2023 Symposiums

February

3rd: “Nolo Episcopari: The Leadership Wisdom of J.R.R. Tolkien”

  • Dr. Mark Cook, Associate Professor of Leadership, DBU

10th: “Judging What is Good: Augustine and the Spiritual Role of the Bodily Senses”

  • Tavner Threatt, Instructor of Modern Literature, Founders Classical Academy

17th: “17th Four Challenges in Modern Healthcare”

  • Dr. Lee Mills, Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer, Community Care

24th: “The Church and its Critics: Is Organized Religion Evil?”

  • Dr. Jeffrey Kramer, Instructor of Chemistry, Grapevine Christian School and DBU

March

3rd: “How We Spend Our Days is, of Course, How We Spend Our Lives: The Formative Power of Digital Practices”

  • Dr. Felicia Wu Song, Professor of Sociology at Westmont College

10th: “The Arts and New Creation: A Panel Discussion”

  • Dr. Jodi Grimes, Associate Professor of English; Mr. Jim Hutchinson, Associate Professor of Communication and Fine Art; Dr. John McCuin, Professor of Physics and Mathematics; Dr. Jennifer Weaver, Associate Professor of Music, DBU

24th: “The Case for a Christian Humanism”

  • Mary Flickner, Coordinator of Developing the Christian Mind, Sam Still, Assistant Director, University Honors Program, DBU

31st: “Icons, Orthodoxy, and Spirituality: Writing about Faith”

  • Susan Cushman- Author of Pilgrim Interrupted, Tangles and Plaques: A Mother and Daughter Face Alzheimer’s

April

14th: “Ambition and Contentment In a World of Creative Destruction  ”

  • Dr. Ross O’Brien, Director of the Center for Business as Mission and Dr. Rick Martinez, Professor of Entrepreneurship, DBU 

21st: “The Intellectual, Moral, and Civic Value of Science and Science Education”

  • Dr. Mark Bloom, Professor of Biology, DBU

28th: “God is Not Robbed’ Dorothy L. Sayers, the Philosophy of Time, and the Problem of Evil”

  • Dr. Philip Irving Mitchell, Director of the University Honors Program, DBU 

September

8th: Putting Together A Porcelain Doll: Librettist and Composer in Collaboration

  • Dr. Brent Newsom, Associate Professor of English, Oklahoma Baptist University; Dr. Jim Vernon, composer

15th: Repurposing Failures: Two Tales of the Drugs Thalidomide and Viagra

  • Dr. Dong-Jae Jun, Research Scientist, University of Texas Southwestern

22nd: Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Literary Leadership

  • Dr. Mary Nelson, Director of the Ph.D. in Leadership Studies, DBU

29th: The Moral Responsibility of Graphic Design

  • Jim Hutchinson, Associate Professor of Communication and Art, DBU; Jeremy Honea, Creative Director, I Am Second; and Ken Koester, Assistant Professor of Digital Art and Graphic Design, DBU

October

13th: Wandering toward God, Thinking through Intellectual Doubt and the Christian Life

  • Dr. Jan Daehnert, Director of Ministry Guidance, DBU; Dr. Keith Loftin, Director of Philosophy, Politics, and Economics Program, DBU; and Dr. Dana Wicker, Director of Master of Arts in Christian Counseling, DBU

20th: “Let Us Make a Name for Ourselves”: Paradise Lost, the Tower of Babel, and the Myth of Modern Progress

  • Dr. Michael Whiting, Assistant Professor of Christian History and Leadership, DBU

27th: The Rule of Saint Benedict: A Timeless Tool for Fruitful Living

  • Dr. Katie Hargrave, Middle School Principal, Pantego Christian Academy

November

3rd: “If I Only Had a Brain”: The Rise of AI and its Impact on Healthcare

  • Dr. Jonathan Cooper, Assistant Professor of Biology, DBU

10th: The Christian Philosophy of Thomas Aquinas

  • Dr. Dax Bennington, Director of Campus Ministry and Evangelization, University of North Texas

17th: Reflections on the Writing of Frederick Buechner: Memoirist, Essayist, Prophet, “Novelist and Theologian of the Lost and Found”

  • Dr. Michael Williams, Senior Professor of History, DBU

December

1st: “The Arrow of God’s Time Flies Both Ways”: Dorothy L. Sayers, Entropy, and Evil

  • Dr. Philip Irving Mitchell, Director of the University Honors Program, DBU