Interdisciplinary Approaches for a Culture of Unity

Summer School

How to combine the idea of unity with the practicality of professional life and culture?

To answer such question, a team of young Italian people decided to breathe new life into the project of the School of Advanced Cultural studies established in 2001 by the foundress of the Focolare Movement Chiara Lubich, which was the origin of the Sophia University Institute.

It was an experience based on the dialogue between different disciplines enlightened by the method of the charisma of unity aiming at enhancing them through a special light in a strongly intergenerational and interdisciplinary environment. The study programme consisted of two weeks of class per year for 4 years and was intended for young university students from various fields, countries and cultural backgrounds. 50 students took part in the experience every year, for a total of 250 participants from 37 countries.

Now, 20 years after that first experience, thanks to the partnership of the Sophia University Institute, the Summer School ISC Italia with the title “Interdisciplinary approaches for a culture of Unity” is being launched. It is a ten-day experience of face-to-face dialogue between professors and young students from different disciplines in the natural context of Loppiano at the Sophia University Institute’s facility. Participants will debate politics, economics and justice, anthropology and theology, mathematics and new technological developments, communication.

«Your own personal vocation does not consist only in the work you do, though that is an expression of it. […] you are called to something more than merely a pragmatic decision. […] it is a recognition of why I was made, why I am here on earth […] That is why I would remind you of the most important question of all. «So often in life, we waste time asking ourselves: “Who am I?” You can keep asking, “Who am I?” for the rest of your lives. But the real question is: “For whom am I?”»

Christus Vivit, Pope Francis

For more information: https://sites.google.com/view/iscitalia/home?authuser=0