Archived GFCF Lectures:

1991-2003 || 03-04 || 04-05 || 05-06 || 06-07 || 07-08 || 08-09 ||

09-10 || 10-11

Note: For some lectures, there is no audio-file available. We can provide the lecture on Audio-CD as well. Please contact Guillaume Badinier.

"Contemplation and Action in Thomas Merton"

ABSTRACT:
For Thomas Merton the achieving of the deepest level of contemplation required, he believed, the sacrifice of the active life, in his case the life of the writer and artist, a life that he recognized was proper to him. All the same, from within his monastery he felt connected to those who were out in the world pursuing social justice. In order to balance the demands of contemplation and action, Merton divided contemplation into different levels, recognizing that some of these were more compatible with action than others.

BIOGRAPHY:
BA Loyola University (Montreal), MA McGill, PhD Toronto (English)
Professor Labrie is currently teaching Arts One at the University of British Columbia. Labrie is an authority on American literature, Catholic American literature, and American poetry, especially since the 1920s. He has also carried out extensive scholarly investigation into the writings of James Merrill, Howard Nemerov, Thomas Merton, Henry James, Dorothy Parker, Karl Shapiro, Daniel Berrigan, Robert Lowell, Allan Tate, Mary Gordon, William Everson and Ralph McInerny. He was Visiting Research Scholar at San Diego State University and at the University of Sydney. Professor Labrie has authored 30 papers and 18 reviews in the peer reviewed literature and has written six books of which the following four are most relevant to the subject of his talk:  

The Art of Thomas Merton (Texas Christian University Press, 1979)
The Writings of Daniel Berrigan (University Press of America, 1989)
The Catholic Imagination in American Literature (University of Missouri Press, 1997)
Thomas Merton and the Inclusive Imagination (University of Missouri Press, 2001)

ROBERT MANN, Professor of Physics, University of Waterloo, President of the Canadian Scientific & Christian Affiliation

Wednesday October 19 2005, CHEM150, 2036 Main Mall

"Universal Darwinism and Intelligent Design"

This lecture is co-sponsored by the Canadian Scientific and Christian Affiliation (CSCA) through a grant from the Metanexus Institute.

ABSTRACT:
Universal Darwinism is a theoretical paradigm that purports to explain all complex structure living and non-living, via an extension of the Darwinian process of replication, variation and selection. It represents theology's greatest challenge insofar as its success in any given area apparently removes the need to posit any teleological explanation of the phenomenon under consideration. In this way the challenge is both to the content and the interpretation of any theistic perspective that goes beyond an inert Deism. In contrast to this Intelligent Design is a paradigm that purports to objectively discern whether or not a teleological explanation of a given system is warranted. He will discuss the application of UD in four distinct areas of science: biology, sociology, cosmology and psychology. He will also discuss the specific theological challenges each area entails, and whether or not a response such as Intelligent Design could provide an alternative paradigm.

BIOGRAPHY:
Robert Mann is Chair of the Physics Department at the University of Waterloo and an Affiliate member of the Perimeter Institute. He is President of the Canadian Scientific & Christian Affiliation.  His research interests are in gravitation, cosmology, particle physics, and science & religion. He has authored over 200 research papers  in physics and has edited three books.  He has spent research leaves at Harvard University, Cambridge University and the KITP at the University of Santa Barbara, California.  He has given over 150 invited talks during his career. Married with one daughter and a member of First Mennonite Church in Kitchener Ontario where he is currently Sunday School superintendent, his hobbies include movie-making, hiking, travelling, running with his dog, playing with his cat, and acting in musicals.

SARAH WILLIAMS, Associate Professor of Church History, Regent College, Vancouver, British Columbia

Tuesday November 22nd 2005, Buchanan Penthouse (Top of B-wing), 1866 Main Mall

"Folklore and the Language of Belief: Religion in Late-Victorian London"

ABSTRACT:
Dr. Williams will look at the distinctive quality of urban popular religion in this period considering in particular the continuity of traditional patterns of folk culture in the modern industrial environment. In so doing she will challenge historiographical applications of the secularisation thesis.

BIOGRAPHY:
Sarah Williams did both her undergraduate and doctoral studies at Oxford University. Prior to joining the Regent faculty in 2005 she was a member of both the history and the theology faculties at Oxford. Her area of research has been primarily in the area of 19th and 20th century religious culture. Her first book, Religious Belief and Popular Culture: Southwark c1880-1939, was published by Oxford University Press in 1999.

Website: Sarah Williams

EDWARD LARSON, Herman E. Talmadge Chair of Law, Richard B. Russell Professor of American History, University of Georgia

Tuesday January 17th, 2006, Woodward IRC 2, 2198 Health Sciences Mall

"The Impact of Darwinism and the Concept of the Soul"

This lecture is co-sponsored by the Canadian Scientific and Christian Affiliation (CSCA) through a grant from the Metanexus Institute.

ABSTRACT:
The theory of organic evolution was quickly accepted by Victorian Era scientists in the years following Darwin's publication of Origin of Species in 1859, but many of them resisted the full implications of Darwinism for the human soul. Popular sentiment was similar. Animals may have evolved and perhaps even the human body, but not the human soul. This became the flashpoint of controversy, splitting Darwin and T.H. Huxley from their friends and fellow evolutionists Charles Lyell and Alfred Russel Wallace. The controversy continues today, as reflected in Pope John Paul's 1996 message in which he accepted the idea of evolution as "more than just a hypothesis" but maintained that God supernaturally created the human soul. In this lecture, Edward J. Larson will trace the history of this ongoing debate from its origin in Victorian Britain in the 1860s.

BIOGRAPHY:
B.A., Williams College 1974; J.D., Harvard Law School 1979, M.A., PhD. History of Science University of Wisconsin 1976 and 1984
-Assistant professor 1987-1991; Associate professor 1992-1996, and professor 1997 to the present, and chair of the Department of History, University of Georgia
-Counsel, Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U. S. Dept. of Education, 1986-87
-Associate Counsel, Committee on Education and Labor, U.S. Congress, 1983-86
-Attorney - Davis, Wright & Tremaine, Seattle, Washington, 1979-82
-Counsel, Washington State House of Representatives, Olympia, Washington, 1981-82
-Analyst, Wisconsin State Senate, Madison, Wisconsin, 1974-76

Areas of research: History of eugenics, History of the evolution debate, Legal and moral issues around euthanasia. Larson has taught in China, France, Austria and the Netherlands.

Larson authored five books and over 60 published articles. His first book, Trial and Error: The American Controversy Over Creation and Evolution (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985; expanded 1989; revised 2002), chronicles the legal battles over teaching evolution in American public schools. His second book, Sex, Race, and Science:Eugenics in the Deep South (Baltimore:Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995), examines the legislative history of eugenics. For his 1997 book, Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion (New York: Basic Books, 1997, and Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998), Larson received the Pulitzer Prize in History.

His most recent publications include Evolution: The Remarkable History of Scientific Theory and A Property Law Casebook (coauthored with Professor Jim Smith). Currently, Larson is editing a volume of Clarence Darrow's writings for the Modern Library and researching a book on early American patent law. Larson has published several law review articles, eight refereed history articles and dozens of other articles, most relating to law and science or medicine.

Download this lecture here (17,949kb)

Dr. Larson also lectured at Trinity Western University, Langley, on eugenics and euthanasia. Download the TWU lecture here (15,173kb)

MARCELLO VEIGA, Associate Professor of Mining and Mineral Process Engineering, The University of British Columbia

Tuesday February 28th 2006, Woodward IRC 6, 2198 Health Sciences Mall

"Environmental, Ethical and Health Implications of Mercury Used by Artisinal Gold Miners"

ABSTRACT:
Professor Marcello Veiga will describe the cultural and environmental effects of the biggest gold rush the world has ever seen. At least 100 million people worldwide depend on 'artisanal' gold mining for their livelihood: In more than fifty countries, some 15 million persons, including 4 million women and 1 million children, work as artisanal gold miners, an activity that is driven by poverty, especially in rural communities. Professor Veiga observes how this gold rush is causing highly dangerous pollution throughout the world. The problem derives from the miners' use of mercury to extract fine particles of gold, and this kind of mining releases annually on the order of 1000 tonnes of mercury, which is dispersed every year throughout the globe. Mercury, as we know, is a poison that damages the brain and kidneys, and is particularly dangerous for developing babies and small children. The gold miners and all those living near to them are most immediately affected by mercury vapour and even by the food they eat. But the danger from mining with mercury has vast implications; for once mercury is released into the environment, it is transformed into the yet more toxic methyl mercury, and is then easily absorbed by fish, and thus is accumulated in the food chain. And once mercury has entered the ecosystem, it is extremely difficult to remove. Recognizing these problems, Professor Veiga is working with the Global Mercury Project, an initiative of the United Nations, to promote safer mining, with the hope that the use of mercury might be reduced or even eliminated. He will show how solutions are being introduced to alleviate health and environmental crises in mining communities, which concerns the well being of us all.

BIOGRAPHY:
B.Sc. Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (Metallurgical Engineering), M.Sc. Federal Fluminense University, Niteroi, Rio de Janeiro (Environmental Geochemistry), Ph.D. UBC (Mineral Process Engineering)

Consultant to the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO). Expert on small scale mining in the Global Mercury Project in Brazil, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Sudan, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. Many other consultancies on environmental and health environment protocols.

In his role as professor, his goal is to produce mining engineers who apply ethical principles to the process of wealth creation. He teaches a graduate course on mining and society and undergraduate courses on mining, the environment and environmental technologies. His research includes sustainable development in mining, mining communities and social issues related to mining, mercury pollution from gold mining, bioaccumulation and adverse health effects, and biogeochemical cycling of heavy metals.

Professor Veiga is the author of 7 books, 8 book chapters and 33 papers published in the peer reviewed literature. Most recently he co-authored, with R. Baker: Protocols for Environmental and Health Assessment of Mercury Released by Artisinal and Small Scale Gold Miners (Vienna, UNIDO Global Mercury Project, 2004).

Marcello Veiga was the Canadian Institute of Mining's Distinguished Lecturer (2002-2003)

MARK WEXLER, Professor of Human Resource Management, SFU Business School, Executive Director of the Perimeter Group of Ethics Consultants

Tuesday March 21st 2006, Woodward IRC 6, 2198 Health Sciences Mall

"Models of Applied Ethics for Dealing with Public Controversies"

ABSTRACT:
Dr. Wexler reflects upon his recently published book, Leadership in Context: The Four Faces of Capitalism (Edward Elgar, 2005) in order to explore the four instrumental world views used to make sense of and to manage public controversies. Each model is rooted in its particular story of the "good world", which makes sense to its own adherents. But Dr. Wexler shows that people who promote one model deeply offend the proponents of the other models. Dr. Wexler illustrates the problem of such conflicts by referring to three public controversies: (1) the Four Pillars Plan for managing drug use in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside; (2) the debate on the relative merit of supporting or increasing globalization; and (3) the decriminalization of marijuana.

BIOGRAPHY:
B.A., McGill; M.A, Western Ontario; Ph.D., York University, Toronto

Mark Wexler has consulted for diverse organizations in the public and private sectors, including IBM Canada, General Motors Canada, Vancouver Hospital and Health Sciences Centre, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Bank of Montreal and Weston Foods. Wexler offers his service free to non-profit organizations, religious groups and schools. In October 2004 Wexler was announced as the recipient of the 2004 Leaders in Management Education award for the Western Canada region by PricewaterhouseCoopers. Areas of Specialization: Business Ethics, Knowledge Management, Organization and Management Theory, Management and Labour Studies Research Methods  

Books & Articles
Leadership in Context: the four faces of capitalism (Northampton, MA : Edward Elgar, 2005)
Fundamentally Canadian: multiculturalism vs. diversity, Ottawa (Broadview Press, 2004)
Confronting Moral Worlds: understanding business ethics (Toronto: Prentice Hall, 1999)

And over 100 articles, including:
- "Blowing of whistles, rocking of boats, and tilting of windmills: The idealistic dissenter in the organization," Ethics Bulletin: A Journal for Public Administrators, Vol. 10(3), (2002):146-161.
- "Reputational capital, ethics and the not-for-profit sector," Vantage Point: Not-For-Profit Management, Vol. 17(3) (2000):11-17.
- "The four faces of planning ethics: A values profile," Plan Canada, Vol. 42(2) (2002):18-27 (with J. Oberlander).
- "Moral panics: Issue management skills for public administrators," Ethics Bulletin: A Journal for Public Administrators, Vol. 6 (1998):99-111.