This year, the Notre Dame Center for Ethics & Culture's Catholic Culture Series will focus on William Shakespeare and his relationship to Catholicism. We have selected Shakespeare for many reasons. Shakespeare’s status as one of the greatest authors of all time – perhaps the greatest – is unquestioned. More importantly, however, we were intrigued by the controversial question of Shakespeare's Catholicism. Even if Shakespeare was not definitively a Roman Catholic, the question of whether a Catholic ethos exists in his works is an important one, and sparks a good deal of debate. Through this series, we at the Center hope to inform interested Notre Dame students and the wider South Bend community of these debates and to give them the historical and literary facts necessary to form an intelligent judgment about these matters. In the process, we hope to inspire them to revisit the Bard’s superb works!
Series Schedule:
Each lecture will begin at 8:00pm in DeBartolo Room 155 on the campus of the University of Notre Dame.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Will the Real Shakespeare Please Stand Up? Evidence for the Bard's Catholicism
Professor Joseph Pearce, Ave Maria University
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Cracking the Shakespeare Code
Professor Peter Holland, University of Notre Dame
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
The Audacity of Shakespeare’s Non-recusant Catholicism
Professor John Finnis, University of Notre Dame Law School
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Shakespeare's Dark Matter
Ms. Clare Asquith, independent scholar & author of Shadowplay: The Hidden Beliefs and Coded Politics of William Shakespeare
