In November 2024, Pope Francis published an apostolic letter calling for the renewal of the study of Church history as an essential subject in seminary education. He insisted, as well, “that all of us – not just candidates for the priesthood – need a renewed sense of history.” Pope Francis observed that the neglect of the study of history has too often led to “an overly angelic conception of the Church, presenting a Church that is unreal because she lacks spots and wrinkles.” Neither mere chronology nor naïve triumphalism, the authentic study of history must foster “the cultivation of a clear sense of the historical dimension that is ours as human beings.” So too, rigorous, scholarly history “summons us to ethical responsibility, sharing and solidarity.”
This conference wishes to bring together scholars from all fields of the humanities to reexamine the place of history in Catholic higher education and the public witness of Catholics seeking to evangelize contemporary culture. Possible presentation topics include: the relation between history and philosophy, the place of history in patristic thought, Newman’s conception of the development of doctrine, the thought of Christopher Dawson, the relation between language and culture, liturgy and history, the historical particularity of Catholic cultures, history and literary form, the relation between faith and reason in the study of history, masterworks of Catholic history, and the role of history as a bridge between the Church and the World in contemporary public discourse.
The conference will take place at Christendom College in Front Royal, Virginia on February 20-21, 2026. Fr. David Endres, editor of U.S. Catholic Historian and Dean of the Athenaeum of Ohio, will deliver the keynote address.
Submit 250-word abstracts to Christopher Shannon cshannon@christendom.edu by December 1, 2025.