Reading the Bible with Nik Ansell: What is Freedom?

"For freedom Christ has set us free..." but what is freedom for?

We're continuing our series on reading the Bible with ICS Senior Member in theology Nik Ansell. So for the next few weeks, we'll keep tackling some hot topics and burning questions. This week, Héctor joins Nik to discern some dynamics of law and liberation in the Bible, and to consider the stakes of freedom.

If you're keen to see the Bible in a new light, you'll want to have a listen to our first episode and stick with us for the rest of this series. You could also join for yourself some of Nik's upcoming courses, including Biblical Foundations which will be starting remotely in the fall.

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.

God of Solidarity with Dean Dettloff

We're back with a new season of Critical Faith! Before we dive into our exciting new content for this season, we have one more Fall course you're going to want to check out.

Today, Dean Dettloff, sessional lecturer and ICS PhD candidate, and CPRSE Associate Director Hector Acero Ferrer join us to talk about Dean's upcoming online 6-week intensive course on liberation theology called God of Solidarity: Liberation Theology as Social Movement. Starting November 3, the course will meet virtually this fall, every Tuesday and Thursday evening.

Registration is open! Like our other fall courses, this one is accessible from all over the world for credit or audit, with a significant discount on course fees for first time auditors and ICS alums--only $400 CAD (plus registration). So if you'd like to find out more about the course or to register, you can visit the course page on our website or send our Registrar an email at academic-registrar@icscanada.edu!

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.

Set the Prisoners Free with Dean Dettloff

We're announcing a recent change to the next upcoming course ICS is offering for our Summer Online Learning Initiative:

In light of the ongoing anti-racism protests taking place around the world and the growing outcry against targeted police brutality, ICS Junior Member Dean Dettloff will be offering an updated intensive version of his course Set the Prisoners Free: Christianity and Prison Abolition.

For this episode, fellow ICS Junior Member and Associate Director of the CPRSE, Héctor Acero Ferrer, joins Dean to explore the background narratives to this course, to uncover some of the ways in which Christianity and prison and police abolition share an entwined history, and to identify some compelling resources and activists in these areas.

This 6-week course will take place two evenings a week, two hours a day from July 7 to August 13. This online format means Set the Prisoners Free will be available to be taken for credit or audit from anywhere in the world. There are a number of enrollment options available, so if you'd like to learn more about the course, to register, or to find out more about our discounts for first-time auditors and ICS alumni, you can visit the course page on our website or send our Registrar an email at academic-registrar@icscanada.edu!

- List of prison and police abolition resources mentioned in this episode -

Books and Interviews

• Are Prisons Obsolete? (2003) by Angela Davis 
• Golden Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis, and Opposition in Globalizing California (2007) by Ruth Wilson Gilmore 
• Policing Black Lives: State Violence in Canada from Slavery to the Present (2017) by Robyn Maynard 
• Warrior Life: Indigenous Resistance and Resurgence (forthcoming, 2020) by Pamela Palmater

Organizations

• Christians for the Abolition of Prisons
• Black and Pink 
• 8 to Abolition

- - - - -

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.

Hannah Arendt & Religious Critique with Ronald A. Kuipers, Andrew Tebbutt & Héctor Acero Ferrer

Here at ICS, we're starting a summer online learning initiative, which means we have a number of exciting new courses in the works for the next few months. So we wanted to give you a sneak peek at these courses with the folks involved in making them happen.

This week, we invited Héctor Acero Ferrer to chat with Dr. Ronald A. Kuipers and Dr. Andrew Tebbutt about their newly redesigned course Evil, Resistance, and Judgment: Hannah Arendt and Religious Critique and what Arendt's thought has to say to us today. This 6-week course will take place two days a week, two hours a day from May 12 to June 18, and is available to be taken for credit or audit from anywhere in the world.

If you'd like to find out more about the course or to register, you can visit the course page on our website or send our Registrar an email at academic-registrar@icscanada.edu!

- List of Arendt "must reads" from this episode -

• "Perplexities of the Rights of Man" in Origins of Totalitarianism (1951) by Hannah Arendt
• The Last Interview and Other Conversations (2013) by Hannah Arendt
• The Three Escapes of Hannah Arendt: A Tyranny of Truth (2018) graphic novel by Ken Krimstein 
• "Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli: A Christian on St. Peter's Chair from 1958 to 1963" in Men in Dark Times (1968) by Hannah Arendt

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.

Mid-Season Reflection with the Critical Faith Team

Ron, Héctor, Theoren, and Danielle have recovered from both the holiday break and the beginning of the new semester and are back in the Critical Faith studio to reflect on last semester's discussions of evil, resistance, and judgment. Have a listen to hear about some highlights and favourite moments!

As mentioned in this episode, Ron Kuipers and The King's University's Jeff Dudiak will be jointly teaching a graduate-undergraduate course this summer called "Evil, Resistance, and Judgment: Hannah Arendt and Religious Critique." For an introductory discussion of Hannah Arendt on these themes, you can revisit Ron's episode from the beginning of last semester here. If you're interested in taking this course, please talk to our Registrar no later than March 31.

Undergraduates can also visit our website to find out more about our fourth annual Undergraduate Workshop on Evil, Resistance, and Judgment: Creating a World Fit for Human Habitation. We're accepting paper proposals for the workshop until March 16!

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.

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