The Wake of 2020: Democracy's Lament with Ronald A. Kuipers & Gideon Strauss

We’re embarking on a new series about some of the challenges facing philosophy and Christian faith in the wake of 2020.

Today, series host Andrew Tebbutt starts close to home with guests Ronald A. Kuipers (Associate Professor of Philosophy of Religion, Director of the CPRSE, and President of ICS) and Gideon Strauss (Associate Professor of Worldview Studies and Academic Dean at ICS). Together they reflect on global democracy and the role of lament. Stay tuned for more conversations in the coming weeks.

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Upcoming Summer Courses at ICS

• Pragmatism, Race, and Religion: Du Bois, West, and Glaude (June 7-July 16) with Ronald A. Kuipers
• Lead from Where You Are: Making a Difference in the Face of Tough Problems, Big Questions, and Organizational Politics (August 16-20) with Gideon Strauss
• ... and more!

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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.

Capitalism(s) in the West with Michael DeMoor and Samir Gassanov

 

Want a better grasp of what the giant of capitalism means?

This winter semester, Dr. Michael DeMoor (Associate Professor of Social Philosophy in Politics, History, and Economics at The King's University and cross-appointed faculty at ICS) and Samir Gassanov (ICS PhD student) will be co-teaching a course called Capitalism(s) in the West: Intellectual History, Core Institutions, and Architectonic Critique. Starting January 14, the course will meet virtually every Thursday (11am-2pm EST).

ICS Junior Member Abbi Hofstede joined Michael and Samir on this episode to ask them all about what students like her can expect from this course.

Register today! Like all our upcoming winter 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!

Some resources of interest on capitalism(s)

• Capital in the 21st Century (2019 documentary available on Netflix; based on the book by Thomas Piketty)
• The Big Short (2015 film based on the book by Michael Lewis)
• The Corporation (2003 documentary based on the book by Joel Bakan)
• punk rock music from the 1970s-80s (especially the career arc of The Clash)

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.

Nietzsche, Foucault, and Genealogy with Bob Sweetman

As we start gearing up for the start of the semester at ICS, we're spending a few weeks with some of our Senior Members as they prepare for their upcoming online courses in the fall.

So for this episode, we welcomed Bob Sweetman, ICS Senior Member in history of philosophy, back onto the podcast to talk about his latest course offering starting in September: Nietzsche, Foucault, and the Genealogical Approach to the History of Philosophy. This course will meet virtually on Tuesdays, 10am-1pm EST.

If you'd like to find out more about the course, to register, or to learn 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!

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.

Facing the Darkness with Nik Ansell

As summer draws to a close and we start gearing up for the start of the semester at ICS, we're going to spend a few weeks with some of our Senior Members as they prepare for their upcoming online courses in the fall.

Today, we're welcoming Nik Ansell, ICS Senior Member in theology, back onto the podcast to talk about one of the two courses he'll be teaching online. On Monday evenings, he’ll be teaching his Biblical Foundations course, and on Thursday afternoons he’ll be teaching the course that provides the topic of today’s conversation: Facing the Darkness: The (Human) Nature of Evil.

If you'd like to find out more about the course, to register, or to learn 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!

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.

Faith in Art with Adrienne Dengerink Chaplin

Here at ICS, we're embarking on 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 people involved in making them happen.

This week, Adrienne Dengerink Chaplin joins us remotely for a conversation about her upcoming course Faith in Art: Spirituality and Lived Experience, which takes a close look at some of the intersections and tensions between faith and art today, especially within theological and philosophical aesthetics.

This 6-week course will take place two days a week, two hours a day from June 16 to July 23. Its online format means Faith in Art will be available to be taken for credit or audit from anywhere in the world. If you'd like to find out 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 faith and art "must reads" mentioned in this episode -

• Contemporary Art and the Church: A Conversation Between Two Worlds (2017), Christians in the Visual Arts conference proceedings edited by W. David O. Taylor and Taylor Worley
• Theological Aesthetics: A Reader (2005) by Gesa Elsbeth Thiessen
• Normative Aesthetics: Sundry Writings and Occasional Lectures (2014) and Redemptive Art in Society: Sundry Writings and Occasional Lectures (2014) by Calvin Seerveld, edited by John Kok

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.

Ref Phil 101 with Bob Sweetman: The Response-Ability of the Heart

Congratulations! You've reached the final installment in our miniseries on Reformational philosophy with Bob Sweetman and Gideon Strauss!

Bob and Gideon have covered a lot of territory in the past number of weeks--from the influence of Abraham Kuyper on Dooyeweerd and Vollenhoven, to the broader historical and philosophical context in which Reformational philosophy first developed. This week, they ask the burning question: why does this matter? And Bob leaves us considering what Reformational philosophy has to say about how we know, and how such knowing is ultimately a response of the heart to the world around us.

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.

Ref Phil 101 with Bob Sweetman: Things and Their Hows

We're nearing the end of our miniseries on Reformational philosophy with Bob Sweetman and Gideon Strauss, and this week we take a turn to a fundamental philosophical topic: ontology.

In this episode, Bob explains what ontology is, how Reformational philosophy's complex-and-integral approach compares to some of its theoretical contemporaries, and provides examples of how this ontology frames human responsibility.

Stick with us for the final episode in this series coming in the next couple weeks!

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.

Ref Phil 101 with Bob Sweetman: Ground Motives and Spiritual Movements

We managed to get a couple more episodes of our miniseries on Reformational philosophy with Bob Sweetman and Gideon Strauss recorded a few weeks before the pandemic hit. So this week, we present you with episode three!

Last time, Bob explained the significance of Kuyper's idea of "sphere sovereignty" to how Herman Dooyeweerd then went on to develop it into a critique of power dynamics. This week, Bob and Gideon discuss Dooyeweerd's idea of "ground motives" and Reformational philosophy co-founder Dirk Vollenhoven's approach to historiography as tools for recognizing how societies change, collide, and flow through history.

We'll continue this series in the coming weeks, so stay with us to find out more about what makes Reformational philosophy tick...

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.

Ref Phil 101 with Bob Sweetman: Spheres of Societal Power

Welcome to week two of our miniseries on Reformational philosophy with Bob Sweetman and Gideon Strauss! After last week's introduction to Abraham Kuyper's role in the backstory of Reformational philosophy, today we have two goals. First we'll look at Kuyper's idea of "sphere sovereignty." Then we'll consider how the key Reformational figure of Herman Dooyeweerd begins to develop Kuyper's idea into a critique of social and historical power dynamics.

This series will continue next week, so stay with us to find out more about what makes Reformational philosophy tick...

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.

Ref Phil 101 with Bob Sweetman: Kuyper's Principled Pluralism

Have you ever wondered what this Reformational philosophy thing is that folks at ICS constantly talk about? For the next few weeks, Bob Sweetman, with the help of Gideon Strauss, will be giving us a crash course on how Reformational philosophy came to be, what it says, and how it is relevant today.

This week, Bob gives us some of the backstory to how Reformational philosophy first developed. To do so, he dives more deeply into a conversation begun in our last episode about Abraham Kuyper and his idea of principled pluralism. Stay tuned in the coming weeks to find out more about what makes Reformational philosophy tick...

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.

A Lesson in Hilarity with Aron Reppmann

How can we cultivate compassion?

This week, we're joined by Critical Faith superfan Aron Reppmann. Aron teaches philosophy at Trinity Christian College near Chicago and currently chairs the ICS Senate. In this episode, Aron shares with us some advice from Augustine on how to cultivate hilaritas as an educator and a learner.

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.

Empowering Protagonists of Social Change with Eric Farr

How can we learn to really listen to youth?

This week, we're joined by Eric Farr who works with youth in the Baha'i community and is currently researching the dynamics of youth empowerment and engagement in communities at the University of Toronto. Eric's research raises questions about what it means to actually build up youth in the context of religious and community life and how such empowerment means learning to see paths beyond resistance.

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.

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.

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.