Renewing Our Minds: Faith and Reason Engagement in the Christian College or University
Abstract
In my lecture I will recount the story of my own journey in faith-reason engagement, from an intellectual awakening in college to the writing of a number of books in which I critically engage my theological perspective with various secular fields. Then I will outline what I mean by faith-reason engagement, and how it should be done in our colleges and universities. After developing those tasks on a theoretical level, I will conclude by offering a number of practical examples about how such engagement can be done.
Biography
Robert Benne is Jordan-Trexler Professor of Religion Emeritus and Founding Director of the Robert D. Benne Center for Religion and Society at Roanoke College, Salem, Virginia. He was Jordan-Trexler Professor and Chair of the Department of Religion and Philosophy at Roanoke for eighteen years, and previously was Professor of Church and Society at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago for seventeen years. He also is a Visiting Fellow at St. Edmund’s College, Cambridge University.
His main interests focus on Christian ethics, social interpretation, and the character of church-related institutions. He has authored thirteen books, including, Quality With Soul: How Six Premier Colleges and Universities Keep Faith with their Religious Traditions (2001), Keeping the Soul in Christian Higher Education—A History of Roanoke College (2017), and Thanks be to God: Memoirs of a Practical Theologian (2019).
He and Joanna Carson married in 1959; they are parents of four children and grandparents of eight. They have lived for 38 years in Salem, Virginia.
Location
Howard Performing Arts Center
Start Date
8-14-2020 9:00 AM
End Date
8-14-2020 10:15 AM
Renewing Our Minds: Faith and Reason Engagement in the Christian College or University
Howard Performing Arts Center
In my lecture I will recount the story of my own journey in faith-reason engagement, from an intellectual awakening in college to the writing of a number of books in which I critically engage my theological perspective with various secular fields. Then I will outline what I mean by faith-reason engagement, and how it should be done in our colleges and universities. After developing those tasks on a theoretical level, I will conclude by offering a number of practical examples about how such engagement can be done.