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  • Chester Ronning Centre graphic

Coming Events

Watch here for announcements or sign up for our email list by contacting Rebecca Warren.

Our Winter 2013 Philosophers' Café series is set on the theme "Does Imprisonment Fit the Crime?" Our last café for the semester will take place in Edmonton on Saturday, 6 April at 1pm.

Our Winter 2013 Religion and Public Life Café series is will explore the theme "Finding Hope in Dark Times." Our last café for the semester will take place in Camrose on Friday, 5 April at 8:30am.

Our full Winter 2013 calendar of events is available here (legal size).

You can also download our Winter 2013 newsletter.

 

POSTPONED 11 April, "Evangelical and Orthodox Perspectives on the Environment," Caring for Creation Lecture Series, David Goa  (Note: This lecture has been postponed and will be rescheduled at a later date TBA.)

13 April, "Thinking About Islam in Canada," David Goa at the Synod of Alberta and the Territories, Evanelical Lutheran Church in Canada, Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd, Red Deer

26 April, "The Third Nature: Gender Inversions in the Kama Sutra," Distinguished Visiting Fellow Wendy Doniger at the Religion and Masculinities Symposium co-sponsored by the Ronning Centre (NOTE time change on poster: now at 11:30am.)

27 April, "Bisexuality and Transsexuality among the Hindu Gods," Distinguished Visiting Fellow Wendy Doniger at the Religion and Masculinities Symposium, co-sponsored by the Ronning Centre

In the News

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.

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.

Daniel Coleman's Distinguished Lectures "Reading Beyond the Book" are both now available in one printed volumen. For information, see Publications.

David Goa was quoted in "Freedom of Religion Under Threat," Edmonton Journal, May 14, 2012.

Dittmar Mündel wrote for Camrose Booster's Second Thought column: "Alberta Needs a Moratorium on Fracking," April 3, 2012

David Goa has an article in the latest issue of Material Religion on "The Gifts and Challenges of Anno Domini."

The Western Catholic Reporter published an article titled "Professor Sketches Links Between Prophets and Alberta Economy" about Dittmar Mündel's talk on "Faith, Farming, and Oil."

The Calgary Herald published an article about David Goa's upcoming lecture series, "The Christian Responsibility to Muslims."

The Political Science Department at the University of Alberta hosted the 16th Annual Distinguished Lecture in Political Science with Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im on Thursday, September 29, 2011. An audio file of the talk entitled, "Difference, Globalization, and the Limits of Secularization" is available here.

David Goa was interviewed August 30, 2011 by Chicago Public Media's "Worldview" program about the Keystone pipeline. A podcast of the interview can be found here.

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