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.

Dr. David F. Cechetto, Professor of Anatomy & Cell Biology, University of Western Ontario

Thursday, September 20, 4-6PM, Hennings 202.

New Frontiers in Neuroscience from a Faith Based Perspective

ABSTRACT
Recent techniques in experimental neuroscience have permitted some very exciting insights into the function of the human brain related to cardiovascular control, perception of pain, modulation of the immune system, aging, and neural plasticity. Many of these research findings are quite interesting when examined in light of Judeo-Christian scriptures. Research in my lab has examined the relationship between the brain's response to mental stress and cardiovascular reactivity. This can be related to scriptures on the response of the heart to fear and catastrophic events. Additional research has examined the response of specific areas of the brain to pain, feelings of empathy and placebo effects. Some of these areas are also implicated in the modulation of the immune response to emotional stress. These results can be examined in relationship to scriptures about suffering, prayer and healing. The final area of research that will be examined is the brain's response to aging and the body's ability to repair damage or adapt to changing conditions. Over the last decade, it has become clear that the adult brain has considerable plastic properties and is able to substantially change connectivity based on sustained inputs. In light of this plasticity in the adult brain, the question the imaging data raise is whether or not beliefs and religious practices can account for the differences seen in the cortical areas as they mediate cardiovascular responses, pain perception, or immune response to stress.

BIOGRAPHY
David F. Cechetto, Professor in the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Western Ontario. His research interests are in the role of inflammation in cerebral ischemia and vascular cognitive impairment and dementia. He has developed an animal model for the investigation of the combined effects of Alzheimer Disease and cerebral ischemia and other risk factors for vascular cognitive impairment such as diabetes, hypertension and atherosclerosis. He has also developed an agent with potential for the treatment of schizophrenia that targets a new unique class of receptors compared to current antipsychotic therapies. An additional area of research involves the examination of mental stress on cardiovascular reactivity (a risk factor for cardiovascular disease) and the regions of the human brain responsible for varying degrees of reactivity in individuals. He is principle investigator on numerous basic neuroscience studies with clinical implications. He has consulted for companies such as Upjohn, Servier (French), Uriach (Spanish), and Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceuticals. In addition to his research and teaching interests, Dr. Cechetto is the director of 2 development projects which involve capacity building and professional development in the nursing and medical schools in Rwanda and director of the Medical Electives Overseas Program in the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry.

Dr. Cechetto received his PhD from the University of Western Ontario, post-doctoral training at Washington University, St. Louis and University of Chicago. He taught medical school in Lagos, Nigeria for one year, is Professor of Anatomy & Cell Biology at Western and has been the Director of the Medical Elective Overseas Program for the past 12 years and is also Director of Rebuilding Health in Rwanda. Some of his numerous publications are listed on his homepage.

Download the lecture here.

Panel discussion: Climate Change - The Great Distraction

Olav Slaymaker, Professor of Geography, UBC




Iain Provan, Professor of Biblical Studies, Regent College




Paul Williams, Associate Professor of Market Theology and Leadership, Regent College

Monday, October 15th, 4-6PM, in Woodward IRC 6.

ABSTRACT:
Abstract What is the nature of the distraction? From the outset, each of us is highly impressed with the work of the International Panel on Climate change and acknowledges that this government/senior scientist led process has generated extraordinarily important scientific data. We are not here to debunk the IPCC process, nor to undercut the momentum that has been generated by Al Gore and others with respect to the urgency of taking action to mitigate the negative effects of climate change. We agree that the fact of climate change has been demonstrated beyond any reasonable doubt.

Dr. Slaymaker says that what we are questioning is the extent to which attention paid to climate change has distracted scientists, decision makers and policy analysts from the larger environmental and ethical question of the misuse of land, i.e., losses of land usage in Amazon and Sub-Saharan Africa, issues of densification, urbanization and agricultural land use in the Fraser Valley.

Paul Williams will diagnose the situation and ask the question of why it is that we degrade and misuse the environment and natural resources, focusing on our motivation. He will argue that Western societies, heavily influenced by capitalism, have become dominated by an impoverished ethical vision and an inadequate anthropology: the nature of a human being. Capitalism conceives of the pursuit of happiness and self-interest as the only essential moral virtue, and holds that the individual is the only arbiter of such happiness.

Iain Provan will explore an alternate perspective which is in tension with capitalism, arguing that our happiness is bound up with the pursuit of a biblical/theological moral vision. The pursuit of our own maximal happiness is certainly not itself a moral virtue; he conceives such a pursuit, at the expense of the legitimate interests of other parties in creation, as highly suspect. He will promote a commitment to the common good which involves attention to two sets of relationships. It involves, first of all, our relationship with, and responsibility for, other human beings, whom we are called to love (nearneighbour and far-neighbour), because they are created in the image of God. It involves, secondly, our relationship with non-human creation, which we human beings are mandated to care for, because it is God’s good creation and all humans are appointed as stewards.

The panelists will welcome active participation from the audience.

Download the panel discussion here.

JAMES SKILLEN
President of the Center for Public Justice,
a Christian public policy think tank in Washington, DC

Thursday, November 29th, 4PM, place TBA.

The United States of America versus Radical Islamism: Competing Visions of the Goal of Universal History

ABSTRACT:
If Islamists are motivated by the mission to overcome the dar al-harb (territories of conflict in which people have not yet submitted to Allah) with the advance of the dar al-islam (the territory in which submission to Allah has been achieved), then we might say that many Americans are motivated by the mission to transform the non-democratic world into the dar al-freedom, modeled after and led by God's chosen nation—the city on a hill—America. These are diametrically opposed visions of the development and goal of universal history, not unlike the polar opposition of American-led democracy and Russian-led communism. What can we learn about the “war against terrorism” from this religiously deep vantage point?

BIOGRAPHY:
After studying graduate level philosophy at the Free University of Amsterdam, Dr. Skillen completed a doctorate in political science at Duke University. He has taught political science at the college level for a number of years. He is the recipient of the Abraham Kuyper Prize for excellence in Reformed Theology and Public Life, Princeton Theological Seminary, 2001 and a member of the Society of Christiain Ethics and the American Political Science Association. He has made significant contributions at key conferences on democracy, globalization and faith in China, Korea, South Africa, and Russia. From 1998-2004, he was the director of the Civitas Program in Faith and Public Affairs, a program for doctoral students in cooperation with The Brookings Institution, and the American Enterprise Institute In addition to editing the Center's quarterly Public Justice Report , Dr. Skillen has authored and edited numerous books and articles, including: With or Against the World? : America's Role Among the Nations (Rowman and Littlefield and Center for Public Justice, 2005); In Pursuit of Justice : Christian-Democratic Explorations (Rowman and Littlefield and Center for Public Justice, 2004); Recharging the American Experiment : Principled Pluralism for Genuine Civic Community (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1994).

Unfortunately, this lecture is not available for download.

Website: Jim Skillen

RON DART,
Professor of Philosophy, Political Science and Religious Studies,University College of the Fraser Valley.

Tuesday January 15, 2008, 4PM, Woodward IRC 6

George Grant contra Charles Taylor: the Ancients and the Moderns Revisited

ABSTRACT:
This forum pursues a specifically Canadian public reflection. Philosophers George Grant and Charles Taylor are two of the foremost public intellectuals in Canada in the late twentieth century; their contribution has been of tremendous significance, helping to articulate our public ethos, wrestling deeply with our ethics, our identity and our spiritual journey. Taylor embodies the best of the tradition of humanist Modernity, through a dialectical Hegelianism. He is a soft dialogical liberal who looks for the good in various perspectives, while challenging the reductivists and extremists within a pluralistic society. George Grant, on the other hand, is the greatest critic of Modernity as it has shaped public life in Canada; he positions himself in a strong Classical alternative vision of the ‘Good Life'. Grant scrutinizes time-worn assumptions and demands that Modernity identify itself and give account of its impact on society. He was able to summon forth the zeitgeist , the spirit of Modernity, asking that scholars and thinkers be honest about its limitations and weaknesses. He exposed its Achilles heal—its unquestioned core premises and assumptions. Can the boosters of liberal Modernity honestly question, interrogate and critically reflect upon their own faith commitments? This conversation is of immense import in our post 9/11 world, and to our current articulation of democracy, freedom and justice.

BIOGRAPHY:
Ron Dart is a university professor, mountaineer and author, He is one of the primary experts on the life of Stephen Leacock and George Grant, contributing to the recent revival of Grant studies. He has authored some thirteen books that deal with the interface between literature, spirituality and politics, including: a co-edited substantial work on George Grant with Ian Angus and Randy Peg Peters: Athens and Jerusalem: George Grant's Theology, Philosophy and Politics. University of Toronto Press, 2006; Stephen Leacock: Canada's Red Tory Prophet; The Eagle and the Ox: Contemplation, the Church and Politics; and The Beatitudes: When Mountain Meets Valley. Ron is one of the main keepers of the Red Tory tradition in Western Canada; he combines a serious commitment to the Christian contemplative tradition with critical cultural reflection and socio-political engagement. He has wrestled deeply with the language of justice and its implications for people where they live, and is quite involved in local political and social concerns.

Download this lecture here.

Websites: Ron Dart's blog, Dart at vivelecanada.ca,
New! Dart on Charles Taylor and Canadian Compradorism (Word document)

DAVID LYLE JEFFREY
Distinguished Professor of Literature and Humanities, Honors College, Baylor University.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008, 4PM, Woodward IRC 6.

Intrinsic Goods of the Once and Future University

ABSTRACT:
Many scholars are now speaking and writing books to suggest that the university is now in what some consider an intellectual identity crisis (e.g. Harry Lewis, Excellence Without a Soul: Does Liberal Education Have a Future? or C. John Sommerville, The Decline of the Secular University). Therefore, it is time for a more serious conversation about the larger purpose and mission of the academy, and time to ask tough questions about current practices and purposes in higher education. Jeffrey argues that in the dramatic 20th century shift to a preoccupation with technical and professional training, we have acquired considerable facility in the instrumental goods of education—i.e., the development of methods, skills, and great particularity of disciplinary and sub-disciplinary knowledge. Unfortunately, this has come at the expense of sustained reflection on what historically has been regarded as the ancient and long standing higher goods and goals of a university education. An example of what has been lost at the heart of education, or is at least in serious retreat, are the time-honored intellectual and moral virtues that are conducive to the formation of noble character in the learner. Those academics who seek to uphold the potential for higher, self-transcending purposes in the education of their students, recognize and pursue the intrinsic goods of higher education (such as wisdom, honesty and truthfulness, and a concern for one’s neighbour). This also includes a deepened and synthetic understanding of the life of the mind, that is, an appreciation that development and nurture of intellectual culture is the first business of the university. Jeffrey will demonstrate how the ancient Judeo-Christian scriptures, together with its traditions of interpretation, have substantial insights to offer such a conversation and reflection on education and its core intrinsic goods.

BIOGRAPHY:
Dr. Jeffrey received his Ph.D. from Princeton in 1968. He has previously been Chair of two English Departments (University of Victoria and University of Ottawa). He has taught also at the University of Rochester, University of Hull (U.K.) and been a visiting faculty member at Notre Dame. Jeffrey was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1996. In 2003 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Conference on Christianity and Literature, and in 2004 gave the Andrew Lang Lecture at St Andrews University in Scotland. He is the author of more than ten books and numerous articles including: People of The Book: Christian Identity and Literary Culture (1996); (with D. Manganiello) Rethinking the Future of the University (1998); and The Poetry of William Cowper (2006) His principal scholarly interests include the Bible in/as Literature; Historical Hermeneutics; Literature and Christian Spirituality; Medieval Literature; Literary and Art Historical Relations; Intellectual and Religious Foundations of Literary Modernism.

Download this lecture here.
Extra! Download Dr. Jeffrey's Feb 26 lecture at Regent College on Scripture and the Humanities.

Websites: Dr. Jeffrey at Baylor

STEPHEN BARR Professor of theoretical particle physics, Bartol Research Institute, University of Delaware

Friday, April 4, 2008 at 12 noon, in Scarfe 100

Scientific Materialism Re-examined: Recent Discoveries Raise Important Questions

ABSTRACT:
Professor Barr will argue that the current perceived conflict between science and religion is more accurately represented as a conflict between the ideology of “scientific materialism” and religious belief. The science-versus-religion paradigm, he contends, is rooted in an outdated view of scientific history, and a somewhat skewed interpretation of actual scientific discovery. Scientific materialism is a certain kind of story told about science, but not the only significant one on offer. Dr. Barr will explore the alternative story of the relation between Christianity and science in particular, including in that analysis some dramatic facts that are relatively little known. This offers a paradigm shift from scientific materialism, as he unpacks the implications of five great discoveries of the twentieth century, primarily in physics. He argues that they are more consonant with the traditional Jewish and Christian view of the cosmos and of human beings than with current materialist philosophy. This talk offers a robust stimulus to thought in this subject area, and a serious challenge to some of the popular promoters of atheism from within the scientific community.

BIOGRAPHY:
Dr. Barr has been an active researcher and teacher in theoretical physics
at the Bartol Research Institute, University of Delaware since 1987. He
received his PhD from Princeton in 1978, taught at University of Washington
from 1980-85 and was associate physicist at the Brookhaven National
Laboratory from 1985-87. His research has spanned many areas of theoretical particle physics, but with special emphasis on grand unified theories, theories of CP violation, the problem of the origin of quark and lepton masses, theories with extra space-time dimensions (such as Kaluza-Klein and superstring theories), and the interface between particle physics and cosmology. He has written 130 research papers, and has written the article on "grand unified theories" for the Encyclopedia of Physics.   Professor Barr has also read and reflected extensively in philosophy and theology, and on the interface of physics and theology has written Modern Physics and Ancient Faith (Univ. of Notre Dame Press, 2003). He has also written A Student's Guide to Natural Science (ISI, 2006). Dr. Barr and his wife, Kathleen Whitney Barr, have five children and reside in Newark, Delaware.

Barr's significant research contributions in theoretical physics include