The Providence College Humanities Program is pleased to invite you to attend its third annual Veritas Conference. Keynote speakers include Mary Harrington (UnHerd), Larry Chapp (Dorothy Day Catholic Worker Farm), and Kimbell Kornu (Belmont University), Angela Franks (St. John’s Seminary), and David McPherson (University of Florida).
Relative to earlier epochs in human history, we live in a time of material abundance. We enjoy a technological mastery over nature of which earlier generations could only dream. Civil and voting rights have been extended to more members of developed Western societies than ever before. And we appear to command a growing self-determination even over our own biological nature due to advances in gene and medical technologies. In other words, we enjoy the fruits of “progress.” But what actually counts as genuine “progress”? By what standards can we evaluate the phenomena of “progress”? How might advancing “progress” take on a life of its own that may prove antithetical to genuine human flourishing? What resources does the Christian tradition – especially, the Catholic and Dominican tradition – have for thinking about and guiding the pursuit of “progress”? These and similar questions will be discussed at this year’s Veritas Conference (2024).
