Philosophy & Religious Studies
Lectures
CURRENT VOICES
Smith-Willson / Parkhurst Lecture
This is our annual lecture generally ocurring in October/November or in February on the topic of religion.
Beck Lecture
The Beck lectureship, funded by Paul V. Beck to explore topics relating to science and religion, is an annual event on campus and brings in philosophers, theologians and/or scientists from across the nation.
Coming 2010-2011 Academic Year Lectures
Beck Lecture Spring 2011--
Dr. Alan Padgett
Professor of Systematic Theology at Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN, will present the Beck Lecture at Mossman Hall 101, Southwestern College, Winfield, KS, at 7 PM Tuesday, April 12, 2011. Padgett, a leading figure in the current Religion and Science discussion, is the author of Science and the Study of God: A Mutuality Model for Theology and Science (Eerdmans, 2003) and several other books. He is also the co-editor of the forthcoming Blackwell Companion to Science and Christianity. Padgett earned his doctorate from Oxford University. His lecture is entitled “The Bible in an Age of Science,” and is concerned with how the Christian scripture and modern science can engage one another as conversation partners in the pursuit of knowledge.
Smith-Willson Spring 2011 in conjunction with Builders in Ministry Week--
Rev. Adam Hamilton
Rev. Adam Hamilton is the founding pastor of the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas. Adam has received the B’nai B’rith award in Social Ethics, the Denman Award in Evangelism, and the Circuit Rider Award for excellence in church leadership. He was named Distinguished Evangelist of the United Methodist Church by the Foundation for Evangelism, and he was named one of the “Ten People to Watch in America’s Spiritual Landscape” by Religion and Ethics Newsweekly. The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection has grown from four people in 1990 to over 12,000 adult members with an average weekly worship attendance of over 7,500 in 2006.
Parkhurst Lecture Fall 2010--
Dr. Henry H. (Hal) Knight, III
Dr. Knight teaches in the areas of Wesleyan theology, church history, and evangelical, Pentecostal, and charismatic theology. He is the originator and chair of the Wesleyan-Pentecostal Consultation, a group of scholars and pastors who have collaborated on a new volume, “From Aldersgate to Azusa Street: Wesleyan, Holiness, and Pentecostal Visions of the New Creation,” which examines key figures in the history of this distinctive family of Christian churches.
FORMER LECTURERS...
Beck Lecture Spring 2010
Dr. Henry F. Schaefer, III - Anthropic Design Arguments
Graham-Purdue Professor of Chemistry, Director of the Center for Computational Chemistry, B.S. in Chemical Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ph.D. in Chemical Physics, Stanford University
Parkhurst Lecture Spring 2010
Dr. Lester Ruth, "Theology of Worship"
Expertise: History of Christian Worship (particularly Early Methodism), Creativity with the Sacraments & Contemporary Worship B.B.A., Stephen F. Austin University, 1981, M.Div., Asbury Theological Seminary, 1985, Th.M., Emory University, 1988, M.A., University of Notre Dame, 1994, Ph.D., University of Notre Dame, 1996. Dr. Lester Ruth is the Lily May Jarvis Professor of Christian Worship. He began teaching at Asbury Theological Seminary in 2000.
Beck Lecture Spring 2009
This spring's Beck Lecture was delivered by Alvin Plantinga, John A. O'Brien Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. Please plan to visit and tell others. Dr. Alvin Plantinga, "Religion and Science"
brief bio...
Philosopher of religion, born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. A professor at Calvin College, Grand Rapids (1963–82) and the University of Notre Dame, IN (1982– ), his works include God and Other Minds (1967), God, Freedom and Evil (1974), The Nature of Necessity (1974), Does God have a Nature? (1980), Warrant the Current Debate (1993), Warrant and Proper Function (1993) Warranted Christian Belief (2000) and Knowledge of God (2008) with Michael Tooley. He is most known for his free will defense against the problem of evil, what has come to be known as reformed epistemology, a modal version of the ontological argument for God's existence and an evolutionary argument against naturalism. Dr. Plantinga will be lecturing on the relationship between science and religion per his entry in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy online entitled, Religion and Science. Click below to view the entire speech by Dr. Plantinga from Spring 2009.
Parkhurst Lecture Spring 2009 in conjunction with Builders in Ministry
Mr. Tony Jones
Tony's bio...
Tony is the national coordinator of Emergent Village (www.emergentvillage.org), and a doctoral fellow in practical theology at Princeton Theological Seminary. He is the author of many books, including The New Christians: Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier and The Sacred Way: Spiritual Practices for Everyday Life, and he is a sought after speaker and consultant in the areas of emerging church, postmodernism, and Christian spirituality. Tony lives with his wife, Julie, and their three children in Edina, Minnesota.
Smith-Wilson Lecture Fall 2008The Reverend and Dr. Leslie Callahan will be visiting SC and delivering a lecture on Charles Fox Parham. Who? Well, Charles Fox Parham is known as a father of Pentecostalism in the United States, but he was also a student here at Southwestern College.
Beck Lecture Spring 2008 Dr. Richard O. Randolph
Dr. Randolph, assistant professor and chair for the department of bioethics at the Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences, Randolph focused on the implications of extraterrestrial life for Christian faith and doctrine. The title of the lecture was “What if Extraterrestrials Really Do Exist? Towards a Cosmic Christian Faith.”
Smith-Wilson Lecture Fall 2007
Dr. Steven J. Keillor
He has a Ph.D in American History from the University of Minnesota. He is adjunct assistant professor of history at Bethel University, St. Paul MN. He has written This Rebellious House: American History and the Truth of Christianity (1996) and God's Judgments: Interpreting History and the Christian Faith (2007), and several books in state and regional history. He writes in a log cabin in northern Minnesota.
