Rev. Joseph Koterski to Philosophize on Dantes Choice at Christendom College

Front Royal, Va. -- On October 6, Fr. Joseph Koterski, S.J. will deliver the first of Christendom College's 2003-04 Major Speakers Program lectures. The title of his lecture will be Learning from Aquinas: Dante on Free Choice of the Will," and will begin at 6:30pm in the St. Lawrence Commons.      

Reverend Joseph W. Koterski, S.J., is Chair of the Philosophy Department at Fordham University, where he has taught since shortly after his priestly ordination in 1992. He also serves as the Editor-in-Chief of International Philosophical Quarterly and as Chaplain and Tutor in Queens Court Residential College for Freshmen on Fordhams Rose Hill campus.

Fr. Koterski regularly teaches courses in natural law ethics and in medieval philosophy and has recently produced videotaped lecture-courses on Aristotle and on Natural Law Ethics for The Teaching Company and on Spiritual Theology for the International Catholic University.

Among his recent publications are The Two Wings of Catholic Thoughts: Essays on Fides et Ratio (Catholic University of America Press, 2003) and Karl Jaspers on Philosophy of History and History of Philosophy (Humanity Press, 2003).

Dantes Divine Comedy is extremely alert to philosophical and theological insights from Thomas Aquinas, whose works Dante studied with the Dominicans of Santa Maria Novella in Florence. Fr. Koterskis lecture will focus on Cantos 16-19 of the Purgatorio, where the character Dante learns first from Marco Lombardo and then from Vergil about the proper philosophical understanding of free choice of the will. The explanation is thoroughly Thomistic and extremely sensitive to various crucial distinctions that are emphasized by Aquinas in the Summa theologiae.

The public is cordially invited to attend. For more information, contact Meg McNeely at 800-877-5456 ext. 255 or mmcneely@christendom.edu.