Events

The Houston Centre invites you to celebrate the launch of the second edition of Jens Zimmermann’s acclaimed book, Incarnational Humanism (Regent College Publishing, 2024). Join us in the Regent College Chapel and online on Tuesday, April 9, from 7 to 8:30 pm.

ABOUT THE EVENT

Professor Jens Zimmermann will look back on his experience of writing and revisiting Incarnational Humanism and reflect on how his ideas have developed in the twelve years since the first edition was published. He will then be joined by Hans Boersma (Order of St. Benedict Servants of Christ Chair in Ascetical Theology, Nashotah House Theological Seminary) for conversation on incarnational humanism’s relevance for our cultural moment.

Watch Online

ABOUT THE BOOK

First published in 2012 by InterVarsity Press, Incarnational Humanism offers a theological understanding of what it means to be human. This understanding is rooted in the incarnation of Christ, the supreme expression of true humanity and true Godhood in one. From this centre, it charts a course for Christians to engage—and to transform—culture for the life of the world.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Jens Zimmermann is J.I. Packer Chair of Theology at Regent College. As a philosophical theologian, his main intellectual interests are philosophical anthropology (who we are) and epistemology (how we know). He has pursued these two questions across a broad range of interests, including theological anthropology, patristic and modern theology, theological and philosophical hermeneutics, European literature, Martin Heidegger, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Hans Urs von Balthasar.

Hans Boersma is Order of St. Benedict Servants of Christ Chair in Ascetical Theology at Nashotah House Theological Seminary in Wisconsin. His interests range across a variety of areas: patristic theology, twentieth-century Catholic thought, and spiritual interpretation of Scripture. In each of these areas, he sets out to retrieve the sacramental ontology of the pre-modern tradition. This retrieval (ressourcement) of the Great Tradition’s sacramental view of reality has been at the heart of his publications over the past fifteen years.

About the Houston Centre

The Houston Centre for Humanity and the Common Good is a five-year initiative of Regent College, grounded in Dr. James M. Houston’s comprehensive vision of integrative scholarship. Its main task is to foster interdisciplinary and interreligious dialogue on the central question of the late-modern world: what does it mean to be human?

Inviting a range of philosophical perspectives through collaboration with the University of British Columbia and other institutions, the Centre explores a holistic understanding of humanity that accounts for the unique social, political, and theological issues of our time. Comprising a community of leading scholars, the Centre generates dialogue across disciplines—theology, philosophy, biology, cognitive science, political studies, and more—in order to navigate the mystery of the human person.

Through public lectures, seminars, and a variety of publications, the Houston Centre helps others engage theological questions of humanity for the common good.

Questions? Get in touch with the Houston Centre team at [email protected].