Friday, May 24, 2013

Krista Tippett (CCL 2013) - Resource Guide


ABOUT
We are thrilled to have Krista Tippett, NPR radio personality and journalist, visiting campus this September 24th and 25th for the annual Christian Culture Lecture. Her talk is titled "Civic Healing and Christian Virtue in the 21st Century." Tippett is an ideal fit for the lecture, as she presses us to think about the role religion and spirituality can and do play in public life.
"It's always been very important to me to enlarge imaginations about how this part of life we call religious and spiritual actually works in real, far-flung, 21st-century lives."

RESOURCES
To help spread the good word and familiarize folks with her work, we're offering this brief resource guide.

Ways to become familiar with Tippett's work...
  • Listen live to her weekly radio show, "On Being", which focuses on "religion, meaning, ethics, and ideas." In the South Bend area, turn to 88.1 WVPE on Sunday mornings at 6 a.m. 
  • Or, if you don't fancy an early start to your Sunday, listen online to her radio show via NPR's website. You can also find transcripts of the individual shows/interviews since 2001.
  • Read her two books, Speaking of Faith and Einstein's God (reading questions for the former below). 
  • Check her out on TED: "Reconnecting with compassion". Or, watch the video below.



READING QUESTIONS (Speaking of Faith): 
  • What does she mean when she says "faith is as much about questioning as it is about certainties. It is possible to be a believe and a listener at the same time" (3)? 
  • There seem a number of places, particularly as she speaks on social justice, reform, and the role religion plays in fostering such realities, that Tippett's book seems to dovetail with James Carroll's lecture from last year (3-7). Did you have any responses to these? 
  • Do you agree that "a fundamentalist temptation, both secular and religious, accompanies twenty-first-century tumult and runs across the spectrum of our beliefs" (15)? In other words, she takes care to take that word, 'fundamentalism', out of the strict confines of religion and to introduce its errors to a broader, even secular, context. 
  • Tippett reveals a frustration with the connection between politics and religion, or, more specifically, the limits of politics (9). Does this resonate for you? especially today? in what ways? 
  • In what ways does Tippett's biographical chapter, "Remembering Forward," set up the rest of her book? What purpose does it serve--for her? for the reader?
  • She spends a great deal of time detailing the ways in which science and faith are not--as much of our contemporary chatter would presume them to be--in opposition to one another. Instead, she details the overlap in their "ways of looking." What were your responses to these pages (esp. 75-102), these points? 
  • Tippett could have been a HUST major, it seems. She has read and makes reference to early Christianity and the Bible, the Jacob of Jabbok story that so entrances Martin Luther (59), Galileo, Voltaire and Leibniz (81), Julian of Norwich (113), the Benedictines (123), Augustine (132), and many other examples. How did your knowledge (or lack thereof) of these references affect your reading? 
  • Much of this book takes a first person, narrative approach--what Tippett calls a "narrative theology" (133). What were your responses to this style? 
  • The 2008 paperback version of the book also offers a reader's guide with "Questions for Discussion" in the back of the volume. 

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Hooding & Honors Convocation 2013

Another lovely spring day to celebrate the 56th class of Humanistic Studies grads at their hooding ceremony! This year's Thomas More Award winner was Jean Osberger. Congratulations to all!





More pictures are here or in the slideshow below: https://plus.google.com/photos/105886126431602070090/albums/5874912029125979057?authkey=CLv8oa-mr4KDQg.

Monday, May 6, 2013

HUST'las

Senior bonding, clever-like, with the 2013 custom shirt: "Everyday I'm HUSTlin".


Friday, March 1, 2013

Spring 2013 - Chicago Shakespeare Theater

Front row seats!

Ambreen, Rachel, & Jean

Kerry, Molly, Jessica & Tara 

Top: Colleen & Anna
Bottom: Lucy, Clare & LWA

HUST huddle

Our annual trip into Chicago landed squarely and appropriately in the middle of HUST week this year. The entire cohort of HUST majors was able to attend, making this year's trip especially memorable--well, that, and the shell casings and fake blood raining down on us from the stage (Julius Caesar...lots of fighting).

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Henrietta Lacks events

Several events are happening on campus related to the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, which details the biographical and cultural history of the discovery of HeLa cells (used to find treatments for cancer, HIV, etc.), cells which were taken without permission from a young African-American women in the 1950s. There's been a great deal of buzz about the book on campus: it was a national bestseller, it was chosen by the SMC book club as their selection for last year, it's been taught in several classes on campus (in my Lives and Times, in Political Science, Philosophy, Biology, and others) and, most importantly, there are several events happening on campus related to the book. If you haven't read it, I'd highly recommend it. It's a fast-paced, moving, thought-provoking book that proves that we can't so easily separate issues of science and the human, social justice and medical development, in ways that we so often try to do.

Upcoming events include a visit and presentation by members of the Lacks family and a lecture by the author of the book, Rebecca Skloot (details below). And, for those who just can't get enough, Saint Mary's has an alumnae book club called "One Book One Saint Mary's" (modeled after a national trend for college and university book clubs) with regional meetings / groups. The selected book this past year for clubs across the country and the world was The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, and the South Bend chapter will be discussing the book with yours truly and Prof. Kathryn Haas (Chemistry). Feel free to join us, and please do spread the word for any friends who didn't get to discuss the book in a class.

RSVP for Skloot lecture (HUST students only)
Friday, February 1

"One Book One Saint Mary's" Book Club Discussion
Wednesday, February 6
6:00 - 8:00 p.m.
Student Center Lounge
Open to alums and SMC students/faculty/staff

Lacks Family Presentation
Tuesday, February 12
7:30 - 8:30 p.m.
Carroll Auditorium
* free & tickets required *

Rebecca Skloot Lecture (& book signing!)
Wednesday, February 27
7:30 - 9:00 p.m.
O'Laughlin Auditorium
* RSVP to LWA & tickets required *

I hope to see many of you at these events! Please let me know if you have any questions.

A brief video to give you a taste of what to expect: