Sunday Lectures

The following single-lecture presentation will be held at The Women's Institute on Sunday afternoons from 4:00 to 5:30 p.m. Each lecture is followed by refreshments. The fee for each lecture is $30 unless otherwise noted.

Schedule

In reviewing Michael White’s new book, Yale University’s Wayne Meeks wrote “Every reader who has ever puzzled over the oddities in the Gospels, and over the odd new Gospels that have been turning up in recent decades, will be grateful for Scripting Jesus: The Gospels in Rewrite.”  In this book Dr. White reveals how the gospel stories of Jesus were never meant to be straightforward historical accounts, but rather were scripted and honed as dramatic pieces of interpretation designed for four different audiences and filled with four different theological agendas.  In this lecture he will provide participants with highlights from the book and the research that went into its writing.  (Books will be available for purchase and signing by the author.) 

For a variety of reasons German art of the 19th century remains little known outside of Germany.  Yet there are many superb works that deserve wider appreciation.  This major exhibition from September 12 to December 5 at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, will offer a rare opportunity to examine a broad selection of these works.  This lecture will focus on putting these paintings in the wider context of 19th century German culture and the French artistic influence of the times.  Artists such as Casper David Friedrich, Philipp Otto Runge, Carl Spitzweg, Max Liebermann, Lovis Corinth, and Max Slevogt will illustrate the spectrum of this period. 

$30

In this lecture, we will focus on the common challenges of chronic illness, physical limitations, personal, social and cognitive losses that are common in aging.  Dr. Diddel, Executive Director of Disability 101 and a specialist in coping with disability and loss, will present some new ways to think about these challenges and suggest ways to remain positive and engaged despite forces that tend to undermine our resolve.  Participants will learn about resources and engage in discussion to implement these concepts in their daily lives.

$30

$30

For a little over 100 years, from 1363 to 1477, four dukes of Burgundy ruled over a powerful, semi-independent state including parts of modern France and most of present-day Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands.  Princes of the royal blood, the dukes were renowned for the quasi-regal splendor of their court.  They expressed their power and prestige with magnificent dress, lavish banquets and brilliant festivities.  They wielded great power at the French court at a time of grave peril and political turmoil when the young king went mad and the English re-invaded France.  Great patrons of the arts, the dukes commissioned many masterpieces, making their capital, Dijon, an epicenter of artistic innovation.  The tombs of the first dukes—Philip the Bold and John the Fearless—are some of the finest examples of Burgundian court sculpture, including a funeral cortège of statuette-mourners who are dressed in flowing robes and display their grief with expressive gestures. 

$30

$30

In this lecture, we will review Nietzsche's critique of "otherworldliness”—one of his major criticisms of Christianity.  He claims the Christian philosophical perspective is a form of nihilism because of its view of the material world, which includes the cosmos, earth, and even our own bodies.  We will consider Nietzsche's perspective on this and determine the merit of his exhortation to "love the world."  (This lecture is a finale of sorts to the "Philosophy for Life" class.)

$30

$30