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Florida Southern holds annual Bible Symposium

LAKELAND, Fla. (March 17, 2008) —The Department of Religion at Florida Southern College will hold its annual Bible Symposium on March 27-28. The event will be held in the William M. Hollis Seminar Room on campus starting Thursday at 10 a.m. with registration at 9:30 a.m. The day's sessions conclude at 3 p.m. Friday's sessions begin at 9 a.m. with refreshments at 8:30 a.m. and the symposium will adjourn at 1 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

The theme of this year's symposium is "Jesus and Empire." This topic poses questions from Christians and persons of other faiths who are reconsidering what it means to be citizens of national states. How do religious faith and national patriotism intersect? How do marginalized citizens function in relationship to an oppressive secular political power? Over which issues and in what ways should institutional faith communities express support for, or criticisms of, policies of their national governments? Is there guidance in the New Testament as to how Jesus might have related to the power of Imperial Rome? One of the major challenges to the contemporary Church is to reflect on and answer questions such as these.

Thursday

10 a.m.  

Dr. Richard A. Horsley is Distinguished Professor of Liberal Arts and the Study of Religion at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. Horsley is an internationally renowned scholar and interpreter of the Historical Jesus, Paul, and Early Christianity against the politics of the Roman Empire.

 

1 p.m.  

Dr. Mark G. Toulouse is Professor of American Religious History at Brite Divinity School, Forth Worth, Texas, and has been on the faculty of the graduate school of Texas Christian University since 1986. He received a Henry Luce III Fellowship for Theology for 1997-1998 and has been recognized for excellence in teaching multiple times.

Friday

9 a.m.  

Dr. Philip Wogaman is professor emeritus of Christian Ethics at Wesley Theological Seminary. He is a United Methodist pastor who, from 1992-2002, led the historic Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington, D.C. Wogaman was a delegate to the United Methodist General Conferences of 1988, 1992, 1996, and 2000, as well as a member of the World Methodist Council from 1986-1991.

 

11 a.m.  

Dr. Ted Jennings, a native Floridian and member of the Florida Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, currently serves as Professor of Biblical and Constructive Theology at Chicago Theological Seminary. His research interests include Christian doctrine, biblical theology, gay studies, and contemporary philosophy, particularly J. Derrida.

Lunch on Thursday will be available in the Hollis Room for $5. Two Continuing Education Units are available for those attending both days of the symposium.

For further information and reservations, contact 863-680-4180.