ATLANTIS

John Waters

2006-04-05T09:32:00.000+01:00

In the last one of a series of six lunchtime talks, the ATLANTIS Society will host the journalist and writer John Waters. He will give a paper on Vaclav Havel. The meeting will take place from 1.05pm to 1.45pm on Thursday, 6 April in room C110, John Henry Newman Bldg. All are welcome.

Dony MacManus

2006-03-16T09:35:00.000Z

In the fifth of a series of six lunchtime talks, the ATLANTIS Society will host the sculptor Dony MacManus. He will give a paper on Bernini. The meeting will take place from 1.10pm to 1.50pm on Thursday, 16 March in room C110, John Henry Newman Bldg. All are welcome.

Joseph Ratzinger

2006-02-02T22:40:00.000Z

In the fourth of a series of six lunchtime talks, the ATLANTIS Society will host Dr. Vincent Twomey from the Dept. of Theology, NUI Maynooth. He will give a paper on the thought and person of Benedict XVI. Dr Twomey is a former doctoral student of Joseph Ratzinger.
The meeting will take place from 1.10pm to 1.50pm on Thursday, 9th February in room C110, John Henry Newman Bldg.
All are welcome.

2006-01-11T15:07:00.000Z

In the third of a series of six lunchtime talks, the ATLANTIS Society
will host Gerard Casey, Head of the School of Philosophy (UCD).
He will give a paper on the life and work of Walker Percy.

The meeting will take place from 1.10pm to 1.50pm on Thursday, 19
January in room C110, John Henry Newman Bldg.

All are welcome.

New year talks

2005-10-28T22:19:00.000+01:00

Atlantis was formed in 2004 to examine, through monthly talks, the impact of the Catholic faith on the lives and works of key thinkers, artists and leaders who have shaped our world.

All meetings from 1.05pm to 1.55pm in room C110, in the John Henry Newman Building, UCD, Dublin

Thursday 10 November

Mette Lebech, Faculty of Philosophy, NUI, Maynooth

The Life and Thought of Edith Stein (St.Teresa Benedicta of the Cross)

Born at Breslau on 12th October 1891, on the Jewish festival of Yom Kippur, the youngest of seven children, she did her first studies in philosophy in her native city. Later she moved to Gottingen to follow Edmund Husserl, philosophical genius and father of phenomenology. At his school Edith was to take no further interest in religion, retaining only the moral stamp of her Jewish upbringing. Through the study of phenomenology, however, she began gradually to discover the religious world and Christianity, later becoming a Catholic. A turning point in her life was her reading of the autobiography of St Teresa of Avila. On a mysterious June night in 1921, finding herself a guest in the house of a philosopher friend, she received a profound intuition of God-Truth. All became light for her: she was baptised on January 1st 1922, receiving at the same time a vocation to Carmel.

Despite family opposition Edith became a Carmelite nun, taking the name of Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. She was quickly to feel the weight of the "cross" on her shoulders. Following the discovery by the authorities of her non-Aryan origins, she was no longer safe behind monastery walls; so in the early hours of New Year's Day 1939 she was taken to Holland, to the Carmel of Echt. It seemed a tranquil place, yet she had a premonition that she should not escape the destiny of her people. In fact while she was writing her book on the doctrine of St John of the Cross, significantly entitled The Science of the Cross, two officials of the occupation forces came to the monastery. She had to go with them, together with her sister Rose, also a convert, who had joined her in Echt.

Before being deported to Auschwitz, Edith was able to send a message to Carmel. Then with the convoy which brought them to Auschwitz, the Stein sisters entered the shadow of death. On August 9th, 1942, the holocaust of Edith reached its consummation in the gas chambers. Pope John Paul II who already in 1987 had publicly proclaimed the sanctity of this daughter of St Teresa, and the martyrdom of this Jewess returned to the bosom of the Church, on 11th October 1998 solemnly canonized her at Rome.

Thursday 1 December

Dr Thomas Kelly, Faculty of Philosophy, NUI, Maynooth

Anselm of Aosta (St. Anselm of Canterbury)

Anselm was born in 1033/34, in Aosta, Lombardy. He entered the Benedictine monastery at Bec (in Normandy) in 1057 and became abbot in 1078. In 1077 he wrote the Monologium to demonstrate God's existence and attributes by reason alone. He then wrote Proslogium, which established the ontological argument for the existence of God. In 1093, he became archbishop of Canterbury and soon became involved in disputes with William II over the independence of the church and the right to appeal to the pope, arguments that led to Anselm's exile. Although invited back by Henry I, Anselm again argued with the king over lay investiture (see Investiture Controversy). In 1099 he completed Cur Deus homo? (“Why Did God Become Man?”), which provided a new understanding of Jesus' redemption of humankind and revealed the increasing focus on the humanity of Jesus. He died on April 21, 1109, possibly at Canterbury, Kent, England. His feast day is April 21. He was declared a Doctor of the Church in 1720.

Thursday 19 January

Dr Gerard Casey

School of Philosophy, UCD

Walker Percy

Walker Percy was born on May 28, 1916, Birmingham, Alabama and was orphaned in late childhood and was raised by a cousin in Mississippi. While working as a pathologist he contracted tuberculosis; during his recuperation he decided on a writing career and converted to Roman Catholicism. His first and best-known novel, The Moviegoer (1961), introduced his concept of malaise, a sense of spiritual emptiness characteristic of the rootless modern world. His other works, often about the search for faith and love in a New South transformed by industry and technology, include Love in the Ruins (1971), The Second Coming (1980), and The Thanatos Syndrome (1987) He died in May 10, 1990.

Thursday 9 February

Dr Vincent Twomey, Faculty of Theology, St.Patrick’s College, Maynooth

Benedict XVI

Pope Benedict XVI (Joseph Alois Ratzinger) was born April 16, 1927, in Marktl am Inn, Germany, He was ordained in 1951 and received a doctorate in theology at the University of Munich in 1953. Thereafter he pursued a brilliant career as a theologian and teacher at various universities. During the Second Vatican Council (1962–65) he served as an expert adviser and an advocate of reform. In 1977 he was appointed archbishop of Munich; three months later he was made a cardinal. As prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith from 1981 to 2005, he enforced doctrinal uniformity in the church and served as a close adviser of Pope John Paul II. He has been termed ‘the Mozart of theology’.

Thursday 16 March

Donal MacManus, Sculptor

Bernini

Gian Lorenzo Bernini, born Dec. 7, 1598, in Naples, began his career working for his father, a sculptor. Among his early sculptures are Apollo and Daphne (1622–24) and an active David (1623–24). Under the patronage of Urban VIII, the first of eight popes he was to serve, he created the baldachin over the tomb of St. Peter in Rome. Bernini's architectural duties increased after 1629, when he was appointed architect of St. Peter's Basilica and the Palazzo Barberini. His works often represent a fusion of architecture and sculpture, as in the Cornaro Chapel, in Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome, with its celebrated theatrical sculpture, The Ecstasy of St. Teresa (1645–52). His greatest architectural achievement is the colonnade enclosing the piazza before St. Peter's. Among his many other contributions to Rome are his Triton Fountain and Fountain of the Four Rivers, noted for their architectural composition and detail.

Thursday 6 April

John Waters, The Irish Times

Vaclav Havel

Vaclav Havel, was born on Oct. 5, 1936, in Prague, Czech. He worked in a Prague theatre from 1959 and became resident playwright by 1968. His plays, including The Memorandum (1965), are absurdist, satirical examinations of bureaucratic routines that explore the moral compromises made by those living under totalitarianism. They were banned by the communist authorities, and Havel was repeatedly arrested and imprisoned in the 1970s and '80s. During antigovernment demonstrations in 1989, he became the leading figure in the Civic Forum, a coalition of groups pressing for democratic reforms. The Communist Party capitulated (in the bloodless “Velvet Revolution”) and formed a coalition government with the Civic Forum, and Havel was elected president in 1989. In 1993 he was elected president of the new Czech Republic.

Next talks

2005-10-22T15:27:00.000+01:00

Thursday 10 November: Dr Mette Lebech (NUI Maynooth) Edith Stein
Thursday 1 December: Dr Thomas Kelly (NUI Maynooth) St. Anselm of Aosta.
Thursday 19 January: Dr. Gerard Casey (UCD) TBC.
Thursday 9 February: Dr Vincent Twomey (NUI Maynooth) Benedict XVI
Thursday 16 March: Donal MacManus Bernini.
Thursday 6 April: John Waters (Irish Times) Vaclav Havel

New year

2005-10-11T09:25:00.000+01:00

Atlantis is starting up for the coming academic year in UCD. The series of talks has almost been finalised – there are still two slots which remain to be filled. It is looking like quite a good line up for the year ahead.

In lieu of a speaker for our first meeting, we thought that we would try to gather those of you who would be available to help out with Atlantis (albeit in a very small way) during the coming year. So if you are free, please come along this Thursday 13 October to the John Henry Newman Building, room C110, from 1.10 to about 1.50pm.

Here is an outline of our projected talks for 2005-06:

Thursday 13 October: General Meeting
Thursday 10 November: Dr Mette Lebech (Maynooth) Edith Stein
Thursday 1 December: Dr Thomas Kelly (Maynooth) St. Anselm of Aosta.
Thursday 19 January:
Thursday 9 February: Dr Vincent Twomey (Maynooth) Benedict XVI
Thursday 16 March:
Thursday 6 April:

John Waters will speak about Vaclav Havel, but the date of this talk has yet to be confirmed

John Paul II – the philosopher

2005-04-14T11:03:00.000+01:00

The next and final Atlantis talk will be on John Paul II – the philosopher, by Dr. Brendan Purcell, Dept of Philosophy, UCD.

It will be on Thursday, 21st April at 1.10pm in J109 of the Arts Block in Belfield.

Here is a piece on the philosophical legacy of John Paul II.

Newman

2005-02-21T11:09:00.000Z

On February 23rd Angelo Bottone will give a talk on John Henry Newman's The Idea of a University.
Arts Building, J109, from 1.00 to 2.00, UCD Belfield Dublin.

Angelo Bottone is a Phd Student in Philosophy at UCD.

(Please note, this talk has been moved from February 24th to February 23rd).

Next meetings

2005-01-19T17:46:00.000Z

These are our next meetings:

27th January St. Teresa of Avila's Life written by herself
24th February J. H. Newman's Idea of a University
31st March Edith Stein's Life in a Jewish Family
21st April John Paul II's Fides and Ratio

Newman Building, room J109, 1.10 pm to 1.55 pm.

Aquinas

2004-11-17T09:31:00.000Z

Ever thought about reading Aquinas? Here’s your chance to get started!

St.Thomas Aquinas: An Introduction by Eamonn Gaines
John Henry Newman Building, room J109
1.00pm to 1.55pm, 25th November

Eamonn Gaines is a philosophy graduate from UCD and Maynooth. He is currently working at Queen’s University Belfast. His introduction to Aquinas will be based on G.K.Chesterton’s biography: St.Thomas Aquinas.

Next meeting

2004-11-07T14:39:00.000Z

Thanks everyone for the great attendance at our last meeting.
We will meet again on Thursday 25th.
There will be an introduction to Thomas Aquinas through his biography written by C. K. Chesterton.
Here you can find the book.

Meeting postponed

2004-10-29T15:14:00.000+01:00

Our meeting on Dante's Paradiso has been postponed.
It will be Thursday 4th November, 1.00 pm, J109 John Henry Newman Building.
Speaker will be Claudia Boscolo.
Claudia Boscolo is a lecturer in the Italian Department in UCD, she holds a Laurea from Università degli Studi di Trento and is working on a PhD in University of London.

Dante's Paradiso

2004-10-15T10:46:00.000+01:00

Our next meeting will be on Dante's Paradiso.
Speaker will be Claudia Boscolo, lecturer in the Italian Department, UCD.
Thursday 28th, 1.00 pm, J109 John Henry Newman Building.

First meeting speaker

2004-09-27T11:02:00.000+01:00

Distinguished speaker for our first meeting on St. Augustine will be father Patrick Gorevan, who holds philosophy doctorates from UCD and Rome.
He lectures in St.Patrick’s College, Maynooth.
Meeting will be on 30th September in the John Henry Newman Building, room J109, from 1.00 to 2.00.

Reading on Augustine

2004-09-17T22:57:00.000+01:00

Suggested readings for our first meeting on Augustine:

- Augustine of Hippo Apostolic Letter of John Paul II
- Augustine The Internet Encyclopaedia of Philosophy.
- Saint Augustine Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy.

First meeting

2004-09-15T11:43:00.000+01:00

Our first meeting on St. Augustine will be on 30th September in the John Henry Newman Building, room J109, from 1.00 to 2.00.

In principio

2004-09-12T14:01:00.000+01:00

We are forming a new student society in University College Dublin to encourage people to discover some of the great figures of the Catholic tradition. We will be inviting experts to give us a simple introduction to the book of the month: its historical background and subsequent influence, a biographical sketch of the author, and brief summary of the work. Discussion will follow.

Here is an outline of our projected works:

September St.Augustine's Confessions
October Dante's Paradiso
November St.Thomas: Chesterton's Life
January St.Teresa of Avila's Life
February Newman's Idea of a University
March Edith Stein's Life in a Jewish Family
April John Paul II's Fides et Ratio

Our meetings are for all - not only Catholic students - who want an opportunity to familiarize themselves with key figures in our civilization.

If you are interested contact us: atlantis@dublin.com