Fred SandersPacific Systematic Theology Colloquium
2024 is the inaugural year for this new regional conference: a biennial gathering in southern California to consider a major doctrine in systematic perspective. Feb 2-3, 2024, we will be meeting at Gateway Seminary in Ontario, CA for two days of paper presentations and lively conversations.
The conference organizers are a set of Los Angeles-area theologians with a commitment to keeping theological dialogue going strong in the western region of the United States. Anyone is welcome, but the PSTC exists to meet the needs of theologians working in the western third of the U.S. We are blessed with various established larger conferences (the now-biennial Los Angeles Theology Conference), institutional conferences (Claremont Graduate Philosophy of Religion), denominational meetings, and regional chapters of national societies (AAR, SBL, ETS). But there is still a regional need for an independent theology event that spans confessions, traditions, and institutions for meaningful work on Christian doctrines. The planning team is Fred Sanders and Uche Anizor (Biola University), along with Chris Chun and David Rathel (Gateway Seminary).
The theme in this inaugural year is “Christology and Implicated Doctrines.” The two invited plenary speakers are Daniel J. Treier (Wheaton College) and Steven J. Duby (Phoenix Seminary), both of whom have recently published significant works on Christology.
Treier’s paper will be “Christ and ‘Culture’ Theodramatically Distributed,” and Duby’s will be “Life-giving Flesh: Deity, Humanity, and the Efficacy of the Atonement.”
Systematic theologians agree that the doctrine about Jesus Christ has a unique significance for the entire theological outlook. We characterize Christology’s systematic influence with a variety of words and images: it is central or foundational, determinative or pervasive, all encompassing or at least much encompassing. This conference will explore not only Christology itself, but also the ways in which it implicates the rest of the theological system.
Schedule:
| Friday Feb 2: |
| 5pm Arrival, check-in |
| 6pm Welcome Plenary 1: Steve Duby, “Life-giving Flesh: Deity, Humanity, and the Efficacy of the Atonement.” |
| 7pm Breakouts: Eric Oldenburg PhD Candidate in Systematic Theology, Melbourne School of Theology “Jesus’ Will to Die: A Taxonomy of Volition in Schlatter’s Account of Gethsemane and Golgotha in Jesus’ Divinity and the Cross” David Rathel Associate Professor of Christian Theology, Gateway Seminary “Divine Identity and the Theologians: Assessing the Usefulness of Richard Bauckham’s Divine Identity Framework for Modern Dogmatics” Aaron Pendergrass Bethel Baptist Church and Gateway Seminary “Christic Vision and Impeccability: Reconstructing the Beatific Vision in Relation to the Communicatio Gratiarum” |
| 8:30pm Concluding discussion for day 1 |
| Sat Feb 3: |
| 9am Breakouts: Elaina Mair PhD Student, University of Aberdeen “The Christo-Praxis of Frederick Herzog“ Rafael Bello Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at the Oklahoma Baptist University. “Christology and Merit in Anselm: A Reassessment” Joel Putnam Student, Phoenix Seminary “John Owen’s Scholastic Spirituality: The Creedal Coherence and Contemporary Significance of Owen’s Chistologia“ |
| 10:30am Plenary 2: Dan Treier, “Christ and ‘Culture’ Theodramatically Distributed” |
| 12:00 Lunch break |
| 1pm Breakouts: Brian Ballard Associate Professor of Philosophy, Concordia University Irvine “The Incarnation as Source of Value for All Creation” J. Alex Tabaka PhD Student at Westminster Theological Seminary “The Energies of Christ: A post-Chalcedonian exploration with a (perhaps) surprising discovery in Reformed Orthodoxy” Kyle Strobel Associate Professor of Spiritual Theology, Talbot School of Theology, Biola University “Love Made Manifest: Jonathan Edwards’s Spirit-Christology” |
| 2:30pm Breakouts: Charles Regli Ph.D. Candidate at Baylor University “The Extra Extra Extra Calvinisticum: From Christology to American Slavery & Back Again with Stuart Robinson” Darren Sumner Affiliate Associate Professor of Theology, Fuller Theological Seminary “Exalted Unto Humility: Kenosis and the Status Duplex” Robb Torseth Public Services Librarian and Adjunct Professor at Gateway Seminary “Ontology, Revelation, and Christology: Slipping Christ’s Deity in through the Back Door with Isaak Dorner” |
| 4pm Closing panel |
Tickets are on sale now via Eventbrite; $75 general admission and $40 for students.
