For Your Consideration

Sara Hendren, an artist and design researcher from Northeastern University, dives into the fascinating concept of the gift economy. She argues that life should be viewed as a gift, emphasizing how our dependencies can actually liberate us. Hendren explores the cultural significance of rituals and social bonds formed through giving, contrasting them with transactional relationships. She critiques modern education for its focus on outcomes rather than genuine purpose and fulfillment, urging listeners to embrace authentic connections over mere transactions.

Sara Hendren, an artist and design researcher at Northeastern University, dives into the interplay of design and disability. She emphasizes the virtues of dependence, advocating for innovative designs that enhance accessibility. Highlighting projects like the Dementia Village in the Netherlands, she shows how sensory-rich environments can uplift those with cognitive challenges. Hendren also explores the ethics surrounding Down syndrome, urging a shift in societal attitudes towards inclusivity and human dignity. Her insights inspire a reimagining of ethical frameworks for the 21st century.

On February 12, 2025, we were delighted to welcome Dr. Brad East to the Christian Study Center.In this lecture, Dr. East explores both the challenges and the questions which the advancement of technology raises for Christians, offering ideas for what discipleship, worship, and spiritual formation might look like in our time and place.Dr. East earned his PhD from Yale University and is currently associate professor of theology in the College of Biblical Studies at Abilene Christian University in Abilene, Texas. He is the editor of Robert Jenson’s The Triune Story: Collected Essays on Scripture (Oxford University Press, 2019) and the author of multiple books including The Doctrine of Scripture (Cascade, 2021), The Church’s Book: Theology of Scripture in Ecclesial Context (Eerdmans, 2022), The Church: A Guide to the People of God (Lexham, 2024), and Letters to a Future Saint: Foundations of Faith for the Spiritually Hungry (Eerdmans, 2024).His articles have been featured in multiple publications, including, but not limited to, Modern Theology, International Journal of Systematic Theology, and the Scottish Journal of Theology. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit christianstudycenter.substack.com

In this episode of For Your Consideration, we would like to offer this public lecture given by Tara Burton at the Christian Study Center on Wednesday, November 6, 2024.We often think of transhumanism as a distinctly modern phenomenon. But the history of magic suggests that the desire to transcend our humanity -- and become gods -- through knowledge, is part of a far older religious tradition. This talk looks at the history of the Hermetic tradition -- which flourished alongside proto-orthodox Christianity and Gnosticism in Hellenized Alexandria before being rediscovered in the West during the Renaissance -- and the influence of both Hermeticism and early modern ideas on magic on the development of what we now think of as modernity.Tara Isabella Burton is an astute interpreter of contemporary culture, particularly regarding matters of religion, media, and identity. She received a doctorate in theology from Oxford in 2017 and is currently a Visiting Fellow at George Mason University's Mercatus Center and a Visiting Research Fellow at Catholic University of America's Institutional Flourishing Lab. Burton is also the author of two books of cultural criticism, Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World and Self-Made: Curating Our Image from Da Vinci to the Kardashians. She is also an accomplished novelist, having most recently published Here In Avalon. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit christianstudycenter.substack.com

On Friday, October 11, 2024, Pascal’s Coffeehouse at the Christian Study Center celebrated its 20th Anniversary. As part of the celebration of this milestone, Dr. Paul C. H. Lim gave this lecture, which we are delighted to share with you on this episode of For Your Consideration.In our times of political and cultural polarization, the word “Christian” has often been either hijacked or weaponized. So, what does it actually look like to be a Christian and follow the King whose kingdom was not of this world? How do we seek the greater good of humanity while seeking to serve the Lord of grace and glory? By juxtaposing perspectives from Augustine’s City of God, Aquinas’s exitus-reditus doctrine, and Jesus’ teaching on double-belonging, Professor Lim presents a pathway for faithful flourishing for Christians. This will also highlight the strategic significance of Christian Study Centers by presenting a more authentic and credible fabric of a “Christian plausibility” of love and truth. Dr. Lim is Professor of Humanities in the Hamilton Center for Classical and Civic Education and Affiliate Professor of Religious Studies with the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. He came to UF after nearly twenty years at Vanderbilt University and visiting appointments at the University of Chicago Divinity School, Cambridge University, and Yonsei University in Korea. His Mystery Unveiled: The Crisis of the Trinity in Early Modern England (Oxford University Press, 2012) won the 2013 Roland H. Bainton Prize as the best book in history from the Sixteenth Century Society and Conference. Along with his distinguished academic work, Dr. Lim was for a number of years the lead instructor with the Nashville Institute for Faith and Work. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit christianstudycenter.substack.com

On Friday, September 13, 2024, the Christian Study Center was pleased to host Paul and Emily Pastor for a discussion exploring the place of beauty in the Christian tradition and its relationship to creativity. Paul is an accomplished poet, and Emily is a classically trained a fine artist, specializing in representational oil painting. Beauty is an eternal invitation to join a life far larger than our own. But what holds us back from this belonging, and how can we live in light of this Beauty in a world that is often ugly and profoundly painful? In this lecture, Paul and Emily aim to deepen our understanding of how to meaningfully “befriend” Beauty in our lives, participating joyfully in creation according to our giftings, and for the good of the world.If you’d like to learn more about Paul and Emily and their artistry, here are links to their respective websites: Paul Pastor Emily Pastor This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit christianstudycenter.substack.com

In this episode of For Your Consideration, we are pleased to share a lecture that was given by Dr. Lee Vinsel on Thursday, February 1, 2024.Acting wisely in the context of new technologies can be difficult because both utopian and dystopian forms of hype create unrealistic and misleading visions of near-term change. Analyzing historical and contemporary examples of hyped technologies, Dr. Vinsel argues that wisdom in the context of hype is difficult, but not impossible. Most of all, it requires embracing the intellectual and spiritual dimensions of uncertainty—acknowledging that, as it comes to so many things, we simply do not and cannot know. Dr. Vinsel is an Associate Professor in the Department of Science, Technology, and Society at Virginia Tech. He studies human life with technology, with particular focus on the relationship between government, business, and technological change. Vinsel’s work has been published in several major history journals and has appeared in popular outlets like Aeon, the New York Times, The Atlantic, Guardian, and Le Monde. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit christianstudycenter.substack.com

In this episode of For Your Consideration, we are sharing a public lecture delivered by Dr. Esther Meek on Thursday, November 2, 2023. In her lecture, Dr. Meek addresses vital questions about beauty, thinking, knowledge, and our relationship to the world. Our modern age has us presuming that reality is material or reducible to it; inert and indifferent, ours to manipulate to the end of power. We have lost a sense of the real or of our connection to it; we distrust it, fear it, even question that it is there. As our experience of reality—of God's creation, which discloses His presence—is increasingly veiled by layers of technological mediation and our own habitual inattentiveness, Dr. Meek offers an urgent call to attend to the world again with care and hope.Esther Lightcap Meek (BA Cedarville College, MA Western Kentucky University, PhD Temple University) is Professor of Philosophy emeritus at Geneva College, in Western Pennsylvania. She is a Fellow Scholar with the Fujimura Institute, an Associate Fellow with the Kirby Laing Center for Public Theology, and a member of the Polanyi Society. She offers courses for Theopolis Institute, The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology, and Regent College. Dr. Meek is the author, most recently, of Doorway to Artistry: Attuning Your Philosophy to Enhance Your Creativity. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit christianstudycenter.substack.com

In this episode of For Your Consideration, we are sharing a talk delivered by our director, Mike Sacasas, during our spring semester open house on January 23rd. The talk was titled “To See the World Whole.” We live in what the poet Richard Wilbur called a "scattering time." The most powerful forces at work within us and without appear to be disintegrating forces. These trends are long-standing even if their unfortunate consequences are only now becoming apparent in an increasingly polarized society and a worsening mental health crisis. How might we learn to see the world whole again? How might we overcome the various forms of alienation that characterize our experience? And is there anything education can do to help us overcome this fragmentation? These are the question we will take up in this talk. The talk concludes on practical note with a principle, a stance, a practice, and a truth that might help us see the world whole again. Below is an excerpt from Mike’s opening comments. We hope you listen to the whole thing and share it with others. To See the World Whole My text for this evening is a passage from the gospel according to Tolkien. The Fellowship of the Ring, Book II, Chapter 2. These are the words spoken by the wizard, Gandalf the Grey in his confrontation with another wizard, Saruman, who is described elsewhere as having a “mind of metal and wheels.” To Saruman, Gandalf says: “He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom.”So let me start with my title—“To See the World Whole.”When I first started thinking about this talk and what topic I might try to address, my mind turned to debates currently raging about the purpose and function of higher education, debates that have become not only politicized—because, of course, how a people is educated has always been, at least in part, a political matter—but which have become active fronts in the digitized culture wars. What follows will not be anything like a thorough or substantive engagement with those debates, but my thinking did bring me back to a theme that I have thought about on and off for a long time:  how do we learn to see, actually see, the world? We are always looking but rarely seeing, and much less are we seeing the world whole. And by “seeing the world whole” I mean something like experiencing a vision of reality, a vision that, of course, includes sight but also involves the mind, the imagination, the heart. How do we achieve such a vision that encompasses the fullness of reality in its depth and in its multiple dimensions: intellectual, sensual, moral, spiritual, etc.?But the word whole also suggests something more than completeness or totality. It also suggest health and all of what the Hebrew word shalom encompasses: peace, well-being, even blessedness. So asking how we might see the world whole can lead us to consider not only matters of knowledge and perception, but also how we might achieve wholeness of being for ourselves and also for our communities. How can we see the world whole? How can we see to it that the world finds wholeness, peace, shalom? And, more to the point of what I would like to explore tonight: is there a relationship between the two? Might it be that learning to see the world whole might also help us find and promote wholeness? If you enjoy the talk, we encourage you to share it with others. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit christianstudycenter.substack.com

In this episode of For Your Consideration, we are delighted to bring you a lecture on the role of faith in our reasoning about the good life, which was delivered at the Center by Dr. Meghan Sullivan of the University of Notre Dame on October 5th. Dr. Sullivan is the Wilsey Family Collegiate Professor of Philosophy. She serves as Director of the NDIAS, a university-wide research institute that supports faculty, doctoral students, undergraduates and visiting fellows pursuing cross-disciplinary research on major ethical themes. Sullivan has published two books: Time Biases (OUP 2018) and The Good Life Method (Penguin 2021, with Paul Blaschko). She is currently working on her third, which considers the moral and political significance of love of strangers.Near the end of the talk, Dr. Sullivan played a video clip featuring an exchange that occurred on Stephen Colbert’s late night talk show. The audio of the clip did not come through in our recording, but you can watch the clip here. If you enjoy the lecture, we encourage you to share it with others. The Christian Study Center is donor supported. Learn more about how you can help sustain our work. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit christianstudycenter.substack.com