Fordham University

The Thomistic Institute at Fordham University presents a lecture by Prof. William Baumgarth titled “Christianity and Our Culture Wars: St. Augustine, Antonio Gramsci, and the City of God.”

Thursday, October 22

7:00 PM

Keating 1st Auditorium: In-person attendance is limited to 50 people, and open only to Fordham faculty, staff, and students. To attend in-person, register below and select “In-person Admission.”

This lecture will also be livestreamed: Register below to receive Zoom credentials.

About the lecture:

American society today looks far less culturally cohesive than the society of St. Thomas's Christendom. There is a potentially dominant culture in America fundamentally at odds with traditional Christianity. Thus, we are in a situation reminiscent of the conflict between Roman paganism and the Christian faith that St. Augustine encountered. Light upon how that new culture became so prevalent might be shed through examining the strategies proposed for his fellow Marxists by Antonio Gramsci. His reflections upon  Catholicism, its relationship to the intellectual elite and the laity, is particularly intriguing. Given the pervasive influence of that new culture upon the institutions of civil society, including the institutional Church, we might ask: where, today, is the City of God?

About the speaker:

Dr. William P. Baumgarth is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at Fordham University. He formerly served as Chair of the Political Science Department, interim Chair of the Classics Department, President of the Faculty Senate, Chair of the University Tenure Review Committee, Chair of the Fordham Middle States Review process, Director of the Rose Hill Honors Program, and Associate Chair for Administration in the Department of Economics. He teaches in the areas of Classical, Medieval, Modern and Contemporary Political Philosophy.