summer Regent will Come for This host many excellent spring summer courses. In our the Classes and previous edition, we drew your attention to two of the artistic offerings on the summer docket. In this issue, we would like to draw your attention in three different directions: capitalism, humanity, and preaching.
Summer School
Paul Williams Christianity and the Political Economy of Capitalism From June 30-July 11, Paul Williams (MA, MSc, Oxford, MCS, Regent College) will use his knowledge of the marketplace to facilitate the thoughtful engagement of gospel and culture, focusing on the prominent place of capitalism in the West. In his course, titled Christianity and the Political Economy of Capitalism, Williams acknowledges the compelling nature of capitalism and “its offer of individual freedom and societal progress to secure our allegiance to its version of the market.” In light of the seductive nature of capitalism, Williams will seek to illuminate some of the ways in which it functions as an ideology, and is idolatrous. He states that his main concern in this course is, “to help students see and understand the way that capitalism functions in our culture, not simply as an economic system but as an ideology that has set itself up in opposition to Christianity.” When asked about capitalism-as-ideology, he stated, “As with any ideology or religious idolatry, we offer up sacrifices.” Homelessness, for example, is an undesirable but necessary side effect of a well-functioning market. The ideology of capitalism presents Christians with a challenge. Williams queries, “What would it look like if Christians filled the market system with a completely different vision of ethical society? What would it look like if the gathered church embodied a different vision for society?”
Julie Canlis The Relational Self: Reformation Insights on What it Means to be Human From July 28-August 1, Julie Canlis (BA, University of Washington, MCS, Regent College, PhD, St. Andrews) will share her expertise in theological anthropology—the study of what it means to be human. Canlis states that while a student at Regent, she “came across the theology of Irenaeus who said the most shocking thing: ‘the glory of God is a human fully alive.’”
Unfortunately, more often than not it seems that being human and being Christian are set in opposition to each other. We expect to empty ourselves of all that is unique in order to be filled by the Spirit of the one true God. It is this confusion of identity that Canlis addresses in her course, The Relational Self: Reformation Insights on What it Means to be Human. Her excitement for this course comes from deep personal experience. She weathered her own ‘dark night of the soul,’ while attending Regent fifteen years ago, and has also witnessed several friends undergo the “disintegration between their perceptions of themselves and the Christianity they believed [they] should imitate.” She states: “spiritual formation needs to be attentive to its namesake—the Spirit—who enables us to participate in God while also remaining (and becoming) truly ourselves. Yet so often, the Christian path of repentance and self-emptying is seen as the necessary abandonment of our particularity and uniqueness.” In contrast, Canlis will explore the “intimate connection between understanding God as triune, and ourselves as human.”
Philip Ryken Preaching the Old Testament Narrative From July 14-25, Philip Ryken (BA, Wheaton, MDiv, Westminster Theological Seminary, DPhil, Oxford) will teach Preaching the Old Testament Narrative. As a child, Ryken came to Vancouver with his father, Leland Ryken, professor of English at Wheaton College, who taught summer courses at Regent. He eagerly anticipates sharing with his own children the same “beauty of Vancouver and its surroundings, the fellowship of the campus community, [and] the opportunities to worship in local churches,” which he experienced as a child. Ryken’s life calling is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. Within this calling, he has focused particularly on “preaching Christ from the Old as well as the New Testament,” and has paid special attention to “seeing Christ in the stories and structures of the old covenant.” Because of this commitment to preaching the Old Testament narrative, Ryken has “had the joy of preaching consecutively through two of the longest books in the Old Testament: Exodus and Jeremiah, as well as preaching the stories of Ruth, Solomon, Elijah, and Elisha.” Ryken states: “The Old Testament tends to be overlooked in many churches today, and even when it is taught and preached, pastors tend to emphasize its moral examples, the preaching of the law, rather than its gospel principles, the preaching of Christ.” As Ryken anticipates teaching this summer, he hopes that “students…will gain a renewed appreciation for the Old Testament in the life of the church, with greater insight into the person and work of Jesus Christ, and greater confidence for teaching and preaching the Old Testament.”
correction to summer school brochure
The Regent College Spring and Summer School Brochure lists the course Till We Have Faces: Drawing the Portrait as requiring a $400 fee for materials. Please note that this amount is incorrect. The course requires approximately $100 for materials. We hope this will make the course more viable for you. Thank you. 6