Events

The Houston Centre for Humanity and the Common Good will present a public talk on September 14 by Fr John Behr, Regius Professor of Humanity at the University of Aberdeen. Fr John has published the first English-language translation of Gregory of Nyssa’s classic text De hominis opificio (On the Human Image of God) since the 1800s. In this public lecture, Fr John will expound St Gregory’s anthropology and its ongoing relevance for the central question of what it means to be human.

Dr. Harry O. Maier, Professor of New Testament and Early Christian Studies at the Vancouver School of Theology, will offer a response to Fr Behr.

There will be an opportunity to ask questions during the Q&A. This event will be held onsite in the Regent College Chapel and online via rgnt.net/live.

Watch Live on Sept 14

To learn more, please visit The Houston Centre website or email the Houston Centre at [email protected].

About the Speakers

Fr John Behr is Regius Professor of Humanity at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, and was previously Dean of St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary where he taught for twenty-five years and edited the Popular Patristics Series. An avid translator and theologian, Fr John has refreshed the texts of a number of seminal patristic works in new translations for contemporary English readers, including Origen's On First Principles, Irenaeus' On the Apostolic Preaching, and Athanasius' On the Incarnation. Among his books, articles, and other publications is his most recent book-length project, 2019's John the Theologian and his Paschal Gospel, which puts the ancient readers of John in conversation both with the latest in biblical scholarship and the French phenomenologist Michel Henry. Fr John is currently working on a new edition of the complete works of Irenaeus.

Dr. Harry O. Maier is Professor of New Testament and Early Christian Studies at the Vancouver School of Theology. In addition to his publications across a range of scholarly interests (the representation of violence in Antiquity; ancient and contemporary apocalyptic theology; ecotheology and the New Testament; and more), Dr. Maier has served two parishes of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada in Victoria and Delta, British Columbia.

About the Houston Centre

The Houston Centre for Humanity and the Common Good is a five-year initiative of Regent College, grounded in Dr. James M. Houston’s comprehensive vision of integrative scholarship. Its main task is to foster interdisciplinary and interreligious dialogue on the central question of the late-modern world: what does it mean to be human?

Inviting a range of philosophical perspectives through collaboration with the University of British Columbia and other institutions, the Centre explores a holistic understanding of humanity that accounts for the unique social, political, and theological issues of our time. Comprising a community of leading scholars, the Centre generates dialogue across disciplines—theology, philosophy, biology, cognitive science, political studies, and more—in order to navigate the mystery of the human person.

Through public lectures, seminars, and a variety of publications, the Houston Centre helps others engage theological questions of humanity for the common good.