Christendom College to Welcome Prominent Catholic Historians at Summer Conference

FRONT ROYAL, Va. - April 12, 2013 - PRLog -- Christendom College’s biennial Summer Conference will be held on Saturday, July 13, at its Front Royal, Va., campus. The one-day conference, entitled “A Catholic Vision of History,” will feature EWTN’s Marcus Grodi as emcee and some of today’s top Catholic historians, and will honor the memory of Christendom College founder and historian, the late Warren H. Carroll.  

Dr. Thomas Madden, Dr. Brad Gregory, Dr. Timothy O'Donnell, Dr. Christopher Shannon, Dr. Adam Schwartz, and Dr. Brendan McGuire will all present insightful talks, while Straight Answers author Fr. William Saunders will celebrate Mass and deliver the homily.

Marcus Grodi is a convert to the Faith and serves as the Founder and President of The Coming Home Network International, a non-profit Catholic lay apostolate aimed at helping our separated brethren, both clergy and laity, come home to the Catholic Church. He also hosts The Journey Home, a weekly live television program, and Deep In Scripture, a weekly live radio program, both on EWTN.

Dr. Thomas Madden will deliver a talk entitled "Rethinking Holy War: The Crusades and Catholic Devotion in the Middle Ages." Madden is professor of history and Director of the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at Saint Louis University.  As an author and historical consultant, he has appeared in such venues as The New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and The History Channel.

Dr. Brad S. Gregory will discuss “History as Ancilla Theologiae? Some Reflections." Gregory is professor of Early Modern European History at the University of Notre Dame. He has received multiple teaching awards at Stanford and Notre Dame, and in 2005 was named the inaugural winner of the Hiett Prize in the Humanities.

Dr. Timothy O'Donnell’s talk is entitled "Why History? The Church's View." O'Donnell, who serves as President of Christendom College and teaches classes in history and theology, was the first layman to receive both his licentiate and doctoral degrees in Ascetical and Mystical Theology from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) in Rome. He is the author of Heart of the Redeemer and Swords Around the Cross: The Nine Years War. He has filmed many programs for the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) including Glory of the Papacy and Rome’s Hidden Churches.

Dr. Christopher Shannon will deliver a talk entitled "After Modernism: De Lubac, Daniélou and the Patristic Approach to History." Shannon is a member of the history department at Christendom College. His books include Conspicuous Criticism: Tradition, the Individual, and Culture in Modern American Social Thought and, the highly acclaimed, Bowery to Broadway: The American Irish in Classic Hollywood Cinema.

Dr. Adam Schwartz will discuss the “Theologies of History in G. K. Chesterton and David Jones." Schwartz is a scholar of modern British Christian thought. He has been a member of the history department at Christendom College since 2000 and is the author of Third Spring: G.K. Chesterton, Graham Greene, Christopher Dawson, and David Jones.

Dr. Brendan McGuire’s talk is entitled “Understanding the Past or Manipulating the Evidence? The Catholic Historian and Modern Religious Ecumenism.” McGuire is a Catholic historian, specializing in the classical and medieval periods.  He received his doctoral degree in medieval history from Saint Louis University, and in recent years has presented scholarly research on various historical topics at prestigious regional, national, and international conferences. He is currently a professor of history at Christendom College, his alma mater.

Noted spiritual adviser, Rev. William Saunders, will celebrate Mass and deliver the homily. A priest of the Diocese of Arlington, Rev. Saunders served as President of the Notre Dame Institute and Dean of the Notre Dame Graduate School from 1992 to 2002.  For over ten years he authored the popular weekly column “Straight Answers” in the Arlington Catholic Herald and has published two books of the collected articles. He is an expert on colonial American Catholic history.

Spacing is limited and early-bird pricing is available. To register or for more information, please visit christendom.edu/conference.