J.J. Thiessen Lecture Series
October 19-20, 2010 From Desert Christians to Mountain Refugees: Fierce Landscapes and Counter-Cultural Spirituality
Guest Lecturer: Dr. Belden Lane, Saint Louis University
Lecture 1: October 19, 2010 11:00 AM
Places on the Edge: The Power of Desert/Mountain Terrain in Christian Thought
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Lecture 2: October 19, 2010 7:30 PM
The Counter-Cultural Spirituality of the Desert Fathers for Today
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Leture 3: October 20, 2010 11:00 AM
Fire in the Desert: Learning from the Desert Mothers
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Lecture Topic: In the history of Christian spirituality, desert and mountain terrain has often been the source (and refuge) of counter-cultural movements. The Desert Christians in the fourth century went into the desert beyond the Nile, reacting after Constantine to the church’s support of a prosperity theology, gospel of success, and militarism. In sixteenth-century Switzerland, Anabaptists hid in barns and fled to caves in the Jura Mountains, questioning the magisterial Reformation in similar ways. These lectures will explore some ways in which the appeal of fierce landscapes in the Christian life is closely related to its prophetic witness to the dynamism of faith on the margins.