IC_022414B_IACS General Institute Brochure_RD12_lb

“Grant to me keenness of mind, capacity of
remembering, skill in learning, subtlety
in interpreting …” — ST. THOMAS AQUINAS
The Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies at USC

“Our location in Los Angeles and our affiliation with USC
are critically important to the mission of the Institute. I can think
of no better place from which to conduct the research and offer the
programs the Institute was created to produce.”
— FR. JAMES L. HEFT, S.M.

A Message from Our President
he Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies sits at a critical juncture in the history
of both the Church and the people of the world. Following in the examples of
Augustine,Thomas Aquinas,Teresa of Avila, Blaise Pascal and many, many more Catholic
philosophers, scientists, teachers, artists, writers and intellectuals, the Institute is dedicated
to bringing together faith and reason to confront the world’s most pressing difficulties and
address its most enduring questions.
Created to help meet the challenges of a new millennium and our current global reality, the
Institute is uniquely positioned to renew the rich, 2000-year-old Catholic intellectual tradi-
tion, which affirms that the search for truth and knowledge is in itself an approach to God.
The mission of the Institute,then,is both an ancient task and the realization of new promise.
In order to fulfill this mission, the Institute invites scholars—professors, researchers, edu-
cators, artists, and writers—from all over the world to engage in ecumenical, interfaith, and
interdisciplinary research and dialogue. In their work with the Institute, these scholars seek
to heal rather than to divide, and to pursue truth humbly but fearlessly in conversation with
other scholars from all branches of human research and knowledge.
This faith-filled and thoughtful activity is a continuation of traditions long established in the
Catholic Church.The monastic communities of the 6th century preserved classical learning
and the great medieval universities of the 13th century inspired critical, world-changing
advances in the arts, medicine, law and theology. In our own time, the age of great modern
universities, many people recognize a great need for an institution that can research and
explore religious wisdom while engaging modern scientific and intellectual advances.
It is my belief that the encounter of these two traditions—the ancient,lively,deeply spiritual,
theological and philosophical traditions within Catholicism and the 21st century commit-
ment to intellectual rigor in a context of religious freedom and multiple perspectives—will
greatly benefit the Church and all religious traditions, and enrich the human experience.
James Lewis Heft, S.M., President
Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies at USC
T

“What you are is God’s gift to you, what you become
is your gift to God.”
— HANS URS VON BALTHASAR
Photo by Gary McCarthy

Driven by the idea that extended study—free from the
traditional constraints of academic life—drives the
most compelling and most original ideas, the Institute
seeks to offer both Catholic scholars and scholars
of other faiths the unique opportunity to live in a
community of their peers and conduct research
that will enrich their work, their teaching, the Church,
the academic world and the broader public.
Video still by c2K Communications

he Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies at USC is the only research
institute of its kind in the world.
Established to inspire fresh thinking,sustain dialogue and facilitate interdisci-
plinary,interfaith research,the Institute is dedicated to the idea that an ongoing
examination of our world from Catholic perspectives is a mission infinitely
valuable to all people. It draws scholars from diverse disciplines and religious
traditions to do innovative research and engage in sustained dialogue about
the deepest needs of our times.
The Institute is directed by an independent lay board of trustees—business
leaders, prominent scholars and educational leaders from both secular and
religious institutions—and is located on the campus of the University of
Southern California (USC), one of the world’s premiere research universities.
“Our location in Los Angeles and our affiliation with USC are critically im-
portant to the mission of the Institute,”explains Institute President Fr. James
Heft, S.M.“I can think of no better place from which to conduct the research
and offer the programs the Institute was created to produce.”
“Here,we are situated in the center of one of the largest,most diverse,and most
vibrant Catholic communities,among some of the brightest scholars living today,
all in the midst of the most culturally and religiously diverse city in the world,”
Fr. Heft continues. “Even more, we are located on the doorway to Latin
America,which continues to profoundly shape the American Catholic Church;
and on the Pacific Rim,where new economic and cultural realities are exerting
increasing global power and influence.”
About the Institute
The Institute is dedicated to the idea that an
ongoing examination of our world from
Catholic perspectives is a mission infinitely
valuable to all people.
T

Research, Programs and Publications
he full vision for the Institute is to
serve as a center that draws scholars
from diverse disciplines and religious tradi-
tions to do innovative research and engage
in sustained dialogue concerning the critical
issues facing the world today.
Since its establishment in 2004,the Institute
has supported research by some of today’s
greatest living scholars, including Charles
Taylor, Kathy Caveny, Lisa Cahill, Ken
Miller, John O’Malley, S.J., Margaret Ar-
cher, Stefano Zamagni, Paulinus I. Odozor,
and Hans Joas—scholars whose work with
the Institute has culminated in more than
a dozen highly acclaimed publications by
leading academic publishers.
Many of these works have influenced other
scholars,have made their way into college and
university classrooms, and have influenced
the ongoing development and revitalization
of Catholic education.
The research priorities of the Institute in-
clude the renewal of Catholic traditions,
educational structures, and intellectual life;
the establishment of and support for inter-
religious dialogue; the creation of a frame-
work for conversation between modern
science and Catholicism; the exploration of
religious faith, the arts, and creativity; and
inter-generational mentorship and commu-
nity among scholars.
The Institute sponsors programs and lecture
series exploring a broad range of topics—the
intergenerational transmission of faith for
Catholics,Jews,Muslims and other believers,
the role of faith in economics and social jus-
tice,the critical importance of interreligious
dialogue to relations between nations and
communities of faith, the impact of Vatican
II, the future of the Catholic writer—that
have helped establish the Institute as an
independent entity with an international
reach and reputation.
“My involvement in a number of projects with the Institute—on reli-
gion and violence, on spirituality and religion and on transcending
the institutionalization of religion—have had the effect of helping me
deepen my engagement with my own tradition, through the serious
and profound interaction with ideas and other perspectives on life,
on death, on God and on the meaning of spirituality and existence.”
— RABBI REUVEN FIRESTONE, Professor of Medieval Judaism and Islam
at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles
and senior fellow at the USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture
T

True Wealth of Nations
One of the Institute’s most fruitful and
longest-running research efforts is the True
Wealth of Nations program. Designed to
bring leading scholars together to consider
whether the major principles of Catholic
social teaching on economics, if applied
competently,could put the world on the path
to prosperity for all, particularly the poor
and the marginalized, the True Wealth of
Nations serves as a hallmark of the kind of
research the Institute produces and supports.
In 2010, Oxford University Press published
the results of the first of the True Wealth of
Nations conferences under the title,TheTrue
Wealth of Nations: Catholic Social Teaching
and Economic Life.
But even before the publication of this volume,
the program caught the attention of the Vat-
ican,which invited the Institute to organize a
conference in Rome on Pope Benedict’s social
encyclical,Caritas in veritate,and explore how
that encyclical might apply to the United
States and Europe. Out of this important
conversation came the 2012 publication of
The Moral Dynamics of Economic Life, with
“The Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies at USC upholds the
values that stand at the very core of USC’s mission: the preservation
and illumination of history, the rigor of intellectual examination
and discovery, the advancement of interdisciplinary scholarship
and the promotion of research that directly addresses the critical
issues facing our society. We are proud that the Institute has chosen
to make USC its home.”
— MAX NIKIAS, President, University of Southern California
Dr. Gary Adler, Director of Research for the Institute, and Elaine Krebs, USC undergraduate
student and Director of the Caruso Center Student Pastoral Council.

chapters contributed by leading economists,
policy experts, and theologians.
Sustaining the momentum of the previ-
ous publications, Oxford published a third
volume in the series,Distant Markets,Distant
Harms: Economic Complicity and Christian
Ethics, which explores the moral responsi-
bility of consumers for both the benefits and
the harm their economic decisions bring to
distant others.
Interreligious Dialogue
Another foundational part of the Institute’s
mission is the support of research and di-
alogue among scholars from other great
religious traditions.
In 2007, the Institute sponsored an inter-
national group of Jewish, Christian and
Muslim scholars who met in Jerusalem to
explore how to accept the inescapably limited
grasp all believers have of God’s revelation,
without falling into relativism or agnosticism.
The result was Learned Ignorance: Intellec-
tual Humility Among Jews, Christians and
Muslims, published by Oxford University
Press in 2011 and edited by Fr. James Heft,
Rabbi Reuven Firestone and Omid Safi.
For its 2011 publication, Catholicism and
Interreligious Dialogue, the Institute solic-
ited and edited essays from five prominent
Catholic scholars who specialize in the study
of Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism or
Video still by c2K Communications
Research, Programs and Publications cont.

“In the Generations in Dialogue program, I’ve had a chance to see how
someone who has been in the spiritual literature community for a long
time has found ways to read and to write that engage with the larger
questions about what makes us human.”
— LISA AMPLEMAN, GID participant, poet and Adjunct Professor at the University of Cincinnati

Confucianism. Another Institute volume,
Passing on the Faith,explores the Abrahamic
faiths—Judaism,Christianity,and Islam— in
the context of the importance of transmitting
religious identity from one generation to
the next. Beyond Violence: Religious Sources
of SocialTransformation in Judaism,Christi-
anity,and Islam explores how these religious
traditions can become a vehicle for peace,
justice and reconciliation. The collection of
essays is the result of an Institute-sponsored
conference of Jewish,Christian,and Muslim
scholars and community leaders.
Mentorship and
Next-Generation Scholars
The Generations in Dialogue (GID)/Mullin
Scholars Program is an ongoing Institute
effort designed to provide young scholars
and artists with the opportunity to be men-
tored by some of the major leaders in their
respective fields.
Over the course of two years, six GID par-
ticipants—who are chosen from hundreds of
applicants—spend a total of four weekends in
dialogue with their mentor and one another,
discussing their shared experiences,personal
and professional challenges and rewards,

“Over the past few decades, a convergence
of social trends and new intellectual
resources has created a platform for the
reinvigoration of American Catholic
intellectual life ...”
— SCOTT APPLEBY, Dean of Notre Dame University’s
School of Global Affairs and IACS Board member

“The Institute lifts up and promotes a positive, public and proactive language about not just the Catholic community
and tradition and identity, but about a religious identity, period. I believe this is an absolutely necessary element to a
thriving life in our century and beyond.”
— EBOO PATEL, Muslim educational leader and founder of Interfaith Youth Core, author and member of
President Barack Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based Neighborhood Partnerships

and the role their faith plays in their lives.
They also have the opportunity to meet and
hear presentations from other distinguished
scholars, artists, and thinkers in their areas
of study.Ultimately,the program is designed
to encourage these young scholars to view
their work as a vocation, and enliven and
enrich their intellectual and spiritual lives
in ways that will continue to benefit them
throughout their careers.
For Cincinnati Children’s Hospital pediatri-
cian and writer Brian Volck,participation in
the GID program was “a gift of community
and communion in an otherwise lonely
endeavor, and an invitation to work from a
contemplative stance.”
“Our dialogues have helped me understand
that my work is much more Catholic than I
had thought,in its themes,subject matter,and
worldview,” Samuel Martin, a novelist and
English professor at Northwestern College,
explains.“That said, I have also been learn-
ing a lot about what being a Catholic—or
catholic—writer can mean.These discussions
from the weekend have been percolating as
I consider from where my creative work has
come and where it is going.”
Once they complete the program,participants
attain the title of“Mullin Scholars,”and many
currently teach at an array of leading institu-
tions, including Boston College, Princeton
Theological Seminary,Columbia University,
Boston University,Biola University,and the
Interlochen Center for the Arts.
The research priorities of the Institute include the renewal
of Catholic traditions, educational structures, and intellectual
life; the establishment of and support for inter-religious
dialogue; the creation of a framework for conversation
between modern science and Catholicism; the exploration of
religious faith, the arts, and creativity; and inter-generational
mentorship and community among scholars.
“It’s so important for us to have a critical and objective voice when
discussing religion in the public sphere, to have a place that convenes
faith practitioners, research scholars and the community to address
the challenges of the 21st century. The Institute is just such a place,
and offers just such a voice.”
— DR. VARUN SONI, Dean of Religious Life at the University
of Southern California

ne of the Institute’s major areas of
study involves the promise of Cath-
olic education at all levels.
Catholic High Schools:Facing the New Realities,
published in 2011 by Oxford University Press
and written by Institute President James Heft,
S.M., confronts three major changes facing
today’s Catholic educators: the shift to pri-
marily lay leadership and staffs,the change in
the general culture to pervasive consumerism
and therapeutic attitudes, and the power of
social media over adolescents. This book,
combined with the author’s life-long service
to Catholic education, was recognized by
both the Association of Catholic Colleges
and Universities in 2012, and the National
Catholic Education Association in 2014.
In 2013, the Institute partnered with the
University of Dayton to present IntheLogosof
Love,a three-day conference that drew more
than 140 scholars, journalists, bloggers and
educators interested in working to support
Catholic intellectuals of today and tomorrow.
The papers presented at the conference will
be published in a forthcoming volume of
the same name.
O
Education

s a non-profit organization, the In-
stitute relies on the generosity of
its supporters to fund current and future
research,programs,conferences and projects.
Beginning in 2014,the Institute launched its
first campaign, a multi-year effort to secure
additional support from individual donors,
foundations and corporations.
The Endowment Principle
“Institutes for advanced study, like those
in Princeton and Palo Alto, are expensive
organizations, but they’re worth it because
they support the work of gifted scholars for
an intensive period of time,”explains Fr.Heft.
“Endowments are energy cells:renewable and
reliable,” he concludes. “They provide both
direction and autonomy for vital operations
into the future.With an adequate endowment,
the impressive research already published by
the Institute will multiply exponentially.”
In addition to seeking support for its many
important programs and projects, the Insti-
tute aspires to create a fully staffed research
center comprised of office space,community
space and a chapel that can accommodate
up to 20 active scholars over the course of
their research and establish a community of
collaboration and inspiration.
“History has shown that, when scholars
work closely with other scholars,they create
a synergism that fuels the greatest advances
in research and writing,”Fr.Heft continues.
“Once a sufficient endowment is assured to
attract the full attention of top scholars, we
will be able to create a center to enable just
that kind of collaboration.”
An Independent, Non-Profit Organization
“The Institute is a wonderful venture. I love the way it welcomes hon-
est dialogue among people of all faiths and the unusual way it works
to deepen and strengthen the Catholic tradition. I believe that the
goals of the Institute, though ambitious, are absolutely attainable.
That is why I support it.”
— JULIE MORK, Institute donor and member of
the Institute’s Board of Trustees
A

“Should anyone ask you the reason for this hope of yours, be ever
ready to reply, but speak gently and respectfully.”
— 1 PETER 3:15-16

Academic Advisory Council
MARGARET ARCHER
Professor, l’Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne,
Switzerland; President, Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences
KEVIN T. FITZGERALD, S.J.
David Lauler Chair for Catholic Health Care Ethics,
Georgetown University
ROBERTO GOIZUETA
Margaret O’Brien Flatley Professor of Catholic Theology,
Boston College
FR. JOSEPH A. KOMONCHAK
School of Theology and Religious Studies Professor Emeritus,
Catholic University of America
BERNARD MCGINN
Naomi Shenstone Donnelley Professor Emeritus, University
of Chicago Divinity School
JOHN T. NOONAN
Senior Federal Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit
ERNESTO ROSSI
European Publisher and Entrepreneur
CHRISTIAN SMITH
William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Sociology, University
of Notre Dame
CHARLES TAYLOR
Professor Emeritus of Political Science and Philosophy,
McGill University
DAVID TRACY
Andrew Thomas Greeley and Grace McNichols Greeley
Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus, University of
Chicago Divinity School
PATRICK WHELAN
Lecturer in Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School; Lecturer in
Immunology, USC Keck School of Medicine; Associate
Physician, Massachusetts General Hospital
SCOTT APPLEBY
John M. Regan Jr. Director of the Kroc Institute; Professor
of History, University of Notre Dame
DOMINIC F. DOYLE
Associate Professor, School of Theology and Ministry,
Boston College
DANIEL FINN
William E. & Virginia Clemens Professor of Economics and
Liberal Arts; Professor of Theology, College of Saint Benedict/
Saint John’s University
PETER STEINFELS
Co-founder of the Fordham Center on Religion and
Culture; Former New York Times journalist and editor
of Commonweal
Board of Trustees
SCOTT APPLEBY
John M. Regan Jr. Director; Professor of History, University
of Notre Dame
JOHN BESSOLO
Partner, Bessolo, Haworth & Vogel LLP
THOMAS J. CONDON
Philanthropist, Knights of Malta
DOMINIC F. DOYLE
Associate Professor of Systematic Theology; Boston College
School of Theology and Ministry
DANIEL FINN
Professor of Theology, William E. and Virginia Clemens;
Professor of Economics and the Liberal Arts, St. John’s
University, Collegeville, Minnesota
ELIZABETH GARRETT
Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs,
University of Southern California
ELLEN M. HANCOCK
Chairman, Board of Trustees, Institute for Advanced
Catholic Studies
FATHER JAMES L. HEFT, S.M.
President, Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies; Alton M.
Brooks Professor of Religion, University of Southern California
J. BRYAN HEHIR
Parker Gilbert Montgomery Professor of the Practice of
Religion and Public Life, Kennedy School of Government
at Harvard University
ALAN KREDITOR
Emeritus Senior Vice President for University
Advancement, University of Southern California
JULIE MCANDREWS MORK
Managing Director, ECA Foundation
PETER MULLIN
Chairman, Mullin TBG
BRO. BERNARD PLOEGER
President, Chaminade University
MAUREEN A. SHEA
Executive Vice President and CFO — Florida/Caribbean-
Right Management
MARTIN SOLMA, SM
Provincial Superior of the Marianist Province of the
United States
KEVIN STARR
University Professor, University of Southern California Former
California State Librarian
PETER STEINFELS
University Professor at Fordham University in New York City,
and Co-Director of the Fordham Center on Religion
and Culture

The Institute for Advanced
Catholic Studies at USC
835 W. 34th Street
University Religious Center, Suite 102
University Of Southern California
Los Angeles, Ca 90089-0751

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