1. Home >
  2. Programs >
  3. Fall Conference >
  4. 2025: That Which I Also Received

2025: That Which I Also Received

Fall Conference 2025 - on living tradition (placeholder image)

That Which I Also Received
Living Tradition

The de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture's 25th Fall Conference
November 13–15, 2025 | University of Notre Dame

View the Conference Schedule button
View the Conference Schedule button

St. John Henry Newman has suggested in his Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine that it is sometimes necessary for an idea to change with new contexts and situations precisely in order to remain the same. In what is perhaps Newman’s most famous axiom, “to live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often” (40). Such a posture is at once retrospective—looking backwards—but also decisively oriented toward the future, as the rich heritage of the past gets faithfully reread, received, and reinterpreted by new generations.

In honor of its 25th annual Fall Conference, the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture will consider how the phenomenon of living tradition—whether dogmatic, religious, literary, artistic, legal, interpretive, or otherwise, up to and including the customs, embodied practices, and habits of everyday life—serves to bridge past and future.

FC25 keynote speakers: Philippe Villeneuve, Zena Hitz, Bishop Daniel Flores

Keynote Speakers

Philippe Villeneuve is the chief architect for historical monuments at Notre-Dame de Paris, responsible for the recent renovations of the cathedral following the fire of 2019. Zena Hitz, tutor at St. John's College in Annapolis, is the author of the award-winning books Lost in Thought and A Philosopher Looks at the Religious Life. Most Rev. Daniel Flores has served as the bishop of Brownsville, Texas, since 2009.

The conference keynote speakers will be joined by more than one hundred other scholars, practitioners, and artists who will consider how the phenomenon of living tradition—whether dogmatic, religious, literary, artistic, legal, interpretive, or otherwise, up to and including the customs, embodied practices, and habits of everyday life—serves to bridge past and future.

View the Conference Schedule button

Registration

Advance registration has ended. Walk-up guests are welcome to check in at the McKenna Hall Conference Center, 2nd Floor.

Guest Information

View information on conference locations, parking, and dining options on this page.

Questions?

Please contact Brooke Tranten (btranten@nd.edu).


Fall Conference Collage

Past Conferences

Find information regarding past conferences and lecture videos at the links below.