Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage & Family

Evening Master's Courses Fall 2025
2025-08-26 17:30 - 2025-12-02 19:30 (America/New_York) | DC
As part of the new M.T.S. concentration in Catholic Liberal Education, the Institute is offering two evening courses on education during the fall 2025 semester.
Catholic Vision and Education in America (Michael Hanby), Tuesdays, 5:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m.
This course lays a foundation for the renewal of Catholic education by reflecting on the nature of education and the relationship between different historical conceptions of the educational task and the judgments that are operative in every philosophy of education: judgments about the nature of God, the meaning of creation, the identity of the human being, and the kind of polity that is conducive to human flourishing.
The Nature and Art of Teaching in the Catholic Tradition (Andrew Shivone), Wednesdays, 5:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m.
The Church has always been concerned with the formation and education of persons. Unlike modern pedagogical theory, which views teaching as empty method or technique, the Church’s interest in teaching asks about the relationship between the craft of teaching and the truth that is taught. This course reflects on what methods a teacher can use to perfect his craft that will best fulfill the nature of education as an introduction to reality.
Prospective students should complete a non-degree seeking application by August 15th. A bachelor’s degree is required as a prerequisite.
These courses may be taken for audit or for credit. Information about costs can be found on our Tuition and Fees page.
For more information, please contact Elena Martín at emartin@johnpaulii.edu.

Continuing Education Course: Virtue Ethics: Aristotle to MacIntyre
2025-09-10 18:30 - 2025-12-03 20:30 | DC
The Fall 2025 course in the Institute’s ongoing Continuing Education Series will be “Virtue Ethics: Aristotle to MacIntyre.” It will be held on Wednesday evenings from September 10 to December 3, 2025.
What does it mean for a human being to “flourish”? How and is human flourishing related to the virtues or “morality”? What, if anything, does it mean to “be moral” and how are the virtues related to happiness? These questions motivate this course’s survey of the virtue ethics tradition in western thought, centering on a close reading of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics and Alasdair MacIntyre’s seminal work After Virtue, an analysis of modern moral discourse which situates Aristotelianism in contemporary life and society. It will also explore works by other important thinkers such as Josef Pieper and Elizabeth Anscombe. Students will come away from the course with a basic grasp on the nature and place of the virtues in the western philosophical tradition and in Catholic moral teaching.

The course will be taught in person and offered online simultaneously. The in-person class meetings will be in McGivney Hall Room 006 on The Catholic University of America’s campus.
The class fee is $150. To register, please complete the online registration form. Payment can be submitted via check, cash, or credit card. To submit a credit card payment, please click here.
This course can be taken toward renewal requirements for VCEA licensure. Numerous high schools in the Archdiocese of Washington accept the course for CEU credits.
If you have questions, please contact information@johnpaulii.edu or call 202.526.3799.

Information Sessions. Fall 2025
2025-11-20 15:00 - 16:00 | DC
The Pontifical John Paul II Institute will host several information sessions, both in person and online, during the fall semester. If you are interested in pursuing graduate studies in Theology, don’t miss these opportunities to learn about our programs!

You will learn about our degree and certificate programs, scholarships and tips on how to make a competitive application. You will also have the opportunity to talk to current students and meet with faculty and program advisors. To register, click here.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact:
Elena Martin
Admissions Officer
emartin@johnpaulii.edu
202.526.9697

Continuing Education Course: Called to Love: Theology of the Body
2026-01-21 18:30 - 2026-04-22 20:30 | DC
The Spring 2026 course in the Institute’s ongoing Continuing Education Series will be “Called to Love: Theology of the Body.” It will be held on Wednesday evenings from January 21 to April 22, 2026.
This course will explore John Paul II’s Man and Woman He Created Them to discover how Christ reveals the spousal meaning of the body—from the original experiences of solitude, unity, and nakedness to their fulfillment in the resurrection. It will also show how marriage and virginity both reflect Christ’s total self-gift on the Cross, the source of divine love that transforms human relationships and grounds the Church’s teaching on the unity of love and life.

The course will be taught in person in McGivney Hall on Catholic University of America’s campus in Room 006 and offered online simultaneously.
The course fee is $150. To register, please complete the online registration form. Payment can be submitted via check, cash, or credit card. To submit a credit card payment, please click here.
This course can be taken toward renewal requirements for VCEA licensure. Numerous high schools in the Archdiocese of Washington accept the course for CEU credits.
If you have questions, please contact information@johnpaulii.edu

Nature, Grace, and Culture: Henri de Lubac and the Drama of Contemporary Atheism
2026-02-27 14:30 - 2026-02-28 17:00 | Pontifical John Paul II Institute–McGivney Hall, 620 Michigan Avenue, NE, Washington, DC, 20064, United States
The John Paul II Institute cordially invites you to join us for a conference on “Nature, Grace, and Culture: Henri de Lubac and the Drama of Contemporary Atheism” on February 27-28, 2026.
Theme
The central mystery of Christianity is the Incarnation of the Son as a revelation of the triune God. And “the Incarnation of God the Son signifies the taking up into unity with God not only of human nature, but in this human nature, in a sense, of everything that is ‘flesh’: the whole of humanity, the entire visible and material world” (Dominum et Vivificantem, 50). By assuming human nature and going to the end of love (cf. Jn 13:1), the Logos, in the words of Maximus the Confessor, “established himself as the innermost depth of the Father’s goodness while also displaying in himself the very goal for which his creatures manifestly received the beginning of their existence.” The ground and pattern for the original integrity and ultimate destiny of human nature (and creation as a whole) is the hypostatic union of God and man in Christ. The Second Vatican Council placed this ancient teaching regarding Christ as revealing the truth of God and man as the centerpiece of the Church’s dialogue with the modern world: “Christ the Lord, Christ the new Adam, in the very revelation of the mystery of the Father and his love, fully reveals man to himself and brings to light his high calling” (Gaudium et spes, 22). In particular, the mystery of the Incarnation undergirds the Council’s teaching on the universal call to holiness and the specific vocation of the laity within the life and mission of the Church: “For God has willed to gather all that is natural and all that is supernatural into a single whole in Christ ‘so that in everything he would have the primacy’ (Col. 1:18)” (Apostolicam Actuositatem, 7).
Both before and after the Second Vatican Council, the debate concerning nature and grace has been a flashpoint for Catholic theology. What was the basic thesis of Henri de Lubac’s Surnaturel (1946) and why did the book ignite such an intense controversy in the context of neo-scholastic theology? What is the current state of the question regarding Thomas Aquinas and Henri de Lubac on the natural desire to see God? How does the figure of Christ disclose both the unity and the difference between nature and grace? Finally, how does the sense of nature and grace inform the Church’s missionary task in response to the contemporary eclipse of God and the challenge of “practical atheism” (Pope Leo XIV)? The aim of the conference is to explore these questions in the context of (i.) renewed interest in (and criticism of) Henri de Lubac’s theology of nature and grace; and (ii.) the fundamental teaching of Gaudium et spes that Jesus Christ is “the key, the center, and the purpose (finem) of the whole of history.”
Schedule

Registration

Conference Registration Fee

CompanyThis field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.Name

First

Last

Email

Billing Address

Street Address

Address Line 2

City

AlabamaAlaskaAmerican SamoaArizonaArkansasCaliforniaColoradoConnecticutDelawareDistrict of ColumbiaFloridaGeorgiaGuamHawaiiIdahoIllinoisIndianaIowaKansasKentuckyLouisianaMaineMarylandMassachusettsMichiganMinnesotaMississippiMissouriMontanaNebraskaNevadaNew HampshireNew JerseyNew MexicoNew YorkNorth CarolinaNorth DakotaNorthern Mariana IslandsOhioOklahomaOregonPennsylvaniaPuerto RicoRhode IslandSouth CarolinaSouth DakotaTennesseeTexasUtahU.S. Virgin IslandsVermontVirginiaWashingtonWest VirginiaWisconsinWyomingArmed Forces AmericasArmed Forces EuropeArmed Forces Pacific
State

ZIP Code

Registration Fee(Required)General Public: $130Institute Alumnus: $90Clergy/Religious: $50Student at Another Institution: $30Institute Student: $20CUA/DHS FacultySelect the appropriate registration category.Special Dietary Requests
