All Welcome back to the Manor for our Autumn term Friday Night Lectures.
Tea/Coffee and Dessert will be served at 7:30pm and lectures start at 8:00pm.
23rd of September - Breaking through the Iron Cage: Debunking Modernity’s conceptual idols
The German sociologist Max Weber used the term ‘iron cage’ to describe the modern project, founded on control and rationality. Modernity brought us a series of ideas that conceptualize reality as if we live in a closed universe (as Francis Schaeffer put it), where there is no real meaning and significance. This lecture will present some of modernity’s main concepts, challenging them from a Christian perspective.
Josué Reichow, L’Abri worker
30th of September - Imaginative Discipleship: How imagination reveals and shapes our hearts
How does the renewal of our imaginations shape our Christian life and witness? How do we cultivate the renewal of our imaginations by the Spirit through the Word, for life in the world? This lecture explores the nature of the imagination and how it connects to the biblical theme of the heart, the importance of imaginative renewal for our discipleship, and suggests some steps we can take to help participate in God's redemption of our imaginations.
Caleb Woodbridge, English Scholar & InterVarsity Press Editor
7th of October - Deep Hospitality
Trust is the glue of a healthy social life. This lecture will reflect on how trust grows and how questions of identity disrupt the process.
Marsh Moyle, L’Abri associate
14th of October - Commitment: The Joys of Loving Something in Particular
In a culture that encourages us to explore and keep our options open, we've forgotten the joys to be found in radical acts of commitment to particular things–whether that be people, places, vocations, or even to a particular idea of the good life. We'll examine some of the 'great committers' in history–most notably, God–and see what we can learn about the joys (and costs) of true commitment.
Joel Barricklow, L’Abri worker
21st of October - Towards a Christian Psychopathology
What's wrong with us? Until we have a true view of this we will not be able to adequately address the issues and struggles in ourselves and others. Many answers are reductionistic and fail to grapple with the totality of reality. Once understood, we are then better placed to consider what help will look like.
Dick Goodwin, educator and counselor
28th of October - TBA
Peter Merz, L’Abri worker
4th of November - Defending Pluralism vs. Nurturing Solidarity? Speaking from Faith Without Destroying Society
Christians rightly argue for the legal protection of plural political visions and excessive regulatory bureaucratic constraints on both personal and institutional religious freedom. They do this pursuant to a theologically well-grounded commitment to religious toleration and a limited state. But how does this championing of pluralism relate to our equally compelling duty of solidarity with our fellow citizens, facing common human challenges and possibilities, needing cooperative action, and with whom we share the image of God? In an age when many claim religious grounds for extreme political positions, how can we defend religious pluralism without destroying society itself?
Dr. Jonathan Chaplin, Fellow of Wesley House, Cambridge and a member of the Cambridge University Divinity Faculty
11th of November - Book launch: Smuggling Jesus Back Into the Church
Join us for a launch of Andrew Fellows’ new book, Smuggling Jesus Back Into the Church, released 20th October. Andrew shows readers how secularism has reshaped church culture, changing the way many Christians and churches live and worship without being noticed. Both provocative and practical, he challenges Christians to live with radical Christ-like distinctiveness that requires both reformation by the church and revival by the Holy Spirit.
18th of November - Three Theories of Everything
The Bible describes reality in a unique way. All other worldviews are fundamentally different from the Biblical one, although many details can be the same. This lecture looks at the similarities and differences between Monism, Dualism and Trinitarianism and works to bring clarity concerning many questions and confusions.
Ellis Potter, Pastor in Lausanne, former L’Abri worker
25th of November - What Mammon Wants
Jesus Christ famously spoke about Mammon, an Aramaic word that usually meant 'money' or 'wealth'. His teaching was stark: 'You cannot serve both God and Mammon' (Matthew 6:24). This lecture will explore these words of Jesus within their context in the Sermon on the Mount in order to sketch a picture of Mammon as a personal, spiritual power that is actively in conflict with God.
Phillip Johnston, Hope Church, former L’Abri worker