Introducing ThinkingFaith Network

Introducing Thinking Faith Network and its three strands: LifeMatters, RealityBites and Faith-in-Scholarship - featuring Tom Wright and David Hanson.

ThinkingFaithNetwork (previously WYSOCS): Politics, Power, Protest 14th May Leeds Church Institute

For more details see here.

Kuyper Conference "Religion and Journalism" April 15-16 at Princeton Seminary

The following is the latest from the organisers of the Kuyper Conference:

Still considering registering for next week's Kuyper Conference "Religion and Journalism" April 15-16 at Princeton Seminary? For your reference, please consider the titles and abstracts of this year's full schedule of plenary and concurrent sessions. We would be delighted to welcome you to the Princeton Seminary campus for this year’s programming.

For more information visit http://www.ptsem.edu/library/kuyper/events/ or email kuyper.conference@ptsem.edu.

Warm Regards,

Darrell L. Guder, Interim Conference Director

"Religion and Journalism"

PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY

April 15-16, 2016

THE ABRAHAM KUYPER LECTURE & PRIZE

--- THURSDAY, APRIL 14 ---

7:00 p.m., Miller Chapel

Elaine Storkey, distinguished scholar and journalist from the United Kingdom in the disciplines of sociology, philosophy and theology with past appointments at the University of Oxford and the BBC

PLENARY LECTURES

--- FRIDAY, APRIL 15 ---

9:00 a.m., Conference Plenary I

“The Challenge of Religion as News”

Gustav Niebuhr, director of the Carnegie Religion & Media Program at Syracuse University and career journalist with the New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal

Abstract:  In the United States, religion occupies a contested public space, in which practitioners often perceive themselves as doing battle with hostile forces. Historic religious pluralism complicates this perception while also seeming at times to affirm it.

_______

11:00 a.m., Conference Plenary II

Film Documentary: “The Journalist at Work: Abraham Kuyper and His Trip Around the Mediterranean in 1905 and 1906”

George Harinck, Professor of Neo-Calvinist History at the Free University of Amsterdam and Extraordinary Professor of History at the Theological University of Kampen

Abstract: This excerpt from a newly released documentary film series Around the Old World Sea offers a fascinating exploration of clashing cultures and religions in past and present. The film focuses on the roots of religious, political and social conflict in this region though tracing the steps of Kuyper’s own epic nine-month journey in the early 20^thcentury.

--- SATURDAY, APRIL 16 ---

9:00 a.m., Conference Plenary III

“Journalism and Religion in a Late-Modern Context: A View from the Dutch Neo-Calvinist Tradition”

Koert Van Bekkum, Asst. Professor of Old Testament at the Theological University of Kampen and former editor at Dutch daily newspaper Nederlands Dagblad

Abstract:  Recent debates on journalism focus on the pitfalls and possibilities of new digital platforms, the increasing influence of capital on the selection and presentation of the news and its interpretation, and on civic and constructive journalism as answers to these trends. The lecture offers a sketch of Abraham Kuyper’s view of journalism and the history Christian journalism in the Dutch Neo-Calvinist tradition, and then elaborates on the recent discussions from this perspective.

_______

10:45 a.m., Conference Plenary IV

 “Understanding Religious Art in a Journalistic Context: Definitions Matter”

Alissa Wilkinson, chief film critic at Christianity Today and assistant professor of English and Humanities at The King’s College in New York City

Abstract: The recent discovery of the "faith-based" industry has contributed to a spike in coverage of the religious audience for mass media - and though it's often full of good-will, it's usually under-informed. What would it look like to contribute to the journalistic record regarding culture as a person of faith? What are the challenges and opportunities that face the journalist of faith?

CONCURRENT SESSIONS

--- FRIDAY, APRIL 15 ---

1:30 PM – 2:45 PM         1st Concurrent Session Papers:

Session 1A: 

“Abraham Kuyper and the Refugees: Welcoming Strangers in the Name of Christ”

Michael Bräutigam, University of Melbourne

_______

Session 1B:

“‘In a time of unclarity, there can be no conversion without polemics’: Klaas Schilder’s Argument for the Need of Polemics in Christian Journalism”

Marinus de Jong, TU Kampen

_______

Session 1C:

“The Debate Between Objective Journalism and a Journalism of Attachment: A Neo-Calvinistic Approach”

Nathaniel Sutano, University of Edinburgh

_______

3:15 PM – 4:30 PM         2nd Concurrent Session Papers:

Session 2A:

“The Political Economy of Kuyper’s Newspapers”

Clifford Anderson, Vanderbilt

_______

Session 2B:

“Divine images and political representation: towards an evaluation of the role of the media in post-Christian democracies”

A.L.Th. de Bruijne, TU Kampen

_______

Session 2C:

“Taking Journalism to Seminary: Bavinck on Human Action as Theology”

Cory Brock, University of Edinburgh

_______

4:45 PM – 6:00 PM         3rd Concurrent Session Papers:

Session 3A:

“A republic of letters for the Kingdom of God: Journalism in the service of the Protestant religious imagination, 1800-1830”

Andrew Kloes, University of Edinburgh

_______

Session 3B:

“Islam according to Journalist Abraham Kuyper”

Jan van Vliet, Dordt College 

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Session 3C:

“A Shy Hope in the Heart? Religious Journalism in Australia and the Kuyperian legacy”

Bruce Pass, University of Edinburgh