CACE Faculty Seminar 201 drew 17 faculty participants to its seminar on Speaking the Truth with Grace, co-directed by Dr. Ken Chase and Dr. Theon Hill. How do we speak now, when standing for truth and giving offense are two-sides of the same cultural coin? What sorts of Christian discourse are appropriate for secular society? And what sorts of counter-cultural discourse are appropriate for Christian institutions? What are the lines we ought not cross when speaking with others, and when ought we cross those lines for the sake of expanding borders and breaking down walls? Disunity, distrust, and disagreement dominate the Church and society at large. Tensions persist along political, gender, class, and racial lines, turning the beauty of diverse people into an ideological battleground. How can contemporary Christians communicate the love, truth, and justice of Christ in classrooms, churches, and society?
CACE Faculty Seminar 2018 drew 18 faculty participants to its seminar on Evangelical Identity in an Ideological Age, directed by Dr. Timothy Larsen. The workshop focused on the future of the evangelical movement and brand in America in light of polarizing political and social issues. Karen Swallow Prior, Professor of English, Liberty University, and Soong-Chan Rah of North Park University for Friday, both contributors to the book also joined the seminar.
2017-18 CACE Faculty Seminar theme centered around addressing race and ethnic diversity. The seminar invited faculty to consider the following question: How are we to recognize and overcome the legacies of a racial faith that may be embedded within Christianity, evangelicalism, and Wheaton College as an institution of Christian higher education? The select faculty addressed this question in conversation with Willie James Jennings’ book, The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race. The Faculty Articles are a result of the time spent in the CACE Seminar. We publish these articles throughout the year in our eJournal.
“Theater as a Way of Knowing” was the theme of our 2016 CACE faculty seminar. This seminar we took a different approach by using theater practice/performance to help us discover what it means to embody truth as scholars and teachers. What do we mean when we say that a production or an actor is ‘truthful’? Do we mean only that the words spoken are truthful? In what sense? Is it possible to ‘embody’ truth without using words? As part of the workshop, two plays in Chicago were attended. Participants will be given an opportunity to ‘work out’ responses to these shared experiences in both written and embodied expression.