One this page: 2025-2026 Wolters Lecture Series | The World and Our Calling Lecture | Past Wolters Lectures

2025-2026 Wolters Centre Lecture Series

Three times a year, each faculty fellow hosts a scholar of their choice to visit, lecture, and discuss their work on Redeemer campus. These free public lectures highlight speakers who are suited to speak to a broad community audience, and who also have expertise in applying the Reformed scholarly tradition to their subject area. Annual lectures are rooted in the Arts and Humanities, Social Sciences, and Natural Sciences and Mathematics, respectively. Scroll to the bottom to view past lectures.

Speaker: Dr. Megan DeVore, Professor of Church History, Early Christian Studies, Colorado Christian University

Dr. Megan DeVore (PhD, University of Wales) is professor of church history and Early Christian studies at Colorado Christian University. Dr. DeVore’s academic work particularly centres on the late second through fourth centuries. Her current research examines patristic hermeneutics, early Christian art, martyr accounts and spiritual formation. In addition to teaching at CCU, she serves as a spiritual and professional mentor at Denver Seminary, serves on the editorial board of the Patristic Theology Journal and is a fellow at Credo Magazine.

This event is part of the larger Nicaea conference. Registration deadline for the full conference, Defending Christ: Celebrating 1700 Years of Nicaea, is Sep 17, 2025. Other speakers include Dr. Stanley E. Porter and Dr. Stefana Dan Laing.

Speaker #1: Dr. Micah Watson, Paul Henry Chair in Christianity and Politics, Calvin University

Dr. Micah Watson, native of the great, golden state of California, is the Paul Henry Chair in Christianity and Politics at Calvin University, where he teaches in the politics and economics department. He is the co-author of Hopeful Realism (2025, IVP) and C.S. Lewis on Natural Law and Politics (2017, Cambridge). Watson, his wife Julie, their five grown children, one son-in-law and three pet-like creatures make their home in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Speaker #2: Dr. Bryan T. McGraw, Dean of Natural and Social Sciences, Director of the Aequitas Fellows Program, Professor of Politics and International Relations, Wheaton College

Dr. Bryan T. McGraw is dean of natural and social sciences, director of the Aequitas Fellows Program and a professor of politics and international relations at Wheaton College. He is the author of Faith in Politics: Religion and Liberal Democracy (2010, Cambridge) and co-author of Hopeful Realism (2025, IVP).

Speaker #3: Dr. Jesse Covington, Professor of Political Science, Director of Augustinian Scholars Honors Program, Westmont College

Dr. Jesse Covington is professor of political science and director of the Augustinian Scholars honors program at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California. He has co-authored Hopeful Realism (2025, IVP), co-edited Natural Law and Evangelical Political Thought (2012, Rowman & Littlefield), and published various articles and book chapters engaging St. Augustine, political morality, democracy, the First Amendment and Christian liberal arts education.

March 9, 2026 — 7:30 p.m.
Creation Stories for Planetary Systems

Speaker: Dr. Channon Visscher, Professor of Chemistry and Planetary Sciences, Dordt University

Dr. Channon Visscher serves as research scientist at the Space Science Institute and professor of chemistry and planetary sciences at Dordt University. His teaching and research interests include exploring and modeling planetary and astrophysical environments, the formation and history of planetary systems, origins stories (cosmologies and cosmogonies) and the relationship between science and religion. He recently co-edited Science and Religion: Perspectives Across Disciplines and maintains an active collaborative research program in the planetary and astrophysical sciences.

The World and Our Calling Lecture

Once a year, the Wolters Centre invites the winner of the Emerging Public Intellectual Award to deliver a public lecture at the Redeemer campus in our long-standing The World and Our Calling Lectures series. These lectures explore different facets of the Christian calling to be engaged with our culture. Unlike the Wolters Centre Lecture Series, which features guests in the Reformed scholarly tradition, these lectures will feature guests from a broadly orthodox, Protestant Christian tradition.

February 2, 2026 — 7:30 p.m.
The Digital Hearth: On Sharing Screens and Stories in a Fragmented Age

Speaker: Katie Day Good, Associate Professor of Communication at Calvin University (Winner of the 2025 EPI Award)

Dr. Katie Day Good (PhD, Media, Technology, and Society, Northwestern University) is broadly interested in how new media relate to our call to love God and our neighbors, much of her scholarship has focused on grassroots, intentional, low-tech, and “slow” media practices as resources for intercultural learning, media education, and intergenerational communication. Her writing on media, technology, education, and digital culture has appeared in academic journals, such as New Media & Society and Technology and Culture, and in public-facing venues such as Wired, The Washington Post, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and Christian Scholar’s Review Digital.