Critical Faith

Congratulations! You've reached the final installment in our miniseries on Reformational philosophy with  Bob Sweetman  and  Gideon Strauss !  Bob and Gideon have covered a lot of territory in the past number of weeks--from the influence of Abraham Kuyper on Dooyeweerd and Vollenhoven, to the broader historical and philosophical context in which Reformational philosophy first developed. This week,...

Here at ICS, we're starting a summer online learning initiative, which means we have a number of exciting new courses in the works for the next few months. So we wanted to give you a sneak peek at these courses with the folks involved in making them happen.  This week, we invited Héctor Acero Ferrer to chat with Dr. Ronald A. Kuipers and Dr. Andrew Tebbutt about their newly redesigned course Evil,...

We're nearing the end of our miniseries on Reformational philosophy with  Bob Sweetman  and  Gideon Strauss , and this week we take a turn to a fundamental philosophical topic: ontology. In this episode, Bob explains what ontology is, how Reformational philosophy's complex-and-integral approach compares to some of its theoretical contemporaries, and provides examples of how this ontology frames hu...

Have you been wondering how Mark and Danielle can possibly have been keeping themselves busy during these weeks of quarantine? Looking for some new ideas for ways to keep yourself busy? A couple weeks ago, as Toronto entered the first stages of enforcing social distancing, Mark and Danielle tried their hands at recording a Critical Faith episode remotely for the first time. This is the result. Hav...

We managed to get a couple more episodes of our miniseries on Reformational philosophy with  Bob Sweetman  and  Gideon Strauss  recorded a few weeks before the pandemic hit. So this week, we present you with episode three!  Last time, Bob explained the significance of Kuyper's idea of "sphere sovereignty" to how Herman Dooyeweerd then went on to develop it into a critique of power dynamics. This w...

Welcome to week two of our miniseries on Reformational philosophy with  Bob Sweetman  and  Gideon Strauss ! After last week's introduction to Abraham Kuyper's role in the backstory of Reformational philosophy, today we have two goals. First we'll look at Kuyper's idea of "sphere sovereignty." Then we'll consider how the key Reformational figure of Herman Dooyeweerd begins to develop Kuyper's idea...

Have you ever wondered what this Reformational philosophy thing is that folks at ICS constantly talk about? For the next few weeks, Bob Sweetman , with the help of Gideon Strauss , will be giving us a crash course on how Reformational philosophy came to be, what it says, and how it is relevant today. This week, Bob gives us some of the backstory to how Reformational philosophy first developed. To...

How might Christians build truly welcoming spaces? Every semester, the CPRSE hosts a Scripture, Faith, and Scholarship symposium where we invite scholars and reflective practitioners to share with the ICS community how their faith, research, and practice inform each other. This past January, Dr. Matthew Kaemingk  (Fuller Seminary, Texas) spoke at this symposium after receiving Redeemer University’...

What does faith have to do with the arts? This summer, Senior Member Rebekah Smick will be leading our  ART in Orvieto program in Orvieto, Italy. So she joined us in the studio to give a glimpse into the program and talk about the role of the image in historic Christian traditions.  If you're an artist, writer, student, or simply interested in the relationship of faith and the arts, visit our webs...

Ron, Héctor, Theoren, and Danielle have recovered from both the holiday break and the beginning of the new semester and are back in the Critical Faith studio to reflect on last semester's discussions of evil, resistance, and judgment. Have a listen to hear about some highlights and favourite moments! As mentioned in this episode,  Ron Kuipers  and The King's University's  Jeff Dudiak  will be join...

Is Christian social activism possible? This week, in our final episode on the themes of evil, resistance, and judgment, we're joined by Tyler Wigg-Stevenson. Tyler is the founder of the Two Futures Project for the abolition of nuclear weapons, author of  The World is Not Ours to Save  (InterVarsity Press, 2013), and the current Scholar-in-Residence at Little Trinity Anglican Church here in Toronto...

How do we enact justice on the ground?  This week, we're joined by Rev. Thyra VanKeeken, who currently serves as the pastor of First Christian Reformed Church in Toronto and has also worked extensively with various CRC initiatives such as the  Office of Social Justice and the Centre for Public Dialogue in Ottawa. In our ongoing conversation around the themes of evil, resistance, and judgment, Thyr...

How can we cultivate compassion? This week, we're joined by Critical Faith superfan  Aron Reppmann . Aron teaches philosophy at Trinity Christian College near Chicago and currently chairs the ICS Senate. In this episode, Aron shares with us some advice from Augustine on how to cultivate hilaritas as an educator and a learner. Critical Faith is sponsored by the Centre for Philosophy, Religion, and...

How can we learn to really listen to youth? This week, we're joined by Eric Farr who works with youth in the Baha'i community and is currently researching the dynamics of youth empowerment and engagement in communities at the University of Toronto. Eric's research raises questions about what it means to actually build up youth in the context of religious and community life and how such empowerment...

How can we resist the pressure to treat people like they're just statistics? This week, recent ICS graduate Kiegan Irish joins us to talk about his transition from graduate studies in philosophy to his work at The Working Centre in Kitchener, a community project focused on creating an environment of support and opportunity for those pushed to the margins of society. In this episode, Kiegan conside...

What does forgiveness make possible? This week, ICS alum and University of Toronto PhD candidate Andrew Tebbutt joins us to explain a bit about his PhD research on the idea of forgiveness in Hegel's philosophy of religion. In particular, he explores how forgiveness calls us to take account of each other's finite character, and opens us up to other possible ways of discernment. Critical Faith is sp...

Can fashion make a difference to the world? This week, ICS PhD student and resident avid knitter Julia de Boer shares some of her personal experiences and reflections on the importance of slow fashion as a mode of resistance. In this episode, she describes some of the far-reaching ecological and political effects of our fashion choices and considers how slow fashion offers a tangible way to live j...

How do you reconcile irreconcilable differences? Last week, ICS Academic Dean Gideon Strauss  joined us to share a bit about his own experiences in both apartheid and post-apartheid South African politics. This week, we're sharing with you the second half of this interview, in which Gideon reflects on the time he spent with South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Critical Faith is spon...

What do you do when the authority or government under which you live is evil? This week, our new Critical Faith co-host Theoren Tolsma helped us welcome returning guest and ICS Academic Dean Gideon Strauss  back to the podcasting studio. Gideon makes regular pilgrimages back to his home country of South Africa every summer, and is greatly invested in the ongoing politics in the region. So we asked...

Why talk about evil, resistance, and judgment? This week, we welcome ICS President and resident Hannah Arendt expert Ronald A. Kuipers back to the podcast. He shares with us some background on the inspiration for the themes of our podcast this semester, and discusses the insights and the hope Arendt has offered his own scholarship and might continue to offer public discourse today. Critical Faith...

We're excited for the start of a new school year and the renewed energy that new Junior Members bring. To welcome these JMs to their ICS home, we asked some of them to share a bit about themselves, their academic backgrounds, what brought them to ICS, and the burning questions they bring with them. So we were joined in the podcast studio by Theoren Tolsma, Abbi Hofstede, and June Moon, and we're p...

Critical Faith is back for Season 3! In the spirit of Hannah Arendt, our episodes this semester will be centered on the themes of evil, resistance, and judgment. To warm ourselves back up to the podcasting rhythm, Mark, Danielle, Hector, and Grace got together to have an impromptu conversation about these themes as a kind of pre-introduction introduction to some questions that the themes raise for...

We're gettin' sentimental on this episode of Critical Faith--our last for the 2018-2019 school year. ...In which Gideon joins us back in the studio to look back fondly over the past year's episodes and add his own contributions to our series on worldview questions. ...In which Mark considers the ongoing influence of generations at ICS and expresses his appreciation of interdisciplinarity. ...And i...

How do we strike a balance between suspending judgments and making them? This week, we're joined by Rebekah Smick , ICS Senior Member in Philosophy of Arts and Culture. In this episode, Rebekah gives us a brief look at some of the many research, writing, and teaching projects she is currently pursuing that all raise questions about the various roles of images in our thought and spiritual lives. Sh...

Are we certain things can be certain? This week, we're joined by Ted Avram, ICS MA student and newly conferred Reverend Minor in the Jesuit Order. In this episode, Ted takes us along on his far-ranging journey across religious traditions, academic disciplines, and international borders that led him to ICS today. Intent on keeping "a foot in both worlds" in his research, he also considers the stake...