News Archives - 2009

Batalden lectures explore who we are and how we live

Massive changes to the planet at human hands require that we think anew about who we are and how we are to live. Cosmological, psychological, political-economic, and spiritual elements will all come into play. How might Christianity, in its newfound ecological phase, help us rethink who we are (talking the walk) and how we are to live (walking the talk)?

The 2009 Batalden Seminar in Applied Ethics will be feature Professor Larry Rasmussen, former Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Social Ethics at Union Theological Seminary.

Rasmussen was at Union Theological Seminary from 1986 to 2004. Prior to that he was professor of Christian ethics at Wesley Theological Seminary and assistant professor of religion at St. Olaf College. He has served as a visiting professor at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia and at St. Olaf College.

Rasmussen is a past president of the Society of Christian Ethics and a past editor of The Annual of the Society of Christian Ethics. He served as a member of the Core Faculty of Auburn Theological Seminary, New York. He was a member of the Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and is currently a member of the Board of Regents of St. Olaf College and the Board of the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago.

His books include Earth Community, Earth Ethics and Bible and Ethics in the Christian Life (co-authored with Bruce Birch). He is co-editor, with Dieter Hessel, of Earth Habitat: Eco-Injustice and the Church’s Response and co-author with Daniel C. Maguire of Ethics for a Small Planet: New Horizons on Population, Consumption, and Ecology.

Feb. 26, 7:30 p.m., “Christianity's Ecological Phase: Talking the Walk”

Feb. 27, 10 a.m., “Christianity's Ecological Phase: Walking the Talk”

Feb. 28, 12:15 p.m., “Christianity's Ecological Challenge: Walking the Talk”