October 26, 2004

Whitworth, Gonzaga to Co-Host lecture series
'Suffering & the God of Abraham' Nov. 7-10

Gonzaga University and Whitworth College will co-host the lecture series "Suffering & the God of Abraham: C.S. Lewis and the Problem of Pain" Nov. 7-10 with lectures scheduled at both campuses. All of the lectures are free and open to the public. For more information, please call (509) 323-6744 or e-mail faithandreason@gonzaga.edu.

Believers in the God of Abraham - the theistic Creator-God of the Jewish, Christian and Islamic traditions - come face-to-face each day with personal and philosophical examples of the problem of suffering. The conference will explore the depths of suffering - and of God's love - as participants use the theistic lens of C.S. Lewis to view and deal with physical and emotional pain.

The series is sponsored by Betty S. Wheeler, Whitworth's Weyerhaeuser Center for Christian Faith and Learning, and the Gonzaga University Faith and Reason Institute.

The schedule of lectures follows:

Sunday, Nov. 7, 7 p.m.
Bruce Edwards, Ph.D.
"Shedding Some Light on Shadowlands"
Robinson Teaching Theatre, Weyerhaeuser Hall, Whitworth College

Monday, Nov. 8, 7 p.m.
Bruce Edwards, Ph.D.
"Apologetics in the Shadowlands: C.S. Lewis and the Problem of Pain"
Globe Room, Cataldo Hall, Gonzaga University

Tuesday, Nov. 9, 7 p.m.
Kathrin Rogers, Ph.D.
"Is it Wrong to Despair?"
Music Building Recital Hall, Whitworth College

Wednesday, Nov. 10, 7:30 p.m.
Rev. Robert Spitzer, S.J.
"Three Principles for Using Faith to Suffer Well"
Spokane Room, COG, Gonzaga University

Biographies of lecture-series speakers:

• Gonzaga President Rev. Robert J. Spitzer, S.J. is a Jesuit priest, a teacher, an author and a lecturer on topics ranging from ethics and philosophy to the relationship between modern physics and Christian faith, Rev. Spitzer holds many roles. Among his works are the books, Healing the Culture: A Commonsense Philosophy of Happiness, Freedom, and Life Issues; The Spirit of Leadership: Optimizing Creativity and Change in Organizations; and the upcoming New Proofs for the Existence of God: Contributions to Late Twentieth Century Physics and Philosophy, forthcoming from the Notre Dame University Press.
  
  
• Katherin Rogers, Ph.D., associate professor of philosophy at the University of Delaware, specializes in early medieval philosophy and the contemporary analytic philosophy of religion. Her books include Perfect Being Theology; The Anselmian Approach to God and Creation, and The Neoplatonic Metaphysics and Epistemology of Anselm of Canterbury. Her current research focuses on free-will issues in the work of St. Anselm of Canterbury.
  
  
• Bruce Edwards, Ph.D., is a professor of English and associate dean for distance education and international programs at Bowling Green State University, Ohio, where he has served the past 23 years. Edwards has published dozens of articles on the life and work of C. S. Lewis, and is the author of A Rhetoric of Reading: C. S. Lewis's Defense of Western Literacy, and editor of The Taste of the Pineapple: Essays on C.S. Lewis as Reader, Critic, and Imaginative Writer. He has also served on the editorial board for The C. S. Lewis Readers Encyclopedia, and he authored Searching for Great Ideas, Processing Words, and Roughdrafts. He was named a C.S. Lewis Fellow by the C.S. Lewis Foundation for 2004. His current research focuses on the role of C.S. Lewis as a public intellectual and his continuing impact on American Christianity.

Contacts:

Cory Madsen, Faith and Reason Institute, Gonzaga University, faithandreason@gonzaga.edu.

Julie Riddle, public information specialist, Whitworth College, (509) 777-3729 or jriddle@whitworth.edu.