We offer programs year-round
During the fall, spring, and summer terms, our curricula often are organized around a theme of special relevance to the interests of our constituency. For example, some of the themes that indicate the breadth of our concerns are:
Faith and Science: Templeton Lectures
Faith and Philosophy: Dr. Phillip Johnson's Critique of the Assumptions and Evidence of Modern Darwinism
Faith and Geopolitics: Max Stackhouse’s Lecture on Faith and Globalization
Faith and Biblical Studies: Jesus Studies
Faith and Art: Jesus Film Festival and Lecture on the Book of Kells
Faith and Writing: C.S. Lewis Retreat, Writers’ Conference
Faith and Daily Life: Ministry in Daily Life Conference and Conference on Vocation with Richard Nelson Bolles)
Faith and Western Culture: John Stott Lecture
Faith and Spiritual Growth and Vitality: Journal-Keeping Workshops, Lenten Retreats, and courses on Christian Contemplative Spirituality
Faith and Christian Traditions: Conversation with Members of the Bruderhof
New College Berkeley carries out its mission and ministry amid the intellectual, cultural, political, and ethnic diversity of the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. The truths of biblical Christianity are best learned and lived in open encounter with other points of view and styles of life. Our faculty and students seek to learn to be "in the world, but not of it."
Co-Sponsored Programs
In addition to the regularly scheduled New College-sponsored programs, we also offer a ministry to local churches, church groups, and parachurch organizations that want programs offered exclusively for, and focused on the needs of, their members . New College Berkeley programs, specifically shaped for a particular church's needs, are offered to more than one hundred churches with which we are regularly in contact, from Santa Cruz to Mendocino, and San Francisco to Sacramento.
Many pastors and church leaders have come to recognize that the expertise, scholarship, and teaching ability of New College Berkeley faculty are not available in their churches. Although any particular church might have experts in a few subjects, rarely can all the educational needs of a growing congregation be met through its own members. Our mission is to make available to churches and other groups a distinguished and dedicated Christian faculty teaching on a wide range of subjects and disciplines.
New College Berkeley Seminars
On a regular basis, the New College Berkeley community of faculty and people interested in Christian scholarship gathers in faculty homes to discuss papers and projects a faculty member is working on. Topics span the range of interests in the community, and presenters may bring a chapter of a book in progress, an academic paper draft, a paper for a graduate course, a lecture for future presentation, or a letter or communique to the editor of a journal. The papers may be for use in a secular setting and the presenter is seeking Christian reflection on its content and style.
The Seminar is a regular part of New College Berkeley's academic life and is attended regularly by a core group of scholars and students. In addition to this core group, each Seminar attracts colleagues of the presenter and others interested in the subject under discussion. It is rare to find a fellowship of Christians willing to think theologically about papers ranging in subject from psychoanalysis to chemistry to seventeenth century English poetry. Here, as in the rest of New College Berkeley's ministry, the commitment is to thorough integration of Christianity with all areas of our lives.
Past seminars have included:
Christianity Embattled in Its Birthplace: Reflections on the State of Israel —Robin Wainwright, M.Div.
Out of Bounds: Bay Area Christian Artists Network —David and Susan English Fetcho.
A Postmodern Rethinking of Health and Wholeness —Jane Bacon, M.A., and Mary Sue Heilemann, R.N., Ph.D.
The Making of "Toy Story "—Pete Docter
Belief Unnerved: Convenience, Choice, Leisure, and Privacy —Steven Snyder, M.Div., Ph.D.
Life Is a Pilgrimage of Spirit —Margaret Alter, Ph.D.
Building Community and Spirituality with Kingdom Values —Joel T. Mackey, M.Div., J.D.
Slavery as a Metaphor for Morality —Bonnie Howe, Ph.D.
The Light through Every Thing: Understanding Form and Incarnation in the Iconography of Michel Burgard —David S. Fetcho.
A Conversation about Independent Scholarship —Raymond Yee, Ph.D.
Emotion and Silence in the Poetry of Spirituality —Jade Fleck, Ph.D.
The Future of Missions in Africa in Light of the Colonial History —Remy Tshihamba, M.Div., Ph.D.