Archived Events
2008 SPRING SYMPOSIUM
The Religious Heritage of Rights Talk
March 31, 2008
The CCCS, Service-Learning Center, and Sociology & Social Work Department hosted a symposium with two internationally-acclaimed scholars who have a very different story to tell about religion and human rights.
John Witte, Jr.
Robitscher Professor of Law and Director of the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University,
will discuss
the roots and origins of a modern account of human rights in early modern Calvinism.
Nicholas Wolterstorff
Noah Porter Professor of Philosophical Theology Emeritus at Yale, will dig back even further, arguing that modern intuitions about rights and justice are indebted to the Hebrew and Christian scriptures--and cannot be sustained by a wholly secular ethos.
2008 Spring Symposium -- Quicktime Movie »
Assessing the Past, Facing the Future - the CRC at 150
September 13-17, 2007
The CCCS is cosponsoring this significant event in the CRC’s 150th anniversary celebration--a three-day conference at Calvin College. This denominational event will feature both plenary and break-out group presentations on various aspects of the historical heritage of the CRC and the challenges of the present and future of the denomination’s ministry. For more information »
Jeff Sharlet Spoke at Calvin on April 11, 2007
Fundamentalist History, Secular Myth, and the Media's God Problem
Sharlet offered the reflections of a journalist who's been exploring the spiritual geography of the nation in the post 9/11 era. Read Sharlet's abstract and bio »
March 2007 - CCCS Hour
The Good Life in Theory and Practice:
Aquinas’s Ethics and the Process of Co-Authoring a Manuscript
Speakers: Christina VanDyke and Rebecca DeYoung (philosophy)
At this CCCS Hour, Rebecca DeYoung and Christina VanDyke will share the vision that got their book project off the ground, and the practical realities of sending off the manuscript to the University of Notre Dame Press, where it is currently under consideration.
February 2007 - CCCS Hour: Book Reception
Book reception for: Divided by a Common Heritage: The Christian Reformed Church and the Reformed Church in America at the Beginning of the New Millennium (Eerdmans, 2006). Authors Corwin Smidt and James Penning of Calvin's Paul Henry Institute and Political Science Department, will discuss their extensive research to chart the current positions of both the CRC and RCA.
February 2007 - ARIHE Lectures
Dr. Charles Adams, Dean of the Natural Sciences Division and Professor of Engineering at Dordt College in Sioux Center and the ARIHE (Association of Reformed Institutions of Higher Education) lecturer for 2006-2007, will give the following lectures:
- "Naturalism, Nanotechnology, and Our 'Post-human' Future: A Reformed Perspective."
- "Teaching 'Technical Courses' from a Christian Perspective: A Reformed Approach to Pedagogy."
2006 Lilly Award
It is a great honor to announce that a recent project sponsored by the CCCS has received the 2006 Lilly Fellows Program Book Award. The book honored was a collection of essays written by Nicholas Wolterstorff, Educating for Shalom (Eerdmans, 2004), on the purpose of Christian higher education and the nature of academic learning. Receiving the award for Wolterstorff on October 13th in Indianapolis was Clarence Joldersma (Education), who initiated and edited the volume as a Calvin Center project. The CCCS congratulates Clarence for this accomplishment, along with Professor of Education Emerita Gloria Goris Stronks who took the lead role in producing the companion volume, Educating for Life: Reflections on Christian Teaching and Learning (Baker Academic, 2002), a collection of Wolterstorff's essays on K-12 education.
Fall 2006 - Slavoj Žižek at Calvin College
Dubbed "the Elvis of cultural theory" by The Chronicle of Higher Education, Žižek's current work interrogates the Christian tradition and argues that it is, in fact, worth saving. In keeping with this thematic, the title of Žižek's lecture for Calvin is "Why Only an Atheist Can Believe." While his lecture will certainly propose a reading of Christianity that is both decidedly non-western and non-orthodox, Žižek's perspective on Christianity as a intellectual from Eastern Europe and an atheist philosopher is sure to bring ideas that will be both provocative and stimulating for the Calvin College community. Streaming video is available in Real Audio format here.