“What Does It Mean to Live a Good Life?” Philosophers and academics have been pondering the question for centuries, and Notre Dame will take its turn at answering it in 2026. In an email to the campus community Thursday morning, Fr. Robert Dowd announced the 2026-27 Notre Dame Forum theme.
The theme will sound familiar to Notre Dame students who have taken God and the Good Life, an introductory philosophy course taught by professors Justin Christy and Paul Blaschko.
“Asking what it is to live a good life, I think as an individual, is incredibly important. It's important to introspect and reflect, kind of refine your values,” Blaschko said. “But as a community, it's also distinctively important because what we think a good life consists of together, really shapes how we treat each other, it shapes the community that we're a part of, what we're striving for.”
While he was not consulted on the theme, Blaschko said he was very excited when he received the email and learned about the Forum. According to him, Notre Dame is in a unique position to provide an answer to this question.
“I think it's worth asking why Notre Dame sees this as the guiding question for this year,” Blaschko said. “I'll be really interested to hear … what the leadership of Notre Dame, the institution, what it is about the question that really hit them as kind of relevant at this particular moment in history and in the school's history.”
Blaschko said he thinks Notre Dame’s stature as a global, Catholic institution meant that many would be interested in what the University had to say about the good life.
“One reason why this is such a rich area for us to be discussing here at Notre Dame is because we really do have a history that involves defining and redefining, sometimes debating and disagreeing about what it means to be a Catholic university in America in the 20th century and now the 21st century,” Blaschko said.
In his email, Dowd also mentioned meeting with Pope Leo XIV in November, during which they discussed the role of Catholic universities, as well as hot-button issues like immigration and artificial intelligence. Dowd called on the Notre Dame community to be good listeners in imitation of the Pope.
“As we begin a new semester, let us recommit ourselves to respectful attentiveness and to constructive and robust engagement,” Dowd wrote.
Dowd’s words continued to build on the theme of building bridges, which has permeated Dowd’s presidency. The 2026-27 Forum will be Dowd’s third as president.
