Grand Rapids, Michigan (October 6, 2009) - The Fall 2009 Aquinas College Brown Bag Colloquium in Catholic Studies will feature a discussion on Christopher Dawson, a man considered to be one of the greatest Catholic thinkers of the twentieth century. The event will take place on Tuesday, October 13 at 12:20 p.m. in the Wege Center Loutit Room at Aquinas College. The event is free and open to the public.

The colloquium will highlight a paper by Joseph Stuart, Ph.D. candidate in history at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland and a Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal. Dr. Dennis Marshall, associate professor of Theology at Aquinas College, will offer commentary on Dawson’s life and accomplishments. A question and answer session will follow.

Christopher Dawson (1889-1970) was a British sociologist and historian of culture. He was a prolific writer, publishing more than twenty books and numerous articles, and dedicated his life to the exploration of the cultural role of religion, the relationship between Christianity and world cultures and the specific history and institutions of Christian religion. Dawson proclaimed, "It is the religious impulse which supplies the cohesive force which unifies a society and a culture…A society which has lost its religion becomes sooner or later a society which has lost its culture." Dawson's work challenges commonly held assumptions about culture and history and reveals Western religion in progress.

For more details on the fall colloquium, download the Aquinas College Catholic Studies newsletter (pdf).