L’Abri Rochester

Discusses history of psychology, comparing viewpoints and usefulness over against the Word of God.

A look at those in evangelical history who boldly stood up against Racism.

Who Wrote the Bible? The Concept of Authorship in the Old Testament and Ancient Near East Have you ever wondered why so many of the books of the Old Testament appear to be written by 'anonymous'? For example, Samuel died about halfway through the first book named after himself. Surely he did not write 2 Samuel! Did a Moabite peasant girl write the book of Ruth? Did Jonah write an unflattering stor...

(Handout below the Blurb) A Brief History of the Soul   We will look at the idea of the soul from ancient times to the present. Questions will be raised about the effort to banish the soul altogether in the name of contemporary science. A Christian account of soul-body integration will be defended.     Charles Taliaferro Ph. D. MA (Brown) MTS (Harvard) MA (URI) BA (Goddard) Professor Emeritus of P...

Leadership That Solves Problems: Seven Themes from Biblical Characters Christianity is far more than devotional super-spirituality; our proven capacity to shape imperfect leaders who craft solutions to intractable problems is one of our greatest apologetics. Recently, an international team conducted an inductive study of the Bible's worthy leaders and discovered seven themes that marked their prob...

Holding onto our Humanity in the Age of the Machine   It's been said that there is nothing new under the sun, but every era in history certainly has its own flavor. Now that nearly all of us have steady interactions with screens, social media and artificial intelligence, we find ourselves in the middle of a technological revolution that is no less than rewiring our brains. Writers like Paul Kingsn...

Christian Wisdom for the Age of AI     There is not a day that passes without another announcement or news item about AI. We encounter it at our workplaces (where we are often encouraged to adopt it), when we go online and are presented with AI summaries of our searches, and in our schools and universities, where AI-produced work is quickly becoming a real problem. It is all around us, whether we...

  Contemplative Prayer: An evaluation of Centering Prayer   Centering prayer is a contemplative prayer practice developed in the 1970s, drawing on earlier Christian contemplative traditions. Whilst it falls under the broader category of contemplative prayer, it is distinctive for its similarities to certain forms of Eastern meditation. Increasingly popular among some evangelicals, it raises an imp...

(Douglas Groothuis, Ph. D. Syllabus is below)     Pascal's Apologetic     Blaise Pascal is a rich resource on apologetics. We will look at his famous wager argument, along with his argument that Christianity best explains human nature.   Douglas Groothuis is Distinguished Professor of Apologetics at Cornerstone University and the author of over 20 books, including Beyond the Wager: the Christian B...

  L'Abri 101 The Lordship of Christ over ALL of Life   This Summer we are trying something new! We are beginning our Summer series of lectures with a short five-week course on the essentials of L'Abri teaching, what we sometimes refer to as the 'Five Themes of L'Abri'. Each Friday, Greg Jesson and Jock McGregor will co-teach one of these themes. For those of you who have wondered about what makes...

L'Abri 101: The Humanness of Spirituality   (Lecture Syllabus follows the Blurb.) This Summer we are trying something new! We are beginning our Summer series of lectures with a short five-week course on the essentials of L'Abri teaching, what we sometimes refer to as the 'Five Themes of L'Abri'. Each Friday, Greg Jesson and Jock McGregor will co-teach one of these themes. For those of you who have...

(Handout from Greg Jesson follows below)   L'Abri 101: Living in the Shadow of the Fall   This Summer we are trying something new! We are beginning our Summer series of lectures with a short five-week course on the essentials of L'Abri teaching, what we sometimes refer to as the 'Five Themes of L'Abri'. Each Friday, Greg Jesson and Jock McGregor will co-teach one of these themes. For those of you...

(Lecture Syllabus follows the Blurb.)   L'Abri 101: The Reality of the Supernatural   This Summer we are trying something new! We are beginning our Summer series of lectures with a short five-week course on the essentials of L'Abri teaching, what we sometimes refer to as the 'Five Themes of L'Abri'. Each Friday, Greg Jesson and Jock McGregor will co-teach one of these themes. For those of you who...

    L'Abri 101: The Christian Faith as Truth We have a short five-week course on the essentials of L'Abri teaching, what we sometimes refer to as the 'Five Themes of L'Abri'. Each Friday, Greg Jesson and Jock McGregor will co-teach one of these themes. For those of  you who have wondered about what makes L'Abri's teaching distinctive or who want to learn more, this will be a good opportunity. Each...

7641-ScienceAndBiblicalAuthority-HansMadueme from the 2017 Rochester L'Abri Conference - The Power of God to Transform Lives Science and Biblical Authority Assessments and reaction to "The fact is science has been instrumental in shaping the development of Christian doctrine" Also included: An insight as to why we have denominations {I found the mentioned books in Google play, but not free, "Edito...

7640 Christianity in the Public Square by Greg Grooms 2017 Rochester L'Abri Conference - The Power of God to Transform Lives Greg Grooms discusses 5 "gameplans", or sub-worldviews, for how Christians interact with the non-Christian world. (Salt and Light)

  The Transformative Power of Art: Music - Margie Haack  - With Denis Haack, and featuring Karen Choi Interview and Music. Lecture from 2017 L'ABRI Rochester Conference - The Power of God's Word to Transform Cultures https://www.rochesterlabriconferences.org Ransom Fellowship's Karen Choi Blog post https://ransomfellowship.org/article/karen-choi-paper-birch-2012/ Karen Choi Website https://karench...

Transformation of the City: Lessons from Utrecht. - Wim Rietkerk - 2017 Conference Highlights: The Power of God's Word to Transform Cultures The lecture is From the 2017 Rochester L'Abri Conference; the speaker is from Dutch L'Abri In 1971, Wim and Greta helped found the Dutch L’Abri. Since then they have led the work in Holland.

Cultural Transformation: A Proposed Model - Bob Osburn - 2017 Conference Highlights: The Power of God's Word to Transform Cultures   A Senior Fellow with Wilberforce International Institute, which he founded in 2009, Bob Osburn trains international students as redemptive change agents and writes and teaches about international development, comparative worldviews, corruption, education policy, and...

This lecture explains why corruption is so rampant in the international aid sector, tracing much of the problem to faulty diagnoses and remedies rooted in naturalistic and postmodern worldviews. Dr. Bob Osburn, who has worked in international student and academic campus ministry for 40 years and has authored Taming the Beast: Can We Bridle the Culture of Corruption?, recommends a rejection of Chri...

This talk considers the involvement of medical professionals in intentionally lethal acts in several historical and contemporary contexts (beyond abortion or medical experimentation under National Socialism). Contexts include medicalized capital punishment (from 18th C. France to 21st C. Florida); assisted suicide and euthanasia (from Hippocratic proscription to contemporary prescriptions); transp...

Throughout its history, Evangelicalism has neglected to consider the spiritual lives of people with profound intellectual disabilities and how their experiences might contribute to a fuller understanding of what it means to follow Jesus. Both the historic and modern constructions of evangelical discipleship have led to particular ministry strategies and practices that rarely consider the presence...

Postmodernism's Failure to Assuage Your Fears - Greg Jesson - 2017 Conference Highlights: The Power of God's Word to Transform Cultures   Greg Jesson’s long journey from Los Angeles to Iowa took him to Switzerland, where he studied at L’Abri with Francis Schaeffer, to UCLA where he finished his undergraduate degree in philosophy, to USC where he completed an MA in philosophy under Dallas Willard,...

You Say You Want a Reformation: Cultural Engagement or Cultural Resistance? Evaluating the Benedict Option - Mike Sugimoto - 2017 Conference Highlights: The Power of God's Word to Transform Cultures    Mike Sugimoto is Professor of Asian Studies at Pepperdine University with a focus on cinema, sociology and philosophy.

The Transformative Power of Art: Story in Film - Denis Haack - 2017 Conference Highlights: The Power of God's Word to Transform Culture   Denis and Margie Haack co-directed Ransom Fellowship from 1983-2020. They continue a ministry of conversation and listening, as well as writing, no longer in print (Critique & Letters from the House Between), but on their website ( https://www.critique-lette...