Past Events:
2012 Mel Smith Lecture
Bill Blaikie, "Two Social Gospels or One?", 8 February 2012
Bill Blaikie was ordained to the ministry of The United Church of Canada in 1978. In 1979 he was elected to Parliament; he was re-elected eight times, and retired from federal politics in 2008 as the Dean of the House of Commons.
Over the years, Blaikie was the NDP critic for health, environment, foreign affairs, and trade; served as House Leader and Parliamentary Leader; and, in his last term, was the first New Democrat to be Deputy Speaker of the House. In 2009 he was elected to the Manitoba Legislature and served as Minister of Conservation until October 2011.
He is currently an Adjunct Professor in Theology at the University of Winnipeg, and Director of the Knowles-Woodsworth Centre for Theology and Public Policy.
"Two Social Gospels or One?"
There were two branches of prairie populism arising out of the Great Depression, but only one social gospel. The question today is whether current evangelical engagement with the world can be liberated from captivity to neo-conservativism in order to connect with and energize the best of the social gospel tradition, in the interests of a new social gospel that can more faithfully challenge the world Christians are called to be in, but not of.
See the Lecture Notes from Bill Blaikie's address.
Upcoming Events:
Will update as events become available.
Annual Symposia
The focus of the Research Group is the annual Faith Forward Symposium in Religion, Culture, and Conflict, produced in partnership with JoyTV television. We who hold to Christian convictions are grateful for the opportunity to participate as hosts for annual gatherings of leaders from all the great religious traditions and for the opportunity to share these gatherings through the medium of television.
Christians and the Middle East Conflict (2011)
Religion, Secularism and Politics (2009)
Politics and the Religious Imagination (2008)
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