Personal Memories of God-given Opportunities 1959-1972 at Trinity Christian College in Chicagoland USA

Calvin G. Seerveld & Inès Seerveld, 2018

Find it on: Tuppence

Various speeches made at Trinity home-comings in the 1990s with reflections on the early years of Trinity's special place for philosophy in the curriculum. Mention of the Seerveld Art Gallery and "Art in Society" project, concluded by a meditation on Psalm 71.

Never Try to Arouse Erotic Love Until...

Calvin G. Seerveld, 2018

Find it on: Dordt University Press (or to Canadian personal addresses via Tuppence by special arrangement)

A companion study book to Cal's earlier translation of the Old Testament Biblical Song of Songs, The Greatest Song, in critique of Solomon. This book contains provocative questions for discussion, reflection on friendship, and comment on redeeming spoiled love.

Faith & Settlement Partnerships Case Study Resources

The results of a long-term SSHRC-funded case study conducted by the CPRSE in partnership with the Centre for Community Based Research, World Renew, the Peel Newcomer Strategy Group, and other organizations have been published. The study was conducted in and around the GTA: in Toronto, Peel, the Waterloo region, and London. Its intent was to explore existing partnerships between faith-based and government-funded settlement organizations in Ontario. The study's results have been made available in a number of formats:

1) Resource Packet (including Facilitator's Guide and webinar)
2) Peel Case Study Report
3) World Renew Case Study Report

In particular, the CPRSE's involvement in co-authoring the Facilitator's Guide and co-conducting the webinar on the use of this Guide are both products of this study that are worthy of note. Since a major outcome of this study was to highlight strategies and practices these settlement organizations employed, and to consider both their impact and potential moving forward, these resources in particular are intended to be shared widely among community leaders (both faith-based and public) and to enable community discussions and shape best practices.

The Facilitator's Guide, the webinar, the full case reports, and other resources are all available via the links in the image above.

ICS and King's to Offer Joint Workshop and Intensive Seminar on Paul

This May, ICS and The King's University will take an historic step in acting on their affiliation!

Both institutions will be offering their first joint course available to be taken for credit by both graduate and undergraduate students. ICS President and Senior Member Ronald A. Kuipers and King's professor of philosophy and ICS alumnus Jeffrey Dudiak will co-lead the seminar and workshop, which will occur on-site in Toronto over the course of the week of May 23-31, 2019.

The course is titled "To the Unknown God": Paul and Some Philosophers, and will consist of two parts: participation in this year's ICS Undergraduate Workshop—a presentation-based workshop driven by close interaction with contributing students' research—and a week-long intensive seminar. Students have the option of either applying to the workshop apart from participation in the seminar, or enrolling in the seminar, which includes participation in the workshop.

The workshop will allow undergraduate and graduate students to experience firsthand the kind of deep and careful attention to their ideas that is characteristic of both an ICS and King's approach to education. The intensive seminar around the current use of the thought of Paul in the realm of social and political philosophy will, in turn, allow them to engage deeply with current trends in the field and to make live connections to their own work, interests, and concerns.

We eagerly anticipate making this joint opportunity a reality for both institutions in the coming months. If you or anyone you know would be interested in participating in the seminar, the workshop, or both, please contact our Registrar at academic-registrar@icscanada.edu.

Truth in Husserl, Heidegger, and the Frankfurt School: Critical Retrieval

Truth in Husserl, Heidegger, and the Frankfurt School: Critical Retrieval. Lambert Zuidervaart. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2017.

Available at: MIT Press.

An innovative, ambitious, tradition-crossing study drawing on the work of Husserl, Heidegger, Horkheimer, Adorno, and Habermas to propose a new and transformative concept of truth.

Publisher's Overview:

The idea of truth is a guiding theme for German continental philosophers from Husserl through Habermas. In this book, Lambert Zuidervaart examines debates surrounding the idea of truth in twentieth-century German continental philosophy. He argues that the Heideggerian and critical theory traditions have much in common—despite the miscommunication, opposition, and even outright hostility that have prevailed between them—including significant roots in the phenomenology of Edmund Husserl. Zuidervaart sees the tensions between Heideggerian thought and critical theory as potentially generative sources for a new approach to the idea of truth. He argues further that the “critical retrieval” of insights from German continental philosophy can shed light on current debates in analytic truth theory.

Zuidervaart structures his account around three issues: the distinction between propositional truth and truth that is more than propositional (which he calls existential truth); the relationship between propositional truth and the discursive justification of propositional truth claims, framed in analytic philosophy by debates between epistemic and nonepistemic conceptions of truth; and the relationship between propositional truth and the objectivity of knowledge, often presented in analytic philosophy as a conflict between realists and antirealists over the relation between “truth bearers” and “truth makers.” In an innovative and ambitious argument, drawing on the work of Husserl, Heidegger, Horkheimer, Adorno, and Habermas, Zuidervaart proposes a new and transformative conception of truth.

Art, Education, and Cultural Renewal: Essays in Reformational Philosophy

Art, Education, and Cultural Renewal: Essays in Reformational Philosophy. Lambert Zuidervaart. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2017. 

Available at: McGill-Queen's University Press.

A call for solidarity and renewal in the arts and the academy.

Publisher's Overview: 

What good is art? What is the point of a university education? Can philosophers contribute anything to social liberation? Such questions, both ancient and urgent, are the pulse of reformational philosophy. Inspired by the vision of the Dutch religious and political leader Abraham Kuyper, reformational philosophy pursues social transformation for the common good.

In this companion volume to Religion, Truth, and Social Transformation, Lambert Zuidervaart presents a socially engaged philosophy of the arts and higher education. Interacting with the ideas of leading Kuyperian thinkers such as Calvin Seerveld and Nicholas Wolterstorff, Zuidervaart shows why renewal in the arts needs to coincide with political and economic transformation. He also calls for education and research that serve the common good. Deeply rooted in reformational philosophy, his book brings a fresh and inspiring voice to current discussions of religious aesthetics and Christian scholarship.

Art, Education, and Cultural Renewal is a testament to the practical and intellectual richness of a unique religious tradition, compelling in its call for social solidarity and cultural critique.