“Caring for strangers: The historical contribution of Christianity”: A Geneva Lecture by Luke Glanville

The Geneva Society invites everyone to attend this free public lecture by Luke Glanville. This Geneva Lecture is held in Vancouver (not TWU) and is entitled “Caring for strangers: The historical contribution of Christianity.”
DATE: Wednesday 12 October 2016
LOCATION: Grandview Calvary Baptist Church, 1803 East 1st Ave, Vancouver (see note about parking below)
TIME: 7:30-9:00pm
SUMMARY: In North America, the Christian church has the reputation for being a powerful supporter of conservative ideology. This reputation is a far cry from the early church’s social role. This lecture explores how early Christians radically transformed prevailing Roman understandings of social ethics. Whereas Roman philosophers endorsed a hierarchical and elitist ethic of patronage and reciprocity, the early Christians turned this upside-down, insisting that people should seek to help those most in need and those least able to reciprocate, including not only friends and family but also strangers and foreigners. The lecture traces the impact of this new ethic on the development of ideas about both social justice and international relations.
SPEAKER: Luke Glanville is a senior lecturer in International Relations at the Australian National University. His research and teaching focuses on historical and contemporary efforts to protect vulnerable people. Luke is author of Sovereignty and the Responsibility to Protect: A New History (University of Chicago Press, 2014). He is currently on research leave in Vancouver with his delightful wife, Clare, and their absurdly cute baby, Arthur.
This lecture is co-sponsored by Grandview Calvary Baptist Church, which is where the lecture is being held.
Please help get the word out via our Facebook event page!
PARKING can be a challenge. The best parking option is likely the underground parking at Il Mercato Mall. The mall is at Commercial Drive and 1st Avenue, and the entrance to the underground parking is off Graveley St: 1674 Graveley Street works in Google maps; it’s a 4-minute walk to the church from there. Here is the map locating the entrance to the parking lot.