Mariology, church history, sacramental theology, and moral theology. He is a member of the Society for Catholic Liturgy, the Mariological Society of America, the International Marian Association, and a corresponding member of the Pontifical Marian Academy International (P.A.M.I).
Dr. Fastiggi and his wife, Kathy, have been married since 1984 and have three adult children: Mary, Anthony and Clare.
Schedule
CLICK HERE FOR PDF FLYER WITH SCHEDULE (Coming Soon!)
OUR EVENT PATRONS
Fr. Georges Florovsky
Fr. Georges Florovsky, a 20th century Russian Orthodox priest, is described by Metropolitan Kallistos Ware as the greatest Orthodox theologian of the twentieth century. Florovsky tirelessly insisted on a return to the common heritage of all Christians in the first thousand years of the Church's history as a path to recovering a common language for progress toward overcoming the divisions of Christendom. In his honor, this week is organized to promote such a return to the sources for Christian unity.
St. John Henry Newman
St. John Henry Newman—the 19th century educator, poet, pastor, and theologian—is considered by many to be the most important (and controversial) figure in the history of England. As a leader in the Oxford Movement, his immersion in the early Tradition of the Church, especially the Church Fathers, led to his conversion from Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism. Cited frequently by Fr. Georges Florovsky, a case can be made that Newman's emphasis on the Fathers was key to the development of Florovsky's ecumenical proposal for a neopatristic synthesis.
Thomas F. Torrance
Thomas F. Torrance (1913-2007) was an ordained minister in the Church of Scotland and for 27 years served as professor of Christian dogmatics at New College, in the University of Edinburgh. He is known for his pioneering work in the study of science and theology, and he is respected for his Incarnational and Trinitarian theology which is steeped in the Church Fathers. He translated into English Karl Barth's thirteen-volume, six-million-word Church Dogmatics and John Calvin's New Testament Commentaries. He was a good friend of Fr. Georges Florovsky and he was instrumental in the development of the historic agreement between the Reformed and Eastern Orthodox churches on the doctrine of the Trinity.
CLICK HERE FOR PDF FLYER WITH SCHEDULE (Coming Soon!)
Members Only!
50%-100% off Admission
Become a Patron or Teacher/Pastor member to support Eighth Day Institute and receive 50% discount on both of our featured events: Ad Fontes & Eighth Day Symposium.
Our Pillar members receive a 100% discount on both featured events!
Learn more about membership and all the member perks here!
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Early Bird Registration Ends in
All Access Pass
$100
Festal Banquet Excluded
All Academic Papers
All Plenary Dialogues
One Day Pass
$35
Academic Papers
Plenary Dialogue
Festal Banquet
$40
Festal Banquet Dinner with Toasts to Florovsky, Newman, & Torrance
Dinner
Cash Bar
Dressy Casual Attire
4-Session Pre-Conference Seminar
Early Bird - $100
This is a 4-session shared-inquiry seminar facilitated by Joshua Sturgill on Mon-Tue, June 5-6 from 5:30 pm - 9:30 pm.
Notebook of readings included; dinner not included.
You have not yet considered how heavy the weight of sin is.
~Anselm of Canterbury,
Why God Became Man
Bk 1 Ch 21
Abstracts
Venues
Newman University
Wichita, KS 67213
The Ladder
St. George Cathedral
Wichita, KS 67206
Accommodations
Hotel at Old Town
Spiritual Life Center
Hilton Garden Inn
2041 N. Bradley Fair Pkwy
Wichita, KS 67206
866-238-4218
