2025 Veritas Conference
2025 Providence College Veritas Conference
Great Things Beyond Searching Out
Transcendence in the Modern World
Spring Conference | April 25-26, 2025 | Providence College
The Providence College Humanities Program is pleased to invite abstract submissions for its 4th annual Veritas Conference. Keynote speakers include James K.A. Smith (Calvin College), Gregory Pine, OP (Thomistic Institute), Jessica Hooten Wilson (Pepperdine University), Jennifer Frey (University of Tulsa), and Michael Hanby (John Paul II Institute).
About the Conference
It has been argued that we are characteristically “modern” – or characteristically “secular” – in that we are able to imagine significance for our lives (individually and collectively) in a constructed social space that frames our lives entirely within a natural (rather than supernatural) order. This is to say, the modern social “imaginary” precludes transcendence. In the fourth annual Veritas Conference, we propose to examine the concept of “transcendence.”
What do we mean by the term: is it simply belief in the existence of gods, spirits, or a “higher power” – or what? Why is the preclusion of transcendence an intellectually plausible stance for many? Has transcendence actually disappeared from our lives – or is its supposed demise just a useful conceit? (And if the latter, then for whom is it useful – who benefits from a world bereft of transcendence?) Does modern scientific method itself or the specific results of scientific research necessitate the loss of a sense of transcendence? Where might a sense of transcendence still impinge on our modern lives – e.g., via art, or nature, or interpersonal love? May (must?) politics be open to some transcendence in order to be fully human? What resources does the Christian tradition – especially, the Catholic and Dominican tradition – have for recovering and articulating a renewed sense of “transcendence” in modernity? These and similar questions are the proposed topic for the Humanities Program’s fourth Annual Veritas Conference (2025),
In the humane spirit of the Veritas Conference, the Humanities Program welcomes abstracts that engage this year’s themes from a variety of perspectives, including theology, philosophy, political theory, law, literature, history, the arts, economics, and the social sciences. Please send title, abstract of no more than 300 words, and an accompanying Curriculum Vitae to veritas.conference@providence.edu. Abstracts are due by March 15, 2024.
Our Keynote Speakers
James K.A. Smith is a Professor of Philosophy at Calvin University.
Fr. Greory Pine is an instructor of dogmatic and moral theology at the Dominican House of Studies and an Assistant Director of the Thomistic Institute.
Dr. Jessica Hooten Wilson is the Fletcher Jones Chair of Great Books at Pepperdine University.
Dr. Jennifer Frey is dean of the Honors College at The University of Tulsa and professor of philosophy in the Department of Philosophy & Religion.
Dr. Michael Hanby is Associate Professor of Religion and Philosophy of Science at the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family Studies at the Catholic University of America.
More information, and registration, coming soon.
Please send any questions to veritas.conference@providence.edu.
For information on our previous conferences, click on the links below.
