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.

Reading the Bible with Nik Ansell: Where to Begin?

In the beginning... where to begin?

We're excited here at Critical Faith to begin a new year with a new series on reading the Bible with resident ICS Senior Member in theology Nik Ansell. For the next few weeks, we'll tackle some hot topics and burning questions. We pack a lot into this episode, all by first asking the vital question: How do we even start?

If you're keen to see the Bible in a new light, you'll want to join us for this series. You could also keep an eye out for some of Nik's upcoming courses, now available remotely.

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.

Body, Language, Power with Dr. Andrew Tebbutt

Dr. Andrew Tebbutt, ICS sessional lecturer and Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Centre for Philosophy, Religion, and Social Ethics joins us to talk existential phenomenology and to tell us more about the course he'll be teaching this winter called Body, Language, Power: The Question of the Human in 20th Century French Philosophy. Starting January 13, the course will meet virtually every Wednesday afternoon (2-5pm EST).

Register today! Like 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 existential phenomenology and phenomenology of race and gender: 

• Lewis R. Gordon: Being Human as a Relationship (YouTube video)
• Robert Bernasconi: Race, Slavery, and the Philosophers of the Enlightenment (YouTube video)
• Linda Martín Alcoff: Decolonizing Feminism in the Age of Intersectionality (lecture)
• Jean Paul Sartre: "Existentialism as a Humanism" in Existentialism and Human Emotions
• Maurice Merleau-Ponty: The World of Perception

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.

Aesthetics of Compassion with Rebekah Smick

Summer's nearly over and we have one more fall course to feature on the podcast before the semester begins in mid-September!

Today, Rebekah Smick, Senior Member in Philosophy of Arts & Culture, joins us to talk about her course The Aesthetics of Compassion which reflects on the place of compassion in Western philosophy, theology, and art. Starting September 17, the course will meet virtually this fall, every Thursday from 10am-1pm EST.

This--and the rest of our fall courses--are all 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.

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.

A Growth Mindset for Christian Education with Edith van der Boom

ICS recently hired Dr. Edith van der Boom as the new Senior Member in Philosophy of Education and Practice of Pedagogy and as the Director of the MA (Phil) in Educational Leadership Program. So we invited Edith onto the podcast to introduce herself and give us an idea of some of her hopes and plans for the MA-EL program and its students. For more about Edith and the MA-EL program, visit www.icscanada.edu.

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

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

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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.

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.