Events Archive
For information on our Capstone Conference in August 2017, please click here
August 2016
8/11: Paul Dafydd Jones (University of Virginia) gave a lecture at Princeton Theological Seminary, New Jersey, entitled “Driven towards Freedom: Karl Barth’s Theological Anthropology,” as Senior Scholar for the Barth Graduate Student Colloquium.
8/28 - 8/31: Menahem Blondheim (Hebrew University) participated in a high-profile conference, sponsored by the UN’s World Council of Religious Leaders, and attended by Asia’s top religious authorities. Its theme was “Ancient Traditions, Contemporary Realities” and Blondheim introduced and moderated discussions on the second day, "Repairing the World: The Role of Religious Leadership in Peace Making."
July 2016
7/5: Stephen Lakkis (Tainan Theological College and Seminary) gave a presentation on enhancing life for the poor and needy to the staff of Happy Mount Colony, in Taipei County, that provides full-time institutional care for people with medium to severe intellectual disabilities. 60-70 staff members attended.
7/5: Andrea Bieler (Kirchliche Hochschule Wuppertal/Bethel) lectured on trauma and theology at the Melanchthon Church in Bochum, Germany.
7/4 – 7/11: Jason Danely (Oxford Brookes University) gave a paper titled "Facing the One in Front of You: Endurance, Intimacy, and Slow Mourning" at Tokyo University/Kadokawa at a conference on "Animating Life."
7/12 - 7/18: Stephen Lakkis (Tainan Theological College and Seminary) participated in the National Taiwan University School of Law Summer Academy and international forum on “Higher Education, Universal Values, and the Philosophy of Reform”. On 16 August he ran a half-day session under the division on “EU Fundamental Human Rights and Global Ethics”, on the topic “Morality and Poverty: Dangerous Policies for Dealing with Poverty. A Scottish Example.” Approximately 60 students participated.
7/14: Barbara Rossing (Lutheran School of Theology Chicago) taught 45 lay people at Holden Village in Washington state, on "Under Heaven: Eschatology and Abundant Life," related to the Enhancing Life Project. (See news story in The Living Lutheran, https://www.livinglutheran.org/2016/08/holden-village-fire-renewal/).
7/15: Ruben Zimmerman (Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz) gave a keynote address entitled “Die Logik der Liebe” ("The Logic of Love") at Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Germany.
7/18: Andrea Bieler (Kirchliche Hochschule Wuppertal/Bethel) lectured on ‘The Nuances of Pain. Practical Theological Considerations’ at the Leuenberg Conference in Switzerland.
7/20 - 7/21: Ruben Zimmerman (Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz) organized a Longevity Conference at Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Germany and gave a lecture titled “Should we live forever? Biological and Ethical Perspectives." Christopher Scott (Baylor University) gave a presentation titled “The American Immortal: technology and longevity at the end of life.” Click the hyperlinks to see the presentations on YouTube.
7/20 - 7/23: Jason Danely (Oxford Brookes University) presented on "Responsibility, relatedness, and care in Japan's super-aged society" at a symposium on Re-conceptualizing Kinship and Relatedness in an Ageing World in Milan, Italy.
June 2016
6/4: Kristine Culp (The University of Chicago) gave a talk titled “Stopping by Rothko: Considering the Enhancement and Endangerment of Life,” for the UnCommon Core at the University of Chicago Alumni Weekend.
6/4: Daniel Sulmasy (The University of Chicago) participated in a debate with Timothy Quill, MD, titled “Death with Dignity or Physician-Assisted Suicide: A Thoughtful Discussion,” at the American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting in Chicago, IL.
6/5: Nicole Vincent (Georgia State University) delivered a talk titled "No Justice Without Retribution" at the Justice Without Retribution conference held at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.
6/6: Christoph Krönke (Ludwig Maximilian University Munich) gave a presentation on social procurement under the new German public procurement law at an NGO conference (“Eine Welt Netz NRW”) in Düsseldorf, Germany.
6/6 - 6/8: Barbara Rossing (Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago) gave a talk titled "Animating Hope: Imaging a Vision for Justice and Transformative Action" at Pacific Lutheran University lecture's Summer Conference in Pastoral Theology.
6/7: Martin Wendte (Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen) gave a lecture titled “Jesus der Heiler und die Christus medicus-Tradition: Hilfe oder Bedrohung für Menschen mit dis/abilities?” at the University of Hamburg, Germany, organized by the “Zentrum for Disability Studies."
6/9 - 6/13: Menahem Blondheim (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem) gave three presentations at the annual conference of the International Communication Association in Fukuoka, Japan.
6/9 - 6/19: Amit Pinchevski (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem) participated on a panel titled “Interruptive Images" at the International Communication Association conference in Fukuoka, Japan.
6/10: Daniel Sulmasy (The University of Chicago) gave a talk titled “Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide: Mapping the Conceptual Landscape,” at the International Bioethics Group Annual Meeting, Brenninkmeijer Family Foundation, Waterloo, Belgium.
6/15 - 6/17: Michae Luchs (The College of William & Mary) spoke about his theory of Consumer Wisdom for the first time to an academic audience at the Sustainable Consumption Research and Action Initiative (SCORAI) conference.
6/19: Barbara Rossing (Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago) gave a sermon and adult forum on abundance (Luke 12): “What is Abundance? Jesus, Solar Panels and Bigger Barns,” at Lutheran Church of the Cross, Nisswa, Minnesota.
6/22 - 6/25: Monique Mitchell (University of South Carolina) spoke about her new book, The Neglected Transition: Building a Relational Home for Children Entering Foster Care, at the 2016 National Foster Parent Association Convention in Las Vegas, Nevada.
6/23 - 6/24: Michael Ing (Indiana University) gave a talk titled "Two Virtuous Actions Cannot Both be Completed" at a workshop on The Problem of Contingency in the East at Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, Korea.
6/23 - 6/26: Karline McLain (Bucknell University) presented a conference paper titled “Gandhi’s Ashrams: Residential Experiments for Universal Welfare (Sarvodaya)” at the Conference on the Study of the Religions of India (CSRI), held at Kalamazoo College.
6/24: Alexander-Kenneth Nagel (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen) gave a talk titled “Apples of discord: How German refugee camps deal with religious diversity” in a symposium on “European Migration and the Refugee Crisis" in Cambridge, UK.
6/24 - 6/25: Martin Wendte (Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen) and Barbara Rossing (Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago) gave papers at a conference on "Jesus Christ, Healer and Savior: Areas of Conflict in Intercultural Perspective," organized by Martin Wendte through the Evangelisch-theologische Fakultät at Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen.
Dr. Martin Wendte and Dr. Barbara Rossing gathered with students and other academic scholars for a conference on "Jesus Christ, Healer and Savior" in Tübingen, Germany, in June 2016. The conference was organized by Dr. Wendte.
May 2016
5/3: Alexander-Kenneth Nagel (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen) gave a talk on “The Role of Religion in the process of integration” at a symposium on Refuge and Migration by the Catholic Academy of Mülheim.
5/4: Martin Wendte (Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen) gave a public lecture titled “Resurrected to see anew. Or: if health is the new god – what does Jesus Christ as the true God and Healer say about it?” at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland.
5/17: Nicole Vincent (Georgia State University) delivered a talk titled "The Goldilocks Theory of Moral Enhancement" at the Human Flourishing in The Age of Gene Editing workshop at The Hastings Center in Garrison, NY.
5/19: Daniel Sulmasy (The University of Chicago) gave a talk titled “The Role of Spirituality of the Patient, His or Her Health Care Proxy, and the Physician in Making Medical Decisions at the End of Life” at the IXth Annual Symposium on Ethical Dilemmas in Medical Practice, The Medical Ethics Committee of the Supreme Medical Council and the Polish Society of Internal Medicine, Krakow, Poland.
5/20 - 5/22: Jeffrey Haynes (London Metropolitan University) gave a talk titled ‘Religion, Security and the United Nations Alliance of Civilisations, Religious Freedom and Security at a conference on "Religious Freedom and Security," held at Central European University, Budapest, Hungary.
5/22: Nicole Vincent (Georgia State University) delivered a keynote lecture titled "Cognitive Enhancement and Control of Emerging Technologies" at the Ethics and The Brain conference in Flint, Michigan.
5/24 – 5/31: Michael Ing (Indiana University) gave a talk at the 11th East-West Philosophers' Conference at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu, titled “Rethinking the Place of Value: Conflicts in Early Confucian Thought.”
5/26 - 5/27: Christoph Krönke (Ludwig Maximilian University Munich) gave a presentation on “Innovation in green and social procurement under the new procurement directives" at a European public contracts network meeting in Turin, Italy.
5/27: Daniel Sulmasy (The University of Chicago) gave the Allbrink Lecture, titled “Voluntarily Stopping Eating and Drinking: Is it the Refusal of Treatment or Suicide?” at the University of West Virginia.
5/31: Menahem Blondheim (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem) presented a paper titled “The Handshake of Theology and New Media,” at an international conference marking 50 years of Communication studies at the Hebrew University (with Hananel Rosenberg).
5/31: Menahem Blondheim (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem) presented a paper titled "Media Theology at the international conference on “Regenerating Communication: Ethics, Culture and History” in Jerusalem.
5/31: Jason Danely (Oxford Brookes University) gave a keynote lecture at the University of Manchester titled “Narratives of Decline: The Changing Patterns of Death and Aging in Contemporary Japanese Religions.”
April 2016
4/7: Alexander-Kenneth Nagel (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen) gave a public lecture on religious networking and the role of religious migrant communities in the process of integration in Lucerne, Switzerland.
4/12: Nick Couldry (London School of Economics and Political Science) gave a public lecture titled “The Price of Connection” in the Sydney, Ideas and Sydney Democracy series at University of Sydney, Australia.
4/19: Paul Dafydd Jones (University of Virginia) gave a public lecture at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities on “Rethinking Patience: God, Self, and the Future." https://soundcloud.com/user-866295558/paul-dafydd-jones-fellow-talk
4/20: Lea Schweitz (Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago) gave a talk at Spring Academy Week, Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, titled "God the Creator and the City: A Theology of Urban Nature."
4/23: Alexander-Kenneth Nagel (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen) gave a talk on “Refuge, Migration and Religious Pluralization in Germany” for the social scientific advisory council of the arch-bishop of Paderborn.
4/25 - 4/27: Jeffrey Haynes (London Metropolitan University) participated in a panel on "Global Citizenship Education" at the Nations Alliance of Civilisation (UNAOC) 7th Annual Global Forum, held in Baku, Azerbaijan.
March 2016
3/1 - 5/31: Sarah Bianchi (Humboldt University) continued her project, “Government of the Self: Towards an Anthropological Rethinking of Humanity,” as Visiting Postdoctoral Research Associate at Princeton University.
3/2: Ruben Zimmerman (Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz) gave a paper titled "Implicit Ethics: A New Method in Discovering Ethics in Biblical Texts" at Australian Catholic University's Institute for Religion & Critical Inquiry.
3/4 – 3/6: Pamela Sue Anderson (University of Oxford) presented a paper at a workshop on “Vulnerability” in Wuppertal, Germany, in collaboration with Andrea Bieler (Kirchliche Hochschule Wuppertal/Bethel).
3/11 – 3/13: Stephen Lakkis (Tainan Theological College and Seminary) presented at a conference on “Traditional Norms and International Corporate Responsibility/Integrity in South East Asian Contexts” in Heidelberg, Germany.
3/17: Ruben Zimmerman (Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz) gave a paper titled "Exceeding and Exuding Life. Towards an Ethics of Life in the Gospel of John” at the annual meeting of the Fellowship for Biblical Studies in Melbourne, Australia.
3/21: Ruben Zimmerman (Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz) gave a paper titled "Enhancing Life by Waiving of Rights: The Matrix of an Ethics of Relinquishing” at Australian Catholic University's Plunckett Centre for Ethics.
3/22: Jason Danely (Oxford Brookes University) gave a talk at the Centre for Medical Humanities, Oxford Brookes University, titled “Narrating the Expanse: Spiritual Experiences of Caring for Older Adults in Japan and the UK.”
February 2016
2/5 – 2/6: Barbara Rossing (Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago) spoke at the spirituality retreat for Ebenezer Lutheran Church, Chicago, on the topic of "Abundant Life, Enhancing Life.”
2/10: Sarah Bianchi (Humboldt University) won a visiting scholar award from Stanford University and during her one-week fellowship and workshop, she gave a talk entitled “Exemplary Ethics: A Kantian Perspective on Enhancing Human Embryos.”
2/11: Jason Danely (Oxford Brookes University) gave a talk at the University of London Medical Anthropology Seminar titled "Wounded Worlds: Violence and the Making of Compassionate Subjectivities in Japanese Eldercare"
2/24: William Schweiker (University of Chicago) presented at a multi-disciplinary symposium on relationship between rising income inequality and religion in the United States at the University of Chicago.
2/26: Jason Danely (Oxford Brookes University) presented a paper at the British Sociological Association, University of Manchester, England, on aging in Japan.
January 2016
1/9: William Schweiker (University of Chicago) gave the Presidential Lecture, titled “Humanity and the Global Future,” at the Society of Christian Ethics in Toronto, Canada.
1/14 – 1/17: Lea Schweitz (Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago) gave a talk at the International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture at the University of Florida, titled “Cultivating the City: Considering Public Urban Spaces for a Theology of Urban Nature.”
1/21 – 1/22: Pamela Sue Anderson (University of Oxford) presented a paper at a workshop on “Vulnerability and Politics of Care” at Oxford Brookes University in Oxford, England, in collaboration with Jason Danely (Oxford Brookes University).
1/21 – 1/25: Stephen Lakkis (Tainan Theological College and Seminary) attended the conference of the Global Network of Research Centers for Theology, Religious and Christian studies in Zurich, where he spoke on “Religion and Civil Society in Taiwan.”
December 2015
12/1: Kristine A. Culp (University of Chicago) participated in a panel discussion for the Theology and Religious Ethics Workshop at the University of Chicago on the Enhancing Life Project, with William Schweiker (University of Chicago), Günther Thomas (Ruhr-University Bochum), Heike Springhart (Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg), and Daniel Sulmasy (University of Chicago).
12/16 – 12/17: Jeffrey Haynes (London Metropolitan University) participated in a workshop at University of Oslo, Norway on “Faith at the United Nations.”
Andrea Bieler (Kirchliche Hochschule Wuppertal/Bethel) co-led an international conference on the topic of “Religion and Aging in Global Perspective,” featuring scholars from Botswana, South Africa, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Switzerland, and Germany. The conference gathered scholars from the fields of gerontology, psychology, political science, sociology and theology who were reflecting on the topic.
November 2015
11/3 – 11/6: Christopher Scott (Stanford University) was the opening keynote speaker at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
11/10: Heike Springhart (Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg) gave a public lecture at the University of Hamburg, Germany, on vulnerability as a conceptual frame for a realistic anthropology.
11/12: Heike Springhart (Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg) gave a public lecture at Geistliches Zentrum Klosterkirche Lobenfeld, titled “What do we Hope For?”
11/11 – 11/13: Jeffrey Haynes (London Metropolitan University) participated in a research workshop at Peace Research Institute, Frankfurt, Germany on “Justice and Faith in Global Politics.”
Andrea Bieler (Kirchliche Hochschule Wuppertal/Bethel) gave a presentation in Wuppertal, Germany on the transformation of violence as the focal perspective for a theology of the Eucharist.
Elizabeth Bucar (Northeastern University) delivered the Castelfranco Lecture at the invitation of the faculty of Religious Studies at University of California Davis, titled “Why Do Bodies Matter?”
Karline McLain (Bucknell University) presented a conference paper at the American Academy of Religion in Atlanta, titled “Gandhi’s Ashrams: Residential Experiments in Spiritual and Political Asceticism.“
October 2015
10/9 – 10/11: Barbara Rossing (Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago) participated in the Northeast Minnesota Synod ECLA creature-care conference in Duluth.
10/14: Christopher Scott (Stanford University) gave a lecture at Baylor University on his project, “The Vortex of Expectations.”
10/16: Daniel Sulmasy (University of Chicago) was a moderator and panelist on “Gray Matters: Perspectives on the Bioethics Commission’s Recommendations” at the International Neuroethics Society in Chicago.
10/17: Daniel Sulmasy (University of Chicago) spoke on “Patient as Problem/ Patient as Mystery: The Problem of ‘Personalized’ Medicine” at MedConference 2015, American Association of Medicine and the Person, Florham Park, New Jersey.
10/24: Daniel Sulmasy (University of Chicago) spoke on “Dignity in Christian Thought,” Dignity and Healthcare at the End of Life, Bayan Institute, Claremont School of Theology, Claremont, CA.
10/26: Günter Thomas (Ruhr-University Bochum) gave a lecture at China Normal University in Beijing, China
10/27: Günter Thomas (Ruhr-University Bochum) gave a lecture at Renmin University in Beijing, China.
10/27 – 11/1: Barbara Rossing (Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago) participated in a Lutheran World Federation conference in Windhoek, Namibia on "Global Perspectives on the Reformation, Interactions between Theology, Politics and Economics."
10/29: Daniel Sulmasy (University of Chicago) gave the Scholl Lecture at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, titled "Spirituality and Health Care.”
10/30: Günter Thomas (Ruhr-University Bochum) gave a lecture at Alliance Theological Seminary in Hong Kong.
Andrea Bieler (Kirchliche Hochschule Wuppertal/Bethel) gave two presentations at the conference “Archeology of Violence” at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City, Mexico.
Andrea Bieler (Kirchliche Hochschule Wuppertal/Bethel) gave a presentation in Villigst, Germany on the limits and the potential of empathy at a symposium on dimensions of care.
Andrea Bieler (Kirchliche Hochschule Wuppertal/Bethel) gave the opening lecture for the academic year at the Methodist Seminary in Reutlingen, Germany.
Andrea Bieler (Kirchliche Hochschule Wuppertal/Bethel) gave a paper at the University of Basel, Switzerland, on illness narrative research as a topic of practical theological research.
Fall 2015
Alexander-Kenneth Nagel (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen) attended a conference on religious communities and social services at the University of Münster, Germany, where he gave a talk on the civic potentials of religious migrant communities.
Alexander-Kenneth Nagel (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen) contributed a session to an advanced training in interreligious and intercultural dialogue, hosted by the United Evangelical Mission in Wuppertal, Germany.
Ruben Zimmermann (Johannes-Gutenberg University of Mainz) gave a paper on “etho-poietic” (From Plutarch to Foucault) on a workshop “Po/ethics” at Mainz, Germany.