A cross

Chair of Christian Thought

Department of Classics and Religion

History

The Chair of Christian Thought was initiated in 1980. The original vision was to bring renowned scholars in the field of Christian thought to the University of Calgary and surrounding community. Thanks to leadership from J. Louis Lebel, President of Dome Petroleum and Chairman of the Fundraising Committee, the project reached its goal in June 1985.

Bridging the academy and faith communities

About

The Chair of Christian Thought brings the academic study of religion into the wider community through community events such as lectures and symposia while undertaking the normal activities of a university professor (teaching, research and publication)

Events

Annual sponsored events include four endowed lectures:

  • The Bentall Lecture on Education and Theology
  • The Iwaasa Lecture on Urban Theology
  • The Lebel Lecture in Christian Ethics
  • The Swanson Lecture in Spirituality

Contact

Chair of Christian Thought

Department of Classics & Religion
University of Calgary
Calgary, Alberta T2N 1N4
Canada

Contact Chairholder Dr. Carolyn Muessig

YouTube

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Current Chair

Dr. Carolyn Muessig

Professor Carolyn Muessig is the Chair of Christian Thought since July 2020. She specializes in Medieval Christianity, with particular emphasis on its devotional dimensions and the contribution of female teachers and preachers in Western Europe. Among her publications are The Faces of Women in the Sermons of Jacques de Vitry and The Stigmata in Medieval and Early Modern Europe. An award-winning teacher, she works with undergraduate and postgraduate students, and has supervised numerous PhD candidates and postdoctoral researchers. She is presently assessing the activities of medieval and early modern female preachers. Professor Muessig is committed to bringing together diverse communities from within and outside academe to explore the significance of Christianity in art, history and culture. 

Dr. Carolyn Muessig

Past chairs


Chair Gordon Harland

Sept. 1986 – April 1987

Chair Alan Sell

Jan. 1988 – Dec. 1992

Chair Douglas Shantz

Sept. 1999 – August 2016


Past instructors

Seminar instructors 1993 – 1998

Grace Jantzen, University of Manchester
Janice Soskice, Cambridge University
Julius Lipner, Cambridge University
Ursula King, Bristol University


Research

Annual lectures

Dr. Howard Bentall studied for his Bachelor of Arts at the University of British Columbia. He then at­tended McMaster Divinity College in Hamilton where he obtained a Bachelor of Divinity degree in 1937, and in 1959 he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from McMaster University. Dr. Bentall had a distinguished career in ministry in the Baptist tradition. From 1938 to 1946 he served as senior minister at First Baptist Church in Regina when its mem­bership was listed at over 800. Later ministries included Walmer Road Baptist Church in Toronto and First Baptist Church in Calgary. From 1972 to 1992 Dr. Bentall served as associate executive minister for the Baptist Union of Western Canada. He was a president of the Canadian Baptist Federation, serving from 1956-1959, and was a vice-president of the Canadian Bible Society. In 1991 Calgary's Downtown Kiwanis Club presented him with an appreciation award. For many years he was an honorary director of Operation Eyesight Universal, and secretary-treasurer of Hawthorne Charitable Foundation.

Dr. Shirley Bentall likewise demonstrated a life of service to worthy causes and the church. She received a Bachelor of Arts from McMaster and the university awarded her an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree in 1989. After she and Howard were married in 1946, she devoted herself to efforts that advanced the position of women in the church. She was a president of the Baptist Union of Western Canada (1976-77) and the first woman president of the Canadian Baptist Federation (1985-88). She served as vice-president of the Baptist World Alliance and as chair of the group's Christian Ethics Study Commission. She wrote extensively, including a regular column for The Canadian Baptist Magazine and several books. In retirement, she devoted herself to the creation of the Salsbury Community Society in East Vancouver, a housing initiative that fosters community diversity and provides support for refugees.

In the early 1980s Dr. Howard and Dr. Shirley Bentall showed their commitment to education by helping to launch the Chair of Christian Thought at the University of Calgary, a position and vision which they generously supported for the remainder of their lives. The Bentalls retired to Vancouver, B.C., where they spent their last years founding the Rivendell Retreat Centre on Bowen Island which operates in a radically inclusive way by inviting people who come to pay what they can afford. Shirley passed away in 2005 and Howard followed in 2008. The volunteer-run retreat, among other jointly created charitable initiatives, continue today as testaments to their boundless generosity, compassion, and faith.

It is a privilege to hold an annual lecture in Education and Theology in honour of Dr. C. Howard Bentall and Dr. Shirley Bentall. 

Sources:  Church directory at First Baptist Church, Calgary (published in 1988) & Howard and Shirley Bentalls’ obituaries.

  1. Jan 29, 2022

    Dr. Donyelle C. McCray
    Associate Professor of Homiletics, Yale Divinity School 

    • Chair of Christian Thought Bentall Lecture on Christian Education and Theology: Quilter as Truthteller? Harriet Powers, Rosie Lee Tomkins and their Stitched Sermons

    Download

  2. Feb. 27, 2021

    Dr. Carolyn Muessig
    Chair of Christian Thought
    Department of Classics & Religion
    University of Calgary

    • The Greatest Story Never Told: Female Preaching in Premodern Europe: An Afternoon with Dr. Carolyn Muessig

    Watch on YouTube

  3. Feb. 26, 2021

    Dr. Carolyn Muessig
    Chair of Christian Thought
    Department of Classics & Religion
    University of Calgary

    • Signs of leadership: Women and invisible stigmata in the late Middle Ages 

    Watch on YouTube

  4. Feb. 25, 2021

    Dr. Carolyn Muessig
    Chair of Christian Thought
    Department of Classics & Religion
    University of Calgary

    • Spiritus Domini before Pope Francis: Women as spiritual advisors in medieval Italy

    Watch on YouTube

  5. Sept. 29, 2015

    Dr. Ryan J. Williams
    SSHRC Post-Doctoral Fellow
    Department of Classics and Religion, University of Calgary

    • Challenges & Opportunities in Rehabilitating Extremist Offenders
  6. Sept. 28, 2015

    Dr. Ryan J. Williams
    SSHRC Post-Doctoral Fellow
    Department of Classics and Religion, University of Calgary

    • Redeeming the “unredeemable”: Rehabilitating extremist offenders and what this teaches us about Peace-building
  7. Sept. 23, 2014

    Dr. Steven Engler
    Professor of Religious Studies
    Humanities, Mount Royal University

    • Opportunities & Threats in the Global Study of Religions
  8. Sept. 22, 2014

    Dr. Steven Engler
    Professor of Religious Studies
    Humanities, Mount Royal University

    • Multiple Religious Adherence & Boundary Crossing in Brazil
  9. Oct. 1, 2013

    James K. A. Smith
    Professor of Philosophy,
    Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI

    • The Secular is Haunted: Inhabiting Our Cross-Pressured Present

    Download »

  10. Sept. 30, 2013

    James K. A. Smith
    Professor of Philosophy,
    Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI

    • Worship, Worldview & Cultural Liturgies

    Download »

  11. Oct. 1, 2012

    Anne Moore, Terence Penelhum, Tinu Ruparell, Douglas Shantz
    Department of Classics and Religion, University of Calgary

    Watch on YouTube »

  12. Sept. 20, 2011

    Professor Gordon Campbell
    Leicester University (UK)

    • The History of the King James Bible as Literature and Sacred Text
  13. Sept. 19, 2011

    Professor Gordon Campbell
    Leicester University (UK)

    • The King James Bible Then and Now: how a 1611 Translation has impacted the English language
  14. Oct. 4, 2010

    Dr. Anne Moore
    Associate Professor
    Department of Religious Studies, University of Calgary

    • Imaging Women in the Early Church: The Visual/Material Clues to Women's Leadership
  15. Feb. 2, 2010

    Professor Joseph Wawrykow
    Associate Professor of Theology, University of Notre Dame

    • Jesus as True Human: Reflections on Aquinas' Pedagogical Strategies in Summa Theologia III

    Download »

  16. Feb. 1, 2010

    Professor Joseph Wawrykow
    Associate Professor of Theology, University of Notre Dame

    • Thomas Aquinas Speaks to the Church Today: His Continuing Relevance
  17. Sept. 23, 2008

    Rev. Dr. Brian Leslie Hebblethwaite
    Fellow of Queens' College,
    Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK

    • Scientific and Theological Explanations of the World: The Nature of Human Personhood

    Download »

  18. Sept. 22, 2008

    Rev. Dr. Brian Leslie Hebblethwaite
    Fellow of Queens' College,
    Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK

    • In Defence of Christianity

    Download »

  19. March 25, 2008

    Dr. Nicholas J. Watson
    Professor of English and American Literature, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

    • The Body of the Past: History and Imagination
  20. March 24, 2008

    Dr. Nicholas J. Watson
    Professor of English and American Literature, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

    • Toward a History of Tolerance: Jews and Muslims in Medieval Christian Thought

    Download »

  21. March 20, 2007

    Dr. Tinu Ruparell
    Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, University of Calgary

    • Two Dogmas of Interreligious Dialogue
  22. March 19, 2007

    Dr. Tinu Ruparell
    Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, University of Calgary

    • The Search for Truth in Interreligious Dialogue
  23. Oct. 4, 2005

    Keith Ward
    Regius Professor of Divinity, Oxford University

    • Islam and the West
  24. Oct. 3, 2005

    Keith Ward
    Regius Professor of Divinity, Oxford University

    • Christianity and the Indian Religious Traditions

    Watch on YouTube »

  25. Feb. 5, 2003

    Dr. Clark Pinnock and Dr. John B. Cobb Jr.

    • A Dialogue on Issues between Process and Free Will Theists
  26. Feb. 4, 2003

    Dr. John B. Cobb Jr.

    • How Modern Science Has Changed Our View of God: Process Theology and the Bible

    Download »

  27. Feb. 3, 2003

    Dr. Clark Pinnock

    • The Metaphysics of Love: Rethinking the Doctrine of God and His Relation to the World

    Download »

  28. March 5, 2002

    Rev. Dr. John Polkinghorne
    Fellow of Queen's College, Cambridge University

    • Recent Trends in Science and Religion
  29. March 4, 2002

    Rev. Dr. John Polkinghorne
    Fellow of Queen's College, Cambridge University

    • Can a Scientist Pray? Affirming both Religious and Scientific Responses to the World
  30. March 5, 2001

    Douglas Shantz
    Chair of Christian Thought, UCalgary

    • Women, Men and the Experience of God: Comparing Spiritual Autobiographies

    Download »

  31. Jan. 26, 2001

    Dr. Peter C. Erb
    Professor of Religion and Culture, Wilfred Laurier University
    Waterloo, Ontario

    • Bernard of Clairvaux on the Psychology, the 'Self,' and the Love of God
    • Bishop Butler and the Analogy of Religion: Another Look at the English Enlightenment
  32. Jan. 25, 2001

    Dr. Peter C. Erb
    Professor of Religion and Culture, Wilfred Laurier University
    Waterloo, Ontario

    • Murder, Espionage and other Christian Mysteries: Contemporary Christian Novelists in the Secular World
    • Conversion and Politics in England and the Colonies: John Henry Newman and Pandita Ramabai
  33. Jan. 23, 2001

    Prof. Lynn Szabo
    Sessional Assistant Professor of English and Communications, Trinity Western University
    Langley, British Columbia

    • The View from Here: Thomas Merton’s Poetic View of the World

Dr. Reverend Kazuo Iwaasa served as minster of Church & Society at the Knox and Central United Churches in downtown Calgary from 1973-1982. Born in Alberta in 1918 to migrant parents from Hiroshima, Japan, Iwaasa was raised in rural western Canada. A second generation Japanese Canadian who lived during war time, he was no stranger to discrimination, hardship, and heartache. In 1947 at the age of 29 a profound and transcendent awakening to the wholeness of existence, brought on by a realization of the all-encompassing love of God, created the foundation upon which his life of ministry and social service began. He became enthralled by the ‘living word’ of the Bible and the ability to create tangible social change through civil rights activism and the church. He became a member of the United Church in 1948, and until his death he regarded the community as family.

He studied theology at St. Stephen’s College in Edmonton, served as a student pastor in Tofield and as general secretary for the activist Student Christian Movement at the University of Alberta. He was ordained as a Minister of the United Church in 1959. He served at Blairmore United Church, All Peoples’ Mission in Winnipeg, and then studied art at the Southern Alberta College of Art. In 1913 he became Church & Society Minister of downtown Calgary. He received a Doctor of Divinity degree from St. Stephen’s College in Edmonton in April of 1982.

Human rights, social justice and compassion were at the forefront of his ministry. He was fully devoted to the service of his fellow man: the oppressed, the marginalized, the disadvantaged, the lost and downtrodden. He channeled his lived experience as a Japanese Canadian in the mid 20th century into a drive to make life better for those who suffered as he had. His concern and activism for environmental protection and Indigenous rights were before his time. His humble sense of self as a ‘sinner among sinners’ grounded him in his work. He oversaw and tirelessly contributed to Welcome and Drop-in Centres, institutions which he supported while he sought to create a society in which they might not be needed.

Rev. Kazuo Iwaasa passed away in 1982 from cancer, and the life-changing effects on the innumerable lives he touched still reverberate today. His devoted and equally luminous wife Inger passed away in 2020 at the age of 90. They are survived by their daughter, a pianist and co-founder of the Vancouver Queer Arts Festival, Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa, and Bob Iwaasa, a son of Rev. Iwaasa’s previous marriage to life-long friend Beverly Boyd.

Rabbi Lewis Ginzberg in 1984 on Rev. Iwaasa:

“There are people who enrich by overt gifts; there are others who enrich by their mere being. Kind as he was to many, and to many benevolent causes, his greatest gift to us was to bring into a raucous world --- a world teeming with anxiety and apprehension, and with a violence that may momentarily break out --- a sense of quietness, a sense of those eternal values which endure midst all flux and change, a sense of the dignity of the human spirit even in the moment of stress and upheaval.”

It is an honour to hold an annual lecture on Urban Theology in Reverend Kazuo Iwaasa’s name.

Sources:

Kazuo Iwaasa’s speech at the Festival of Faith and family documents from Rachel Iwaasa.

‘In memory of Kazuo Iwaasa.’ Speech given in June 1984 by Rabbi Lewis Ginzberg.

MacKenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry – Witness Kazuo Iwaasa. Calgary, Alberta May 14, 1976. Volume 53. pp. 5436 – 5439.

  1. Sept. 18, 2021

    Rev. Dr. Carmen Lansdowne
    Executive Director, First United Church Community Ministry Society
    and First United Church Social Housing Society

    • Lessons from the Streets: The liberative wisdom of Brené Brown in addressing multiple existential threats

    Watch on YouTube

  2. Sept. 17, 2021

    Rev. Dr. Carmen Lansdowne
    Executive Director, First United Church Community Ministry Society
    and First United Church Social Housing Society

    • Broken Promises, Broken Systems: An Indigenous view of theodicy in the form of systemic injustice

    Watch on YouTube

  3. Oct. 24, 2020

    Dr. Kristin Kobes Du Mez
    Professor of History and Gender Studies
    Calvin University

    • Jesus and John Wayne: An Afternoon with Dr. Kristin Kobes Du Mez

    Watch on YouTube

  4. Oct. 23, 2020

    Dr. Kristin Kobes Du Mez
    Professor of History and Gender Studies
    Calvin University

    • Who is Evangelical? Defining American Evangelicalism and What's at Stake
  5. Oct. 22, 2020

    Dr. Kristin Kobes Du Mez
    Professor of History and Gender Studies
    Calvin University

    • Why We Want to Kill You: Islamophobia in American Evangelicalism

    Watch on YouTube

  6. Nov. 2, 2015

    Professors Douglas H. Shantz and David G. Dick
    University of Calgary

    • Panel on Money & Religious Virtue: From the Eye of the Needle to the Prosperity Gospel

    Download »

  7. Feb. 2, 2015

    Panel on Addressing Poverty in Calgary: Issues, Challenges, and Strategies

    Derek Cook
    Former Executive Director of the Calgary Poverty Reduction Initiative

    • Why Jesus Didn't Talk Very Much About the Poor | Download »

    Darrell Howard
    Community Facilitator at Vibrant Communities Calgary

    Jeff Loomis
    Executive Director at Momentum: Community Economic Development Society

  8. Jan. 21, 2013

    Panel on Homelessness: Bringing Many Perspectives to Bear on a Human Tragedy

    Deputy Mayor Gael MacLeod
    Deputy Mayor of Calgary

    • Greetings

    Dr. John Rook
    CEO, Calgary Homeless Foundation

    • Homelessness as a social problem

    Bishop Fred Henry
    Roman Catholic Bishop of Calgary

    • Homelessness as a spiritual problem

    Mr. John Bodman
    Formerly homeless for years

    • Homelessness as a personal problem

    Susan Scott
    Author of The Beginning of the End

    • Book signing
  9. Jan. 31, 2012

    Dr. John Rook
    CEO of Potential Place Society, Calgary

    • Homeless shelter residents: Who are they and what are their needs in a time of rapid economic growth?

    Download »

  10. Jan. 30, 2012

    Dr. John Rook
    CEO of Potential Place Society, Calgary

    • Am I My Sister’s and Brother’s Keeper? The Ethics of Homelessness and Programs that Work

    Download »

  11. April 17, 2011

    A panel of students from Professor Douglas Shantz's Religious Studies graduate seminar on Christianity in the Age of Pietism and Enlightenment will examine this topic from various perspectives

    • How Christian Faith Adapted to the Age of Enlightenment Reason
  12. March 16, 2010

    Dr. Ron A. Kuipers
    Institute for Christian Studies, Toronto

    • Cross-Pressured Authenticity: Charles Taylor on Religious Identity in a Secular Age
  13. March 15, 2010

    Dr. Ron A. Kuipers
    Institute for Christian Studies, Toronto

    • What's So Critical About Faith? Exploring a Crucial Feature of Human Life
  14. March 16, 2009

    Professor Douglas H. Shantz, PhD
    Holder of the Chair of Christian Thought, University of Calgary

    • The Place of Religion in a Secular Age: Charles Taylor's Explanation of the Rise and Significance of Secularism in the West

    Download »

  15. Jan. 29, 2008

    Dr. Sallie McFague
    Professor of Theology Emerita, Vanderbilt University Distinguised Theologian in Residence, Vancouver School of Theology

    • Urban Ecology and Religion

    Download »

  16. Jan. 28, 2008

    Dr. Sallie McFague
    Professor of Theology Emerita, Vanderbilt University Distinguised Theologian in Residence, Vancouver School of Theology

    • Global Warming: A Theological Problem

    Download »

  17. Oct. 31, 2006

    Crawford Gribben
    Professor of English and American Studies, University of Manchester

    • The USA in Rapture Fiction: Evangelicalism’s new Apocalyptic Other

    Download »

  18. Oct. 30, 2006

    Crawford Gribben
    Professor of English and American Studies, University of Manchester

    • Left Behind Fiction and the Evangelical Crisis

    Download »

    Watch on YouTube »

  19. Jan. 25, 2006

    Mary Jo Leddy
    Director of Romero House
    Toronto

    • God and Caesar at the 49th Parallel
  20. Jan. 24, 2006

    Mary Jo Leddy
    Director of Romero House
    Toronto

    • Canada Chooses Between Two Kinds of Societies: A Punishing Society or a Forgiving Society

    Watch on YouTube »

  21. Sept. 23-24, 2002

    3 Day Symposium: "Religion and Public Life: the Canadian Experience"

  22. Sept. 24, 2002

    Dr. David Marshall
    Associate Professor, Department of History, University of Calgary

    • The Preacher-Politician and Alberta Society
  23. Sept. 24, 2002

    Dr. Marguerite Van Die
    Associate Professor, Dept. of History & Theology, Queen's Theological College, Queen's University
    Kingston, Ontario

    Response:
    Dr. David Marshall

    Associate Professor, Department of History, University of Calgary

    • Faith and Public Life in Canada and the USA: How Different Are We?
  24. Sept. 23, 2002

    Dr. Marguerite Van Die
    Associate Professor, Dept. of History & Theology, Queen's Theological College, Queen's University
    Kingston, Ontario

    • The End of Christian Canada: Past Perspectives, Present Opportunities

    Download »

  25. March 6, 2001

    Prof. Anne Moore
    Instructor in Religious Studies, University of Calgary
    Calgary, Alberta

    • Jesus Christ, Movie Star: Depictions of Christ in Modern Film
  26. Nov. 8, 2000

    Mary Jo Leddy
    Director of the Romero House Community for Refugees and Adjunct Professor at Regis College, University of Toronto
    Toronto, Ontario

    • Towards a North American Liberation Theology: Liberating Power
  27. Nov. 7, 2000

    Mary Jo Leddy
    Director of the Romero House Community for Refugees and Adjunct Professor at Regis College, University of Toronto
    Toronto, Ontario

    • Towards a North American Liberation Theology: Liberating Gratitude

Jean-Louis Lebel QC B.A. LL.B LLD was born in Longueil, Quebec and was raised in St. Paul, Alberta, before spending most of his life in Calgary. He belonged to the Roman Catholic faith tradition and was a devoted Canadian citizen, community member, businessman and scholar. He was the third chancellor of the University of Calgary from 1978 to 1982. In the Fall of 1979, he joined with Dr. Peter Craigie in the planning and fundraising initiatives that led to the establishment of the Chair of Christian Thought in 1985.    

A graduate of Laval, the University of Alberta, and the Harvard School of Business Administration, he worked for Chevron Standard and was elected Vice-President and Director in 1957. He was appointed to Queen’s Counsel in 1979 and counselled with multiple law firms in addition to serving as a Director and Vice-President of his own consulting firm. A born leader, Lebel was remarkably active in many community and well-being services, most often in a leadership role, including: the Calgary United Appeal, the Vanier Institute, the Alberta Catholic Hospitals Foundation, the Canadian Institute for Child Health, the Alberta Heart Foundation, Boy Scouts and La Société Franco-Canadienne de Calgary, among many others. He served on the University of Calgary Senate from 1974 until he became Chancellor in 1978. In 1985 the University recognized his many contributions by granting him an Honorary Doctorate.

He married his devoted wife Thérèse after meeting her during his time at the University of Alberta. His family fondly remembers his time as Chancellor as a lively period in which they were able to meet a diverse array of scholars and distinguished visitors to Calgary. His primary concern during his time as Chancellor was doing good for the student community, and he was proudly able to confer degrees upon two of daughters during his time as chancellor. A photo­graph honours Lebel’s memory as a UCalgary Chancellor in the TFDL.

It is a privilege to hold an annual lecture in Christian Ethics in the name of J. Louis Lebel.

  1. Dec. 4, 2021

    Dr. Warren Kinghorn, Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Duke University Medical Center; Esther Colliflower Associate Professor of the Practice of Pastoral and Moral Theology at Duke Divinity School; co-director of the Theology, Medicine, and Culture Initiative at Duke Divinity School. 

    • Why Mental Disorders Are Not Brain Disorders (Alone): A Holistic Christian Approach to Mental Health Care

    Download>>

  2. Dec. 3, 2021

    Dr. Warren Kinghorn, Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Duke University Medical Center; Esther Colliflower Associate Professor of the Practice of Pastoral and Moral Theology at Duke Divinity School; co-director of the Theology, Medicine, and Culture Initiative at Duke Divinity School. 

    • What Do Emotions Mean? Aquinas, Descartes, and Modern Mental Health Care

    Watch on YouTube

     

     

  3. Jan. 30, 2021

    Dr. Kate Kirkpatrick
    Fellow in Philosophy and Christian Ethics, and Director of Studies in Philosophy
    Regent's Park College, University of Oxford

    • The Death of God and the Lives of Women: An Afternoon with Dr. Kate Kirkpatrick
  4. Jan. 29, 2021

    Dr. Kate Kirkpatrick
    Fellow in Philosophy and Christian Ethics, and Director of Studies in Philosophy
    Regent's Park College, University of Oxford

    • Existentialism and Exemplars
  5. Jan. 28, 2021

    Dr. Kate Kirkpatrick
    Fellow in Philosophy and Christian Ethics, and Director of Studies in Philosophy
    Regent's Park College, University of Oxford

    • Writing Simone de Beauvoir
  6. Feb. 2, 2016

    Eric Wasylenko, MD, MHSc
    Palliative Care Physician and Practicing Clinical Ethicist

    • Medicine, Mercy & Humility: Ethics & Physician Assisted Death
  7. Feb. 1, 2016

    Eric Wasylenko, MD, MHSc
    Palliative Care Physician and Practicing Clinical Ethicist

    • Medicine, Mercy & Humility: Ethics & Physician Assisted Death
  8. March 9, 2015

    Professor Douglas H. Shantz
    Department of Classics and Religion
    University of Calgary

    • The Moravian Tradition of Recording One’s Spiritual Journey: Practice, Significance, Examples
  9. Nov. 5, 2013

    Dr. Molly Worthen
    Assistant Professor, Department of History
    University of North Carolina

    • Holy Minded: Evangelicals & the Problem of Anti-Intellectualism
  10. Nov. 4, 2013

    Dr. Molly Worthen
    Assistant Professor, Department of History
    University of North Carolina

    • Culture War & the Continental Divide: Rival Evangelicalisms in North American Political Life
  11. Nov. 20, 2012

    Former MP Bill Blaikie
    Director, Knowles-Woodsworth Centre for Theology and Public Policy
    University of Winnipeg

    • The Left-Hand of God: Why There will Always be a Religious Left in Canadian Politics
  12. Nov. 19, 2012

    Former MP Bill Blaikie
    Director, Knowles-Woodsworth Centre for Theology and Public Policy
    University of Winnipeg

    • Faith & Politics: Reflections on the Roots of Canada’s Current Parliament

    Download »

    Watch on YouTube »

  13. March 13, 2012

    Dr. Ramez Boutros
    University of Toronto

    • Early women's Monasticism in Egypt

    Download »

  14. March 12, 2012

    Dr. Ramez Boutros
    University of Toronto

    • The Flight of the Holy Family into Egypt: Literary & Archaeological Sources

    Watch on YouTube »

  15. Feb. 7, 2011

    Dr. Douglas H. Shantz
    PhD, Professor of Christian Thought, University of Calgary

    • The Church & the Academy: What an Historian of Christianity Can Offer the Church of Today

    Download »

  16. Feb. 7, 2011

    Dr. Roy Darcus

    • Response of Dr. Roy Darcus to Prof. Douglas Shantz’s Lecture, The Church and the Academy

    Download »

  17. Nov. 3, 2009

    Professor Doris Bergen
    Chancellor Rose and Ray Wolfe Chair in Holocaust Studies, University of Toronto

    • Christian Churches in the Third Reich
  18. Nov. 3, 2009

    Dr. Kyle T. Jantzen
    Ambrose University College

    • The Sword of the Lord: Hitler's Chaplains
  19. Feb. 3, 2009

    Dr. Otto Selles
    Professor French, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI

    • Tolerance and "Fanaticism": The Huguenot Sect of the Multipliers (Montpellier, France, 1720-1723)
  20. Feb. 2, 2009

    Dr. Otto Selles
    Professor French, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI

    • Tolerance: Vice or Virtue?
  21. Sept. 21, 2007

    Dr. Errol P. Mendes
    Professor of Law, University of Ottawa
    Response:
    Professor Gregory A. Daneke

    Chair of Business Ethics, University of Calgary

    • The Moral Argument against the Business Case for Corporate Social Responsibility: A Call for a New Moral and Spiritual Approach

    Download »

  22. Sept. 20, 2007

    Dr. Errol P. Mendes
    Professor of Law, University of Ottawa

    • The Moral Argument for Corporate Social Responsibility: A Call for a New Moral and Spiritual Approach

    Download »

  23. Sept. 20, 2007

    John B. McWilliams, QC,
    Former Senior Vice-President, General Counsel of Nexen Inc.

    • Making a Difference Without Succumbing to Temptation: One Corporate Experience
  24. Jan. 30, 2007

    Dr. Ian Markham
    Professor of Theology and Ethics, Hartford Seminary, Hartford CT

    • Neither Conservative nor Liberal: A Theology of Christian Engagement with Non-Christian Traditions

    Download »

  25. Jan. 29, 2007

    Dr. Ian Markham
    Professor of Theology and Ethics, Hartford Seminary, Hartford CT

    • Open Orthodoxy and Same-Sex Marriage: Where Should Christians Stand?

    Download »

  26. March 6, 2006

    Dr. Douglas H. Shantz
    PhD, Professor of Christian Thought, University of Calgary

    • What Are They Saying about Conversion? New Insights, Many Models

    Download »

    Watch on YouTube »

  27. Nov. 5, 2002

    Dr. Margaret Miles Dillenberger
    Professor of Historical Theology, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California

    • Religious Studies in a Religiously Plural Society

    Download »

  28. Nov. 4, 2002

    Dr. Margaret Miles Dillenberger
    Professor of Historical Theology, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California

    • The Flesh Made Word: Augustine and the Christian Body
  29. Sept. 25, 2001

    Margaret Somerville
    Founding Director of the McGill University Center for Medicine, Ethics and Law

    • Searching for Ethics in Science and Medicine: The Challenge in a Secular Society
  30. Feb. 6-7, 2001

    Father Hugh Feiss OSB
    Monastery of the Ascension, Idaho

    • Contemplation: What It is and Why We Need It

Cecil Swanson (“Swanny”) was born in 1889 in London, England. He was educated in local council schools, proceeding to public school on a scholarship funded by the London County Council on its Scotch whisky tax. He remembered the discipline as well as the excellent education. He was involved in the church from an early age, belonging to choir and Bible class. Thus it was that, just after failing to win a Cambridge scholarship, he was at church when a visiting clergyman from Saskatchewan appealed for volunteers to work in western Canada. Swanny and seven other young men embarked for Toronto in 1908 where he enrolled in the university, and graduated in eastern languages with an emphasis on Hebrew. He then attended Wycliffe College for theological studies and graduated in 1913. He was introduced to western Canada during his time at Wycliffe by going to Saskatchewan to gain experience in missions. Swanny was ordained deacon in December of 1912 and during the first half of 1913 graduated from Wycliffe, married Enid Schnieder, visited England, and moved to the Yukon to begin his ministry.

Swanny's first charge was to establish a mission at Little Salmon. His rectory was a tent, soon replaced by a log cabin, complete with turf roof. That first year he built a log church, ministering largely to Indigenous peoples of the area (likely the Northern Tutchone people of the Little Salmon/Carmacks First Nation), dog sledding, making and using fishing nets, hunting and living off the land with his wife in the frigid temperatures of the north. He was made Rector of Whitehorse in 1914. In 1918 he went to Victoria, where he became vicar of Metchosin. Swanny and Enid had two children by this time so they did some small-scale farming in order to help provide for their family. The family stayed there until 1920, during which time he instigated the building of the present Victoria Cathedral. In 1920 he was called to Christ Church, Vancouver (later to become the Cathedral). In 1922 was relocated to St. Augustine's Church in Lethbridge. Swanny spent the next ten years ministering to his own congregation as well as to several mission churches throughout southern Alberta. In 1932 he was called to St. Stephen's Church in Calgary, where he remained until he was relocated once again to Christ Church Cathedral in Vancouver in 1940 as the dean. It was a busy time for the cathedral and for Swanson, especially after the events of Pearl Harbour in December 1941. People flocked to church; congregations of 1000 were commonplace, with up to ten weddings per Saturday, and evening services were broadcast.

In 1953 Swanny was called to St. Paul's, Bloor St. in Toronto. Before taking up the position he was given a memorable gift by the congregation in Vancouver – a trip to England which included attendance at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth. Swanny returned to Toronto to take up what would be his final charge before retirement. In 1954 Swanny was elected bishop of the Cariboo but declined the honour, considering himself insufficiently holy.

Swanny was a member of General Synod, the parliament of the Anglican Church of Canada from 1920, and was made a member of the Order of Canada in 1978. He was chairman of the house of clergy and laity from 1953 – 1960. In 1960, at the age of 70, he retired to Calgary and was, until the time of his death, honorary associate priest at Christ Church Elbow Park. Swanny was known to many and was widely admired and loved. His aim was to preach God's love, a love which he was able to show in all circumstances. He fostered tolerance and understanding between people of different walks of life and religious beliefs. He was a very early ecumenist and lost no chance to bring different denominations of the Christian Church together. One of his most endearing beliefs was that one did not have to be solemn in church 100% of the time, and he never lost sight of the basic simplicity of all church forms and teachings. He passed away in 1984.

It is a privilege to hold an annual lecture on Christian Spirituality in the name of Archdeacon Cecil “Swanny” Swanson.

- Biographical information compiled by Betty Craigie

  1. Dec. 5, 2020

    Dr. Bernard McGinn
    Naomi Shenstone Donnelley Professor Emeritus of Historical Theology and of the History of Christianity
    Divinity School, University of Chicago

    • What is Mysticism? An Afternoon with Dr. Bernard McGinn

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  2. Dec. 4, 2020

    Dr. Bernard McGinn
    Naomi Shenstone Donnelley Professor Emeritus of Historical Theology and of the History of Christianity
    Divinity School, University of Chicago

    • The Compassion of the Mystics

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  3. Dec. 2, 2020

    Dr. Bernard McGinn
    Naomi Shenstone Donnelley Professor Emeritus of Historical Theology and of the History of Christianity
    Divinity School, University of Chicago

    • Perspectives on Prayer from Meister Eckhart and Julian of Norwich

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  4. March 7, 2016

    Dr. Douglas H. Shantz
    PhD, Professor of Christian Thought, University of Calgary

    • How Should We Study and Teach Religion? Some Reflections after 33 Years

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  5. March 7, 2016

    Tinu Ruparell
    PhD, Head, Department of Classics and Religion
    University of Calgary

    • How to Teach Religion: A Response to Prof. Douglas Shantz’ Swanson Lecture in  Christian Spirituality

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  6. Nov. 4, 2014

    Rev. Raymond C. Aldred
    Assistant Professor of Theology
    Ambrose University, Calgary

    • A Communal Theology of Holistic Engagement with Creation
       
  7. Nov. 3, 2014

    Rev. Raymond C. Aldred
    Assistant Professor of Theology
    Ambrose University, Calgary

    • Stories From the Edge: Aboriginal Insights in an Uncertain World
       
  8. March 11, 2014

    Dr. Hartmut Lehmann
    Professor of Modern History, University of Kiel

    • 2017 - Germany’s Quincentenary Celebration of the Reformation in an Age of Religious Pluralism and  Secularization
  9. March 10, 2014

    Dr. Hartmut Lehmann
    University of Kiel

    Dr. Douglas H. Shantz
    University of Calgary

    • A Panel on Presenting German Pietism to a North American Audience
  10. March 5, 2013

    Professor Heather Coleman
    Canada Research Chair in Imperial Russian History
    Department of History & Classics, University of Alberta

    • Studying Russian Religion since the Collapse of Communism
  11. March 4, 2013

    Professor Heather Coleman
    Canada Research Chair in Imperial Russian History
    Department of History & Classics, University of Alberta

    • Religious Freedom in Russia Today
  12. Oct. 18, 2011

    Peter C. Erb
    Professor Emeritus of Religion, WLU

    • John Henry Newman’s The Idea of a University and its continuing Relevance
  13. Oct. 17, 2011

    Peter C. Erb
    Professor Emeritus of Religion, WLU

    • John Henry Newman’s Conversion and Path to Sainthood
  14. Nov. 8, 2010

    Dr. Mark T. Mealey
    PhD, University of Toronto

    • John Wesley's Challenge & Response to Modernity
  15. Oct. 6, 2009

    Rev. John Vissers, PhD
    Principal, The Presbyterian College, Montreal, and Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Religious Studies, McGill University

    • Calvin & Canadian Protestantism: The Thought & Influence of W.W. Bryden

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  16. Oct. 5, 2009

    Rev. John Vissers, PhD
    Principal, The Presbyterian College, Montreal, and Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Religious Studies, McGill University

    • Life with God: The Spiritual Theology of John Calvin

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  17. Nov. 17, 2008

    Rev. Cynthia Bourgeault, Ph.D.
    Director of the Aspen Wisdom School

    • Encountering the Wisdom Jesus
    • The Wisdom Jesus encounters the Jesus Seminar
  18. Oct. 29, 2007

    Dr. Douglas H. Shantz
    University of Calgary

    • What Evangelicals Should Know about Martin Luther: How Evangelicalism Departed from its Reformation Roots

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  19. Oct. 29, 2007

    Dr. Mark T. Mealey
    Rocky Mountain College, Calgary, AB

    • Response to Douglas Shantz

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  20. Oct. 29, 2007

    Dr. Paul Knudtson
    Rocky Mountain College, Calgary, AB

    • Response to Douglas Shantz

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  21. Sept. 26, 2006

    Professor Charles L. Quarles
    Associate Professor of Religion, Louisiana College, Pineville, Louisiana

    • How Useful are the Lost Gospels for Historical Jesus Research?

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  22. Sept. 25, 2006

    Professor David Bershad
    University of Calgary

    Professor Michael Duggan
    St. Mary’s University College

    Professor Anne Moore
    University of Calgary

    • The DaVinci Code: The Movie, the Book

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  23. Nov. 15, 2005

    Dr. Bonnie Thurston
    Former Professor of New Testament, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary

    • Zeal for the Glory of the One God: Thomas Merton and Islam
  24. Nov. 14, 2005

    Dr. Bonnie Thurston
    Former Professor of New Testament, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary

    • I woke up': Thomas Merton and Buddhism

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  25. Oct. 28, 2003

    Dr. Susan Felch
    Professor of English, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI

    • Noble Gentlewomen Famous for their Learning. The Public Roles of Women in Elizabethan England

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  26. Oct. 27, 2003

    Dr. Susan Felch
    Professor of English, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI

    • Naming the Animals: Genesis Two as a Prototype for the Project of Christian Scholarship

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  27. Sept. 30, 2003

    Dr. Dennis Martin
    Associate Professor of Historical Theology, Loyola University, Chicago, Illinois

    • Having Faith in History: Critical Empathy in Understanding Medieval Devotion to Christ

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  28. Sept. 29, 2003

    Dr. Dennis Martin
    Associate Professor of Historical Theology, Loyola University, Chicago, Illinois

    • Doing What Comes Naturally: Pope John Paul II on Sacrificial Love in Politics, Economics and World Conflict
  29. March 3, 2003

    Dr. Douglas H. Shantz
    Associate Professor of Christian Thought, University of Calgary

    • A Church Ahead of its Time: The 18th Century Moravian Community on Gender, Worship and Ecumenism

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  30. Nov. 26-27, 2001

    Paul Knitter
    Professor at Xavier University, Cincinnati, Ohio

    • Where are we with Inter-Faith Dialogue?
  31. Sept. 22, 2001

    Dr. Michael W. Higgins
    Professor of Religious Studies and English, St. Jerome’s University, Waterloo, Ontario

    • The Tower of Babel and the Silent-Speaking Poet
  32. March 17, 2001

    Wayne McCready
    Professor of Religious Studies, University of Calgary

    • The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Origins of Christianity
  33. Sept. 21-24, 2000

    Michael Higgins
    Professor and President at St. Jerome’s University, Waterloo, Ontario

    • Insights on the Spiritual Journey: A Public Symposium focussed on the Life and Writings of Thomas Merton
  34. Sept. 21-24, 2000

    Lynn Szabo
    Sessional Instructor, Trinity Western University, Langley, B.C.

    • The Seven Storeys of Thomas Merton’s Mountain: Spiritual Mappings for the Twenty-first Century
  1. Feb. 9, 2013

    Dr. Pieternella Van Doorn-Harder

    • Sixth Annual Coptic Studies Symposium: Coptic Heritage: Traditions & Transitions
  2. Oct. 1, 2005

    Preston Manning
    President and CEO of the newly formed Manning Centre for Building Democracy

    • Address by Preston Manning at The 20th Anniversary Dinner for the Chair of Christian Thought

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  3. Sept. 20, 2005

    Denis Renevey
    Chair of Medieval English Literature, University of Lausanne

    • Mystical Feeling in Late Medieval England: An Assessment of the Textual Evidence

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  4. Sept. 19, 2005

    Denis Renevey
    Chair of Medieval English Literature, University of Lausanne

    • Devotion to the Name of Jesus in Medieval England

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  5. June 8, 2005

    Rev. Dr. Setri Nyomi
    General Secretary, The World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC)

    Respondents:
    Dr. Mark Durieux, Dr. Anne Moore, Rev. Leslie Walker

    • Interreligious Dialogue in a Global Setting: An African Perspective on the Future of Christianity

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  6. April 9, 2005

    Charles Nienkirchen
    Professor of Christian History and Spirituality, Nazarene University College, Calgary

    • Spiritual Direction in Ancient and Ecumenical Perspective: Discovering Possibilities for Contemporary Spiritual Growth
  7. March 8, 2005

    Prof. Reginald Bibby
    Department of Sociology, University of Lethbridge, Alberta

    • Restless Gods: The Problem with Posing a Renaissance
  8. March 7, 2005

    Prof. Reginald Bibby
    Department of Sociology, University of Lethbridge, Alberta

    • The Renaissance of Religion in Canada: Recuperative Powers of Canadian Religious Groups
  9. Feb. 1, 2005

    Arlette Zinck
    Associate Professor, Department of English, King’s University College, Edmonton

    John Sneep
    Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, The King’s University College, Edmonton

    • Learning to Read Salvation: Psychological & Spiritual Change in Bunyan’s Grace Abounding and The Pilgrim’s Progress

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  10. Jan. 31, 2005

    Arlette Zinck
    Associate Professor, Department of English, King’s University College, Edmonton

    • Of Holy Men & Holy Wars: John Bunyan reads Bush and Bin Laden

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  11. Nov. 2, 2004

    Craig A. Evans
    Payzant Distinguished Professor New Testament

    • Messianic Hopes & Messianic Figures in Late Antiquity

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  12. Nov. 1, 2004

    Craig A. Evans
    Payzant Distinguished Professor New Testament

    • What Are They Saying About the Historical Jesus

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  13. Sept. 28, 2004

    Wesley A. Kort
    Professor of Religion, Duke University
    Durham, North Carolina

    • Conrad's London and the Future of Sacred Space
  14. Sept. 27, 2004

    Wesley A. Kort
    Professor of Religion, Duke University
    Durham, North Carolina

    • C.S. Lewis and the Anatomy of Pleasure

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  15. May 17, 2004

    Brian Keating
    Head, Conservation Outreach, Calgary Zoological Society

    Tinu Ruparell
    Assistant Professor, Religious Studies, University of Calgary

    Elaine Park
    Professor, English, St. Mary's College

    • Evening Discussion of The Life of Pi by Yann Martel
  16. March 9, 2004

    Douglas John Hall
    Emeritus Professor of Christian Theology, McGill University

    • Rediscovering Dietrich Bonhoeffer Bonhoeffer's Ethic of the Cross

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  17. March 8, 2004

    Douglas John Hall
    Emeritus Professor of Christian Theology, McGill University

    • Between Fundamentalism and Liberalism: Karl Barth on the Bible

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  18. Feb. 3, 2004

    Rudy Wiebe
    Award-winning Canadian novelist
    Edmonton, AB

    • "The Archaeology of a Novel." The Blue Mountains of China as Site
  19. Feb. 2, 2004

    Rudy Wiebe
    Award-winning Canadian novelist
    Edmonton, AB

    • Climbing Mountains that do Not Yet Exist. The Fiction Writer at Work
  20. Nov. 10, 1999

    Dr. Douglas H. Shantz
    Associate Professor of Christian Thought
    University of Calgary

    • Longing for the Millennium: Christian End-time Expectations and Historical Explanation
  21. Sept. 21, 1999

    Dr. James R. Payton
    Professor of History
    Redeemer College

    • Eastern Orthodoxy: Hellenized Christianity? Christianity and Culture in the Orthodox Paradigm
  22. Sept. 20, 1999

    Dr. James R. Payton
    Professor of History
    Redeemer College

    • Dialogue with Eastern Orthodoxy: What Western Christians Can Learn from the Orthodox