The Cornerstone University Society for Philosophy is proud to present the topic of our second annual Spring Conference for 2013: The Marginalized. Though the issue is quite broad, two questions arise that shape our conversation: “Who are the marginalized?” and “What are we to do?” To reiterate, who are the people being pushed outside the boundaries of civil society, and what actions are we as Christians bound to take to recognize their plight and reconcile them back into community? These questions in mind, the purpose of our conference this year is twofold; to think through theoretical explorations of the marginalized, and to investigate real-world courses of action on behalf of the marginalized.

Possible paper topics may include (but are not limited to):

• Politics of the Marginalized
• Economics and Marginalization
• Gender Marginalization
• Linguistic Marginalization
• Marginalization and Literature
• Marginal Stories in History
• Care for the Marginalized
• Marginalization in Healthcare
• Marginalization and Social Work
• Aesthetics of the Marginalized
• Education of the Marginalized
• Marginalization and City Planning

Paper Proposals are due Friday, February 22nd.  Submit you proposals by email to cusocietyforphilosophy@gmail.com, as well as any questions you may have. 

CUSP wants to encourage a Christian culture of academic rigor and critical engagement with philosophical thought. We want to invite Cornerstone students to participate in philosophical discourse in order to better understand our faith and its relation to the world around us. As an organization, we want to offer a space in which students can be encouraged in their scholastic endeavors and challenged by new ideas and alternative viewpoints.

In keeping with that statement, we wish to draw your attention to some upcoming events at Baker Book House. Having recently remodeled, Baker is doing a lot to attract the attention of students. With a soon-to-be operational coffee shop (Icons Coffee), a continued commitment to carrying bargain and used books, a unique space for academic titles, and creating a dedicated space for incoming guest speakers, they are headed in the right direction.

This Thursday, Shane Hipps, teaching pastor at Mars Hill, will be giving a talk including Q&A and booksigning at Baker Book House. Baker has been a big help to the development of CUSP, and it would be great to come out and support their commitment to bringing in thoughtful speakers and authors. Hipps was most recently involved in an event hosting Peter Rollins in Grand Rapids, and his work echoes some similar themes. This announcement is short notice, but it would be great if we could show our support for Baker, who graciously set up a book table at our last TCPT conference.

In January, Baker will also be hosting William Lane Craig and Alvin Plantinga, two powerhouses in the analytic side of Christian philosophy. Craig’s talk is entitled “Does the Multiverse Make God Unnecessary?” and will be held on Monday, the 21st. Plantinga’s talk, to be given on Tuesday the 22nd, is called “Can You Rationally Believe in God Without an Argument?”Both events will be free, but tickets must be reserved.

With Cornerstone’s continued engagement with continental philosophy, students would do well to hear and dialogue with some of the most well-known thinkers from another tradition. Both events will provide an opportunity for Q&A.

With that said, let me remind you to come out to the first of these events, Shane Hipps, this Thursday (November 15th)! We hope to see you there.

Edit: The Shane Hipps event will be held on Thursday, November 15, not Friday, November 16, as was stated in the original post. The current text reflects the change.

The first of CUSP’s events from the Fall ’11/Spring ’12 school year.

“Abbot Palladius said: The soul that wishes to live according to the will of Christ should either learn faithfully what it does not yet know, or teach openly what it does know. But if, when it can, it desires to do neither of these things, it is afflicted with madness. For the first step away from God is a distaste for learning, and lack of appetite for those things for which the soul hungers when it seeks God.”

If Abbot Palladius is right, Louis is certainly wishing to live according to the will of Christ. Louis is the type of person who really wrestles through the problems that crop up in the strange world of evangelical Christianity (most recently, one might look to Louis’ engagements with the origins debate which led Ken Ham at Answers in Genesis to express his worry about Louis being on the road to apostasy). One thing I really appreciate about Louis, other than his cheerful and encouraging demeanor at work, is his genuine interest in what is going on in the interests of his co-workers. He has been a pleasure to talk to about things like philosophy, hermeneutics, and biblical scholarship. Louis actively participates in the dialogue and has made me feel welcome and appreciated at Baker–he even helped us promote our conference and hosted a book table there. Through our conversations, he decided to order and read a book on Kierkegaard, which prompted the idea to offer me the privileged opportunity of doing an interview on his blog. It was a fun activity, and I hope there will be more in the future (hopefully Jazz will make an appearance with an interview on Nietzsche).

Please give the interview a read and engage the discussion. There are three parts. You can get to part three by clicking here, wherein you will find links to parts one and two. Also, be sure to watch Louis’ blog for more information on what Baker is publishing, what he is thinking, and chances to receive free books by doing no more than commenting on a blog post!

–Dean

Thank you to everyone who came out to support our inaugural conference! We ended up with twenty-one speakers, over 60 registered attendees (and plenty of non-registered attendees), and excellent feedback.

It was great to see old friends and make new ones. Thanks also to Louis from Baker Book House and Eric from the Theological Book Network. Be sure to continue to support them!

This conference could not have happened without the willing and encouraging support of all the people who submitted papers and those who came to support them. We managed to record the five excellent plenary sessions and will hopefully have them up within the month. Again, thanks to all who came for helping us make this a great first conference. We are already looking forward to next year!

Plenary Speakers

James K. A. Smith
Brian J. Walsh
J. Matthew Bonzo
David L. Stubbs
Michael Van Dyke

Alumni Presenters:

Aaron Caudill
Mike Edwardson
Lindsey Renee Jacobs
Matthew Elmore
Seth Horton

CU Student Presenters:

Kris Rolls
Josiah Daniels
Dean Dettloff
Bethany Luzny
Jazz Salo

Presenters from Other Institutions:

Nicolas Babarskis (Wheaton alumnus, Cornerstone faculty)
Laura De Jong (Calvin College)
Nathan Smith (Trinity Evangelical Divinity)
Daniel Camacho (Calvin College)
Daniel Jesse (Aquinas College)
Dave Rinker (Fuller Theological Seminary)

Chairs from Cornerstone University:

Kyle Bos
Jazz Salo
Dean Dettloff
Josh Christianson
Olivia Chance
Erin Murphy
Emily Van Houten
Adam Brooks
Kenneth Selby
Ian Grell
Kris Rolls
Josh Perkins

Thank you!