About The Rivendell Integration Lectures
At the Rivendell Institute, we carry out research both corporately and individually. The Rivendell Integration Lecture is an opportunity to engage in discussion with one of the Rivendell Fellows about his or her individual research project, and how it takes up the task of integration. We will orient the listeners to the concerns within our disciplines that need addressing and how we aim to address them in our particular project.
Come and participate in the ongoing Research Initiatives of the Rivendell Institute!
Next Lecture: April 16, 2012, 7 PM at the Rivendell house
A Transforming Faith: Will the Post-Christian West Awaken to a Post-Western Christianity?
Abstract: The facts concerning the development of world Christianity are striking. World Christianity has not merely bewildered the western establishment with its explosive growth in the majority-world but has proven that Christianity stands as the foremost ambicultural religion; demonstrating that it is not only the faith of multiple language users stretching across national and social boundaries, but it is also the basic construct for viewing social concerns for an ever-increasing portion of the world’s population.
Jim Ehrman will introduce the statistical realities surrounding the advent of world Christianity and will seek to identify several of its most salient features. Those features will then be examined for leading ideas that may prove useful when integrated with other scholarly investigations across the academy.
Questions? james.ehrman@yale.edu
Theology and Presence: Grounding Theology in the Sacramental Christ
Abstract: Theologians have long sought not just to affirm the truth of Christian doctrines, but to explain them in a way which shows how they make sense, and can be used to make sense of the world. Inherent in this project is the acknowledgment that they do not seem to make sense to many people. This condition is easily accounted for, theologians claim, because theological doctrines run counter to our worldly expectations, and therefore they run counter to our intuitions. These intuitions have been shaped largely by assumptions formed in interaction with a sinful world. It is the role of Theology to challenge such assumptions. The problem is that the philosophical tools used to explain theological doctrines are borrowed from systems of thought developed apart from consideration of theological truth. My project attempts to address this issue, suggesting that we need to build philosophical systems which are not just friendly to theological doctrines, but which from the ground up are formulated in light of them. The first stage of this project focuses on Christ as he is continually present to the spiritual and intellectual senses in the Eucharist, and attempts to derive some principles and tools which can be used for constructing a robustly Christ-centered metaphysic.
Junius Johnson Ph.D.
Research Fellow, Rivendell Institute
Questions? James.ehrman@yale.edu
Gregory.ganssle@yale.edu
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Past Integration Lecture:
God’s Causal Activity in the World
Gregory Ganssle Ph.D.
Senior Fellow
Rivendell Institute
Monday November 14
7:00 pm
Abstract: All theists think that God interacts causally with the world. Philosophers, however, have long challenged the possibility of a non-physical substance interacting with physical substances. These challenges are most often raised in the context of Mind-Body dualism, but they are relevant also to the case of divine causation. My larger project on divine causation has two parts. The first part is a defense of the possibility of God’s causal activity in the world. The second explores how to think about divine causation in relation to the causal efficacy of created things, such as events and human agents. This Rivendell Integration Lecture will frame the larger project and begin the defense of the possibility of divine causation.