PROVIDENCE COLLEGE TO HOST SPRING 2022 REV. ROBERT J. RANDALL LECTURE
(Providence, R.I.) – Providence College (PC) announced today the spring 2022 Rev. Robert J. Randall Lecture will be given by Dr. Paul Contino, the 2021-2022 Robert J. Randall Distinguished Professor in Christian Culture at PC. This lecture will take place in Aquinas Hall lounge at PC on Thursday, February 24 at 4:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.
Dr. Contino’s lecture ‘Dante’s Purgatorio and the Pilgrim’s Lenten Journey,’ will feature a reading of Dante’s Divine Comedy — with an emphasis on Purgatorio — as a call to conversion. Employing both word and image, the presentation will show that a reading of Dante’s poem may be especially timely as we approach the penitential season of Lent. Dante’s goal is redirecting his readers to the love of God — the love that moves the sun and other stars — and to the love of neighbor, each of whom reflects the Creator and shares a calling to eternal, communal beatitude. As Pope Francis has recently written: Dante “invites us to become companions in the journey” and “can help us advance with serenity and courage in the pilgrimage of life and faith.” This lecture will highlight ways in which Dante may be of such help, especially in the practice of the virtues.
Dr. Contino is visiting from Pepperdine University where he serves as a professor in the university’s Great Books Colloquium. He was educated by Dominican sisters at St. Rita’s Elementary School and diocesan priests at Monsignor Farrell High School, both of which are in Staten Island, NY. He received his undergraduate degree from Binghamton University, and, after two years of work, he attended graduate school at the University of Notre Dame where he received his Ph.D. in English literature. Dr. Contino taught for twelve years at Christ College, the honors college of Valparaiso University, where he was awarded the Caterpillar Award for Excellence in Teaching. He has taught at Pepperdine University since 2002 and has twice been granted the Howard A. White Award for Teaching Excellence.
This lecture series is held as part of PC’s Rev. Robert J. Randall Distinguished Professorship, which recognizes a scholar whose work concentrates on an understanding of culture that embodies a Christian view of human achievement. The selected individual contributes to undergraduate instruction in the theology, philosophy, history, literature, or the social sciences departments by participating in the Liberal Arts Honors and Development of Western Civilization Programs, directing student research, and delivering public lectures.
Founded in 1917, Providence College is the only college or university in the United States administered by the Dominican Friars. The Catholic, liberal arts college has an undergraduate enrollment of approximately 4,000 students and offers degrees in 50 academic majors. Since 1997, Providence College consistently has been ranked among the top five regional universities in the North according to U.S. News & World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges.”
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