Tuesday 2 September 2014

Dr. Doug Blomberg appointed President of the Institute for Christian Studies

Henriette Thompson and Aileen Van Ginkel, Chair and Co-chair of the Board of Trustees of the Institute for Christian Studies, are pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Doug Blomberg, Senior Member in Philosophy of Education at ICS, to the position of President, effective July 15, 2014.

Dr. Blomberg first began teaching at ICS in 1997 and is currently its Academic Dean. He has also held the role of interim President since January 2014. “Doug Blomberg is an experienced administrator and respected academic with a long history of commitment to the Institute for Christian Studies,” said Ms. Van Ginkel. “ICS will benefit greatly from Doug’s intimate knowledge of the institution and the continuity he brings to the president’s role,” according to Ms. Thompson.

A native of Australia, Dr. Blomberg spent a year at ICS as a student in 1975-76. He completed his PhD studies at the University of Sydney in 1978 and an EdD at Monash University in 2004. In 1990 he was elected a Fellow of the Australian College of Educators for his “contribution to the theory and practice of Christian schooling”. From 1979, he served as Principal of the Institute (later, the National Institute) for Christian Education, the teacher education arm of the Christian School movement in Australia.

Dr. Blomberg immigrated to Canada with his wife, Heather, in 2003 to accept the position of Senior Member at ICS. He became full Professor in 2009 and Academic Dean in 2011, a role he will continue to hold. Dr. Blomberg has published many articles and spoken at numerous conferences on the topics of education, philosophy, and religion, among others. He is editor and co-author of A Vision with a Task: Christian Schooling for Responsive Discipleship (Baker, 1993). More recently, he authored Wisdom and Curriculum: Christian Schooling After Postmodernity, published by Dordt College Press in 2007.

“I am honoured and humbled to accept the presidency of ICS,” says Dr. Blomberg. “My commitment to the reformational vision and mission of ICS naturally precedes the year I spent here as a student in the mid-seventies. We remain committed to this vision, and with the support and prayers of the community, I am confident the mission can continue to be fulfilled.”

A Christian graduate school in the Reformed tradition founded in 1967, the Toronto-based Institute for Christian Studies is an interdisciplinary graduate school where Reformational philosophy meets contemporary scholarship and society, and where the gospel’s message of renewal shapes the pursuit of wisdom. ICS is an affiliate of the Toronto School of Theology, Canada’s largest ecumenical centre for graduate theological education.

For further information please contact:

Henriette Thompson, Chair
ICS Board of Trustees
henriette.thompson@gmail.com
(647) 701-7812

Aileen Van Ginkel, Co-chair
ICS Board of Trustees
aileen.vanginkel@gmail.com
(416) 985-1034