{"id":5282,"date":"2015-10-07T15:50:11","date_gmt":"2015-10-07T20:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/?p=5282"},"modified":"2015-10-07T15:58:26","modified_gmt":"2015-10-07T20:58:26","slug":"2015-j-j-thiessen-lectures-to-explore-oil-and-evangelism-in-the-20th-century","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/2015\/2015-j-j-thiessen-lectures-to-explore-oil-and-evangelism-in-the-20th-century\/","title":{"rendered":"2015 J.J. Thiessen Lectures to explore oil and evangelism in the 20th century"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><em>CMU welcomes University of Notre Dame history professor Darren Dochuk<\/em><\/h3>\n<p>How have religion and oil together shaped existence for modern North Americans at the moment of their heightening authority in the 20th century?<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s one of the questions Dr. Darren Dochuk will explore at this year\u2019s J.J. Thiessen Lectures at Canadian Mennonite University (CMU). Titled, \u201cCrude Awakenings: The Faith, Politics, and Crises of Oil in America\u2019s Century,\u201d the three-part series takes place in the CMU Chapel (600 Shaftesbury Blvd.) on Tuesday, October 20 at 11:00 AM and 7:30 PM, and Wednesday, October 21 at 11:00 AM.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5284\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5284\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-5284\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Dochuk-300x199.jpeg\" alt=\"Dr. Dochuk\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Dochuk-300x199.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Dochuk.jpeg 800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5284\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dr. Darren Dochuk from the University of Notre Dame, 2015&#8217;s J.J. Thiessen Lecture Series presenter<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Dochuk, Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of Notre Dame, will track a history of religion and oil in the 20th century, with a particular focus on \u201coil patch evangelism,\u201d showing how encounters with petroleum helped shape a certain theology, a certain understanding of land and environment, and ultimately, a certain understanding of politics.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m lecturing and writing very much as a historian, but I would assume that people can see the connections to our present moment,\u201d says Dochuk, who is currently writing a book on the subject, titled Anointed With Oil: God and Black Gold in America\u2019s Century.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOngoing battles about pipelines, energy, and the environment\u2026 always stir up moral critique, and in some ways, discussion and debate about theology itself\u2014the ways in which people are to connect with, and manage, the Earth and its resources.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Each of the three lectures will focus on a momentous flashpoint in the life of North American oil and evangelicalism and pause for reflection on what this moment meant long-term for matters of faith and society in the 20th century.<\/p>\n<p>In the process of tracking the chronology of God and black gold in the modern era, the lectures will also raise questions pertaining to evangelicalism\u2019s relationship to capitalism and globalization, energy and environment, notions of time, and broad interests in politics.<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/2015JJThiessenPoster.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright wp-image-5285\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/2015JJThiessenPoster-194x300.jpg\" alt=\"2015JJThiessenPoster\" width=\"300\" height=\"463\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/2015JJThiessenPoster-194x300.jpg 194w, https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/2015JJThiessenPoster-664x1024.jpg 664w, https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/2015JJThiessenPoster.jpg 1812w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nDochuk says that his experience growing up in Edmonton, AB is one of the reasons for his interest in the subject of oil and faith.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[Growing up,] I kind of knew intuitively that there was\u2026 a certain uniqueness to Alberta, and much of that comes out of its experiences with the boom and bust culture of oil, and the way that landscape again encourages certain religious and political practices,\u201d Dochuk says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a way for me to revisit my own past, and revisit Alberta itself, and see if I can place that in a broader context of historical development.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Brian Froese, Assistant Professor of History at CMU, suggested the university invite Dochuk to speak after hearing him present at a conference and reading some of his work on the intersection between oil, religion, and politics.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe papers and articles he\u2019s produced on that so far are wildly interesting,\u201d Froese says, adding that Dochuk is an engaging presenter and empathetic scholar with keen insights.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe has something provocative, in the best sense of the word, to say,\u201d Froese says. \u201cHe really makes you think about something in a particular way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>More on Dochuk&#8217;s lectures can be found at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/jjt\" target=\"_blank\">cmu.ca\/jjt<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Founded in 1978 by one of CMU predecessor institutions, Canadian Mennonite Bible College (CMBC), 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 CMU community something of Thiessen\u2019s breadth of vision for the church.<\/p>\n<p><strong>About CMU<br \/>\n<\/strong><em>A Christian university in the Anabaptist tradition, CMU\u2019s Shaftesbury campus offers undergraduate degrees in arts, business, humanities, music, sciences, and social sciences, as well as\u00a0graduate degrees in theology,\u00a0ministry, peacebuilding and collaborative development, and an MBA. CMU has over 800 full-time equivalent\u00a0students, including those enrolled in degree programs at the Shaftesbury and Menno Simons College campuses and in its Outtatown certificate program.<\/em><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>For information about CMU visit <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/\" target=\"_blank\">cmu.ca<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>For additional information, please contact:<br \/>\nKevin Kilbrei, Director of Communications &amp; Marketing<br \/>\nkkilbrei@cmu.ca; 204.487.3300 Ext. 621<br \/>\nCanadian Mennonite University<br \/>\n500 Shaftesbury Blvd., Winnipeg, MB\u00a0 R3P 2N2<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CMU welcomes University of Notre Dame history professor Darren Dochuk How have religion and oil together shaped existence for modern North Americans at the moment of their heightening authority in the 20th century? That\u2019s one of the questions Dr. Darren Dochuk will explore at this year\u2019s J.J. Thiessen Lectures at Canadian Mennonite University (CMU). Titled, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5290,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[25,22,5],"tags":[682,318],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5282"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5282"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5282\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5289,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5282\/revisions\/5289"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}