The Saint Katherine College Forum

October 2011

St. Katherine College, the first ever Orthodox college of the liberal arts and sciences, is pleased to present the following speeches from its lecture series titled “The St. Katherine College Forum.” Recorded on the campus of St. Katherine’s in San Diego, California, the series is open to the public and features a wide array of speakers from the college and elsewhere.

Website: www.stkath.org

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Date	Title & Description	Duration
Mar 29, 2012	Plato on God as Person The ideas about God and human persons that Plato writes down in his dialogue, Timaeus, express a unique account of divine and human personhood. Dr. Patricia Slatin, currently a postdoctoral fellow in classics at Stanford University, explains the central points of Plato's account, showing the many ways they coincide with Eastern Orthodox theology. Click to play	95:27
Mar 21, 2012	The End of Suffering Dr. Scott Cairns, renowned poet and visiting professor at St. Katherine College, assays the meaning of suffering, beginning from the ubiquity of grief and the shallow nature of many explanations. Drawing from the insight of St. Isaac of Syria that love of God proceeds from our conversing with him, Cairns explains that the conditions for such a conversation point to a way of coming to grips with suffering. Click to play	66:10
Mar 12, 2012	The Musical Sources of Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil The All-Night Vigil by Sergei Rachmaninoff has been called one of the most beautiful musical works ever composed. Using musical examples drawn from the history of Russian music, Dr. Vladimir Morosan, an expert on the history of Russian sacred music, reveals some of the musical sources of the All-Night Vigil and explains how Rachmaninoff wove them together to create a composition that was uniquely his own. Click to play	85:16
Mar 09, 2012	Rugged and Steep: The Poetry of John Donne Dr. Arthur Seamans, professor emeritus of literature at Point Loma Nazarene University, tells the story of the life of John Donne and describes how he wrestled with God in his poetry. From the wide-ranging poems of Donne, Seamans distills three levels of love for both God and humans and describes the interplay between both kinds of love. Click to play	66:12
Feb 20, 2012	Truth, Lies, and Science in Everyday Life Dr. John Coroneus, professor of science at Saint Katherine College, explains three basic ways in which people attempt to deceive us by misusing science: by telling the truth out of context, by pairing pictures with words, and by asking leading questions. In illustrating these three methods of deception, Dr. Coroneus shows how even a little scientific knowledge can protect us from deception, though he also cautions us against simply adopting a skeptical way of life. Click to play	56:10
Feb 13, 2012	The Scriptures as Sacrament Dr. Eugenia Constantinou, professor of theology at the University of San Diego, discusses how St. John Chrysostom's vocation as a pastor informed his biblical preaching. By explaining the historical and ecclesiastical contexts of Chrysostom's day and by summarizing a number of his scattered remarks about the Bible, Dr. Constantinou illuminates a number of otherwise puzzling features of Chrysostom's homilies and shows how they evidence his commitment to the value of understanding the Bible. Click to play	59:02
Feb 06, 2012	Vocation, Poetry, and Prayer: Ways of Knowing Scott Cairns, renowned poet and visiting professor at St. Katherine College, explores the similarities and differences between art, vocation, and prayer. Drawing from his own experience as a poet, Cairns describes poetry not primarily as a means of expressing oneself or even helping others, but as a way of seeing and an art of producing objects fit for us to behold. Cairns also calls us to think about vocation not primarily as a way we minister to others, but as a way in which God blesses our lives by giving us meaningful work. Click to play	51:49
Nov 21, 2011	A Victory of the Truth: Christianity and the Collapse of Communism in Russia Fr. John Strickland, professor of history at Loyola Marymount University and adjunct professor at St. Katherine College, outlines the history of communism in Soviet Russia and explains the ways in which Orthodox Christianity contributed to its collapse. Click to play	76:50
Nov 18, 2011	Behold, the Tabernacle of God Is with Men Fr. Justin Sinaites, the only American monk at Saint Catherine's Monastery in Sinai and the monastery’s librarian, discusses the place of Saint Catherine’s Monastery in the life of the Orthodox church, both past and present, and the challenge it faces in preserving its spiritual heritage in a world in which the monastery is no longer as isolated as it once was. Click to play	64:05
Nov 14, 2011	The Poetry of John Milton Dr. Carol Blessing, professor of literature at Point Loma Nazarene University, provides background and insight into the work and ideas of the Puritan poet John Milton. By emphasizing Milton's educational, political, and religious background, Blessing shows the extent to which Milton's Paradise Lost subverts the traditional epic genre and moves it in new directions. Click to play	60:37
Nov 07, 2011	How and Why to Read Epic Literature Kay Harkins, associate professor of English Literature and Language at St. Katherine College, assays an Orthodox theory of literary criticism, which she bases on the principles of humility and compassion. Drawing on C. S. Lewis's A Preface to Paradise Lost, Harkins shows how an Orthodox approach to the old epic poems explains both why and how we ought to read them. Click to play	56:28
Oct 24, 2011	Metropolitan John Zizioulas: Unity and Diversity in the Early Church Dr. Eve Tibbs, dean of St. Katherine College and professor of theology, weaves together accounts of the early Christian church, the doctrine of the Trinity, and the thought of Met. John Zizioulas—especially his teaching that unity and diversity exist together as communion—to provide an explanation of how the Orthodox church has maintained its ecclesial unity in the face of forces that would divide its members from each other. Click to play	43:50
Oct 17, 2011	The Poet and the Philosophers: Homer and the Presocratics Gary Hartenburg, professor of philosophy at St. Katherine College, explains how the Presocratic philosophers represent an advance from the Homeric way of thinking, and what problems they faced in reconciling personal and scientific explanations—a problem that remains with us to this day. Click to play	75:03
Oct 10, 2011	Alexander Fleming and Antibiosis: On Correcting Life Drawing on the story of Alexander Fleming’s discovery of antibiotics, Dr. Papatheofanis, president of St. Katherine College, explains how God can intervene in the history of scientific discoveries in ways that present challenges to scientific theories, including the Darwinian theory of natural selection. Click to play	43:23
Oct 03, 2011	Civilizing the Heart: C. S. Lewis on Education Drawing from various works by C. S. Lewis, Fr. Andrew Cuneo, professor of literature at St. Katherine College, shows how Lewis’s model of education remains viable and even more necessary today than it was in Lewis’s own time. Click to play	68:08