The Wangerin Lecture Series
Join us for a monthly lecture series at the Rabbit Room's North Wind Manor. We will bring you lectures on a wide variety of topics as a part of our mission to cultivate and curate arts, music, and story for the life of the world.
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Check this page or sign up for the Rabbit Room newsletter to find out when in-person and livestream tickets are available. Livestream tickets are available to Rabbit Room members only
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AUGUST 20
The Act of Remembrance: History and Celebration of African American Spirituals
RUTH NAOMI FLOYD
An informative lecture-performance on the historical roots and musical language of African American Spirituals. The profound body of music illustrates the tension of redemptive beauty in times of oppression, resistance and liberation. This lecture examines the lyric, composition, rhythmic pattern, and dual spiritual and social-political message in African American Spirituals.
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Lecture Archive
Zach Eswine
Jesus' Artistry of Doubt
Jesus tells stories in such a way we who doubt recognize our own troubling experiences and find surprising pathways to faith. In this lecture, Dr. Zack Eswine will walk us through a close reading of some of Christ's parables in order to draw our attention to the ways Jesus uses stories to give those who doubt hospitable language to find their way to deepening faith.
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Zack Eswine (Rev. Ph.D.), serves as lead pastor of Riverside Church in Webster Groves, Missouri. Zack's books include Recovering Eden: The Gospel According to Ecclesiastes and he writes poems and stories at The Good Dark.
Alan Noble
How to Get Out of Bed When Life Feels Unbearable
Life is far harder than we are told it's going to be. It involves suffering, hardship, and misfortune.
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No one is immune. One of the most basic challenges in this life is how to get out of bed, how to live, why we should live, when living feels unbearable. In this session, we will discuss the difficulty of living while suffering from mental afflictions, the goodness of life lived for God and others, and the way our lives are witnesses to the goodness of existence for others. We will come to see the beauty of existence and our awesome duty to love others by enduring suffering.​
Kevan Chandler & Tommy Shelton
The Hospitality of Need
We live in a world where need is often a burden, or to some an idol. But the Bible says we’re all weak, we all fall short, and it also calls us to serve one another. So, if we all have needs and we’re all supposed to put others first, how does that work? As I reflect on my own life experience and how God has designed people to interact, I’m realizing that need can actually be an open door into deeper fellowship, growth, and healing for all parties involved, not just giver or recipient. If we recognized our needs as opportunities to invite others in and serve them, not in spite of but actually through our needs, maybe we wouldn’t be so hesitant or—on the other hand—demanding in our invitations. Perhaps we could get a little closer, together, to living and loving the way God intended for us from the beginning.
Jacob Simmons
Yes and Amen—On Faith and Improvisation
At its heart, improvisation is the act of creation in the midst of the unforeseen. What can we learn from the theatrical art of improvisation that encourages us to be better believers, communicators, and creators? How do we say "Yes And" to God and His People?
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Jacob Simmons is the Pastor of Hope Community Church in Birmingham, AL. He is also one of the founders of the Faraway Theater, an improv theater in the heart of Birmingham. Jacob trained in improv at the iO theater in Chicago, and currently performs with his group, Gladys. Jacob is married to Suzanne, and they have two children, John and Bea.
Alan Noble
How to Get Out of Bed When Life Feels Unbearable
Life is far harder than we are told it's going to be. It involves suffering, hardship, and misfortune.
​
No one is immune. One of the most basic challenges in this life is how to get out of bed, how to live, why we should live, when living feels unbearable. In this session, we will discuss the difficulty of living while suffering from mental afflictions, the goodness of life lived for God and others, and the way our lives are witnesses to the goodness of existence for others. We will come to see the beauty of existence and our awesome duty to love others by enduring suffering.​
Sandra McCracken
A Song to Sing in Every Season
Join Sandra McCracken for a conversation on the risks of creativity and the vulnerability of depending on God as the source and sustainer of our creative work. Sandra shares excerpts of songs and scripture to weave together stories that explore the creative process from the perspective of a songwriter, but exploring this topic more broadly and personally—recognizing that all of us are made for creativity. God is ever making something new of our lives, even in times of uncertainty, he gives us a song to sing.
Andrew Peterson
The Morning Star Rises—The Creative Process as Light in the Darkness
Andrew explores how art dispels the shadows of the past and present and points toward a promised future.
Andrew Fellows
Living in the Creator's Gift Economy
Andrew Fellows explores what the ‘gift economy’ is, and how it contrasts with the "market economy." Even though all of us live every day in "the Creator's gift economy," most of us live our lives with a "market mentality." The difference has special relevance for the arts and for artists.
Andy Patton
Even the Darkness is As Light to You: Christianity, Horror, and Stephen King
Stephen King has written 61 novels, has won numerous literary awards, has had more film adaptations made of his work than any living author, and has been called the “Master of Horror." If a task of the Christian is to seek and treasure God’s goodness, truth, and beauty wherever they are found, how should Christians interact with King’s work and with the horror genre in general? This lecture will explore King’s oeuvre, his life, and why our culture is so fascinated with the products of his strange and delightful imagination.
Andrew Peterson
At Home in the Borderlands
Artists often move among the borders--they’re “border-stalkers,” according to Makoto Fujimura. This often gives them a feeling of exile, and even loneliness, while they speak and write and create along the edges of things--but perhaps they’re not as alone as they think. Andrew explores the feeling of displacement many artists experience and offers encouragement for the journey in the borderlands.
Andy Patton
The Psalm Code: Genesis Imagery in the Psalms
Can you understand the Psalms without understanding the first two chapters of Genesis? Much of the imagery of the Psalms is built upon a handful of core images found in Genesis that appear again and again in the Psalter and throughout Scripture. We will look at where these metaphors come from, how they have shaped biblical poetry, and what they reveal about God himself.