The conference theme is:
Christian Higher Education: Finding God’s Light in the Twilight
“For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.”
Psalm 36.9
Christian higher education aims to prepare students to share God’s light for people and our planet in a world full of anxiety and uncertainty, pandemics and wars, but also a time of great opportunities. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer noted, we dwell in the “twilight”, a mix of light with darkness. In this twilight, we identify four important topics that enable our students to serve as Christians in varied fields of study and application:
· The future of democracy: Through democracy, our countries strive to protect life, honor human freedom, and promote justice. How can Christian learning foster peaceful and just flourishing for people in pluralistic cultures?
· The relationship of faith and the sciences: We believe that there are no secular spaces beyond our Creator’s design. With what experiences and practices can we teach our students to appreciate, explore, and utilize the sciences well in relationship to their faith, ethics, and professions?
· The challenges of sustainability: Stewardship requires creativity to sustain resources while supporting life for more than eight billion people. In what ways can we prepare graduates with ideas and creativity that address these global challenges?
· The role of technologies: Powerful technologies change our individual and worldwide patterns for truth-seeking and behavior. How do we enable students to engage the structures, directions, and powerful effects of technologies from the wisdom of Christian faith?
The Christian university can call students toward identity and purpose that replaces twilight with the Biblical story of light and redemption. How do we enable our graduates to move from the twilight of conflict, uncertainty, resource depletion, and technological determinism toward life, truthfulness, stewardship, and shalom? During this global conference we invite all professors and others involved in Christian higher education to share insights and best practices on these topics.
In addition to the plenary sessions, there will be two types of parallel sessions:
Breakout session which give the opportunity to report on current research and good practices in higher education.
Each breakout session will provide space for speakers to each give a 15-minute presentation, followed by discussion. Someone other than the speakers will chair the session.
Workshops that concentrate on a specific topic related to the theme of the conference (e.g. research into professional practice, innovations in the curriculum, et cetera).
Each workshop will last 45 minutes and will be chaired by someone other than the workshop leader. The workshops will be spaces for collective learning and will provide space for interactions. These are not lectures with discussion.
Scholars and professionals are invited to send abstracts for either of the two types of parallel sessions. Details on the different sessions and guidelines can be found on this page (deadline 2nd round: NOVEMBER 30, 2024).
General remarks
We aim to provide opportunities to present to as many participants as possible.
The content committee reserves the right to select speakers from among the submitted proposals. If necessary, the content committee will provide feedback on draft proposals.
The content committee will create a final programme for the parallel sessions, considering the submissions.
Please bear in mind that the submission of a proposal does not in itself mean that you are registered for the conference. Presenters and speakers need to subscribe and pay for the conference themselves.
Submissions
The opportunity to submit proposals is now closed.