Reception 12:00 PM to 12:50 PM

Lecture 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM

To be embodied is also to be susceptible to illness, injury, aging, and other challenges. But people do "heal" (become existentially whole) even in the face of such adversities. There turns out to be a whole chessboard of different strategies people employ when one's life, and body, start to fall apart.

As on previous occasions, we will host a pre-lecture reception featuring appetizers, pastries, coffee and tea from 12:00 PM to 12:50 PM. You are cordially invited.

Prof. Zaborowski turns to Heidegger's religious origins and shows the extent to which his study of theology and his Christian faith shaped his entire way of thinking. It briefly traces key moments of his early religious formation and then discusses the extent to which Heidegger's way of thinking can be understood against this background.

"'Colonialism' and 'empire' have recently become bywords for oppression, racial prejudice, cultural destruction, and economic exploitation. And yet the British Empire led the world in the suppression of slavery throughout the 19th century. And the reason why young Canadians lie buried in Normandy and Sicily is that the Empire called them to fight fascism in 1939-45. So where does the truth lie? Was the British Empire good as well as bad? If so, how should we make moral sense of it overall?"

Reception: 6:00 to 6:45 PM (Regent Atrium)

Main Event: 7:00 to 8:30 PM (Regent Auditorium)

Religion is arguably the most primary and powerful shaper of cultures. In this new book, the editors Yaakov Ariel, Gregor Thuswaldner, and Jens Zimmermann have gathered the most recent perspectives on the relation of Christianity and Culture. What is the relation of Christianity to art, to science, to literature, to architecture or to music? How has Christianity wrestled with questions of human identity, education, sexuality, and racial tensions? Meet the editors and listen to how authors have addressed these and other topics. The presentation of the books content will be followed by a panel discussion with the editors who will respond to your questions.

Please join us for a reception in the Regent Atrium with live music and refreshments beginning at 6 PM followed by the main event from 7:00 to 8:30 PM. Please note that this is a free and public Houston Centre event. 

Professor Dr. Ben Quash will explore in this lecture how essential are the arts to our common humanity in areas that illustrate our shared longings across religious or ideological divides at times when notions of truth, goodness, and beauty are under threat and suspicion.

In this lecture, Professor Gilbert Meilaender will explore the meaning of the phrase “human dignity.” He will suggest that the term ‘“dignity”’ is properly used in at least two ways, the most important of which is to mark the equal personal dignity we all share.

After a showing of the recent AI documentary, The End of Humanity, a panel of scholars will discuss these questions in light of the film and also respond to questions from the audience.

In this lecture, Dr. Raymond C. Tallis addresses how philosophers since the Enlightenment have undermined and even destroyed a sense of true selfhood for human beings.

The Houston Centre invites you to celebrate the launch of the second edition of Jens Zimmermann’s acclaimed book, Incarnational Humanism (Regent College Publishing, 2024).

In this lecture, Professor Andrew Feenberg (Canada Research Chair in Philosophy of Technology, Simon Fraser University) will show the ways in which the technologies we use are not neutral: their invention and use incorporate social values of all sorts.

In this lecture, philosopher Paul Nedelisky (Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, University of Virginia) will survey the history of attempts to find a scientific basis for morality—and explain why such attempts to root the Good in science have failed.

Join us for an evening with the Honourable Preston Manning. Mr. Manning will speak on Canada’s Political Future and the possibilities of human flourishing therein.

Bruce Pardy, Professor of Law at Queen’s University and Executive Director of Rights Probe, will delineate how broad discretion in the hands of a managerial aristocracy has replaced law as the foundation of our modern Canadian system of government.

Fr John Behr, Regius Professor of Humanity at the University of Aberdeen, has published the first English-language translation of Gregory of Nyssa’s classic text On the Human Image of God (AKA de hominis opificio) since the 1800s. In this public lecture, Fr John will expound St Gregory’s anthropology and its ongoing relevance for the central question of what it means to be human.

Join us for a public Q&A session with a panel of practitioners from a range of fields (palliative care, priestly ministry, disability advocacy in Indigenous communities), each of which is affected by Canada's MAID legislation. This event serves as a follow-up to our February 2 public lecture, "Euthanasia in Canada: Progress or Runaway Train?"

In this lecture, Dr. Aaron Kheriaty will describe the origin and effects of recent novel biomedical technologies and public policy changes. Dr. Douglas Farrow will offer a response to Dr. Kheriaty’s lecture.

In his lecture, Dr. Brian Bird of UBC’s Peter A. Allard School of Law will summarize the history of Canada’s euthanasia laws and discuss the pressing social, ethical and legal concerns raised by euthanasia for Canadians and the future of Canadian society.

Immediately following the lecture, there will be a panel discussion including representatives from communities directly impacted by the latest euthanasia policies: Dr. Will Johnston (a seasoned family physician and former chair of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition), the Rev. Dr. Andrew Bennett (Program Director for Faith Communities at Cardus), and Neil Belanger (Executive Director of the British Columbia Aboriginal Network on Disability Society).