Attendees will choose from offerings during the four parallel sessions which will be offered throughout the day. All parallel sessions will be 30 minutes long. Full length speakers will have 25 minutes for presentation, followed by 5 minutes of Q&A. Speakers marked as double sessions will be paired together during the same session, and will have 12 minutes for presentation, followed by a few minutes of discussion.
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Parallel Session 1
The Stones Cry Out: Unexpected Transcendence and Public Spectacle in Secular Spaces
David Csinos, Atlantic School of Theology
ArtsPoetry and the Transcendent
D.S. Martin, McMaster Divinity College
ArtsRecovering God’s Nearness in an Age of Anxiety
Phil Zylla, McMaster Divinity College
Church and CultureLonging for Transcendence: Biblical Apocalyptic Literature, Marvel Comic Universe Movies, and the Modern Secular Longing for Eschatological Hope
Israel Steinmetz, The Bible Seminary
LiteratureIndustrial Realism and the Advent of Modern Fantasy: Transcendent Tensions in Victorian Literature
Christian Dickinson, Brewton-Parker College
LiteratureRecognizing and Holding on to the Transcendence of God: Prayers in the Midst of the Secularizing World of Ancient Israel
Yadi Hu, McMaster Divinity College
BibleHere I Raise My Ebenezer: The Miracle, the Event, and the Temporality of Sacred Space
Jesse Hill, McMaster Divinity College
PhilosophyAscent or Incarnation? Reconfiguring Transcendence via Biblical Theology
J. Richard Middleton, Northeastern Seminary at Roberts Wesleyan University
Patristics and TheologyFriendship with Jesus in a Secular Age
John Vissers, Knox College, University of Toronto
Theology -
Parallel Session 2
Mary’s Magnificat and Its Music: From Phenomenology to Transcendence
Wendy Porter, McMaster Divinity College
ArtsThe Transcendent Artistry of Jesus
James Tughan, McMaster Divinity College
ArtsWhen Clouds Rain Transcendence: An Appraisal Analysis of Hebrews 11
Jonathan Watt, Geneva College & Jim Dvorak, McMaster Divinity College
BibleSpiritual but not Religious: A New Kind of Secularism
Dave Yoon, Good News Church, Emmanuel Bible College
Church and CultureFollow the Child: A Path to Transcendence
Natasha Crozier, McMaster Divinity College
LiteratureReimagining the World: Contemporary Fiction is Haunted by Transcendence
Doug Sikkema, Redeemer University
LiteratureTranscendent in Essence, Immanent in Energies: A Greek Patristic Trajectory
James Payton, McMaster Divinity College
Patristics and TheologyReason Beyond Nature: John McDowell and the Possibility of Seeing Reason within Supernatural Order
John Lee, The John Leland Center for Theological Studies
PhilosophyPursuit of the Holy
August Konkel, McMaster Divinity College
Theology -
Parallel Session 3
Music that Transcends: Exploring Spirituals Composed by Florence B. Price
Celeste Dvorak
ArtsCreation Still Speaking: Contemporary Poetry and the Everyday Voice of the Divine
Deborah Bowen, Redeemer University
ArtsMelodious Order: Clement of Alexandria’s Musical Analogy as a Model for Re-Enchantment in Christian Worldview Formation
Brendan DePhillippeaux, McMaster Divinity College
Patristics and TheologyMetaphor and Transcendence
Stanley Porter, McMaster Divinity College
LiteratureDemanding Eternity: Cross-Pressured Stories of Death for a Secular Age
Kira Moolman Pettit, Wycliffe College
LiteratureTranscendence and Social Order: Philip Rieff on Sacred Order, Social Order, and the Secular Condition
Kevin Flatt, Redeemer University
PhilosophyDouble Sessions (15 mins each)
Wonder in Community Newspapers in Canada: Seeking to Open Conversations about Transcendence
Peter Bush, St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Fergus, ON
Church and Culture“What’s In A Name?”: Reconciling Self-Transcendent Experiences and Transcendence in “Play”
Emma Clarke, McMaster Divinity College
Church and Culture
Paul on God’s Transcendence and Immanence: Reading Romans 3 Grammatical-Metaphorically
John Lee, McMaster Divinity College
BibleFaith as a Pursuit of Transcendence: Tabernacles and Faith in the Book of Hebrews
Jason Lim, McMaster Divinity College
Bible
Drunk in the Spirit: Charismatic Expression, Divine Revelation, and World Evangelism
Merrill Greene, Crandall University
TheologyThe Reality of God in a God-Forgetting Age: Towards a recovery of Divine Transcendence as Life
Archie Spencer, Associated Canadian Theological Schools
Theology -
Parallel Session 4
Dying, Friendship, and the Drama of Afterlife: Theological Reflections on Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius
Francis Pang, McMaster Divinity College
Arts“Glittering Hills of Scrap Aluminum”: Viewing the Secular in Contemporary Canadian Poetry
Melanie East, Tyndale University
ArtsRecovering God: Translating and Mapping out the Journey
Paul Seungoh Chung, Wycliffe College, Toronto School of Theology
Patristics and TheologyDouble Sessions (15 mins each)
John’s Apocalypse, Transcendence, and the Absence of the Secular
Scott Storbakken, W. L. Bonner College
BibleJesus, the Incarnated Transcendence on Behalf of His People
Jihyung Kim, McMaster Divinity College
Bible
The Incarnation as the Great Connection: Awakening Us to the Presence of God in Everyday Life
Elizabeth Millar, McMaster Divinity College
Church and CultureDeconstructing/Reconstructing Faith in Post-Christian Canada: Secularization and the Religious “Undones”
Peter Schuurman & Angela Reitsma Bick
Church and Culture
Displacing the Father and Son in Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons: Nihilism and the Erosion of Transcendence Among Millennials
Kwasi Boakye-Yiadom, McMaster Divinity College
LiteratureTransferrance of the Transcendant in the Post- Christendom West: A Critical and Constructive Engagement with Jacques Ellul’s New Demons
Michael Morelli, Northwest Seminary & ACTS
Literature
The Silencing of Scriptures in Modernity
José Adrián Tolentino García, Instituto de Formación Teológica Intercongregacional de México
LiteraturePseudo-Religion in the Dune Universe: Frank Herbert’s Vision of a Post-Secular World
Andrew Ankersen, McGill Department of Religious Studies
Literature
False Starts in the Pursuit of Transcendence: Michel Henry and Immanent Life as Ordinary Transcendence
Thomas Hubschmid, University of Toronto (Wycliffe College)
PhilosophyAlexander Hurtsellers, University of Exeter
Philosophy
Christ is Communion: A Non-Transactional Approach to Sacrifice, Supper, and the Eucharist
Jonathan Boerger, McMaster Divinity College
TheologyThe Sacrament vs Secular-Religious Bodies: Henri de Lubac’s Ecclesial Humanism and the Pull of Pseudo-Transcendence
James Wood, Redeemer University
Theology