The Chase Center invites all students to participate in faculty-led reading groups devoted to core texts and enduring ideas that have shaped American and Western civilization. These groups give participants the opportunity to build community as well as engage in thoughtful discussion about civic life, culture, and human flourishing. They are open to students from across the university who are interested in intellectual inquiry and conversation beyond the traditional classroom.
The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Faculty contact: Daniel Gullotta
Time: Thursdays, 5-6 p.m.
Location: Smith Labs 5079
Fear and Trembling by Søren Kierkegaard
Faculty contact: Paul Wilford
Time: Mondays, 5-6 p.m.
Location: Smith Labs 5079
Why We're Polarized by Ezra Kein
Faculty contact: Laura Siscoe
Time: Thursdays, 11 a.m;.-noon
Location: Smith Labs 5050
After Virtue by Alasdair MacIntyre
Faculty contact: Catherine Lemos
Time: Wednesdays, 4-5 p.m.
Location: Smith Labs 5079
Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle
Faculty contact: James Wilson
Time: Mondays, 4-5 p.m.
Location: Smith Labs 5079
The Theory of Moral Sentiments by Adam Smith
Faculty contacts: Jacob Hall and John Thrasher
Time: Wednesdays, 10-11 a.m.
Location: Smith Labs 5079
Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton
Faculty contact: James Hooks
Time: Thursdays, 5-6 p.m.
Location: Smith Labs 5097
Reading Groups From Previous Years
Daniel Mendelsohn, An Odyssey: A Father, A Son, and An Epic
Faculty contact: Minn Thant
Description: Daniel Mendelsohn’s An Odyssey is a memoir that interweaves a father–son relationship with a close reading of Homer’s Odyssey, as Mendelsohn recounts teaching the epic to his aging father and later retracing Odysseus’s journey together. The book explores homecoming, authority, interpretation, and love, showing how an ancient epic becomes a means of understanding a difficult but profound familial bond.
Time: Wednesday, 5 -6 p.m.
Location: Smith Labs 5097
Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations
Faculty contacts: Jacob Hall and John Thrasher
Time:
Location: Smith Labs 5097
C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock
Faculty contact: James Hooks
Description: C. S. Lewis, one of the most influential religious and cultural critics of the twentieth century, reflects on the place of religion, morality, and belief within modern culture in this collection of essays. God in the Dock ranges widely across questions of education, science, politics, and faith, offering reflections on how modern ways of thinking have altered the moral and cultural landscape.
Time: Thursday, 5 - 6 PM
Location: Smith Labs 5097