Join us this Friday for our next lecture!
As always, you can join us for our lectures in-person or on Zoom. If you are attending in person, please come to the Manor House at 7:30pm for coffee and dessert. Otherwise, click the link below to join the lecture at 8:00pm.
The password is Lecture.
9th June — Being Human in an A.I. World
Thorston Marbach, L’Abri South Africa (in-person!)
Artificial Intelligence is progressing more rapidly than most of us expected. Chatbots have become scarily good at answering questions or generating just about any genre of text. A.I. image generation, video generation and voice cloning are making great strides. How do we evaluate and navigate such changes? What do such developments mean for our human identity, agency and relationships?
16th June — Self-Made Selves: A Compassionate Portrait of the Modern Person
Joel Barricklow, L'Abri Worker
If we had to describe ourselves and our lives to a person from the past, what might they find interesting, impressive, or potentially terrifying? The way we identify ourselves, imagine our place in the world, and negotiate the choices in our lives has changed throughout history. This lecture will attempt to paint a picture that acknowledges both the challenges and opportunities of the modern self.
23rd June — When there are No Words
Michael J Tinker, Folk and Children’s Song Writer and Singer
Concert and reflections on eternity and imagination.
30th June — How to have a conversation
Josue Reichow, L’Abri Brazil
In this lecture we will explore the different dimensions of a conversation and how it has been threatened by the Narcissist pull of hyper modern cultures. We will explore both the theoretical and practical aspects. (This will be zoomed)
7th July — The Pursuit of Excellence and the Perils of Perfectionism: Revisited
Richard Winter
This lecture looks back at the ideas in Richard’s book, “Perfecting ourselves to Death” and its relevance today.
14th July — Integrating Reason and Imagination
Marsh Moyle
Artists are imaginative and scientists are more rational. Is that a true observation or merely an unreflected assumption? What happens if the imagination and reason do not work together? What does healthy integration lead to? These are some of the questions we will explore.
21st July — Hope and Necessity: A Theology of Hope
Sarah Pawlett-Jackson
This lecture will compare two types of “fundamental hope”, drawn from the writings of Rebecca Solnit and Rowan Williams. In particular, we will look at how these two accounts differ in their claims about the relationship between hope and necessity. While both accounts are insightful, one of them provides a more philosophically robust foundation.