Living Well at the End of a World: Bp. Erik Varden on “Monastic Culture as Creative Subversion”

In his talk at Living Well at the End of a World, Bishop Erik Varden discusses the end of our “internal world”—the microcosm of human life—at the deathbed and the monastic venture to confront death and live well in the face of its inevitable appearance. Using the vita of Antony the Great by St. Athanasius as his exemplar par excellence of the monastic life, he discusses the creative subversion with which monasticism has repeatedly revitalized western civilization. He finally urges modern man toward the prayerful purpose, patient perseverance, and vicarious love that can reignite communal hope and purpose.The Morningside Institute hosted a two-day conference on April 4–5, 2025. On its first day, the conference examined some of the radical changes that Western societies are undergoing. On the second day, we explored in greater detail historical examples of how communities have navigated periods of intense cultural change and even devastation. For more information about Living Well at the End of a World, please visit https://www.morningsideinstitute.org/living-well.

In his new book Believe, NY Times correspondent Ross Douthat offers a blueprint for thinking one's way from doubt to belief. Douthat argues that religious belief makes sense of the order of the cosmos and our place within it, illuminates the mystery of consciousness, and explains the persistent reality of encounters with the supernatural. On Monday, March 3, at 6:30 PM, Columbia’s Earl Hall Center for Religious Life and the Morningside Institute hosted Ross Douthat for a conversation with one of America’s most respected commentators on religion and public life. The event was held in-person at Faculty House and was streamed online.For more information about upcoming events, please visit https://www.morningsideinstitute.org.

The Metamorphoses is a work with an insistent modern resonance and relevance. In terms of Roman political commentary, socio-cultural implication, historical awareness, and psychological investigation, Ovid constructs a poem about change that is itself fundamentally slippery in its meanings, hard to deconstruct, and full of human eccentricity. The poem pulses with life, both ancient and modern, and this presentation offers a brief reading of that Ovidian pulse.On November 11, 2024, Morningside hosted Professor Gareth Williams of Columbia University for this lecture and discussion on Ovid’s masterful work.For more information about upcoming events, please visit https://www.morningsideinstitute.org.

According to ancient philosophers, all human beings want to be happy. But how can we achieve this?  In Books 3 and 4 of his dialogue “On the Greatest Good and Evil” (De finibus bonorum et malorum), Cicero and his interlocutor, the Stoic Cato, discuss what guarantees a person’s supreme happiness. Is it enough to be a morally good person (as the Stoics maintain) or do you also need some additional goods, such a health, wealth, or social standing? This ultimately raises the question of whether our happiness is entirely under our control, or whether external factors by necessity play a role.On September 24th, 2024, Morningside hosted Professor Katharina Volk of Columbia University for this discussion on Cicero and the grounds for happiness.For more information about upcoming events, please visit https://www.morningsideinstitute.org.

Tradition describes courage, moderation, justice, and prudence as the cardinal virtues (a list going back to Plato) and faith, hope, and charity as the theological virtues (a list going back to Saint Paul). Can we conceive of hope as a virtue, as a good quality for people to have, without a theological framework — without any notion of salvation? On Monday, February 10, 2024, the Morningside Institute hosted Dhananjay Jagannathan, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University, for a discussion on the possibility of secular hope. The seminar also explored questions including: What types of despair might be damaging to our individual and social lives? Is hope simply another name for a sunny or optimistic disposition? Is hope compatible with looking squarely at the truth about the present and likely predictions about the future?For more information about upcoming events, please visit https://www.morningsideinstitute.org.

Birth is one of the most fraught and polarized issues of our time, at the center of debates on abortion, gender, work, and medicine. But birth is not only an issue; it is a fundamental part of the human condition, and, alongside death, the most consequential event in human life. Yet it remains dramatically unexplored. Although we have long intellectual traditions of wrestling with mortality, few have ever heard of natality, the term political theorist Hannah Arendt used to describe birth’s active role in our lives. On February 7, 2024, Morningside held a talk with Jennifer Banks, Senior Executive Editor of Yale University Press, on her new book revealing a provocative counter tradition of birth from Nietzsche and Wollstonecraft to Arendt and Morrison.For more information about upcoming events, please visit https://www.morningsideinstitute.org.

On October 9, 2023 the Morningside Institute and the Galileo Center at Columbia Law School hosted Joshua Katz (AEI) for the last lecture in our series Language Rights and Wrongs. This series explores the relationship between world and word, honing in on ancient texts, namely Homer, Plato, and the Bible.This evening's conversation was not about the Constitution of the United States per se but rather the things that interest comparative linguists when they read texts like Homer's Iliad. These peculiarities are related to larger and increasingly pressing issues of how to interpret words and phrases from decades, centuries, and millennia ago.For more information about upcoming events, please visit https://www.morningsideinstitute.org.

Does language contain truth in itself? And whether or not it does, at what level are the words we use natural, and at what level are they a matter of convention? Plato’s Cratylus provides the earliest in-depth discussion of these matters, and it turns out that we can learn something about our own linguistic problems today by considering this neglected dialogue.On October 3, 2023, the Morningside Institute and the Galileo Center at Columbia Law School hosted Joshua Katz (AEI) for his second lecture in our Fall 2023 series Language Rights and Wrongs.For more information about upcoming events, please visit https://www.morningsideinstitute.org.

This fall, the Morningside Institute and the Galileo Center at the Columbia Law School hosted Joshua Katz (AEI) for a three-part lecture series on the relationship between word and world. The series focused on ancient texts—namely, Homer, Plato, and the Bible—and what these reveal about the nature (or artificiality) of language. On September 26, 2023, Dr. Katz introduced the series and led a discussion on the relationship between language and creation in a number of ancient traditions, especially the Book of Genesis but also well beyond.For more information about upcoming events, please visit https://www.morningsideinstitute.org.

In his famous Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, Shunryu Suzuki writes, “In the Beginner’s Mind there are many possibilities, in the expert’s mind there are few.” These words have served as a guide for James Valentini during his time as a professor of Chemistry and then much-beloved dean of Columbia College. As he has developed it, the concept of beginner’s mind encourages us to put aside the judgment of others as our guide and to use self-awareness and self-reflection to formulate our own assessments of the world. It reminds each of us to consider the possibility that we might be entirely wrong in an assessment about which we feel certain, and to temper our judgment of others who have made a different assessment.On September 27, 2023, the Morningside Institute and the Earl Hall Center for Religious Life hosted a conversation with Deantini, Szabolcs Marka (Physics), and Elaine Sisman (Music).For more information about upcoming events, please visit https://www.morningsideinstitute.org.