ICS Presidential Inauguration and Convocation

The ICS community gathered this past Saturday afternoon in St. Joseph Chapel at Regis College to inaugurate our President, Dr. Doug Blomberg, and to hear his presidential inaugural address

"The earth will be filled with the glory of God": Christian scholarship confronting injustice and suffering.

• Watch Dr. Blomberg's address on Youtube.

• Download & read Dr. Blomberg's address.

We also gathered to recognize and celebrate the academic achievements of six of our Junior Members. Degrees were conferred upon Rachel McGuire (ICS PhD), Dianne Bergsma (ICS-VU Conjoint PhD), Matthew Johnson (MA), Stefan Knibbe (MA), Carolyn Mackie (MA) and Joanna Sheridan (MA). Congratulations to all our graduates!

• Download & listen to the closing prayer by Rev. Dr. Rachel McGuire.



Back Row:
Bob Sweetman, Doug Blomberg (president), John Kok (chancellor), Jim Olthuis, Shannon Hoff

Front Row:
Stephan Knibbe, Ron Kuipers, Rachel McGuire, Carolyn Mackie, Dianne Bergsma, Joanna Sheridan

Shannon Hoff Accepts Position at Memorial University

ICS wishes to congratulate Shannon Hoff, Associate Professor of Social and Political Philosophy, who has accepted a position in the Philosophy Department at Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. John's, NL, starting July 1 2015. We are grateful to Shannon for her many years of excellent service as a mentor, teacher, and scholar at ICS. We wish her God's rich blessing as she embarks on the next chapter of her impressive academic career.

Check out Shannon's recent article in Ground Motive.

Transformative Presence Amidst Secular Culture?

Former ICS Senior Member, Academic Dean and Acting President, Dr. Jonathan Chaplin has recently published an article in Fulcrum: Renewing the Evangelical Centre. Dr. Chaplin is currently Director of Kirby Laing Institute for Christian Ethics, Cambridge UK, the role he assumed on leaving ICS. In the article, he addresses an issue that has arisen in the Church of England, which is sure to be of interest to many supporters, namely, whether and how Christians should engage intellectually with pressing issues in academic disciplines other than theology. “The question obviously concerns all Christian churches and is a momentous challenge for the larger mission of the global church as it seeks to be a transformative presence amidst secularising cultures heavily dominated by largely secularised university sectors.”

The Poems of a Bi-Polar Pastor

Rev. Dale and Mrs. Lois Claerbaut have been faithful ICS advocates and supporters for 45 years. Dale has recently published his second book and has asked us to publicise it, which we are pleased to do. He writes that it "includes my best lifelong poems…. The poems are Christian, including seven books of the Bible put into poetry." We pray this book will be a blessing to many, and thank Dale for sharing it with us.

• Find it on Amazon

Convocation on May 8

Annual Convocation of the

Institute for Christian Studies

for the Conferral of Degrees upon Junior Members

and for the Presidential Inauguration of

Dr Doug Blomberg

May 8, 2015, 7:00pm

St. Joseph Chapel

Regis College,

100 Wellesley Street West

Toronto

Reception to follow in the Christie Mansion, Regis College

Please RSVP by April 30 if you wish to join us.

sservices@icscanada.edu or 416-979-2331, ext. 239

Lambert Zuidervaart in Toronto

Senior Member Lambert Zuidervaart will present a paper on the arts and social ethics at the Munk Centre, University of Toronto, on May 12. Lambert’s presentation opens a symposium on “Dissonance and Dissidence: Counterpoints in Aesthetics and Politics.” Other speakers include Lydia Goehr, Espen Hammer, Rebecca Comay, and Willi Goetschel. The symposium, which runs for two days, is sponsored by the Department of Philosophy and the Joint Initiative in German and European Studies at U of T.