Expanding the catholic intellectual tradition nationwide

The In Lumine Network ensures that students at non-Catholic colleges and universities across the country have access to the Catholic intellectual tradition by supporting Catholic institutes and fostering the collaboration and sharing of best practices across the network.

The In Lumine Network

Supporting the work of Catholic institutes within university communities nationwide
Sharing innovative programs in the Catholic Intellectual Tradition
Expanding the pipeline of future faculty dedicated to exploring questions of purpose
Approach

Collaboration. Sharing of best practices. Stronger together.

We promote collaboration among Catholic institutes located at non-Catholic colleges and universities. We are dedicated to the exploration of fundamental questions and the integration of faith and reason. We draw on the Catholic intellectual tradition and serve Catholic and non-Catholic students alike. Through fellowship programs, lectures, and seminars, we foster intellectual friendship pursuing fundamental questions and promoting dialogue in an atmosphere of humble exchange.

Our Values

  • Cultivate a sense of wonder
  • Foster intellectual friendships
  • Equip students with the virtues necessary for flourishing
  • Promote collaboration within a community of practice
  • Integrate faith and reason
HISTORY

Collaboration for greater efficacy.

Supporting engagement with the Catholic intellectual tradition at non-Catholic Universities and in the broader academy. A number of independent institutes for Catholic thought have arisen that help address this issue, and yet there exists no organization, consortium, or association that will assist them in their work, and even more importantly, facilitate collaboration between institutes for greater efficacy. As a result, their impact, while meaningful, has yet to reach their full potential.

To address this problem, on February 1, 2022 the Lumen Christi Institute received a grant from the John Templeton Foundation to create the first-ever national network of independent institutes of Catholic thought, located at some of the country’s top universities. The project was called “In Lumine: Supporting the Catholic Intellectual Tradition on Campuses Nationwide.”

The founding members of the network included the Lumen Christi Institute at the University of Chicago, the Nova Forum at the University of Southern California, the Saint Anselm Institute at the University of Virginia, COLLIS at Cornell University,  the Collegium Institute at the University of Pennsylvania, and the Harvard Catholic Forum at Harvard University. The Lumen Christi Institute convened this newly-formed consortium of institutes. Since then, the network has collaborated on public programs, convened annual summits to share best practices, refined on-campus offerings, and organized summer seminars for students from across the nation.

Meet the Network Team

Forming tomorrows leaders

Michael Le Chevallier
Peter Tierney
Geoffrey Zokal
Daniel Wasserman-Soler
Meet the Network's Executive Directors
logo-bottom

inlumine@lumenchristi.org
1220 East 58th Street
Chicago, Illinois 60637

.
Facebook Twitter Youtube
©2024 In Lumine Network

Join our email list to receive occasional updates and announcements. Stay informed.

Join our email list for news, events and thoughtful perspectives from our network on the Catholic intellectual tradition.

Sign Up

Michael Le Chevallier

Michael Le Chevallier is the Senior Associate Director and Director of National Partnerships at the Lumen Christi Institute. He holds a Ph.D. in Theological Ethics from the University of Chicago Divinity School, an M.Div. from the University of Chicago, and a B.A. in Religious Studies and French from Willamette University. He moved to Chicago after a year of independent research on the topic of inculturation theology , traveling through countries in Africa on a Watson Fellowship.

Michael’s article “Responsibility in the Anthropocene: Paul Ricoeur and the Summons to Responsibility amid Global Environmental Degradation” was published in the Spring 2024 issue of the Journal of Religious Ethics. He has co-edited the volume, Jean Bethke Elshtain: Politics, Ethics, and Society (Notre Dame, 2018), and has a chapter on “Ricoeur’s institutional Ethics and Higher Education” in Paul Ricoeur and the Hope of Higher Education: The Just University (Lexington, 2021). Michael has taught courses in the humanities and in Christian Ethics at the University of Chicago, DePaul University, and Loyola University of Chicago. In 2017, he was awarded the Excellence in Teaching prize from the University of Chicago Divinity School. He was the co-project leader of the John F. Templeton Foundation funded Lumen Christi Institute project “Science and Religion, the Dialogue of Cultures.”

Peter Tierney​

Peter Tierney is In Lumine Project Co-Director and Director of Data Initiatives at the Lumen Christi Institute. He received his doctorate in Geophysical Sciences from the University of Chicago in 2018. His research is on the evolutionary ecology of reef systems, with a particular focus on Early to Middle Paleozoic reefs of North America.

 

Geoffrey Zokal

Geoffrey Zokal serves as the Coordinator for National Programs and Partnerships at the Lumen Christi Institute where he works to facilitate, plan, and manage activities of the In Lumine Network while also supporting other initiatives at LCI. Previously, Geoffrey worked for a time in academic publishing and later Catholic film production where he researched and helped produce several documentary films. He is the writer and producer of an upcoming, feature-length documentary on the life of the French Jesuit theologian Henri de Lubac. He graduated with a B.A. in History from Eastern Illinois University where he was a member of the Phil Alpha Theta National History Honor Society and where he also wrote, directed, and acted in the University’s theatre department. Geoffrey is also a graduate of the University of Denver’s Publishing Institute and holds a Certificate in Grant Writing from DePaul University.

Daniel Wasserman-Soler​

Daniel Wasserman-Soler serves as the Executive Director of the Lumen Christi Institute. He holds a Ph.D. in history from the University of Virginia and a B.A. in history from the University of Chicago. He first became acquainted with Lumen Christi as an undergraduate.

As a Fulbright scholar in Spain, he conducted research on the Spanish Empire during the sixteenth-century. His book, Truth in Many Tongues: Religious Conversion and the Languages of the Early Spanish Empire (Penn State, 2020), explores how the Spanish Crown managed an empire of unprecedented linguistic diversity. He also has published articles in the Journal of Early Modern History, Church History, the Medieval History Journal, and History Compass. A native Spanish speaker, he grew up in Miami, where he attended Carmelite and Salesian schools. His wife and five children are members of St. Mary of the Angels Church in Chicago.

Before joining Lumen Christi, Danny was a history professor for ten years, first at Oberlin College and then at Alma College, where he was a tenured associate professor of history, department chair, and director of the first-year seminar program.