Wednesday, June 25
8:30 – 9:45 am
Keynote Speaker
A Pedagogy of Re-enchantment
Is the purpose of education to get us ready for the workforce? To teach good citizenship? To raise consciousness about issues of injustice? We can only answer that question if we first answer another question: “What is the true nature of this world and my place within it?” Join us as we explore how the Bible’s answer to that question shaped the history of Christian education. We’ll discover that our view of the universe as more-than-meets-the-eye has incredible implications for how we approach the disciplines we teach and shapes the aims for why we do what we do. In a time that philosophers have labeled “secular,” “postmodern,” and “disenchanted,” join us as we learn how Christ calls us to help our students recover their imaginations so that they can see the world in a whole new way.
Prof. Luke Thompson (M.Div theology, M.A. philosophy) taught philosophy courses at Wisconsin Lutheran College and Bethany Lutheran College before becoming a pastor in WELS. He served eight years in Ottawa, ON, Canada, at St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran, where he ministered to government workers, South Sudanese immigrants and the university students of University of Ottawa and Carleton University. For over twenty years, he has worked with and help start campus ministries. His most recent divine call is to Martin Luther College, where he teaches theology, history, and philosophy and leads a “film and philosophy” club and a Great Books club. He is author of Your Life Has Meaning (a study on Ecclesiastes and philosophy) (NPH) and co-author of Quick to Listen (NPH).
