Theology and Life Evening Lecture Series
The purpose of this series is to provide an intellectually interesting evening on various topics or books. Participants will enjoy refreshments and a lecture, book chat, or panel discussion led by Christian experts that address issues and thoughts related to where theology and day to day living meet. The various evenings will engage interested community members and encourage a deeper understanding of the specific topic and the relevance of looking at life through the eyes of faith.
We hope that you will come out for many of the sessions, but do remember to register early – last year, many were sold out well in advance of the event.
To register for one of the following Evening Lecture Series, please fill out this
Registration Form.
The Writing Life | N.J. Lindquist
The Great Unwritten Contract | Mike Tennant
C.S. Lewis Considers the Heavens: The Ransom Trilogy | Douglas Loney
Parallel Worlds | James Tughan
Art After Auschwitz | Chris Cuthill
Did Zechariah predict Alexander's Campaign in Israel? | Al Wolters
What is Real? Visual Realism & Spirituality | James Tughan
Bearing The Marks Of Christ: Tattooing and the Christian Faith | Chris Cuthill
You CAN Prevent Type 2 Diabetes | Esther Lessard
The Secret Garden: 100 Years Later | Benne Faber
Books for Book Clubs | Deborah Bowen
Prayer: Recovering the Journey In | Craig Bartholomew
The Argument About Icons | Jim Payton
Singing the Psalms | David Koyzis
The Writing Life
Tuesday, September 21, 2010, 7:00 – 9:00 pm | $15
A panel of published writers, moderated by N.J. Lindquist, will talk about why they write, how they got published, and what they've learned about writing. They will share tips that will help you find the path to your writing life. .
N. J. Lindquist is an award-winning author and speaker with 11 published books and numerous articles, columns and blogs. She also edited and published the Canadian bestselling anthology, Hot Apple Cider. The co-founder of The Word Guild and director of Write! Canada, N. J. has been teaching writers for almost 20 years.
Panelists include Angelina Fast-Vlaar, Nikki Rosen, Eric E. Wright,and Mags Storey.
The Great Unwritten Contract:
What Advertisers Owe You - and What You Owe Them
Tuesday, October 5, 2010, 7:00 pm | $20
Join us as we host special guest, Mike Tennant, producer/co-writer for The Age of Persuasion on CBC Radio One, and best-selling co-author of The Age of Persuasion: How Marketing Ate Our Culture. Mike will present a talk and answer questions based on one of the most provocative chapters of this book. Following the question period, there will be refreshments and the opportunity to purchase the book and get it signed by Mike Tennant!
Mike Tennant, award-winning ad copywriter, is a freelance writer who has produced and co-written the popular CBC Radio series, The Age of Persuasion, which has a broadcast listenership of more than 600,000 in Canada alone, and many more online. Mike Tennant co-wrote the best-selling book The Age of Persuasion: How Marketing Ate Our Culture, published in Canada and the U.S., and which is currently in its fourth printing in Canada.
C.S. Lewis Considers the Heavens: The Ransom Trilogy
Tuesday, October 12, 2010, 7:00 – 9:00 pm | $15
Before his famous Chronicles of Narnia for children, C.S. Lewis wrote three novels of space-fiction for adults—Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength—about the interplanetary adventures of a most unlikely hero, language professor Dr. Elwin Ransom. In this presentation, you’ll learn how the Ransom trilogy’s myth of the silent planet turns twentieth-century science fiction images of “outer space” on their head. In their place, C.S. Lewis reclaims for the modern imagination an image of the heavens “packed and tingling with life,” in which every living thing responds either in love and obedience, or in dread and defiance, to the living presence of their great Creator.
Dr. Douglas Loney has been a member of Redeemer University College’s Department of English for more than twenty-five years. He teaches a wide range of literature, including the fiction of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. Doug and his wife Karey live in Grimsby.
Parallel Worlds
Tuesday, October 19, 2010, 7:00 – 9:00 pm | $15
A guided tour through the incredible fantasy drawings of the Dreaming of Lions Project. This visionary prophetic work, by Canadian artist and Redeemer adjunct faculty member, James Tughan, is installed at Redeemer University College.
James Tughan is a professional visual artist working in the world of fine art, illustrations and education at all age levels. One of the world’s foremost pastel artists, his work has been commissioned by major corporations throughout North America and by such magazines as Rolling Stone, Esquire and Saturday Night. He is also part of a coordinated renewal of the arts in the global Christian community.
Art After Auschwitz: The Problem of Representing the Holocaust
Tuesday, November 2, 2010, 7:00 – 9:00 pm | $15
More than sixty years after the Holocaust ended, it continues to leave historians, artists, philosophers, and theologians looking for words and images that will convey the enormity of the event. The question of whether it is possible to depict the Holocaust spills over into moral questions of whether it is right to depict the Holocaust. This talk, punctuated by images of post-Holocaust art, will introduce the significant body of ideas about the aesthetic and ethical concerns of visually representing the suffering that emerged after the Holocaust.
Chris Cuthill has been with the Art Department at Redeemer for the last ten years, teaching courses in Art Theory, Art History and Popular Culture. A practicing artist, Chris has exhibited work in Canada, the United States and Europe; his favoured media include fabric, pen and ink, and watercolour.
Did Zechariah predict Alexander's Campaign in Israel?
Tuesday, December 7, 2010, 7:00 – 9:00pm | $15
When Alexander the Great conquered Syria and Palestine in 333 BC his campaign followed a route that looks very much like that described in Zechariah 9:1-8. Was the prophet predicting this major historical event? Is there any truth to the Jewish tradition that Alexander on his campaign spared Jerusalem because of a dream he had? This lecture will explore some of these issues, and how they relate to basic issues in biblical scholarship.
Recently retired from Redeemer’s Religion and Theology Department, Dr. Al Wolters is on staff at the Paideia Centre for Public Theology. He is currently working on a commentary of the book of Zechariah.
What is Real? Visual Realism & Spirituality
Tuesday, January 11, 2011, 7:00 – 9:00pm | $15
What does realistic artwork have to do with faith-based spirituality? In this lecture, James will provide an exploration of the surprising dimensions and potential of what we call visual "realism" in art. Visual Realism goes beyond photographic and tactile senses to also include idea, spirit, the person, and the prophetic. There's more to the "real" than meets the eye.
James Tughan is a professional visual artist working in the world of fine art, illustrations and education at all age levels. One of the world’s foremost pastel artists, his work has been commissioned by major corporations throughout North America and by such magazines as Rolling Stone, Esquire and Saturday Night. He is also part of a coordinated renewal of the arts in the global Christian community.
Bearing The Marks Of Christ: Tattooing and the Christian Faith
Tuesday, February 1, 2011, 7:00 – 9:00pm | $15
From the earliest days of the Church, through the Middle Ages, and within contemporary counterculture, tattoos have served as a witness to the Christian faith. How did this practice, forbidden by Jewish law, become a historically accepted Christian expression of faith? What in turn can historical examples teach us about the revival of the practice in our society? This talk will explore the lively history of this often-controversial form of body modification within the context of the church.
Chris Cuthill has been with the Art Department at Redeemer for the last ten years, teaching courses in Art Theory, Art History and Popular Culture. A practicing artist, Chris has exhibited work in Canada, the United States and Europe; his favoured media include fabric, pen and ink, and watercolour.
You CAN Prevent Type 2 Diabetes
Monday, February 7, 2011, 7:00 – 9:00pm | $15
Today nearly one in four Canadians has either diabetes or pre-diabetes and every day another 480 people are diagnosed with this disease. Canadian children today will likely the first generation to not outlive their parents. The statistics are overwhelming, but there is hope. Come and find out how you and your loved ones can prevent this chronic disease or manage it effectively.
Esther Lessard is a Registered Nurse with the Haldimand - Norfolk Diabetes Program in Dunnville and Hagersville. She has a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, and is a Certified Diabetes Educator.
The Secret Garden: 100 Years Later
Tuesday, February 22, 2011, 7:00 – 9:00pm | $15
The 100th anniversary of the publication of Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden in 1911 provides an opportunity to reflect on the reception of this enduring classic. This lecture will explore the place of The Secret Garden in Burnett's world and worldview; in the academic study of children's literature; and in twentieth-century popular culture. Theosophy, feminist literary theory, post-colonialist criticism, New Age environmentalism, and Hollywood all meet in the fictional space created by Burnett's secret garden.
Dr. Benne Faber is Assistant Professor of English at Redeemer. A graduate of McMaster University (1987) and OxfordUniversity (1992), Ben spends most of his time in the early-modern world of Shakespeare and Milton, with occasional escapes into the Romantic period of Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley and company. As a father of five children, Ben has an ongoing but non-professional interest in children's literature, such as The Secret Garden.
Books for Book Clubs
Tuesday, March 1, 2011, 7:00 – 9:00pm | $15
After last winter’s successful book clubs evening, Dr. Deborah Bowen has prepared a further list of ten classic and contemporary works of fiction that are sure to make it on to your list of must-reads. She will aim to stimulate your thinking about the value of reading by pairing books together in ways that draw out interesting comparisons across time and space.
Dr. Deborah Bowen is the Chair of the English Department at Redeemer and teaches courses in the history of the British novel, contemporary fiction, postcolonial literature, and contemporary literary theory. Her book on contemporary fiction and faith, Stories of the Middle Space: Postmodern Realisms Between Word and World, was published in 2010.
Prayer: Recovering the Journey In
Tuesday, March 8, 2011, 7:00 – 9:00pm | $15
Prayer is at the heart of the Christian faith, the most intimate place of encounter with God. Christians talk a lot about prayer but it is not nearly as common to find a deepening practice of prayer. Using the example of Jesus, this lecture will explore ways of recovering prayer as the journey in, the basis for everything else we do in life. Insights from Thomas Merton, Thomas Keating, Eugene Peterson and other proponents of Christian spirituality will be explored as well as the usefulness of spiritual direction, while keeping the focus on developing a regular, rhythmic practice of prayer. The lecture will include a short period of actual practice of centering prayer.
Dr. Craig Bartholomew is the H. Evan Runner Chair in Philosophy and Professor of Religion & Theology at Redeemer. He is also the founder of the Paideia Centre for Public Theology. His renowned work in hermeneutics and Christian worldview and his work in starting three major international research projects have established him as one of the most distinguished Christian scholars today.
The Argument About Icons
Tuesday, March 22, 2011, 7:00 – 9:00pm | $15
Dr. Payton's lecture will consider the iconoclastic controversy as it unfolded in Eastern Christianity, looking especially at the arguments used to defend the legitimacy of icons, and culminating in the decisions of the 7th Ecumenical Council (Nicaea II), in 787 A.D.
Dr. Jim Payton is Professor of History at Redeemer University College, and he serves as president of Christians Associated for Relationships with Eastern Europe. He is the author of Light from the Christian East: An Introduction to the Orthodox Tradition (IVP Academic, 2007); Getting the Reformation Wrong: Correcting Some Misunderstandings (IVP Academic 2010), and Irenaeus on the Christian Faith (Pickwick Publications, 2010).
Singing the Psalms
Tuesday, April 5, 2011, 7:00 – 9:00pm | $15
Dr. David Koyzis will explore the tradition of singing the psalms set to poetic metres as found especially in the 16th-century Genevan Psalter when this tradition was initiated by John Calvin. In particular he will discuss his own 25-year project of writing fresh poetic versions of the psalms and arranging their proper Genevan melodies. Be prepared not only to learn but to sing!
Dr. David T. Koyzis is Professor of Political Science at Redeemer University College and is an amateur poet and musician. He is the author of Political Visions and Illusions (InterVarsity Press, 2003) and is currently writing a book on authority and the image of God.