The mission of the Center for Spiritual Life is to challenge the mind, nurture the spirit and develop the talents of all those who utilize the services of the Center.
Read Our CovenantBurchenal Lecture Series
Celebrating the 2019–20 College Program Series Theme:
Alone in the World? The Boundaries of Community
The Needs of Community and the Problems of Modern Government
John Russon, Ph.D. Professor of Philosophy, University of Guelph, Toronto, Canada
Thursday, October 3, 2019, 7:30 p.m., Triton Room
In this presentation, Dr. John Russon will maintain that government is an essential structure for human communities because it is the institution by which a community determines its own values, goals and ways of accomplishing those goals. To this end, Russon will identify four problems in contemporary government that amount to ways in which the functioning of government actually undermines the communities it should be serving.
The Whole Language: The Power of Extravagant Tenderness
Gregory Boyle, M.Div. Founder, Homeboy Industries, Los Angeles, California
Wednesday, October 30, 2019, 7:30 p.m., Fox Hall
Father Gregory Boyle will share what he has learned during three decades of working with marginalized populations at Homeboy Industries—the largest gang-intervention, rehabilitation and re-entry program in the world: Love is the answer, community is the context and tenderness is the connective tissue. Tenderness reflects the foundational notion that there is no “us and them,” only “us.” Homeboy seeks to be what the world is invited to become. Kinship cannot happen without tenderness.
Previous Burchenal Lectures
- Ecowomanism: African American Women and Earth Honoring Faiths
Melanie L. Harris, Ph.D., Professor of Religion and Ethics, Texas Christian University; Visiting Professor of Ethical Leadership and Global Environmental Studies, University of Denver
Thursday, March 28, 2019, 7:30 p.m., Fox Hall - Is This a Bonhoeffer Moment? Exploring Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Ethic of Responsible Action
Lori Brandt Hale, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Religion, Augsburg University
Tuesday, February 26, 2019, 7:30 p.m., Triton Room - A New and Unsettling Force: The Poor People’s Campaign and the Fight to End Poverty
The Rev. Liz Theoharis, Ph.D, Presbyterian Minister, Social Activist and Writer
Tuesday, October 23, 2018 – 7:30 p.m., Fox Hall - The World Is Wrong: Microaggressions, Poetics and the Problem of Evil in Citizen
Daniel Spoth, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Literature, Eckerd College
Thursday, September 20, 2018 – 7:30 p.m., Fox Hall - Shaved Heads and Celibate Bodies: Gender and Freedom in Female Buddhist Monasticism
Amy Paris Langenberg, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, Eckerd College
Tuesday, March 27, 2018, 7.30 p.m., Fox Hall
