Father Kevin Grove, C.S.C., Distinguished Fellow of the Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study, discussed the growing number of Americans who identify themselves as “not religious” during two free public lectures titled “Being Religious: A School For Desire,” at 3:30 and 7:30 p.m.Monday, Feb. 1, in the Burke Auditorium, William G. McGowan School of Business, at King’s College. He is the 37th speaker in the history of the Moreau Lectures series at King’s, which is named in honor of Blessed Father Basil Anthony Moreau, founder of the Congregation of Holy Cross which established and sponsors King’s College.

View the Livestream of the lecture here.

Father Grove’s lecture proposed a positive meaning of “being religious” in today’s world that contemporary seekers of goodness and happiness might well wish to claim and live. He explored great stories of desire in the bible and showed how Christ recasts the human desires for wealth, sex, and power in his school of love. True ordering of desires calls forth a living together in virtue, which is the phenomenon of religious communities in the church.

Father Grove is a priest of the Congregation of Holy Cross. After completing his doctorate in Philosophical Theology at the University of Cambridge in 2015, he served as a post-doctoral researcher at the Catholic University of Paris, France.

A systematic theologian, Father Grove’s scholarship focuses on Christology, memory, St. Augustine, and the history and spirituality of Blessed Basil Moreau.

He has presented his research in international contexts including England, Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland, Malta, and France. His forthcoming research publications will appear from presses Ashgate, Brepols, LIT-Verlag, Verlag Friedrich Pustet, and the University of Notre Dame. He is also the co-editor of “Basil Moreau: Essential Writings.”

The Moreau Lectures Series, sponsored by the Congregation of Holy Cross at King’s, brings renowned theologians to the King’s campus to address issues of social justice, peace, morality and Catholic identity as well as other subjects relevant to the lives of students, Catholics, and all other people concerned with the significant issues facing the Church and society.

Originall published January 28, 2016 by King's College Public Relations.