A Christian View of the "isms" of Our Day:

• Libertarianism
• Materialism
• Atheism
• Spiritual Consumerism
• Islamism
• Darwinism

A Christ the King lecture series in partnership with Patrick Henry College

Christ the King Church, a plant of the historic The Falls Church, meets at 1801 N. Quaker Lane, Alexandria, VA. Its website is found at www.ctkalexandria.org.

 

LECTURE DATES, TOPICS & LECTURERS
(each lecture begins at 9:15 am, followed by the church’s regular Sunday morning worship service at 10:30 a.m)

Click here for the full information packet.

 

Session 1, January 23 -- Libertarianism, Lecturer: Graham Walker
“If you value limited government and free markets, you should be a libertarian.” So say advocates of libertarianism. It sounds simple: just make sure public policy puts individual liberty first. Americans, including many Christians, find this increasingly persuasive. But libertarianism is not merely about law and economics. It actually provides a comprehensive framework of metaphysical and moral meaning, and its simple policy formulas both spring from this framework and reinforce it. Only when we see libertarianism as a form of political theology can we really understand it as a contemporary political force.

Session 2, January 30 -- Atheism, Lecturer: David Aikman
This talk will describe the rise of the aggressive “New Atheism” represented by authors like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens. It will explain how atheism at first had much greater influence in Europe than in the United States, but that the philosophical vacuum created by post-­modernism in the United States created the conditions for a new assault of atheism upon religious faith.

Session 3, February 6 -- Materialism, Lecturer: David Glade
“Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” Luke 12:14. This lecture will commend the discipline of simplicity in contrast to a culture of materialism.

Session 4, February 13 -- Spiritual Consumerism, Lecturer: Mark Mitchell
We live in a world where individual choice is paramount and where the mentality of the market threatens to permeate every facet of our lives. These dynamics shape the way many think about religion. In this session, we will explore the philosophical and cultural roots of spiritual consumerism.

BREAK 2/20

Session 5, February 27 -- Islamism I, Lecturer: David Aikman
This lecture will describe the core beliefs of Islam as a religion and the way the religion has been turned by Islamists into a political ideology.

Session 6, March 6 -- Islamism II, Lecturer: Darrel Cox
How Christians should engage with Muslim friends, neighbors and co-­workers.

Session 7, March 13 -- Darwinism, Lecturer: Neal Doran
The neo-­Darwinian “synthesis” of the 1940s is the most powerfully integrated system of thought in the history of the world. Given the attention and controversy of the ideas, it is important that Christians be able to articulate the arguments, which few can. This lecture will provide a brief survey of the history and opposition to this important idea.

Click here for the full information packet.

For a list of more than 200 other philosophical -­isms, go to http://phrontistery.info/isms.html