The Providence Public Lecture Series kicks off tonight at the McNally Robinson bookstore in Winnipeg.  Over the next seven weeks faculty from Providence University College and Theological Seminary will be delivering lectures that aspire to make their scholarly work accessible to a broader audience.  Each presenter will deliver their lecture on a Friday night in Winnipeg and then on the following Tuesday evening in Steinbach at the Cultural Arts Centre.

It looks like an interesting line-up of lectures.  You can view the full slate of speakers and subjects here.

I will be speaking on February 23 in Winnipeg and on February 26 in Steinbach.  My lecture is entitled: “‘It’s the End of the World as We Know It:’ Reclaiming an Eschatological Imagination.”  Here’s my teaser for the talk:

Significant developments in the fields of biblical studies and theology over the past one hundred years have recovered the eschatological character of the gospel. However, these scholarly insights into the centrality of eschatology for Christian faith have yet to permeate the life of the North American church significantly. Hence the eschatological character of the New Testament continues to be ignored by much of the church, and eschatology continues to be seen as the domain of doomsday prophets and prognosticators. Yet neither eschatological ignorance nor apocalyptic speculation adequately equips the church to bear faithful witness to Christ in the time between the times. Nothing less than the recovery of the robust eschatological imagination of the apostles will do.