PROGRAMS | GAEDE INSTITUTE Archive: Fall 2014
Beauty for Ashes: The Mission of the Church in Israel/Palestine
Azar Ajaj
President, Nazareth Evangelical Theological Seminary
The Robin Elizabeth Pascal World Christianity Lecture
Tuesday, September 9, 2014, 7:00 p.m.
Hieronymus Lounge, Kerrwood Hall
Warfare, protests, persecution, terrorism, discrimination. The news coming out of Israel -- the "holy" land -- has been unrelenting in recent months. What is the place of the church in the midst of the conflict between Israel and Palestine? What do Christians in the land experience, and what can the church do in response to the prevailing violence? Azar Ajaj, president of Nazareth Evangelical Theological Seminary and long-time pastor in the Baptist Church, will address these questions and more.
The Robin Elizabeth Pascal World Christianity Lecture was established in 2003 by Robin and Nancy Wainwright "to encourage and increase Westmont students' awareness and understanding of Christianity as a global faith."
Summer Research Celebration
Westmont College students and faculty
Thursday, September 11, 2014, 3:30 p.m.
Winter Hall Rotunda and Darling Lecture Hall
In collaboration with faculty, student researchers have worked over the summer in the fields of Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Psychology. Abstracts of summer projects are available here. A reception and poster display will be held in the Winter Hall Rotunda beginning at 3:30 p.m., with talks to follow in the Darling Foundation Lecture Hall at 4:15 p.m. Faculty, students, parents, alumni, and prospective students are invited to attend; please RSVP to Barb Kennedy in the Provost's Office.
The Challenges of Christian Learning: Looking Back, Looking Ahead
Mark Noll
Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History, University of Notre Dame
Erasmus Society Lecture
Wednesday, September 24, 2014, 4:00 p.m.
Hieronymus Lounge, Kerrwood Hall
It would take a Charles Dickens to discern the status of Christian learning at the present moment. Like Dickens at the start of "The Tale of Two Cities," we might conclude "it is the best of times, it is the worst of times." By concentrating on the history of American evangelicals and then assessing contemporary currents, Mark Noll in this lecture will explain where he thinks Christian learning has been advancing, where he thinks it is stalled, and where it might be headed.
Peter: False Disciple and Apostate According to Saint Matthew
Robert H. Gundry
Scholar in Residence, Westmont College
Provost's Lecture
Monday, October 6, 2014, 7:00 p.m.
Hieronymus Lounge, Kerrwood Hall
Westmont's distinguished scholar-in-residence explores the diversity of perspectives in early Christian texts, suggesting that Matthew's Gospel depicts Peter as a "false disciple" and "apostate." A response will be offered by Westmont's Provost, Mark Sargent. The evening also offers an opportunity to commemorate a new festschrift in Professor Gundry's honor, entitled Reconsidering the Relationship between Biblical and Systematic Theology in the New Testament, edited by B. E. Reynolds, B. Lugioyo, and K. J. Vanhoozer (Mohr Siebeck, 2014).
Read the text of Mark Sargent's response here.
Gender Dynamics at Two Christian Liberal Arts Institutions
Edee Schulze
Vice President for Student Life, Westmont College
Gender Studies Lecture
Thursday, October 16, 2014, 3:30-5:00 p.m.
Winter Hall Room 210
Research studies have described limiting effects of a “chilly climate” on the learning and campus experience of female students within higher education. Specifically, a “chilly climate” is described as one in which many small inequities, communication patterns, gender role assumptions, and faculty and peer behaviors create a negative atmosphere for female students to learn and participate. This presentation will summarize findings from two qualitative research projects at other Christian liberal arts institutions which sought to understand the gender assumptions of faculty and students, to explore the impact these assumptions have on gender dynamics in the classroom and on campus and how these dynamics affect the educational experiences and aspirations of female students at these Christian evangelical liberal arts colleges.
The handout and other resources from Dr. Schulze's presentation are available here and here.
Glory Bound: Jessie Van Eerden Reads
Jessie Van Eerden
Novelist
Westmont Reading Series
Thursday, October 23, 2014, 7:30 p.m.
Hieronymus Lounge, Kerrwood Hall
The Westmont Reading Series brings distinguished fiction writer and essayist Jessie Van Eerden from West Virginia to read from her recently published novel Gloryboundand other new works. Glorybound is both the title of Jessie Van Eerden's new novel and a description of her apparent career trajectory. The Westmont Reading Series adds this fresh, poetic, spiritually intense, and regionally rich writer from West Virginia to a list of illustrious writers that over the past two decades has included such luminaries as Galway Kinnell, Joy Harjo, Scott Cairns, Chaim Potok, David James Duncan, Naomi Shihab Nye, Leslie Leyland Fields, Dana Goia, Barry Spacks, Jeanne Murray Walker, Fady Joudah and Gassan Zaqtan, Hisham Matar, Paulann Petersen, Ron Hansen, and Santa Barbara Poet Laureate Chryss Yost.
Participating in God's Mission: The Servant and the Conclusions of Acts and Isaiah
Holly Beers
Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, Westmont College
Bruce Fisk and Rachel Winslow, responding
Paul C. Wilt Phi Kappa Phi Lecture
Wednesday, October 29, 2014, 7:00 p.m.
Founders Dining Room, Kerr Student Center
The author of Luke-Acts builds aspects of his portrayal both of Jesus and the disciples in Luke-Acts on the servant, who is the human agent of God’s restoration envisioned in Isaiah 40-66. Luke is sensitive to the Isaianic co-text of the servant’s mission, often called the New Exodus, and he demonstrates his awareness at least partly by concluding Acts with the same notes of triumph and tragedy that end Isaiah. The implication is, then, that faithfulness for the people of God (both then and now?!) involves human participation in God’s mission, a mission that embraces elements not just of hope and acceptance but of rejection and suffering.
"Holy in Body and Spirit": The Lordship of Christ and Gender Roles in the Pauline Epistles
Judith Gundry
Research Scholar and Associate Professor of New Testament, Yale Divinity School
Gender Studies Lecture
Thursday, November 20, 2014, 3:30-5:00 p.m.
Winter Hall Room 210
What is the significance of the creation of humanity as male and female for early Christians like Paul? Do the biblical creation narratives determine God’s will for Christian men and women? Is marriage and having children an obligation today? Or what difference does it make that the new age has dawned in the death and resurrection of Jesus, and that the world as we know it is going out of existence? What is the obligation of women and men who have been “bought for a price” and are now slaves of Christ to other believers and to the world? The teaching of Paul on women and gender must be evaluated in the light of the answers to these questions.