Public Lectures
Canadian Mennonite University presents a number of annual lecture series, including:

Proclaiming the Claims of Christ Lecture Series

This lecure series has been offered at CMU since 2007. The series addresses the various dimensions of Christian apologetics (theory, evangelism, Gospel and society, singularity of Christ in a multi-cultural context, etc.).

Proclaiming the Claims of Christ Series 2012
The Unique Gift of Christ
March 12-13, 2012
Dr. Robert Benne

CMU welcomes Professor Robert Benne as keynote speaker in March 2012. Dr. Benne is Jordan-Trexler Professor of Relgion Emeritus and Director of the Center for Religion and Society at Roanoke College, Salem, Virginia. He is the author of 11 books, his most recent being Good and Bad Ways to Think about Religion and Politics (Eerdmans 2010).

Lecture 1 March 12 - 11:30 AM - 12:10 PM: The Unique Gift of Christ (CMU Chapel, south side)

Lecture 2 March 12 - 7:00 - 8:30 PM: The Unique Claim of Christ - Living as Christ's Ordinary Saints in the World (CMU Chapel, south side)

Lecture 3 March 13 - 11:30 AM - 12:10 PM: The Unique Claim of Christ - Living as Christ's Ordinary Saints in Political Life (CMU Chapel, south side)

View poster

Previous Lectures

Click to listen to audio recordings of past Proclaiming the Claims of Christ Lecture Series

2011: Cancelled

2010: March 15-16 - Proclaiming the Unique Claims of Christ; Negotiating the Christian-Muslim Interface

2009: March 16-17 - Radio broadcaster and media commentator Michael Coren will speak about being a Christian in the public media.

2008: March 17-19 - John Stackhouse, Regent College. Topic: Proclaiming Christ in a Post-Christian World.

2007: Joe Boot, evangelist, apologist, author and the executive director of Ravi Zacharias Ministries in Canada.

The J.J. Thiessen Lectures

Founded in 1978 by Canadian Mennonite Bible College, the J. J. Thiessen Lectures are named in honour of a founder and long-time chairperson of the CMBC Board. The lectures seek to bring to the Canadian Mennonite University community something of his breadth of vision for the church.

Oct. 16-17, 2012

Beverly Roberts Gaventa
Helen H. P. Manson Professor of New Testament Literature and Exegesis
Princeton Theological Seminary

From Powerlessness to Praise in Paul's Letter to the Romans

These lectures will explore apocalyptic theology in Paul's letter to the Romans. We will begin with Paul's relentless depiction of humanity as thoroughly captive to powers by the names of Sin and Death, then consider the action of God in radical deliverance through the peaceful invasion of Jesus Christ. Finally, we will consider the place of worship in the words and the working of this letter, since worship itself takes on an apocalyptic character in Romans.

Lecture 1: Unable to Help Ourselves (Oct. 16 – 11 AM)
Lecture 2: The God of Peace Makes War (Oct. 16 – 7:30 PM)
Lecture 3: Let All the People Say "Amen!" (Oct. 17 – 11 AM)

Bio: Beverly Roberts Gaventa is Helen H. P. Manson Professor of New Testament Literature and Exegesis at Princeton Theological Seminary and Extraordinary Professor of New Testament at Stellenbosch University. She earned the B.A. from Phillips University, the M.Div. from Union Theological Seminary in New York, and the Ph.D. from Duke University. She also holds the Doctor of Divinity degree honoris causa from Kalamazoo College and from Christian Theological Seminary. Prior to arriving at Princeton, she taught at Colgate Rochester Divinity School and at Columbia Theological Seminary.

In addition to numerous articles, reviews, and lectionary resources, Dr. Gaventa has written Our Mother Saint Paul (Westminster John Knox, 2007), The Acts of the Apostles (Abingdon, 2003), I and II Thessalonians (Westminster John Know, 1998), Mary: Glimpses of the Mother of Jesus (University of South Carolina, 1995; Fortress, 1999), and From Darkness to Light: Aspects of Conversion in the New Testament (Fortress, 1986). She has also edited many volumes, the most recent of which are The New Interpreter’s Bible One Volume Commentary (with David Peterson; Abingdon, 2010), and Seeking the Identity of Jesus: A Pilgrimage (with Richard B. Hays; Eerdmans, 2008). Dr. Gaventa has served on the editorial boards of a number of scholarly journals and is an editor-at-large for Christian Century.

Dr. Gaventa is a member of the Society of Biblical Litera­ture, where she has served in a variety of leadership roles. She is also a member of the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas, the Catholic Biblical Association, Duodecim, and the American Theological Society. She has lectured widely in the US as well as in South Africa, Australia, and Europe.

Previous Lectures

October 18-19, 2011
Peter Widdicombe, McMaster University
Topic: Scripture and the Christian Imagination: Text, Doctrine, and Artistic Representation in the Early Church and Beyond

From the very beginning, Christians have asked how the Bible was to be read in such a way that its convictions about God, creation, and humankind
might be made apprehensible. How was it that the words of a text, a thing of space and time, could be understood to reveal the eternal and transcendent Word? How was doctrine to be formulated on the basis of the Bible? How then was that doctrine to be represented visually?

The two greatest writers in the Patristic Period on the problem of hermeneutics were Origen and Augustine. The former developed the allegorical
approach to the interpretation of Scripture. The latter took up that approach, extended it, and bequeathed it to the Latin West. It became the
standard way in which the Bible was read until the Reformation. The first lecture looks at the development of Patristic hermeneutics, focusing
particularly on the thought of Augustine. The second two lectures explore two examples of how this approach played out in both text and art from
the Patristic Period through the Reformation: the account of the Drunkenness of Noah in Genesis 9:20-27, and the reference to foxes and vines in
Song of Songs 2:15.

October 18
Words and the Word: Augustine and the Patristic Interpretation of Scripture

October 18
Drunkenness, Nakedness, and the Redemption and Fall of an Image: Noah and Christ

October 19
When is a Fox not a Fox? Song of Songs 2:15 and the Need for Vigilance


Please listen to the JJ Thiessen Lecture audio files here

2010: Dr. Belden Lane, Saint Louis University
From Desert Christians to Mountain Refugees: Fierce Landscapes and Counter-Cultural Spirituality

2009: Dr. Peter Ochs, Edgar Bronfman Professor of Modern Judaic Studies, University of Virginia.
Topic: The Free Church and Israel’s Covenant.

2008: Dr. Mark Noll, Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame. Topic: A Yankee Looks North: Toward An Appreciation And Assessment Of The History Of Christianity In Canada. Oct. 21-22.

2007: Oct, 15-16, 2007: Ellen Davis, Professor of Bible and Practical Theology, Duke Divinity School. Topic: Live Long on the Land: Food and Farming from a Biblical Perspective.

2006: Joel J. Shuman, King's College, Wilkes-Barre, PA. Topic: To Live is to Worship: Bioethics and the Body of Christ. Oct. 17-18. Published by CMU Press.

2005: Dr. Paul J. Griffiths, Schmitt Professor of Catholic Studies at University of Illinois at Chicago. Topic: Curiosity: Towards a Theology of Intellectual Appetite. Oct. 18-19. Published by CMU Press.

Past annual JJ Thiessen Lectures published by CMU Press.

The John and Margaret Friesen Lectures

The John and Margaret Friesen Lectures in Anabaptist/Mennonite Studies are co-sponsored by Canadian Mennonite University, the Mennonite Heritage Centre and the Centre for Mennonite Brethren Studies. The inaugural lectures in November 2002 were delivered by Dr. Abraham Friesen, the generous donor who initiated the lecture series. He is Professor of History in the History Department of the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Previous Lectures

2009: Mennonite Women in Canadian History: Birth, Food, and War.Lecturer: Marlene Epp of Conrad Grebel University College.

2008: Church and ethnicity: The Mennonite Experience in Paraguay. Lecturer: Alfred Neufeld, Dean of the School of Theology of the Protestant University of Paraguay.

2007: Mennonite Identity in the 21st Century. Lecturer: John D. Roth.

2006: Sacred Spaces, Sacred Places: Mennonite Architecture in Russia and Canada. Presenters: Rudy Friesen, Harold Funk, Roland Sawatsky.

2005: Recovering A Heritage: The Mennonite Experience in Poland and Prussia. Peter Klassen, Professor Emeritus of History, California State University, Fresno.

Winter Lecture Series

The CMU Winter Lectures is an annual public lecture series that seeks to highlight the arts, science, humanities, and interdisciplinary studies at CMU and to foster dialogue between these disciplines and the Christian faith.

Previous Lectures

Click to listen to audio recordings of past Winter Lecture Series

2012: January 24-25 - Cancelled

2011: January 25-26 - Dr. Romand Coles, McAllister Chair in Community, Culture, & Environment at Northern Arizona University. Resonance, Receptivity and Radical Reformation

 2010: January 26-27 - Vern Redekop, Associate Professor of Conflict Studies at Saint Paul University in Ottawa. Topic: Paradoxes of Reconciliation

2009: January 26-27 - Dr. Norman Wirzba, Research Professor of Theology, Ecology and Rural Life, Duke Divinity School. Topic: Placing Our Faith in a Placeless World?

2008: January 29-30 - Erica Grimm Vance, Assistant Professor and Visual Arts Coordinator, Trinity Western University. Topic: Art, Beauty and Christian Theology.

2007: Robert Russell, Professor of Theology and Science, Graduate Theological Union, and Director for the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences. Topic: Cosmology, Evolution and Resurrection Hope.

2006: January 30-31 - Alvin Dueck, Evelyn and Frank Freed Professor of the Integration of Psychology and Theology, Fuller Theological Seminary—Topic: Psychology and Theology.