JACKSON, Tenn. — April 7, 2015 — Sex, marriage and society will be the topic for the next Town and Gown series at Union University on Thursday evenings from April 9-May 7.
The Town and Gown series is an opportunity for community members interested in various topics to attend lectures and participate in discussions in a classroom setting. The classes are free and open to the public.
Justin Barnard, associate professor of philosophy at Union and associate dean of the Institute for Intellectual Discipleship, said Western culture is rapidly approaching a point in which traditional religious convictions regarding marriage and human sexuality are not only eroding, but are no longer regarded as worthy of being discussed in civil discourse.
“In such a climate, those who wish to preserve a traditional religious perspective on marriage and human sexuality must recover two things,” Barnard said. “First, we must recover a solid understanding. Traditional religious communities need to be able to understand and articulate the basic tenets of their convictions regarding human sexuality and marriage for themselves.
“Second, we need to recover the capacity to speak winsomely about these matters in the public square.”
Barnard said this series is an effort to do both by aiming to equip participants with a basic understanding of a biblical view of marriage and human sexuality while taking into consideration the cultural climate.
“This means that we will come to understand the current legal situation, present sociological research and think about the future of religious freedom,” Barnard said. “All of this will be oriented toward helping people navigate in an increasingly pluralistic and sometimes hostile age."
The schedule for the series is:
- April 9, “The Green Book’s Revenge: The Cultural Consequences of Rejecting Reality” at 6 p.m., by Barnard, and “Man as Male and Female in the Image of God” at 7:30 p.m. by Susan Nash, a Doctor of Ministry candidate at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.
- April 16, “Marriage and Historic Christianity: An Overview,” at 6 p.m., by Henry Allen, visiting assistant professor of history at Union; “Change We Can Be(have) In: Pope John Paul II and the Church’s Sexual Imagination,” at 6:45 p.m., by Zack Clemmons, a Christian thought and tradition major at Union; and “Marriage and Sexuality in Biblical Perspective,” at 7:30 p.m., by George Guthrie, Benjamin W. Perry Professor of Bible at Union.
- April 23, “The End of the World As We Know It: Political, Cultural and Legal Changes Over the Past 50 Years,” at 6 p.m., by Sean Evans, associate professor of political science at Union, and “A Decent Proposal: Marriage, Pluralism and the Whole Counsel of God,” at 7:30 p.m., by Micah Watson, associate professor of political science at Union.
- April 30, “Marital Conflict: The Fight Over Marriage and Its Implications for Families, Children and Society,” at 6 p.m., by Phil Davignon, assistant professor of sociology at Union; “Inside the Polis: The Abolition of Marriage in Madison County,” at 7:30 p.m., by Bree McCuin, a political science major at Union; and “Counseling and Christian Moral Conscience,” at 8:15 p.m., by Melissa Davignon, a national certified counselor.
- May 7, “Sexual Liberation and Religious Liberty,” at 6 p.m., by C. Ben Mitchell, Union provost and Graves Professor of Moral Philosophy, and “How Christians Are Becoming Heretics in American Society,” by Hunter Baker, associate provost and dean of instruction at Union.
All classes meet in Harvey Auditorium in the Barefoot Student Union Building. For more information, call Barnard at (731) 661-5963 or email him at jbarnard@uu.edu.