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.

• JANUARY 30, 2025 @ 7PM, BAKKE AUDITORIUM
  "C.S. Lewis and the Apocalyptic Imagination" with Aubrey Buster
  Respondent: Danielle Corple, Associate Professor of Communication
  This first lecture in the 2025 Hansen Lecture series “C.S. Lewis and the End of the World” traces the development of Lewis’s use of story to imagine distinctively Christian endings, including his development of biblical images, his interaction with contemporary biblical scholarship on “apocalypticism,” and his presentation of “story” as the proper form for imagining human ends. The evening will conclude with a book launch/signing for Dr. Jeffrey  Barbeau’s The Last Romantic: C.S. Lewis, English Literature, and Modern Theology, the eighth volume in the Hansen Lectureship series, published by InterVarsity Press Academic.
  Watch the “Hansen Lecture #1” Event Livestream
• 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 26, 2025 @ 7PM, ARMERDING CONCERT HALL
  “Who Stands Fast?” | The Enduring Witness of Dietrich Bonhoeffer | Panel Discussion
  This panel reflects on the ongoing significance of Bonhoeffer’s life and witness. Panelists include: Laura Fabrycky, Alan Jacobs, Todd Komarnicki, and Reggie Williams. 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. More details forthcoming!
• 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
  Dr. Jennifer McNutt - talk and book signing for The Mary We Forgot: What the Apostle to the Apostles Teaches the Church Today (Brazos Press, 2024)
  More details forthcoming!
• 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!