There are a number of Edmonton area academic events relating to religious studies coming up this fall that I am either involved in or have caught my interest. If you are in the Edmonton area, you may want to catch one or all of these events:
1. University of Alberta Human Rights Lecture (Wednesday 26 October 2005)
Irene Khan, secretary general of Amnesty International, will deliver the University of Alberta Visiting Lectureship in Human Rights on Wednesday October 26, 2005 at 7:30 pm in the University of Alberta’s Myer Horowitz Theatre. Khan will be the eighth speaker in the annual U of A Visiting Lectureship in Human Rights. Established in 1998, the lectureship has brought many leading human rights advocates to campus, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu and 2003 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Shirin Ebadi. Tickets for the lecture are $10 and available through Ticketmaster. For more information go here.
2. Taylor University College Public Lecture on Postmodernity (Thursday 27 October 2005)
Next Thursday night, Dr. Merold Westphal, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, Fordham University, New York, will be presenting a public lecture entitled, “Religious Uses of Secular Postmodernism: Toward a Postmodern Christian Faith” (7:30-9:00 pm). Many Christians see postmodernism as a threat to their faith. This lecture will take a closer look at this perceived threat and uncover how many aspects of secular postmodernism are actually useful in proclaiming the Christian faith. The lecture is free and will be held in Stencel Hall, in the Taylor Seminary Building, 11525-23 Avenue (access from the West parking lot off 23 Avenue). For more information, including promotional materials, please go online here or contact me at your convenience.
3. University of Alberta Lectures on “Rethinking Religion”
The Program in Religious Studies and the Department of English and Film Studies are sponsoring a series of four lectures by Garry Watson, Professor of English, University of Alberta, on the topic “Rethinking Religion and Where We Stand in Relation to It.” The lectures will be delivered in Humanities Centre L-4 at 3:00 pm on Oct. 31 and Nov. 2, 7, and 9, with a reception following the final lecture on the 9th. For more information, check out the U of A Religious Studies website here.
4. Taylor University College Public Lecture on C.S. Lewis (Thursday 10 November 2005)
The fourth and final installment of the 2005 Taylor Public Lectures on Religion & Culture will be presented by Dr. Martin Friedrich, Associate Professor of English, Taylor University College. C.S. Lewis once said that his task as a writer was to get past the “watchful dragons” of his readers. In his lecture entitled, “Past Watchful Dragons: Christianity in C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” Dr. Friedrich will examine the literary techniques that Lewis employed to get past those watchful dragons and to appeal to as broad an audience as possible. The lecture is free and will be held in Stencel Hall, in the Taylor Seminary Building, 11525-23 Avenue (access from the West parking lot off 23 Avenue). For more information, including promotional materials, please go online here or contact me at your convenience.
5. Association for Research in Religious Studies and Theology Annual General Meeting (Saturday 26 November 2005)
The Religion & Theology Department at Taylor University College will be hosting the Annual General Meeting of the Association for Research in Religious Studies and Theology. This year’s theme is “Magic, Demons and Healing: Light from Aboriginal Religions on the Gospels.” The meeting begins with registration at 8:30 am and will be finished by 2:00 pm. Registration is $20.00 (students/seniors $10.00). Registration includes coffee, snacks, and lunch, which will be catered by Nak for Catering. The meeting will be held in classroom S1 in the Taylor Seminary building. For more information, please see my Edmonton Area Academic Events Calendar here.
A final approach to kitsch understands it as containing a negative moral dimension. It holds that art should reflect the true, the good, and the beautiful — and kitsch does not. “Art, then, is, in its own way — no less than theology — a revelation of the Divine” (Lindsay). If this is the case, then kitsch is “the element of evil in the value system of art” (Broch). For example, the ability of kitsch to “sentimentalize the infinite” has ethical connotations as it reduces something meaningful to a bauble and divorces it from its original meaning-providing context. I can’t help but think of all of the “Precious Moments” figurines that elicit an “aww… isn’t that cute” response.
Mental Note: In the future, don’t move into a new house during the beginning part of a semester.
I came across a reference to the “