Symposium: Will Catholic Communities Transform the Culture?

Catholic communities transformed culture before. Can we do it again?

This March 25-26 at the Symposium on Transforming Culture at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, Sohrab Ahmari of the New York Post; Sherry Weddell, author of Forming Intentional Disciples, and Stephen Bullivant of St. Mary’s University (U.K.), will give their answers.

The 2022 theme, “‘See How They Love One Another’: Community and the New Evangelization,” looks to the example of the early Christian community as a model and guide for building authentic Christian community in the world today.

This annual conference brings together scholars, field professionals and students for a time of fellowship, reflection and dialogue concerning topics integral to the Catholic Faith and the New Evangelization.

New this Year is the Business Track focusing on Catholic business principles, thanks to Benedictine College’s Thompson Center for Integrity in Finance and Economics led by Benedictine Father Luke Turner and Dave Geenens.

“The early Christians developed a clear identity as a people ‘in the world, but not of the world,’”said Benedictine College theologian Matthew Muller, the conference organizer. “Their lives of selfless and sacrificial love for their neighbor witnessed to the Greco-Roman world a new way of being and living.”

He said Christians today have to find ways to do what they did: Create and sustain evangelizing communities, while “resisting the forces of consumerism, individualism, and secularism at work in our contemporary world.”

In addition to the keynotes, Featured Presenters include theologian Larry Chapp; Notre Dame’s Leonard DeLorenzo;  Jennifer Baugh, founder of Young Catholic Professionals; and Pete Burak of Renewal Ministries.

Other presentations will be given throughout the conference, including by academics, professional or non-profit leaders, and scholars addressing topics relevant to the Church’s mission to evangelize culture.

Muller said some of the topics will include:

• Renewal of the family and communities in American life
• Implementing aspects of Catholic social thought as a manifestation to Christ’s love and mercy
• Education as formation within a community, and the formation of a community
• The role of the parish in evangelizing and shaping culture
• Human anthropology and the need for communion
• Prayer, liturgy, and worship
• Friendship and the Crisis of friendship; and
• The place of community in art, literature, and architecture

For more information or to register to attend the Symposium, click here.