26 January 2010

The Climacus Conference of Thoughtful Ascent


I don’t normally post on this kind of thing, but there’s an interesting conference coming up in Louisville, KY, the first weekend in February (starts at 6:30 pm Friday, 5 Feb., ends at 5 pm Saturday, 6 Feb.). I myself am hoping to go, and I’d like to prevail upon as many other Orthodox denizens of blogdom as I can to go as well. It’s called ‘The Climacus Conference of Thoughtful Ascent: A Contemplation of Noble Ideas’. A few of the speakers are:

Vigen Guroian—Professor of Religious Studies in Orthodox Christianity at the University of Virginia. Eastern Orthodox Theologian and Ethicist.

George Bebawi—Former Director of Studies at the Institute for Christian Orthodox Studies, Cambridge.

John Granger—Classical homeschooler, Orthodox traditionalist, writer & speaker on the intersection of literature, philosophy, faith, and culture. Author of Looking for God in Harry Potter and others.

David Wright—Fellow in Classical Education, the Great Books, and Classical Rhetoric at the CiRCE Institute.

and others.

As a sample of topics (and picking those which most interest me), Guroian will be speaking on ‘Pinocchio and the Moral Imagination’, Bebawi on ‘The Fasting of the Mind’, Granger on ‘Why Reading Matters: Great Books & the Life in Christ’, and David Wright on ‘St John Climacus, Poetry, and the Rhetoric of Life’.

Eighth Day Books will be setting up a display of ‘of the greatest books on the planet’. Old Louisville Coffeehouse will be providing coffee. There will be bagels and doughnuts in the morning, and lunch provided in the afternoon. The event will take place at St Michael Antiochian Orthodox Church. (For full details, see the conference webpage here.)

As I have said, I am hoping to go, and I think it would be great to meet fellow bloggers as well as readers of my blog. I shall post an update as soon as I know whether I will be able to make it or not.

HT Scholium.

4 comments:

Isaac said...

This looks like a great conference both for its speakers and for its meeting opportunities. I wonder, however, why Dr. Guroian was labelled on the website as 'Eastern Orthodox'? I was under the impression that he belonged to the monophysite communion as an Armenian. Nevertheless, I have always wanted to meet him-- he is a profound thinker and writer, and a thinking conservative. His introduction to Russell Kirk's book Ancestral Shadows was very good, too.

My wife loves Molly Sabourin. I'm sure she'd love to meet her in person. Maybe I can use that with her as a selling point?

The cost of this conference seems very reasonable. Two days of lectures and meeting opportunities, and registration-plus-lodging for two people is only $100.

I'll be honest though-- I'm not expecting much from Maddex. I've never been much impressed with him or his very laissez faire standards when it comes to what can be passed off for Orthodoxy on Ancient Faith Radio. Not that I don't love it-- it's just a very mixed bag.

Aaron Taylor said...

I wondered that about Guroian too. It occurred to me that maybe he is now a regular communicant at an Orthodox parish (though one doubts he has renounced 'miaphysitism'!).

I'm with you on AFR, though note that it is Bobby Maddex speaking at the conference, not John Maddex. Bobby has an AFR podcast, but he's not the main dude behind it.

Daniel said...

drat! I was hoping to go but am having to attend a wedding in Nashville.

the folks @ St michaels are wonderful. you should definitely get to know David Wright well! Tell him I said to search him out!

Aaron Taylor said...

Maximus> If I make it, I'll do that!