L`Abri Conference 2015 Final.indd

Rochester L’Abri Conference 2015
1465 12th Avenue, NE
Rochester, MN 55906-4383
Return Service Requested
Defending
Life and
Liberty
In A Brave New World
What is L’Abri?
Plenary Speakers
L’Abri is a French word that means “the shelter”. The first
L’Abri community was founded in Switzerland in 1955 by
Dr. Francis Schaeffer and his wife Edith. Dr. Schaeffer was
a Christian theologian and philosopher who also authored
books on theology, philosophy, general culture and the arts.
Dick Keyes is the Director of L’Abri Fellowship in Southborough, MA, where
he has worked with his wife, Mardi, since 1979. He holds a B.A. in History from
Harvard University and an M.Div. from Westminster Theological Seminary in
Philadelphia. Dick worked for L’Abri Fellowship in Switzerland and England,
where he also served as a pastor in the International Presbyterian Church in
London. He has been an adjunct professor at Gordon Conwell Seminary
and Westminster Theological Seminary, and is the author of several books,
including Beyond Identity and True Heroism. He has also contributed chapters
in anthologies such as No God but God and Finding God at Harvard.
The L’Abri communities are residential study centers in
Europe, America, Canada, South Korea, and Brazil where
individuals can seek answers to honest questions
about God and the significance of human life.
L’Abri believes that Christianity speaks to all aspects of life,
and L’Abri conferences provide lectures, discussions
and personal interaction on a variety of ethical and
cultural issues.
Accommodation The Kahler and affiliated
hotels are offering special rates for the L’Abri conference. You
must make your own room reservations with these hotels and
mention that you are attending the L’Abri Weekend Conference.
The Kahler Grand Hotel........................................$77.00+tax*
20 Second Avenue SW • Rochester, MN
Rochester Marriott.................................................$97.00+tax*
101 First Avenue SW • Rochester, MN
Kahler Inn & Suites
9 Third Avenue NW • Rochester, MN
Standard................................................................$87.00+tax**
Mini Suite..............................................................$97.00+tax**
Rochester L’Abri Conference
The Kahler Hotel
February 13 & 14
2015
*Kahler Grand Hotel & Rochester Marriott for 1-4 people
• Does not include breakfast.
**Kahler Inn & Suites for 1-4 people
• Includes continental breakfast
Please make reservations before January 15, 2015 or guest
rooms and Conference rates may not be available.
For reservations or questions about the Kahler Grand Hotel &
Kahler Inn & Suites call 1-800-508-5549.
For reservations or questions about the Rochester Marriott
call 1-877-623-7775.
Travel If you choose to fly into the Minneapolis-St. Paul
NON PROFIT
STANDARD MAIL
US POSTAGE PAID
ROCHESTER, MN
PERMIT NO 79
L'Abri Conference 2015 Final.indd 1
airport [often cheaper than flying into the Rochester airport],
Rochester Shuttle Service provides shuttle services directly to
the Kahler Hotel. The drive is 1 hour and 30 minutes. There are
14 daily departures from the airport. Let them know that you are
attending the L’Abri Conference for a special rate of $46.00
round trip.
Rochester Shuttle Service • (507) 216-6354
www.rochestershuttleservice.com
Henk Reitsema is a member of the staff at Dutch L’Abri and one of the
trustees of the international work of L’Abri. Along with his wife, he has been
hosting guests at L’Abri for 20 years. Most recently, he completed a degree in
the Philosophy of Technology at the Free University in Amsterdam. Mentoring,
lecturing and engaging in dialogue about the issues that confront us today
form an integral part of his work at L’Abri. He has published a variety of articles
both scientific and popular in the disciplines of Apologetics, Philosophy of
Technology, Ethics and music appreciation.
Christopher Hook, M.D., a graduate of the University of Illinois College
of Medicine, has completed training in internal medicine, hematology and
medical oncology at the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine. After serving
in the Department of Hematology/Oncology at the Mayo Clinic Jacksonville,
he returned to the Mayo Clinic Rochester in 1994 and serves as Associate
Professor of Medicine, the first Chair of the Mayo Enterprise Ethics Education
Committee, and as a member of the Mayo Enterprise Ethics Committee.
He has created several ethics advisory boards, including the Mayo Medical
Center Ethics Consultation Service and the Reproductive Medicine Advisory
Board. He is a Senior Fellow of the Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity
and Adjunct Professor of Bioethics at Trinity International University and
Lincoln Christian University.
David Lyon, Ph.D., (University of Bradford), is a professor at Queen’s
University in Kingston, Ontario, where he holds the Queen’s research chair
in surveillance studies and serves as director of the Surveillance Studies
Centre. Lyon is North American editor of Surveillance & Society and on the
international editorial boards of seven other journals. He has authored over
a dozen books, including Liquid Surveillance and Surveillance After 9/11. In
2008 Lyon was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. In 2007, Lyon
received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Sociological
Association Communication and Information Technology Section. He
received an Outstanding Achievement Award from the Canadian Sociological
Association in 2012.
Denis Haack is co-founder and co-director, with his wife Margie, of
Ransom Fellowship, a ministry designed to help Christians stop being
defensive and instead be discerning and faithful in our pluralistic world
(www.ransomfellowship.org). He edits Critique, blogs at A Glass Darkly, and
is in the process of writing books on learning to hear and on the shape of
Christian faithfulness. He is a visiting instructor in practical theology at
Covenant Seminary, teaching courses on film, popular music and small
group leadership. Denis and Margie live in Savage, MN in a home they have
named The House Between.
Richard Winter, M.D., is Professor of Practical Theology and Director
of the Masters Program in counseling at Covenant Theological Seminary. A
psychotherapist and past member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (UK),
he was trained in medicine and psychiatry in England and served on the staff
and as a director of English L’Abri for 14 years. He is the author of a number of
books including, most recently, When Life Goes Dark: Finding Hope in the Midst
of Depression (IVP 2012). He is married, with four children and eight grandchildren.
11/5/14 12:16 PM
Friday, February 13
8:00-9:00 Registration
9:00-9:05 Welcome
9:05-10:15 The Biblical Basis for Life and Liberty....Dick Keyes
friday 10:30-11:45 • “A” Workshops
A1 Social Media Surveillance: Navigating a New World
Where Nothing is Private........................................................................David Lyon
A2 The Advent of Exclusive Humanism............................................... Denis Haack
A3 P erfecting Ourselves to Death: The Pursuit of Excellence
and the Perils of Perfectionism.................................................... Richard Winter
A4 C
hristian Pro-Life Activism:
A Winsome Witness in a Wild World.........................................Denny Hartford
A5 A Glaring Contradiction:
American Slavery and the Bible’s Message..........................................Tim Padgett
A6 Christian Witness in a ‘Brave New World’.........................................Mark Ryan
A7 ‘Let it Go’: The Inspirational Break-Up Song with All Humanity......Ben Keyes
A8 T
he Trinity and Western Thought....................................................John Hodges
A9 I ntellectual Virtues and a Watching World....................................... Larry Snyder
A10 In Defense of War.........................................................................Marvin Padgett
12:00-1:30 Lunch at the Marriot and Kahler Grand Hotels
2:00-3:15 Euthanasia and the Shifting
Perception of Compassion............... Henk Reitsema
friday 3:30-4:45 • “B” Workshops
B1 God as Surveillance Agent? Reading the Bible Surveillantly............David Lyon
B2 Jacques Ellul, Efficiency, and Faith............................................ Jennifer Alexander
B3 Still Bored in a Culture of Entertainment:
Rediscovering Passion and Wonder............................................. Richard Winter
B4 Jesus and Inerrancy..................................................................... Hans Madueme
Workshop Speakers
Tim Padgett Originally from Nashville, TN, Tim Padgett studied at Covenant Seminary in
St. Louis, where he worked at the Francis Schaeffer Institute. He and his wife Emmalee and
their three boys now live in Chicago where he is a doctoral student at Trinity Evangelical
Divinity School, working on 20th century American evangelicalism and United States
foreign policy.
Margie Haack and her husband Denis co-direct Ransom Fellowship, a ministry helping
Christians love and engage the world in winsome, thoughtful ways. Margie is author of
The Exact Place, a memoir of coming to faith, and a new collection of personal essays from
Notes From Toad Hall. You can find her blogging at toadsdrinkcoffee.blogspot.com.
Greg Jesson earned his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Iowa. He previously
studied at UCLA and under Dallas Willard at USC. He has lectured widely in America and
Europe, and currently teaches philosophy and directs the Center for Ethics and Public Life
at Luther College. He has published articles on such topics as the nature of thought and
knowledge and the portrayal of love and sex in modern film.
Hans Madueme is Assistant Professor of Theological Studies at Covenant College in
Georgia. He was born in Sweden and grew up in Nigeria and Austria. He completed a
residency in Internal Medicine at the Mayo Clinic before going on to earn his M.Div. and
Ph.D. from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He recently co-edited a book on Adam, the
fall, and original sin. Dr. Madueme and his wife, Shelley, have one son.
Marvin Padgett earned his B.S. in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Alabama.
A teaching elder in the Presbyterian Church in America, he served as Editorial VP at
Crossway for nine years and then at P&R Publishing for seven. He currently serves as
Interim Executive Director at Great Commission Publications. Marvin and his wife Jean
have three children and ten grandchildren.
L'Abri Conference 2015 Final.indd 2
B5 H
ospitality in the Movies: Healing around the Table....................Margie Haack
B6 The Barbarians are Inside the Gate:
Relativism Undermining Character and Leadership.........................Greg Jesson
B7 Being Christian in ‘A Secular Age’.............................................Richard Bradford
B8 Moving Out and Moving On:
Why It’s Important to Run Away from Home.......................Mary Frances Giles
B9 Is Religion Useful for Atheists and Society?
A Look at the New Atheist Alain de Botton.................................. Clarke Scheibe
B10 Apocalypse Now: Fascist Aesthetics in Nausicaa:
Valley of the Wind, Fight Club, and the Logic of Suicide............ Mike Sugimoto
5:00-7:00 Dinner on your own
7:00-8:15 The Scandal of Bioethics...... Dr. Christopher Hook
8:30-9:30 Life & Liberty in Music ..................................Hymn Sing
Saturday, February 14
8:00-9:00 Registration
9:00-10:15 The Surveillance Stakes:
Defending Freedom and Dignity....... Dr. David Lyon
Saturday 10:30-11:45 • “C” Workshops
C1
C2
C3
C4
C5
C6 C7
C8
odern Tolerance: the Attack Dog of Modern Relativism............... Dick Keyes
M
Together Alone............................................................................. Henk Reitsema
Conscience and Coercion in a Brave New World.................... Christopher Hook
Aesthetics in Music............................................................................John Hodges
Evolution and the Problem of Theodicy.................................... Hans Madueme
Love For Humanity and Love For People..........................................Ben Keyes
A
n Alternative Vision of Freedom..........................................Richard Bradford
Y
ou Have A Friend Request:
Saving Friendship From the 21st Century.............................Mary Frances Giles
C9 N
o Final Conflict: Does/Can Science Disprove God?............... Marvin Padgett
C10 Life and Liberty Lost: Interpreting ISIS and Extremist Islam........... Mark Ryan
Mark Ryan serves as the Director of the Francis A. Schaeffer Institute at Covenant
Theological Seminary in St. Louis, MO. Together with his wife Terri, he also served for a
number of years with L’Abri Fellowship in Southborough, MA, and in Canada on Bowen
Island. Mark and Terri have three children and enjoy bringing the emphases of L’Abri to
their home and neighborhood where possible.
Clarke Scheibe is the director of Canadian L’Abri. He graduated from the University of
Mississippi with a B.A. in Literature, with an emphasis in creative writing, and from Regent
College in Vancouver, Canada with an M.Div. He has a wide variety of interests, such as
baking, short stories, biblical hermeneutics, and early blues music. He and his wife Julia
have two children, Samuel and Sarah Beth.
Larry Snyder worked in L’Abri for over 40 years and recently moved to Saint Louis to be
near family. Larry’s undergraduate degree was in history and political science. His M.Div.
in theology is from Covenant Seminary. His primary interests are in the created order, the
cultural mandate, and the history of the early church and the Reformation.
Mike Sugimoto (PhD) teaches courses on Japanese history and film and Asian Great
Books at Pepperdine University in Malibu, CA, with research interests in national identity
and social theories of modernity. He worked at the Swiss L’Abri from 1979-84, attending
the University of Minnesota and Cornell University for graduate work. He is married to
Carolyn Sugimoto and has two boys, Michael and Jack.
Mary Frances Giles is a worker at L’Abri Fellowship in Southborough, MA. A native of
Tennessee, she holds a B.S.Ed. from the University of Georgia and an M.S. from Boston
University, both in the area of speech-language pathology. She worked as a pediatric
speech pathologist for ten years in the Boston area before coming to work at L’Abri. Her
interests include human development, the arts, cities and urban design, vocational
calling, and popular culture.
12:00-1:30 Lunch at the Marriot and Kahler Grand Hotels
2:00-3:15 Life and Liberty in the Movies................Denis Haack
Registration Form
Saturday 3:30-4:45 • “D” Workshops
Send registration form to: L’Abri Fellowship
1465 12th Ave NE • Rochester, MN 55906
Make checks payable to L’Abri Fellowship (Please Print Clearly)
D1 I mportant Questions to Ask......................................................................Dick Keyes
D2 The Sense and Non-sense of a Right to Privacy.......................Henk Reitsema
D3 History of American Eugenics and Its Implications
for the Second Genetic Century........................................... Christopher Hook
D4 The Mantra of Efficiency: The Worship of Productivity and Control.............................Jennifer Alexander
D5 H
ow Images Influence Us.........................................................Clarke Scheibe
D6 C
hristian Pro-Life Activism:
A Winsome Witness in a Wild World..................................... Denny Hartford
D7 T
he Three Most Important Concepts in Life:
Truth, Knowledge, and Reality......................................................... Greg Jesson
D8 L iberty Anticipated:
Freedom of Conscience in Christian History...................................Tim Padgett
D9 E scape from Human: Redemptive Technologies,
Human Enhancement, and the Burden of Being Human......... Mike Sugimoto
D10 Intellectual
Virtues and a Watching World.....................................Larry Snyder
5:00-6:15 S
urrendering our Freedom in the Age of ‘Soma’:
Living on the Edge of Addiction....... Dr. Richard Winter
6:15
Closing Remarks
For more information call L’Abri Fellowship in Rochester, MN
(507) 536-0108 or email us at [email protected]
Online Registration is now available, and this brochure
can be downloaded, at www.labri.org.
Workshop descriptions can also now be found online.
Denny Hartford, Director of Vital Signs Ministries in Omaha, is a veteran pro-life activist
who has been involved in almost every area of the movement: sidewalk counseling,
creative protest, starting a crisis pregnancy center, hosting two long-running radio
programs, international travel, and developing nursing home ministries, including the
very popular “When Swing Was King.”
John Mason Hodges worked for 15 years as an orchestral conductor and taught arts and
cultural apologetics for 10 years at Crichton College. He founded and directs the Center
for Western Studies, a tutorial program that teaches college-aged students a Christian
worldview and the history of Western ideas. Hodges lectures on music, aesthetics, and
education, and lives in Memphis with his wife Day.
Richard Bradford has worked at Swiss L’Abri with his wife Karen for 14 years. He completed
his undergraduate degree in philosophy at Trinity Western University and his Masters
degree at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. Richard and Karen have two children,
Alexis and Simon.
Jennifer Alexander is an Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota. With a Ph.D.
in History, she is a cultural historian with a special interest in modern industrial Europe. Her
2008 book, The Mantra of Efficiency: From Waterwheel to Social Control, was awarded the
2010 Edelstein Prize of the Society for the History of Technology for outstanding book in
the field. Her current book project, Technology and Belief, examines the intersection of
technology and religion.
Ben Keyes grew up at L’Abri Fellowship in Massachusetts. He did his undergraduate
degree at Brown University in Ethnomusicology and is a musician in many different
genres. He studied theology and the arts and directed a gospel choir for two years at
Regent College in Vancouver, Canada. Ben and his wife Nickaela have worked at L’Abri in
Massachusetts since 2007. They have three children: Eleanor, Abigail, and Noah.
Names (Please include the full names of each attendee)
Student(s)*
Single(s)
Couple(s)
Children (under 18)**
Address
City
State
ZIP
Phone (
)
Email Address
Please choose your workshops as this will help us assign rooms
Sessions A
B
C
D
The conference fee includes two formal lunches. Due to limited seating,
advance registration is necessary and must be received by Feb. 7, 2015.
After February 7, 2015, please add a $20/person late registration fee.
Attendees
#
Total
Number of Students......$85 Each*
Number of Singles......$105 Each
Number of Couples............. $200
Number of Children.......$60 Each**
Late Fee Per Person............... $20
After February 7, 2015
TOTAL DUE
Check Number
* For groups of 4 or more college students there is a discount rate of
$65/person.
** Limited Childcare is available during the day through the YMCA –
contact Jamie at [email protected] for details
Registrations will be accepted at the door but will not include lunch.
There is a $30.00 non-refundable charge per registration form
for cancellations. No refunds for no-shows.
11/5/14 12:16 PM