Carleton College’s Ian Barbour Lecture Series continues with a presentation by Dr. Larry L. Rasmussen on Tuesday, May 1 at 7 p.m. in the Severance Great Hall. Entitled “The Denial of a Diminished Planet: The Challenge of Science and to Religion,” this event is free and open to the public.
Although there is growing international recognition of the planetary ecological crisis, Rasmussen, an expert in Christian ethics, argues that there is widespread denial of the fundamental role of global capitalism and unprecedented human population growth in creating this problem. He argues a solution to the ecological crisis requires a changed approach to call these factors into question, and that this will pose problems both to modern science and to religion.
Rasmussen was the Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Social Ethics at Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York from 1986-2004. Prior to that he was Professor of Christian Ethics at Wesley Theological Seminary, Washington, D.C., and Assistant Professor of Religion at St. Olaf College in Northfield.
Rasmussen is currently the director of the Ghost Ranch decade project on Earth-honoring Faith: A Song of Songs. The June 21-27, 2010, seminar was “Water and a Baptismal Life”; June 20-26, 2011, was “Envisioning Paradise: Beauty and Biological Restoration;” June 19-25, 2012 is “Food, Food, Glorious Food: the Eucharist and Your Foodshed;” 2013 will be “A Desert Faith for a Desert Time.” Ghost Ranch, Abiquiu, N.M., is a Retreat and Conference Center.
Rasmussen’s books include the forthcoming Earth-honoring Faith: Religious Ethics in a New Key (Oxford U. Press, 2012); Earth Community, Earth Ethics (Orbis Books and the World Council of Churches, 1996) and winner of the 1997 Grawemeyer Award; Moral Fragments and Moral Community (Fortress, 1993); Dietrich Bonhoeffer: His Significance for North Americans (Fortress, 1990); Reinhold Niebuhr: Theologian of Public Life (Fortress, 1991; HarperCollins, 1989); Bible and Ethics in the Christian Life (co-authored with Bruce Birch) (Augsburg-Fortress, Second Edition, 1989; Third Edition in process; German language edition, 1993). The 2006 CBS Religion Special, Sacred Earth, Sacred Peoples, includes an interview with Rasmussen. The 2009 DVD resource, Earthbound, includes excerpts from Rasmussen.
The Ian G. Barbour Lecture Series honors Carleton College's Ian Barbour, Winifred and Atherton Bean Professor of Science, Technology and Society, Emeritus.
This event is sponsored by the Department of Religion, ENTS, and EthIC. The Severance Great Hall is located off College Street on the Carleton campus. For more information, including disability accommodations, contact Sandy Saari at (507) 222-4232 or ssaari@carleton.edu.
