Spring 2025 Speakers
Taking the Text Seriously: Gadamer on the Demands of Reading
Thursday, February 20, 2025
7:30 pm, Blanchard Hall Room 339
Greg Lynch, North Central College
Co-author of The Event of Meaning in Gadamer's Hermeneutics (2024)
Fall 2024 Speakers
Choosing Life: Affirming a Human Future in an Imperfect World
Wednesday, October 9, 2024
7:30 pm, Blanchard Hall Room 339
Anastasia Berg and Rachel Wiseman
Co-authors of What Are Children For? On Ambivalence and Choice (2024)
Kierkegaard's Conception of the Role of Admiration in Human Life
Wednesday, November 6, 2024
7:30 pm, Blanchard Hall Room 339
Richard McCombs, St. John's College, Santa Fe
Author of Art and Praise in Kierkegaard’s Works of Love (2023)
Spring 2024 Speakers
2023-24 Aesthetics Lecture
The Art of Faith, the Faith of Art
Tuesday, January 23, 2024
7:30 pm, Barrows Auditorium
Christian Wiman
Clement-Muehl Professor of Communication Arts, Yale Divinity School
Suspicion and Faith: A Kierkegaardian Hermeneutics of Epiphany
Tuesday, February 6, 2024
7:30 pm, Blanchard Hall Room 339
Dr. Amber Bowen
Assistant Professor of Core Studies and Philosophy, Redeemer University
2023-24 McManis Lecture
The Desire to Flourish: On Pain of Death
Thursday, April 11, 2024
7:30 pm, Blanchard Hall Room 339
Dr. Martin Hägglund
Birgit Baldwin Professor of Comparative Literature and Humanities, Yale University
Fall 2023 Speakers
Thursday, October 5, 2023
7:30 p.m., Blanchard Hall Room 339
POSTPONED
Dr. Christina Van Dyke
Term Professor of Philosophy, Barnard College, Columbia University; Professor Emerita of Philosophy, Calvin University
Al-Ghazali on Conformism and Religious Belief
Tuesday, November 7, 2022
7:30 pm, Blanchard Hall Room 339
Dr. Stephen Ogden
Tracey Family Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Notre Dame
Spring 2023 Speakers
"This is my body": The Eucharist and the Incarnation
Tuesday, January 31, 2023
7:30 pm, Blanchard Hall Room 339
Rev. Dr. James Arcadi
Rector, All Souls Anglican Church
The W(h)it(e)ness of Worldview Theory: On the Troubled Genealogy of a Favorite Framework
Monday, March 27, 2023
7:30 pm, Blanchard Hall Room 339
Dr. Jacob Alan Cook
Teacher-Scholar Postdoctoral Fellow, Thriving Congregations Lilly Endowment Grant Initiative, Wake Forest University
Fall 2022 Speakers
One Pig = (Roughly) Two Salmon: How to Estimate Relative Moral Priority
Tuesday, October 11, 2022
7:30 p.m., Blanchard Hall Room 339
Dr. Bob Fischer
Associate Professor of Philosophy, Texas State University
Author of Animal Ethics: A Contemporary Introduction
Intellectual Humility for Everyone?
Tuesday, November 8, 2022
7:30 pm, Blanchard Hall Room 339
Dr. Laura Frances Callahan
Assistant Professor of Philosophy, University of Notre Dame
Spring 2022 Speakers
Martin Delany's Liberation Theology
February 23, 2022 | Dr. Joshua Laurence Cohen '10, Marion L. Brittain Postdoctoral Fellow (Ph.D., Emory University) at Georgia Institute of Technology
Is Imagination Boundless?
nnual Kierkegaard Lecture
March 22, 2022 | Dr. Eleanor Helms '02, Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., Fordham University) at California Polytechnic University
How and How Not to Be Happy
April 22, 2022 | Dr. J. Budziszewski, Marion L. Brittain Postdoctoral Fellow (Ph.D., Yale University) at Georgia Institute of Technology
Fall 2021 Speakers
Navigating Science and Religion: From Conflict to Dialogue with Humility
September 28, 2021 | Dr. Joseph Vukov, Professor of Government and Philosophy (Ph.D., Fordham University) at University of Texas at Austin
How Can Wonder Transform Us?
October 28, 2021 (Virtual Lecture) | Dr. Helen De Cruz, Danforth Chair in the Humanities and Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., University of Groningen) at Saint Louis University
Spring 2021 Speakers
How to Sin Like a Wizard (or what Harry Potter can teach Christians about sin)
March 24, 2021 (Virtual Lecture) | Dr. Sarah Borden, Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., Fordham University) at Wheaton College
Eating as an Act of Justice: From Religious Food Ethics to Climate Action
April 21, 2021 (Virtual Lecture) | Dr. Matthew Halteman, Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., University of Notre Dame) at Calvin University
Fall 2020 Speakers
Hell: Why It's There, and Who's in It: An Opinionated Philosophical Tour
October 1, 2020 | Dr. Adam Wood, Associate Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., Fordham University) at Wheaton College
Kierkegaard on Faith, Doubt, and Uncertainty
Annual Kierkegaard Lecture
October 14, 2020 (Virtual Lecture) | Dr. C. Stephen Evans, Professor of Philosophy and the Humanities (Ph.D., Yale University) at Baylor University
Grace, Predestination, and Free Will
November 11, 2020 (Virtual Lecture) | W. Matthews Grant, Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., Fordham University) at University of St. Thomas
Spring 2020 Speakers
Doing Nature: The Art of Real Places
2019-20 Aesthetics Lecture
February 13, 2020 | Joel Sheesley ('72), Professor of Art Emeritus (M.F.A., University of Denver) at Wheaton College
An Optimistic Pessimism
2019-20 McManis Lecture
March 4, 2020 | Dr. Hud Hudson, Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., University of Rochester) at Western Washington University
Law, Variation, and the Stamp of Thought: The Importance of Reason in Kierkegaard
Annual Kierkegaard Lecture
POSTPONED | Dr. Eleanor Helms, Associate Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., Fordham University) at California Polytechnic State University
Fall 2019 Speakers
Puzzles of Petitionary Prayer
September 17, 2019 | Dr. Scott Davison, Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., University of Notre Dame) at Morehead State University
Transformative Religious Experience and Empathy for Future Selves
2019-20 McManis Lecture
October 24, 2019 | Dr. L.A. Paul, Professor of Philosophy and Cognitive Science (Ph.D., Princeton University) at Yale University
Philosophizing by Listening to the Past
November 12, 2019 | Dr. David Vessey, Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., University of Notre Dame) at Grand Valley State University
Spring 2019 Speakers
Toward Clarity on Kierkegaard's Contributions to the Church
Annual Kierkegaard Lecture
February 7, 2019 | Dr. Mark Tietjen, Chaplain and Grace Palmer Johnston Chair of the Bible (Ph.D., Baylor University) at The Stony Brook School
Suffering and Flourishing
March 21, 2019 | Dr. Eleonore Stump, Robert J. Henle Chair in Philosophy (Ph.D., Cornell University) at St. Louis University
The Love Imperative: A Defense
April 11, 2019 | Dr. Meghan Sullivan, Professor of Philosophy and the Rev. John A. O'Brien Collegiate Chair (Ph.D., Rutgers University) at University of Notre Dame
Fall 2018 Speakers
The Good Life
September 13, 2018 | Dr. Dan Haybron, Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D., Rutgers University) at St. Louis University
"Turn Us to You": Augustine's Confessions for the 21st Century
2018-19 Core Book Symposium
October 10, 2018 | Dr. Joseph Clair, Dean of the College of Christian Studies, Liberal Arts, and Honors, and Associate Professor of Theology (Ph.D., Princeton University) at George Fox University