Working Against Society's Ills with Kiegan Irish

How can we resist the pressure to treat people like they're just statistics?

This week, recent ICS graduate Kiegan Irish joins us to talk about his transition from graduate studies in philosophy to his work at The Working Centre in Kitchener, a community project focused on creating an environment of support and opportunity for those pushed to the margins of society. In this episode, Kiegan considers how attending to people's particular stories can counter societal evils.

If you'd like to find out more about The Working Centre, you can visit their website and read more about the centre's events and projects, as well as find the book Kiegan mentions, Transition to Common Work by Working Centre founders Joe and Stephanie Mancini.

Kiegan also hosts a podcast called The Poplar Tapes on politics and current social issues. If you're interested in hearing more from Kiegan on politics and philosophy, you can have a listen here.

Recognizing Forgiveness with Andrew Tebbutt

What does forgiveness make possible?

This week, ICS alum and University of Toronto PhD candidate Andrew Tebbutt joins us to explain a bit about his PhD research on the idea of forgiveness in Hegel's philosophy of religion. In particular, he explores how forgiveness calls us to take account of each other's finite character, and opens us up to other possible ways of discernment.

Critical Faith is sponsored by the Centre for Philosophy, Religion, and Social Ethics (CPRSE) at the Institute for Christian Studies in Toronto. For more, visit www.icscanada.edu.

Slow Fashion and Creative Counter-Activity with Julia de Boer

Can fashion make a difference to the world?

This week, ICS PhD student and resident avid knitter Julia de Boer shares some of her personal experiences and reflections on the importance of slow fashion as a mode of resistance. In this episode, she describes some of the far-reaching ecological and political effects of our fashion choices and considers how slow fashion offers a tangible way to live justly and act aesthetically in the world. 

Julia also shares with us some resources on slow and sustainable fashion, including Whitney Bauck (@unwrinkling), whose articles on fashion and theology can be found here: https://fashionista.com/author/whitney-bauck.

What is Required of You? Apartheid, Armed Resistance, and Aftermath with Gideon Strauss Pt. II

How do you reconcile irreconcilable differences?

Last week, ICS Academic Dean Gideon Strauss joined us to share a bit about his own experiences in both apartheid and post-apartheid South African politics. This week, we're sharing with you the second half of this interview, in which Gideon reflects on the time he spent with South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

What is Required of You? Apartheid, Armed Resistance, and Aftermath with Gideon Strauss Pt. I

What do you do when the authority or government under which you live is evil?

This week, our new Critical Faith co-host Theoren Tolsma helped us welcome returning guest and ICS Academic Dean Gideon Strauss back to the podcasting studio. Gideon makes regular pilgrimages back to his home country of South Africa every summer, and is greatly invested in the ongoing politics in the region. So we asked him to share a bit about his own experiences in both apartheid and post-apartheid South African politics. This week, we're sharing with you the first part of this two-part interview, in which Gideon reflects on how he first came to terms with a theology and politics of armed resistance.

Possibility over Futility with Ronald A. Kuipers

Why talk about evil, resistance, and judgment?

This week, we welcome ICS President and resident Hannah Arendt expert Ronald A. Kuipers back to the podcast. He shares with us some background on the inspiration for the themes of our podcast this semester, and discusses the insights and the hope Arendt has offered his own scholarship and might continue to offer public discourse today.

Critical Faith is sponsored by the Centre for Philosophy, Religion, and Social Ethics (CPRSE) at the Institute for Christian Studies in Toronto. For more, visit www.icscanada.edu.

New Voices at ICS: A Junior Member Introduction

We're excited for the start of a new school year and the renewed energy that new Junior Members bring. To welcome these JMs to their ICS home, we asked some of them to share a bit about themselves, their academic backgrounds, what brought them to ICS, and the burning questions they bring with them. So we were joined in the podcast studio by Theoren Tolsma, Abbi Hofstede, and June Moon, and we're pleased to have the chance to introduce them to you now!

Critical Faith is sponsored by the Centre for Philosophy, Religion, and Social Ethics (CPRSE) at the Institute for Christian Studies in Toronto. For more, visit www.icscanada.edu.

The Problem is Not the Problem; The Response is the Problem - Season 3 Intro

Critical Faith is back for Season 3!

In the spirit of Hannah Arendt, our episodes this semester will be centered on the themes of evil, resistance, and judgment. To warm ourselves back up to the podcasting rhythm, Mark, Danielle, Hector, and Grace got together to have an impromptu conversation about these themes as a kind of pre-introduction introduction to some questions that the themes raise for us in the context of our own work:

• How do we address paralysis in the face of evil?
• From where do the resources for resistance arise?
• Are passing judgments on evil and enacting reconciliation both equally possible?

These themes will occupy us and our guests for the rest of the semester, so we hope this episode will whet your appetites for the conversations to come!

Critical Faith is sponsored by the Centre for Philosophy, Religion, and Social Ethics (CPRSE) at the Institute for Christian Studies in Toronto. For more, visit www.icscanada.edu.

Looking Back with the Critical Faith Team

We're gettin' sentimental on this episode of Critical Faith--our last for the 2018-2019 school year.

...In which Gideon joins us back in the studio to look back fondly over the past year's episodes and add his own contributions to our previous series on worldview questions.

...In which Mark considers the ongoing influence of generations at ICS and expresses his appreciation of interdisciplinarity.

...And in which Danielle, reliable as ever, punctuates the discussion with maniacal laughter.

We want to thank you all for joining us over the last year and we hope you'll join us again after the summer to hear all the ideas we have brewing for our ongoing adventures in podcasting!

Be sure to note this week's Don't Miss This! items as we head into summer holidays:

1. ICS's convocation and the exaugural address of our former president Dr. Doug Blomberg is happening starting at 7pm on May 17. We hope you'll join us in prayer and celebration! If you're able to do so in person, please find details and RSVP here:
http://news.icscanada.edu/2019/04/ics-convocation-may-2019.html

2. Our latest issue of our newsletter Perspective has just been published! It features stories and reflections from former and current members of the extended ICS family on what they've carried out into the world with them from their times at ICS. You can access the online version of Perspectivehere: https://ir.icscanada.edu/handle/10756/620103

Keeping the Curiosity Alive with Rebekah Smick

How do we strike a balance between suspending judgments and making them?

This week, we're joined by Rebekah Smick, ICS Senior Member in Philosophy of Arts and Culture. In this episode, Rebekah gives us a brief look at some of the many research, writing, and teaching projects she is currently pursuing that all raise questions about the various roles of images in our thought and spiritual lives. She also reflects on how ICS first helped her find her way into a fulfilling academic life.

Check out this week's Don't Miss This! items:

• May 25: The Junia's Daughters conference for and about women in ministry at Wycliffe College in Toronto. Discounted tickets are available until April 15! Get yours and find more info on the conference here: http://www.juniasdaughters.ca/
• July 8: A.A. Bondy concert at the Drake Hotel in Toronto. You can find tickets and a brief write-up on the artist here. 

Critical Faith is sponsored by the Centre for Philosophy, Religion, and Social Ethics (CPRSE) at the Institute for Christian Studies in Toronto. For more, visit www.icscanada.edu.

Certainty Beyond Doubt with Ted Avram

Are we certain things can be certain?

This week, we're joined by Ted Avram, ICS MA student and newly conferred Reverend Minor in the Jesuit Order. In this episode, Ted takes us along on his far-ranging journey across religious traditions, academic disciplines, and international borders that led him to ICS today. Intent on keeping "a foot in both worlds" in his research, he also considers the stakes of certainty in both Reformational and Thomist philosophy.

Check out this week's Don't Miss This! items:

• April 28-30: Our Whole Society 2019 conference in Toronto, with which ICS's Ron, Hector, and Danielle are all involved in various capacities. Get more details and your tickets here! https://www.interfaithconversation.ca/2019
• April 5: A concert with Elevator, Ellis, and Basement Revolver at the Great Hall in Toronto. Get your tickets here for a taste of Hamilton in Toronto! https://www.thegreathall.ca/event/elevator/

If you're curious, you can also see a short photo story of Ted receiving his minor orders here, to find out what it's all about: http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2019/03/abp-prendergast-confers-minor-orders-in.html#.XJqVHCjYq00

The Rise and Fall of American Social Christianity with Heath W. Carter

Where do Christian faith and politics meet? And how is the church called to address inequality?

Once every term, ICS hosts a Scripture, Faith, and Scholarship Seminar where we bring in a scholar, public intellectual, or social activist to talk to the ICS community about the work and/or research that they do and about the way it intersects with their faith lives.

Back in January, we were joined by Dr. Heath W. Carter, associate professor of history at Valparaiso University in Chicago, who had just been awarded the 2018 Emerging Public Intellectual Award. Dr. Carter talked to us about legacies of social Christianity in the U.S. and the "New Gilded Age" of current American politics, as well as raised questions of how Christians today might work to address the realities of social and political inequality.

Critical Faith is sponsored by the Centre for Philosophy, Religion, and Social Ethics at the Institute for Christian Studies in Toronto. For more, visit www.icscanada.edu.

Own It with Samir Gassanov

And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.

-Acts 2:44-45

This week, we're joined by Samir Gassanov, ICS PhD student and former Bay Street property lawyer. In this episode, Sam sheds some light on his unfolding research into a Christian understanding of property, asking what it might mean to have a more deeply human view of ownership, and takes us on his winding journey into, out of, and back to academics.

Check out this week's Don't Miss This! items:

• March 15 - This is the submission deadline for this year's Undergraduate Workshop: God & Politics: Religion and Public Life in the 21st Century!

• March 25, 5:15-7:15pm - Beautiful God: The Incarnation & the Arts lecture by Christina Labriola at Regis College - food provided!