Geneva Lecture Series 2011

One of the goals of the Geneva Society is to provide opportunities for the general public to engage current issues of general interest in an academic setting. Each year we provide a series of lectures on Trinity Western University’s campus which are meant to treat urgent and contemporary issues in the light of the gospel, and to be popular, relevant, and informative. The Geneva Lectures provide free lectures that are part of a senior worldview class to which the general public are invited. These lectures are offered by Dr. Goheen, visiting faculty from TWU, and outside scholars. Each year we will invite a world-class scholar to give one of the lectures.

The lectures this year will begin at 7.30 p.m. on four different Tuesday nights in November and December. The first is in Room 125 RN Thompson building and the other three are in the NorthWest Auditorium.

8 November, 7.30 p.m. Michael Goheen

Exploring the Purpose and Nature of Christian Scholarship in the Light of Scripture

What is Christian scholarship? Why do we do it? To acknowledge that there is such a thing as Christian scholarship means that the Bible plays some role in answering these questions. However, what exactly that role is remains disputed. This lecture will explore ways in which the Bible might be used to answer those questions in a faithful way. [Room 125 RNT Building]

22 November, 7.30 p.m. Harro Van Brummelen

Educating for a Sustainable Future

The recent demonstrations around the world are rooted in the failure of a consumerist culture to bring about justice and shalom. People fear that our current economic system is a house of cards built to enrich those already well-off, and whose short-term goals undermine ecological sustainability. For Christians, an important issue is to link ecology, economics, and culture with Christian faith and ethics. How, in education, how do we implement a pedagogy of gratitude and where students learn to be a faith-full presence that nurtures a sustainable future? [NorthWest Auditorium]

29 November, 7.30 p.m. Erin Glanville

For What It’s Worth: Reading Literature and Being a Christian

What is the value of reading literature for Christian communities? How can students of literature interact with the variety of current ideological approaches to English? How do readers elicit the richest interpretation of literature possible, and what does that process have to do with faith? The practical examples will come from my own doctoral research into the usefulness of refugee narratives for church-based activism. [NorthWest Auditorium]

6 December, 7.30 p.m. Arnold Sikkema

Science and Worldview

Early modern science, beginning with the physics and astronomy of Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo, led quickly to the Newtonian mechanical worldview and contributed to cultural shifts from superstition and/or Christian theism through deism to the bald “scientific atheism” of our day. No one is immune from the concomitant effects on our understanding of our place in the universe, and of God’s relationship with us and with the cosmos. What difference did the advances in science — from its early modern origins up to the present — make to the general perception of the world; and taking this into account, what habits of mind can allow the scientific endeavour to properly contribute to forming our Christian worldview? [NorthWest Auditorium]