OTTAWA WORLDVIEW CONFERENCE Ottawa Worldview Conference Rekindling Christian Imagination with    David Smith    Saturday, October 3, 2009 Redeemer Christian High School 82 Colonnade Road N, Ottawa              Also coming to · Toronto: Sept. 26 · Grand Rapids: Nov. 7

 
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Rekindling Christian Imagination We tend to associate imagination with fantasy, and reality with facts, but the ways in which we picture the world to ourselves have a great deal to do with how we live in it. The Scriptures bid to shape our imaginations, weaning us away from reductive ways of seeing and towards a graced vision of the world. David I. Smith is the Director of the Kuyers Institute for Christian Teaching and Learning at Calvin College as well as Associate Professor, Department of Germanic and Asian Languages at Calvin College. He completed his MPhil at the Institute for Christian Studies and PhD at the University of London. David's interest lies in foreign language pedagogy, particularly in relation to moral and spiritual development as well as in Christian philosophy of education. David is a sought after speaker by Christian educators.

Co-Sponsors

Institute for Christian Studies			Kuyers Institute for Christian Teaching and Learning at Calvin College
Graduate Teacher Education Program

Schedule

Morning

KEYNOTE: The Garden of Delight
The world invites us to imagine ourselves as consumers satisfying needs, as competitors in a battle for security, as computers processing information. What if instead we followed a long tradition of biblical reflection that invites us to think of ourselves as called to be pleasure gardens, gardens of delight? What if we heard in present-day talk of Kindergartens a faint echo of an older image of school classrooms as gardens of delight? What if we began to wonder, in imitation of the biblical prophets, in what ways our society is a wilderness or a garden of delight? This first lecture will explore through this lens how Christian thinkers have imagined the threads linking learning to our life together.

PANELISTS

Professor Iyorwuese Hagher is a scholar, playwright, politician, and diplomat. He taught drama at the Ahmadu Bello University and the University of Jos for two and a half decades.  He currently serves as Nigeria's Ambassador to Canada.  Before that he served in Nigeria's 2nd Republic Senate, as a Federal Minister in the Government of Nigeria, and as Nigeria's Ambassador to  Mexico, Guatemala, Costa-Rica, and Panama.   He is founder of the Leadership Institute Nigeria and its Creative Arts Academy and recipient of  National Honour as an Officer of the Order of Niger.

Dr. Mary Ashun is a faculty member in the Education Department of Redeemer University College in Ancaster Ontario. She was born in Ghana, was educated in Ghana, UK, USA and Canada, and has taught for several years in Christian Schools in Ontario. Mary lives in Mississauga with her husband Joseph and their three sons, Abeyku, Kwamena and Jojo

Mr. Leo Van Arragon is Secondary School Program Coordinator for the Ontario Alliance of Christian Schools.  Leo has been employed in Christian schools since 1973, as a teacher and administrator; he has worked in both curriculum development and public advocacy.  His passion is to see schools be places where students, teachers and community members can work together to create safe places of learning and where students can explore their identities in the light of God's word.

PANEL MODERATOR

Dr. Janet Epp Buckingham, Director of the Laurentian Leadership Centre and Associate Professor, Trinity Western University.

Afternoon

KEYNOTE: Learning from the Stranger
The world invites us to imagine foreigners as competitors for resources, as exotic objects of fascination, or as dark threats to our wellbeing. Scripture calls instead for a radical love of strangers, a practice of hospitality that reaches out to embrace the outsider. This call to hospitality can help us to see how learning from other cultures can connect with nurturing a Christian identity. It also challenges a variety of basic ways in which we tend to imagine our place in the world. This second lecture will explore how learning from the stranger can be a Christian practice, and what it means for how we teach our children.

Registration

Please register by the 30th of September to ensure lunch.

If you have any questions please email
or telephone Martin Mudde 613-728-0154

Redeemer Christian High School
82 Colonnade Road N
Ottawa ON   K2E 7L2
 
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