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Fall Course

Join us this fall for "Economy, Nature, and Morality," (AUREL 270) taught by Dittmar Mündel with guest lectures by David Goa and  Ronning Centre research fellows. The course is open to students for credit and also to members of the community. It begins on Monday, 9 September and will continue on Monday nights from 6:30 to 9:30 until 2 December. To register as a community participant or for more information, contact Rebecca Warren.
 

In the News

David Goa will teach a course this summer at the Vancouver School of Theology: "Reconciliation: Becoming a New Creation."

 

The Ronning Centre will sponsor a conference this fall: "Spirit of the Land: Building a Community Land Ethic" on 1-2 November at the Augustana Campus in Camrose.

 

David Goa recently published "Working in the Fields of Meaning: Cultural Communities, Museums, and the New Pluralism." For details see our Publications page.

 

Carmelle Mohr, Ronning Centre speaker, will be traveling in Peru for 6 months for Canadian Lutheran World Relief. To read more about her travels, check out her blog at: The Peruvian Square: Reflections on Development.

 

Norman Cornett, Distinguished Visiting Fellow, and the Resilience Symposium at Augustana were mentioned in an article in the Camrose Canadian. A video of the panel discussion (featuring Norman Cornett, David Goa, and Jerome Melancon) that followed the showing of the Bouchard-Taylor film "Liberty, Equality, Accommodation" is available here: http://youtu.be/vROoRRAlqQ4.

 

Ron Nikkel, Distinguished Visiting Fellow and President of Prison Fellowship International, was the subject of an article in the "Lethbridge Herald" on 13 March 2013.

 

David Goa is mentioned in Todd Babiak's Ted Talk "Tell Me a Story" (see time mark 9:50 and following).

 

Lorne Fitch's presentation, "Beyond Fractured Conversation," from the "Responsibility for the Land" conference is available here. You can check the confernece web page for more presentations as they become available.

 

About the Ronning Centre

 

The Chester Ronning Centre for the Study of Religion and Public Life is the first (and only) gathering point in a public university in Canada focusing on a broad range of themes where religion and public life intersect. To the discussion of vital issues that often call forth deeply emotional responses, it seeks to bring original contributions that embody the highest standards of academic scholarship.

While rooted in the academy, our activities relate no less to the public square and the full range of religious communities, bringing the depth and texture of the most varied religious and civil ideas into a hospitable and constructive conversation. Scholars of the Centre are recruited locally, regionally, and nationally. Through partnerships with other institutions, our work has become increasingly international in scope.

Our Purpose

To cultivate a deep understanding of issues and themes at the intersection of religion, faith and public life and, to do so in the public sphere and in religious spheres.

Our Mission

To nurture a hospitable context that brings forward the finest thinking of women and men of faith and the depth and texture of their traditions in conversation with public intellectuals and various secular ideologies on the nature and shape of public life in our age of pluralism.

Our Goal

To focus the work of scholars on issues and themes where religion, faith and public life intersect and to nurture the public conversation as well as religious understanding of these issues and themes. We will do this through:

  • interdisciplinary research and publications shaping a new community of scholars and public intellectuals
  • deep ethical reflections which draw on religious sources associated with human rights, our care for the life of the world and our understanding of difference
  • deepen the public understanding of the vital role of religious perspectives and their complex sources as they are brought to bear on public discourse
  • deepen the understanding within religious communities of the fragile and complex nature of the public sphere in a pluralistic society