During each semester of the academic year, the Christian Reformed Student Foundation and Hessel Park Church sponsor a series of public discussions. These sessions are based on the belief that the Christian faith offers compelling insights into the issues of our day.

We bring in a Christian academic or professional from the local community or other public and private institutions across the United States, to speak on his or her area of expertise from a Christian perspective. We meet in the Illini Union Federal Room 25B (north side of Food Court). Bring your own lunch. We dismiss promptly at 12:50 so you can make your 1:00 p.m. appointments.

Date	Speaker and Topic
October 4, 2008 12:00-12:50 Friday	Ethical Conundrums in your DNA, Anne Carpenter, Ph.D.,, Director of the Broad Institute’s Imaging Platform Carpenter speaks on the latest research into our genetic code and its implications. How predictive is our DNA? How might these discoveries disturb our mental health, our relationships, our faith, and our understanding of our place in the world? What is it about human beings that deeply desire such prediction? Researchers in the Broad Institute of Cambridge, MA extract information from biological images and use cell image data for a systems-level view of cellular functions.
October 10, 2008 12:00-12:50 Friday	C.S. Lewis – Integrating Reason, Imagination and Faith, Paulo Ribeiro, Professor of Engineering at Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI Ribeiro has read Lewis for 34 years and teaches a class on him in addition to his own specialty in electrical engineering. He focuses on developing a Christian mind through Lewis’ work in literary criticism, philosophy, poetry, autobiography, children’s stories, and theology.
October 15, 2008 12:00-12:50 Wednesday	The Contentious Heart of Creativity, Kevin Hamilton, UIUC Art and Design Faculty Art and artists have traditionally been relegated to the cherished margins of modernity, lauded as visionary but limited to spaces of leisure and privilege. With the rise and evolution of creativity as a universal value, artistic practice finds itself closer to the centers. No longer kept in the garret, the modern artist is invited to work and live in the voided centers of former industrial cities, she’s featured prominently in the image campaigns of educational and civic institutions. Hamilton looks at what is at stake in this change, through highlighting the promises and perils of creativity’s newfound validation.
October 22, 2008 12:00-12:50 Wednesday	The Challenge of Doing Politics Theologically Scott Althaus, UIUC Political Science Faculty Over the last 2000 years, Christians have often been guilty of seeking first the kingdoms of this world when it comes to politics. Althaus suggests that a combination of challenges encourages this tendency, including gaps in Christian theology relating to the role of citizens in democratic societies, the structure of political systems, and the strategic incentives of political leaders to construct winning coalitions. As a result of these challenges, Christians must often fend for themselves when it comes to applying faith to the realm of politics. This tends to encourage wholesale adoption of cultural standards for politics disconnected from faith. Identifying these challenges therefore becomes an important precondition of working through them theologically.
October 30, 2008 12:00-12:50 Thursday	Physicians, Patients, and Spirituality, Robert Cranston, Medical Director of Neurology at Carle Foundation Hospital and UIUC Professor of Internal Medicine In the USA, as a multicultural society, what role, if any, should a doctor’s spirituality play in his or her relationships with patients? Cranston asks whether spirituality as such can be ignored if it is such an important part of the holistic health care picture. What does the literature say?
November 5, 2008 12:00-12:50 Wednesday	Biofuels: Potential and Ramifications, Larry Berger, UIUC Animal Science faculty Berger examines the potential of biofuels to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. At what level of biofuels production does the food versus fuel concerns become an ethical issue? How can we optimize food and fuel production from the same acre of corn?
November 13, 2008 12:00-12:50 Thursday	Politics That Matters, Amy Black, (Illinois) Professor of Politics and International Relations at Wheaton College Black leads post-election reflections on substantive issues for citizens of faith. Her specialty is government and political behavior. Among her books are From Inspiration to Legislation: How an Idea Becomes a Bill and Of Little Faith: The Politics of George W. Bush’s Faith Based Proposals. She is currently working on a book about the ways the Christian faith can inform political decision-making, Beyond Left and Right: A Thinking Christian’s Guide to American Politics.

The Wednesday Forum is a program of the Christian Reformed Student Foundation and Hessel Park Church.
www.hpcrc.org
For Wednesday Forum announcements via email, contact Cliff Christians.