Philosophy & Religious Studies
Colloquia
LET'S TALK
The Philosophy and Religious Studies Department hosted informal colloquia on what were a variety of subjects ranging from movie discussions to current articles and issues to meatier books to personal scholarly work be it undergrad, grad or faculty. For the coming fall we welcome those who want to investigate these sources from a philosophical and religious perspective in order to glean insights from the content and from each other. Coming in the Fall 2008 semester we have reserved the Sun Room in the Admission Office from 5:45-7pm on the first Tuesday of each month. We anticipate having dinner together at the cafeteria beforehand, so meet us at 5:15 at the cafeteria and walk over to join in the discussion.
If you are interested in joining us starting with introductions and then discussing the topic for the month, please join us on those Tuesday nights. We welcome you. Meeting more frequently will depend upon the interest level and turnout. Contact Mike Harper, mike.harper@sckans.edu for questions or input you might have concerning topics.
WE BEGAN OUR FALL COLLOQUIA ON SEPT. 1ST.
September-Brainstorm on Topics for the Year
October-Environmental Ethics
We discussed the distinctions between anthropocentric, biocentric and theocentric views of the environment. Related issues included how do these distinctions affect our decisions with regard to developing international markets.
November--Dispensationalism
Matt Thompson shared from his expertise on this eschatological view, its history and influence in our culture. It was interesting to think about how prevelant it is in the Left Behind series He and the group offered some critiques and wondered about the virtues.
December--To be determined?
Past Colloquia Academic Year 2008-2009
Guest Michael Bartley, OSU Wesley Foundation Director
In our final colloquium, He introduced us to his attempts at creating what he calls a mutli-vocal, in contrast with mono-vocal, approach to campus ministry. The focus is to have a missional intent about decentralizing worship and ministry functions to account for cultural differences. We enjoyed our largest audience of the year with 14.
Reflections on Tony Jones' Parkhurst Lecture on the Emerging Church
We had a very vibrant discussion on the various ideas and points that Tony Jones made at his recent lecture. The issues ranged from the various practices that occur at Tony's church to more controversial issues whether someone can know if they are really believing in historic Christianity.
Preview of Beck Lecturer, Alvin Plantinga
We spent 2 colloquia looking at a couple articles that Alvin Plantinga had written about the relationship of religion and science. We wanted to begin to digest some of his thoughts and be familiar with them when he visits in February. We looked at his entry Religion and Science in the Stanford Onlinne Encylcopedia of Philosophy and a complementary work in Books & Culture. We were happy to see our dean and science professor join our discussion.
Politics and Religion
Our colloquium on October 7th was about "Politics and Religion". We talked about a wide variety of issues ranging from how does a religious person decide on a candidate, why are religious institutions required to abstain from political endorsements, why do we privilege a secular government over a religious government, how do issues of abortion and economic justice compare when deciding on parties? Michelle Boucher, SC English Professor joined the philosophy and religion department faculty with 3 students for a great discussion of these topics.
What is Post-Modernism?
A group of 7 students and 4 staff met to discuss post-modernism. We tried to hash through what it is, whether there are good and bad aspects to it, how it arose. etc. The controversial point we spent some time on was whether post-modernism boiled down is just modernism. A great discussion was had by all. Here are a couple pics...
