Culture Seminars and Other Lectures

 

Spring 2001

“Christianity and Contemporary Art”
John Scott, Professor of Pre-Columbian American Art, University of Florida
David Stanley, Associate Professor of Art-Medieval Architecture, University of Florida
Robert Westin, Professor of Art-Renaissance Painting, University of Florida

“Christianity and Music”
Willis Bodine, Professor and university organist, University of Florida

 

“Christianity after Richard Rorty”
Richard V. Horner, Director, Christian Study Center

Spring 2002

“What Are We Going to do About Church? A Church Historian Reflects on Ecclesiology for Troubled Times”
Hughes Oliphant Old, Adjunct Professor of History of Worship Reformed Theological Seminary

Spring 2003

“Moral Discourse and Its Ironies”
James D. Hunter, Kenan Professor of Sociology and Religion, University of Virginia

“The Professor as Mentor”
James D. Hunter, Kenan Professor of Sociology and Religion, University of Virginia

“‘It was a Glorious Resurrection…’: On the Paschal Shape of Black Existence in Douglass’ 1845 Narrative”
J. Kameron Carter, Assistant Professor of Theology and Black Church Studies, Duke Divinity School

Fall 2003

“Those Battlin’ Baptists: A Fight for Religious Liberty”
J. Brent Walker, Executive Director of the Baptist Joint Committee and adjunct professor of law at the Georgetown University Law Center

“Christian Themes in Contemporary Art”
John Scott, Professor of Pre-Columbian American Art, University of Florida
David Stanley, Associate Professor of Art-Medieval Architecture, University of Florida
Robert Westin, Professor of Art-Renaissance Painting, University of Florida

“Christian Themes in Recent Music”
Kandace Brooks, Associate Professor of Music, University of Florida
James Sain, Associate Professor of Music, University of Florida
Budd Udell, Professor of Music, University of Florida

Spring 2004

“A Historian Decodes The DaVinci Code”
C. John Sommerville, Professor of History, University of Florida

“The Passion of the Christ: A Discussion”
Steve Gregg, Associate Pastor, Creekside Community Church

“Mel Gibson’s Bible: Myth of History?”
C. John Sommerville, Professor of History, University of Florida

“Why Did Jesus Die?”
Rob Pendley, Pastor, Christ Community Presbyterian Church

Fall 2004

“Theocracy v. Christianity”
C. John Sommerville, Professor of History, University of Florida

“Redefining the American Mainstream: How Immigration is Transforming Christianity in the United States”
Manuel Vasquez, Associate Professor of Religion, University of Florida

“Heidegger, Aquinas, and Onto-Theology”
Merold Westphal, Professor of Philosophy, Fordham University

“The Christian Uses of Modern Atheism”
Merold Westphal, Professor of Philosophy, Fordham University

“Why Padgett Powell Reads Flannery O’Connor, and Why You Should, Too”
Padgett Powell, Professor of English, University of Florida

“The Politics of Jesus: Anabaptist Vision and Mennonite Reality”
Eve MacMaster, Chaplain to Brethern and Mennonite Students

“Personal Relations and Moral Residue: The Holocaust and Stain on the Soul”
Eleonore Stump, Henle Professor of Philosophy, St. Louis University and Gifford lecturer

“Medieval Almsgiving”
Eleonore Stump, Henle Professor of Philosophy, St. Louis University

Spring 2005

“Introduction: Christianity, Creativity, and Meaning”
Richard V. Horner, Director, Christian Study Center

Fall 2005

“Beginning and Ending The Confessions”
Charles Mathewes, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, University of Virginia

“Civic Faith, Public Hope, Political Charity: Augustine on the Virtues of Citizenship”
Charles Mathewes, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, University of Virginia

“Happy the People Whose God is the Lord: Augustine’s City of God”
Robert L Wilken, Kenan Professor of the History of Christianity, University of Virginia

“The Enduring Legacy of St. Augustine”
Robert L. Wilken, Kenan Professor of the History of Christianity, University of Virginia

“St. Augustine of Hippo: His Life and Controversies”
Andrea Sterk, Assistant Professor of History, University of Florida

“Conversion in Augustine’s Life and Writings”
Ryan Fields, University of Florida

“Augustine’s Notion of Time”
Michael Gannon, Professor Emeritus of History, University of Florida

“Augustine: Catholic or Protestant Saint?”
Ron Kuykendall, Rector, St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church

 

Spring 2006

“Redeeming the Passions”
John Cavadini, Associate Professor of Theology, University of Notre Dame

“Miracles, Signs, and Wonder”
John Cavadini, Associate Professor of Theology, University of Notre Dame

Classes

Fall 2001

“There’s No Such Thing as a Postmodernist, and it’s a Good Thing, Too”
Richard V. Horner, Director, Christian Study Center

“Moses, Elijah, and Jesus: From Sinai to the Transfiguration”
Richard V. Horner Director, Christian Study Center

Spring 2002

“Universities Become Marginal as Fashion Replaces Debate”
C. John Sommerville, Professor of History, University of Florida

“Blaise Pascal: Pre-Modern Prophet for Post-Modern Times”
Richard V. Horner, Director, Christian Study Center

“Questions From the Classroom”
Richard V. Horner and Todd Best

Fall 2002

“The Enduring Truths of Genesis Chapter Three”
Richard V. Horner, Director, Christian Study Center

“Is the Church the Villain of History?”
C. John Sommerville, Professor of History, University of Florida

“Puzzles, Problems, and Possibilities: An Astrophysicist Reflects on the State of the Universe”
George Lebo, Professor of Astronomy, University of Florida

“Using the Computer to Improve Your Study of the Bible”
Jed Keesling, Professor of Mathematics, University of Florida

Spring 2003

“How to Watch a Movie: Christians in a Celluloid Culture”
Steve Gregg and James Walden, Pastoral Staff at Creekside Community Church

“The Church in the World”
Richard V. Horner, Director, Christian Study Center

Fall 2003

“Could We Improve the Bible?”
C. John Sommerville, Professor of History, University of Florida

“An Introduction to the Church Fathers: Themes and Interpretations”
Ron Kuykendall, Rector, St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church

Spring 2004

“Solomon Says…”
Richard V. Horner, Director, Christian Study Center

“Tales from the Madhouse”
Jay Lynch, Professor of Medicine at the University of Florida

Fall 2004

“Heaven and Earth: How Christianity Relates to the Environment”
Todd Best, Director of Programs, Christian Study Center

“Food for Thought: Poetry of Donne and Herbert”
Marion Clark, Pastor, Faith Presbyterian Church

“Contradiction in the Gospels: How Shall we Read Them and What Can They Teach Us?”
Richard V. Horner, Director, Christian Study Center

“Exploring Pauline Theology”
James Walden, Assistant Pastor, Creekside Community Church

“Readings in Theology and Life”
Dana Focks, Epidemiologist in Infectious Diseases

“Serving the Gator with the Gospel of Christ”
Kathy Gratto, Assistant Scholar, College of Education, University of Florida

Spring 2005

“Tattoos, Piercings, and Beyond: Body Art and The Possibility of Meaning”
Richard V. Horner, Director, Christian Study Center

“The Face of Jesus: Christian Themes in Western Art”
Robert Westin, Professor of Art History, University of Florida

Fall 2005

“Introduction to the Semester”
Jay Langdale, Ph.D. candidate in History, University of Florida

“John Sommerville Unplugged: Reflections on a Christian View of History”
C. John Sommerville, Professor Emeritus of History, University of Florida

Spring 2006

“Intersections: Christianity and the Modern Mind”
Richard V. Horner, Director, Christian Study Center

“Jesus in the Psalms”
Richard V. Horner, Director, Christian Study Center

“Cinema: Films Both Weird and Wonderful”
Bruce Kirby, Director, Cambridge Study Center, Lakeland, FL

Summer 2006

“Misquoting Jesus”
Leo Sandgren, Visiting Assistant Professor of Religion, UF
C. John Sommerville, Professor Emeritus, History, UF and Richard V. Horner, Director, CSC

 

Fall 2006

“Religion, Scholarship, and the University - Part One: How Religion Can Help”
C. John Sommerville, Professor of History, Emeritus, UF
David Hackett, Chair, Department of Religion, UF
Ata Sarajedini, Astronomy, UF
Sarah Hamersma, Economics, UF
Fred Gregory, History, UF
Ken Wald, Political Science, UF
Howard Louthan, History, UF
Richard V. Horner, Executive Director, Christian Study Center

“Religion, Scholarship, and the University – Part Two: Christian Faith and Critical Thought – (Un)natural Selection: How We Got Four—and only four—Gospels”
Charles Hill, Professor of New Testament, Reformed Theological Seminary, Orlando
Leo Sandgren, Visiting Assistant Professor of Religion, UF
Richard V. Horner, Executive Director, Christian Study Center

Reading Groups

C.S. Lewis - The Weight of Glory, The Abolition of Man, Out of the Silent Planet

Wendell Berry - Fidelity, Life is a Miracle, A Timbered Choir

Brian D. McLaren - A New Kind of Christian: A Tale of Two Friends on a Spiritual Journey

Robert E. Webber - Ancient-Future Faith: Rethinking Evangelicalism for a Postmodern World

Alan Jacobs - A Visit to Vanity Fair: Moral Essays on the Present Age

Michael S. Horton - A Confessing Theology for Postmodern Times

H.R. Rookmaaker - Modern Art and the Death of a Culture

Frederick Douglass - Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave: Written by Himself

Os Guinness - The Call

Annie Dillard - Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Teaching a Stone to Talk, The Living

Dorothy Sayers - The Mind of the Maker

N.T. Wright - What Saint Paul Really Said

G.K. Chesterton - The Man Who Was Thursday, The Complete Father Brown, Orthodoxy

Charles Taylor - A Catholic Modernity

Leszek Kolakowski - Modernity on Endless Trial, God Owes Us Nothing

Flannery O’Connor - The Complete Stories

Robert Ellsberg - Flannery O’Connor: Spiritual Writings

Steve Garber - Fabric of Faithfulness

“Essays in Christianity and Creativity,” featuring Madeleine L’Engle, St. Augustine, Flannery O’Connor, et. al.

Walker Percy - Lost in the Cosmos, Signposts in a Strange Land, Thanatos Syndrome

St. Augustine - Confessions, City of God

 

C. John Sommerville - The Decline of the Secular University

Stephen Prothero - American Jesus

David Brooks - Bobos in Paradise

 

Summer Institute: Faith and the University

A three-day conference, sponsored by the Christian Study Center that aims to equip Christian undergraduate and graduate students to meet the moral and intellectual challenges of university culture.

Plenary Speakers
2003: Andy Crouch, editor of re:generation quarterly
2004: Dr. J. Budziszewski, Professor of Government and Philosophy at the University of Texas
2005: Steve Garber, Director, Evermay Project

 

Art Exhibits

“New Works Exhibition”
Ben Hofer and Loren Myhre
Spring 2002

“Full Frame”
Andres Eran
Spring 2004

“For God and Rock & Roll, Concert Photography”
Chris Skeene
Spring 2005

Gulf States Colloquium on Faith and Scholarship

A day-long colloquium for graduate students and faculty, sponsored by InterVarsity Christian Fellowship in cooperation with the Christian Study Center.

Plenary Speakers:
2002: Richard V. Horner, Director, Christian Study Center
2003: Charles MacKenzie, Professor at Reformed Theological Seminary
Samuel Hill, Professor emeritus, Department of Religion, University of Florida
2004: Amy Black, Associate Professor, Politics & International Relations, Wheaton College
2005: Terry Morrison, Director of Faculty Ministries, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship
2006:Ken Myers, Executive Director, Mars Hill Audio