The Christendom College Graduate School of Theology is pleased to announce its first academic symposium on the Most Blessed Trinity, presented as the foundational mystery of Christian life. With a specifically interdisciplinary emphasis, the event will bring together academic scholars and professionals to explore the relevance of Trinitarian faith to every academic discipline and its intersection with every aspect of human life.

The Trinity Symposium will to take place Friday evening through Sunday morning, April 12-14, 2024. Papers should address the relevance of specifically Trinitarian doctrine to any of the academic or professional areas listed below. Outstanding papers will be selected for publication in a book on the topic through Christendom Press.

Proposals should be submitted to Olivia Colleville (olivia.colville@christendom.edu) and Stephen A. Hipp (stephen.hipp@christendom.edu). They should include the paper title, a 300-350 word abstract, and a brief bio. Proposals are due by September 15, 2023.

Subject areas: Art, Astronomy, Biology, Economics, Geology, History, Law, Mathematics, Medicine, Music (History; Composition; Theory), Philosophy (Transcendentals; Causality; Immanence & Transcendence; etc.), Physics, Preaching the Trinity, Psychology, Theology (Creation; Ecclesiology; Mary; Moral Theology; Spirituality, et al.)

The Trinity Symposium aims to respond to the recent Magisterium’s call to transform culture through the revival of Christian faith.

Theologians, within the requirements and methods proper to theology, are invited to seek continually for more suitable ways of communicating doctrine to the men of their times; for the deposit of faith or the truths are one thing and the manner in which they are enunciated, in the same meaning and understanding, is another. ... Let those who teach theology in seminaries and universities strive to collaborate with men versed in the other sciences through a sharing of their resources and points of view. ... This common effort will greatly aid... to present to our contemporaries the doctrine of the Church concerning God, man and the world, in a manner more adapted to them so that they may receive it more willingly. (Gaudium et spes, 62)

While fundamentally academic, presentations will illustrate the intersection of Trinitarian faith or doctrine with other areas of research and practice, in such a way as to highlight its concrete significance for thought and action and its manifold expressions beyond customary Trinitarian theological categories.

How, for example, can mathematics lead one to contemplate the Trinity? What in mathematics expresses or reflects some aspect of the Trinitarian mystery? How might mathematics illustrate or offer analogies for Trinitarian doctrines? What of the divine processions is manifested in the biological phenomenon of cellular reproduction? How does God’s immanence to and radical otherness from the creature correspond to unity and distinction in the Trinity? How are the transcendental properties of being as such Trinitarian? How is Mary a living commentary on the distinctive character of each divine person and on their interrelations? How does she inspire us to relate to the divine persons as such? And so on...

With the goal of deepening understanding of and igniting a greater love for the Trinity, it is our intention that papers stimulate an interest in and admiration for the Trinity beyond the confines of the Symposium itself. To this end, we would like to solicit various elements of the proceedings for use in a broader, ongoing project at the service of the “New Evangelization” (all permissions, academic acknowledgments, and any royalties, will be carefully respected). This involves two components:

1. The gathering of papers for publication in a volume produced by Christendom Press. To be considered for publication, completed papers must by submitted by February 15, 2024.

2. A promotional “snapshot” of each paper/presentation that can be used in anticipation of the Symposium. All presenters are asked to submit a brief statement, or short excerpt from their paper, or an image, or similarly representative element, to be used (approximately two months prior to the Symposium) in an artistically organized multimedia format to advertise the event. The content of this component should explain in simple, layman’s terms the basic link being made between the respective discipline and the Trinity and why the paper topic is meaningful for Christians.