Big Questions at ICS with Grace Carhart Pt. 1: Wonder

Do you ever wonder?

This is the first in a short series of Critical Faith episodes based on guiding worldview questions. ICS Junior Member Grace Carhart has conducted a series of interviews of ICS Senior Members, asking them to reflect on the themes of wonder, heartbreak, hope, and worldview from within their respective disciplines.

This week, Grace guides us through a deep and deepening discussion of wonder.

Breathing Life into Practice with Emily Briggson & Nik Ansell

To jump into the new year, this week's episode is a change of pace and a chance to highlight some voices of the broader ICS community.

For the first portion of this episode, we're taking a moment to express our thanks to those who came to our Open House in December by featuring some vignettes of their hopes for the future of ICS. And in the second portion, we're joined by Senior Member in theology Nik Ansell and friend of ICS and yoga instructor-in-training Emily Briggson for a conversation about the connections and differences between their studies and practices.

Enjoy!

Creative Thinking, Creative Speaking & Creative Writing with Julia De Boer

Can dead languages yield life-giving and life-guiding principles? Can we see truth in poetic creativity?

This week, Mark and Danielle talk with ICS Junior Member, PhD student, and linguistics-lover Julia De Boer about her longstanding fascination with studying the dynamics and structures of language.

We want Critical Faith to give you a glimpse into the everyday life of ICS. So we're talking with Senior Members, Junior Members, and friends of the Institute to hear about what got them here, what they're working on, and why it matters for them.

This week's Don't Miss This! items:

Christmas concert at St. Peter's by the Park (705 Main St. E. in Hamilton) on December 15

The Facilitator's Guidebook from the CPRSE's Faith & Settlement Partnerships case study

Dialoguing Well with Héctor Acero Ferrer

What does it take to enact forgiveness, reconciliation, and processes of social change in climates of violence and oppression?

This week, Danielle and Mark talk with Junior Member and Associate Director of the CPRSE Héctor Acero Ferrer about his academic journey and his work researching the ongoing peace process in Colombia, interfaith dialogue in Canada, and our deeply human need for narrative.

We want Critical Faith to give you a glimpse into the everyday life of ICS. So we're talking with Senior Members, Junior Members, and friends of the Institute to hear about what got them here, what they're working on, and why it matters for them.

This week's Don't Miss This! items:

• ICS's Scripture, Faith, and Scholarship Seminar with Dr. Esther Acolatse: Thursday, December 6 at 3:00pm at 59 St. George Street
• New Yorker article by Hannah Arendt: "Remembering W.H. Auden"
• Winter 2019 ICS course from Junior Member Dean Dettloff: Organized Religion: Christianity and Anti-Capitalism in the U.S. and Canada

Walking Among Giants with Bob Sweetman

How do you find your feet when walking among giants?

This week, our hosts Mark and Gideon chat with Senior Member and H. Evan Runner Chair in the History of Philosophy Bob Sweetman about studying Thomas Aquinas, mining your intuitions, and discerning emulatio (a spiritual practice of emulation) in the contemporary spirit of competition.

We want Critical Faith to give you a glimpse into the everyday life of ICS. So we're talking with Senior Members, Junior Members, and friends of the Institute to hear about what got them here, what they're working on, and why it matters for them.

Links to this week's Don't Miss This! items:

ICS Open House and Advent Concert this Saturday December 1

Wine Before Breakfast campus ministry

Apocalypse New with Nik Ansell

What's up with the apocalypse?

This week, Junior Member hosts Danielle and Mark talk about their undergraduate years, mystery, and the hope of apocalypse with guest Senior Member in theology Nik Ansell.

We want Critical Faith to give you a glimpse into the everyday life of ICS. So we're talking with Senior Members, Junior Members, and friends of the Institute to hear about what got them here, what they're working on, and why it matters for them.

Links to this week's Don't Miss This! items:

ICS's Open House and Advent Concert: www.icscanada.edu

Sad Boys Literary Society poetry reading: http://www.artword.net/artbar/?p=14960

Indigenous People Atlas of Canada published by Canadian Geographic: https://indigenouspeoplesatlasofcanada.ca/

Faith in Public with Ronald A. Kuipers

Critical Faith is back!

For the next while, we're giving you a glimpse into the everyday life of ICS. We're talking with Senior Members, Junior Members, and friends of the Institute to hear about what got them here, what they're working on, and why it matters for them. This week, we were joined by ICS President and Senior Member Ron Kuipers, who reflected on his interest in advocating for faith in the public sphere.

Decolonizing Christian Higher Education with Matt Bernico Pt. II

Last week, we heard Matt Bernico's lecture "Decolonizing Christian Higher Education." This week, Dean Dettloff poses questions to Bernico, and so do those who were present for the talk. How do we deal with questions of the Western canon? Can we talk about universal knowledge or a shared context while also talking the language of decolonization? What can institutions do beyond just including token voices on syllabi to decolonize their educational environments? Bernico fields these and other questions during the final Scripture, Faith, and Scholarship lecture of the 2017/18 academic year.

Matt Bernico is assistant professor of communication and media studies at Greenville University.

Decolonizing Christian Higher Education with Matt Bernico Pt. I

The Institute for Christian Studies is a unique fixture in the field of Christian higher education, contributing to academia and also trying to transform it with fidelity to Christ. Yet European Christianity has been responsible for colonizing much of the world, creating troubling patterns of social organization and epistemology. As Christians working in academia, what are we to do with this legacy of domination? Matt Bernico, assistant professor of communication and media studies at Greenville University, offers suggestions in his talk "Decolonizing Christian Higher Education."

Veiled Intents with Julia de Boer and Natasha Duquette

Critical Faith is back in 2018! 

Dr. Natasha Duquette of Tyndale University joins ICS Junior Member Julia de Boer to explore Duquette's book Veiled Intent (Wipf and Stock, 2016). They discuss feminine biblical hermeneutics from the 19th Century, Kant and his female interlocutors, and Jane Austen. From Duquette’s work we are ushered into an understudied area of Christian theological history, and learn to look for scriptural exegesis in unexpected places.

Thinking about Thinking about Language with Julia de Boer and Andrew Tebbutt

The Institute for Christian Studies is characterized by a conversational, exploratory approach to pedagogy, which spills into coffee shops, hallways, and meet-ups outside the classroom. This week, Junior Member Julia de Boer and ICS alum Andrew Tebbutt give us a window into that atmosphere by gathering around the microphone to talk about French phenomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty, specifically his insights into language and thought. What might it mean to think about language? Can we think without language? What do our bodies have to do with our brains? The questions might seem simple, but being a fly on the wall in this conversation reveals that the tools of phenomenology help us to rigorously investigate our most basic ways of being human.

Dorothy Day: The World Will Be Saved By Beauty with Kate Hennessy Pt. II

Last week, we heard Kate Hennessy talk about her writing, her life, and her grandmother, Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Worker. In this episode, Hennessy takes questions from Dean Dettloff and the audience, exploring Hennessy's writing process, life in the Catholic Worker, and what Dorothy Day could mean for a time like ours. Drawing from her book Dorothy Day: The World Will Be Saved by Beauty, Hennessy gives an insider's look at one of the most exciting Christian movements to come out of the twentieth-century.

Dorothy Day: The World Will Be Saved By Beauty with Kate Hennessy Pt. I

In a moment of political strife and complexities, Christians have no shortage of powerful examples who left behind a creative and subversive legacy. Among them is Dorothy Day, a feisty New Yorker who is currently being considered for canonization in the Catholic Church. During her life, Day founded the Catholic Worker, a ragtag group of Christian activists that is still going strong today, known for a commitment to radical hospitality and peace. Scholarly studies of Day and the Catholic Worker are easy to come by, but ICS had the privilege of hosting Kate Hennessy, Day's youngest grandchild, to hear firsthand about her life, her community, and her legacy.

In this first of two episodes, Kate Hennessy talks about her book Dorothy Day: The World Will Be Saved by Beauty. The book provides an intimate look into the story of Dorothy Day and those she touched. Vulnerable, complicated, funny, and inspiring, Hennessy's book offers a unique window into a life marked by a deep Christian faith and love for the least of these.