Wade Center Events

The Wade Center plans to record all events and upload them to our YouTube channel unless otherwise noted and barring any technical difficulties.

• FEBRUARY 27, 2025 @ 7PM, BAKKE AUDITORIUM
  "'Here be Dragons': C.S. Lewis and the Construction of the Monstrous" with Aubrey Buster
  Respondent: John Walton, Professor of Old Testament Emeritus
  This second lecture in the 2025 Hansen Lecture series “C.S. Lewis and the End of the World” will describe the function of the monstrous within Lewis’s visions of the end. The imagined monstrous also constructs as its counterpart imagined glory. Thus, our examination of the distorted, the vulgar, and the evil, will provide a transition to the final lecture, which is an examination of the construction of Christian hope.
  Watch the “Hansen Lecture #2” Event Livestream
• MARCH 25, 2025 @ 7PM, BARROWS AUDITORIUM
  Bonhoeffer Film Showing and Q&A with Director Todd Komarnicki (’87)
  Attend a free showing of the new film about Dietrich Bonhoeffer. After the film, Todd Komarnicki, the film’s director and a Wheaton alum, will take questions from the audience.
  IN-PERSON ONLY EVENT
• MARCH 26, 2025 @ 7PM, ARMERDING CONCERT HALL
  Perspectives on Bonhoeffer: A Panel Discussion
  Join us for an evening panel discussion about the new Bonhoeffer film, featuring the film’s director, Todd Komarnicki (’87), along with Laura Fabrycky (’99), and Reggie Williams. Together, we’ll consider the life and work of Dietrich Bonhoeffer from a variety of perspectives, reflect on the film’s presentation of Bonhoeffer, and discuss why Bonhoeffer’s witness matters today. The event is co-sponsored by the Wade Center’s Night Sky Project, the Faith and Learning Program, CACE, and the Core Studies Program/Humanities and Theological Studies.
  IN-PERSON ONLY EVENT
• APRIL 10, 2025 @ 7PM, BAKKE AUDITORIUM
  "C.S. Lewis, the End(s) of Desire, and the Construction of Hope" with Aubrey Buster
  Respondent: Esau McCaulley, Jonathan Blanchard Associate Professor of New Testament and Public Theology
  In the third and final lecture in the 2025 Hansen Lecture series “C.S. Lewis and the End of the World,” Dr. Buster will argue that both Lewis and the writers of ancient Jewish apocalypse used the construction of endings to shape communal desire and to motivate communal hope. Lewis’s repeated appeal to “longing” and “desire” as primary religious categories reveal an orientation to the end shared with the apocalyptic tradition. The apocalyptic scenario has been used to influence a community’s imagination of the ideal world, and to encourage its readers and hearers to act collectively towards this future of flourishing.
  Watch the “Hansen Lecture #3” Event Livestream
• MAY 9, 2025 @ 1:30PM, Alumni Weekend Event, BAKKE AUDITORIUM 
  "Recreating Mary Magdalene: Her Story through the Eyes of the Wade Authors" with Dr. Jennifer Powell McNutt - talk and book signing for The Mary We Forgot: What the Apostle to the Apostles Teaches the Church Today (Brazos Press, 2024)
  Dr. Jennifer Powell McNutt, Franklin S. Dyrness Professor of Biblical and Theological Studies, will offer a lecture based on her recent book, The Mary We Forgot. Across the centuries and traditions, Christians have struggled to convey a clear, biblical account of Mary Magdalene and her significance for the Christian faith. How might C.S. Lewis, Dorothy L. Sayers, and George MacDonald inform a faithful retrieval of her? Dr. McNutt will explore how the Wade authors reflect the complexities of reading the biblical narratives about Mary Magdalene and help the church to see her significance for today.
• JUNE 5, 2025 @ 7PM, BAKKE AUDITORIUM
  Dr. Crystal Downing – talk and book signing for The Wages of Cinema A Christian Aesthetic of Film in Conversation with Dorothy L. Sayers (IVP Academic, 2025)
  More details forthcoming!