PFIC Co-Sponsored Academic Conference

The Analogy of Being:
Invention of the Anti-Christ or the Wisdom of God?

A Theological Symposium

Date: April 4—6, 2008

Place: Pope John Paul II
            Cultural Center
3900 Harewood Road, NE
Washington, DC  20017

If you are a member of the media wishing to attend this event, please contact Mrs. Honya Weeks at 202.529.5300 x 175 (assistant@dhs.edu).

Synopsis of the Conference

Is there any ‘natural’ knowledge of God available to the human person, apart from Christian revelation, or is all knowledge of God given to human beings uniquely in Christ? Is Christianity irrevocably wed to the classical metaphysical tradition, or can God’s nature and character be rethought in distinctly modern ways, based upon a renewed reading of Scripture? What relationship or likeness, if any, exists between created nature and the grace of God? Does Christian theology presuppose a natural philosophical ‘capacity’ for knowledge of God in the human person?

All of these fundamental theological questions are situated at the heart of the famous 20th century debate between Erich Przywara S.J. and Karl Barth, and were treated in Przywara’s famous work Analogia Entis. These topics were also revisited by Hans Urs von Balthasar in his ecumenical landmark, The Theology of Karl Barth. On the occasion of a forthcoming English translation of Analogia Entis by John Betz and David Bentley Hart, this symposium will invite contemporary theologians indebted to Aquinas, Przywara, Barth and Balthasar to discuss these issues. Is the theological concept of the ‘analogy of being’ in fact an ‘invention of the anti-Christ’ as Karl Barth suggested, or is it a truth about creation revelatory of the wisdom of God?

The Analogy of Being promotional poster:

View the full-size version of this poster, or download it.

Featured Speakers:
John Betz (Loyola College)
Martin Bieler (University of Berne, Switzerland)
Peter Casarella (DePaul University)
Michael Hanby (JPII Marriage & Family Institute)
David Bentley Hart (Providence College)
Reinhard Hütter (Duke Divinity School)
Bruce McCormack (Princeton University)
Bruce Marshall (Perkins School of Theology)
Richard Schenk O.P. (Dominican School of Philosophy & Theology)
John Webster (King's College, Scotland)
Thomas Joseph White O.P. (Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception)

Sponsored by:
The Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception
Pope John Paul II Cultural Center
Eerdmans Press