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The Canterbury Forum

The Canterbury Forum The Canterbury Forum The Canterbury Forum
Home
About Us
Upcoming Programs
Past Program List
Contact Us
Directions
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Upcoming Programs
  • Past Program List
  • Contact Us
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  • Home
  • About Us
  • Upcoming Programs
  • Past Program List
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Welcome to The Canterbury Forum

Welcome to The Canterbury Forum Welcome to The Canterbury Forum Welcome to The Canterbury Forum Welcome to The Canterbury Forum

Welcome to The Canterbury Forum

Welcome to The Canterbury Forum Welcome to The Canterbury Forum Welcome to The Canterbury Forum Welcome to The Canterbury Forum

About the Canterbury Forum

 The Canterbury Forum’s name recognizes the fact that St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Cedar Falls has provided space free of charge for the Forum’s programs since the Forum’s inception.  The Forum is not otherwise affiliated in any way with St. Luke’s, the Episcopal Church, or with any religious body.  The fact that the majority of its programs have addressed Christian themes and issues reflects the fact that Christians constitute the great majority of the residents of the Cedar Valley.  Forum programs typically examine issues from a moderate to liberal perspective both because that perspective reflects the point of view of the mainline faith communities that the Forum was created to serve and because conservative religious communities have a multitude of outlets through which they regularly present their own point of view. 

 The Canterbury Forum is committed to a mission of informing and educating the Cedar Valley's mainstream faith communities about religious issues and the complex interactions between religion, society, and culture. Typically, the Forum presents six programs a year, divided between a Fall (August-September-October) and a Winter/Spring (February-March-April) series. By the fall of 2019, the Forum had presented one hundred-five programs.  Forum programs last about an hour and a half (including time for questions), and typical attendance is between sixty and eighty people.

 You can explore what the Forum has coming up by going to the Upcoming Forum Programs page on this website, and you can see what we've done since 2005 by checking out the topical listings under Past Programs.  You can also email us.  The Forum's general e-mail address is canterburyforum@gmail.com; you can also email individual coordinators, whose e-mail addresses are listed on the Contact Us page. The Forum Coordinators send out email reminders about its programs and those activities to faith communities and individuals who so desire. The Forum never shares anyone’s email address with any other persons, groups, or organizations, under any circumstances. 

Upcoming Forum Programs

In normal times Canterbury Forum programs are presented in Will Hall at St. Luke's Episcopal Church, ​2410 Melrose Drive in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Programs begin at 7:00 PM, and are free and open to the public.


In response to COVID-19, beginning in August 2020 Forum programs will be presented via Zoom. Login information for the Forum's Zoom programs will be sent out via email during the week immediately preceding each program. If you're not already on the Forum email list, email us at  canterburyform@gmail.com to make sure that you get up to date program and login information.


Sunday, February 28, 2021


"Most have given up accounts of witches": 

The Decline of the European Witch-hunts


Dr. Jennifer McNabb

Head, Department of History, UNI


Witchcraft has long been a topic of particular fascination for both popular and academic audiences. Much attention has been given to the causes and course of Europe's early modern witch-hunts, exploring, in the words of one historian, the "many reasons why." An equally intriguing question, however, is why a practice that had become embedded in the cultural fabric of early modern Europe came to a close. The creator of a popular Great Courses/Teaching Company course on the phenomenon of early modern witchcraft, Dr. McNabb will explore that issue by tracing the trajectory of witch-hunting's decline during the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Her presentation will consider the early modern rise of new methods of assessing “truth,” both in the criminal courts and in the courts of the monarchs whose laws made witchcraft a crime, and it will discuss the changing material circumstances that helped put out the fires of the great European witch-hunts.




Find out more

Past Program List

  Topics

 

Apocalypticism

Church and State

Environmental Stewardship

Exploring Sacred Literature

Fundamentalism and Atheism

Interfaith Perspectives
Jesus in History, the Bible, and Culture

Peace, Social  Justice, and Ethics

Perspectives within Christianity 

Religion and Culture
Religion and Science
Religion, Gender, and Sexuality
Religious History
 

                                           Apocalypticism                                                         
 

The Book of Daniel
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Rev. Dr. Judith Jones
Department of Religion, Wartburg College
 

Narrating the End of the World:  
The Social and Psychological Function of Apocalyptic Literature
Sunday, February 4, 2007
Dr. Brian Jones
Department of Religion, Wartburg College
 

The End-Times Encoded:  

Dispensationalism, the Bible, and History
Sunday, November 12, 2006
Dr. Brian Jones
Department of Religion, Wartburg College
 


Church and State  
 

Evangelicals and the 2016 Election
Sunday, October 30, 2016
Doug Smith
Christian radio station manager


The Hobby Lobby Decision:  

Corporations and Religious Freedom
Sunday, August 24, 2014
Dr. John Johnson
Department of History, UNI
 

Faith and the Founders:  

Religion and the Creation of America
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Dr. Hal Wohl
Emeritus Professor of History, UNI
 

Church and State in America:  
A panel discussion featuring faculty from the University of Northern Iowa
Sunday, November 6, 2005
Dr. Scott Peters, Department of Political Science
Dr. Charlotte Wells, Department of History
Dr. John Johnson, Department of History

 

Environmental Stewardship
 

Caring for the Air:
Lutheran Perspectives on Stewardship of Our  Atmospheric Environment

Sunday, February 26, 2017
Dr. Alan Czarnetzki
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, UNI


 Food or Fuel?  The Ethanol Dilemma
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Dr. Fred Kirschenmann
Fellow, Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, Iowa State University
 

Creating a Regenerative Society:
The Role of World Religions in the Survival of Creation
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Rev. Ben Webb
St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Cedar Falls

 

                    Exploring Sacred Literature                     

The Book of Job as Subversive Literature
Sunday, September 25, 2016
Dr. John Burnight
Department of Philosophy & World Religion, UNI


The St. John’s Bible:  

A 21st-Century Hand-Copied Bible
Sunday, April 27, 2014
Dr. Brian Jones
Department of Religion, Wartburg College
 

Translating the Bible
Sunday, October 27, 2013
Dr. Ken Atkinson
Department of History, UNI
 

YHWH:  

The Warrior God
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Dr. Brian Jones
Department of Religion, Wartburg College
 

Naming Evil:  

The Devil in Scripture and Faith
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Kevin Sanders
Mentor, Education for Ministry, University of the South
 

Creating the Bible:  

Revisiting the Word of God and the Work of Man
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Dr. Robert Dise
Department of History, UNI
 

First Christmas/Last Week:  

The Gospels as Biography
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Rev. Dick Clark,
St. Timothy’s UMC, Cedar Falls
 

The Gospel of Judas and Gnostic Christianity
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Dr. Ken Atkinson
Department of Philosophy and Religion, UNI
 

Creating the Bible:  

The Word of God and The Work of Man
Sunday, March 5, 2006
Dr. Robert Dise
Department of History, UNI



Fundamentalism and Atheism 


Fascism and Fundamentalism:
Extreme Reactions to a Changing World
Sunday, March 25, 2018

Dr. Robert Dise

Department of History, UNI


 Science, Faith, and the New Atheism
Sunday, April 21, 2013
Dr. John  Haught
Senior Fellow, Woodstock Theological Center, Georgetown University
 

The New Atheism’s Yang to Religious Fundamentalism’s Yin
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Dr. Dave McCalley
Emeritus Prof. of Biology, UNI
 

The Christian Right:  

Fundamentalism and Politics Since the 1960s
Sunday, October 15, 2006
Dr. Robert Dise
Department of History, UNI
 

The Origins of Christian Fundamentalism
Sunday, September 17, 2006
Dr. Robert Dise
Department of History, UNI
 

​

Interfaith Perspectives


Spirituality and the Sublime

Sunday, February 23, 2020

Dr. Francis Degnin

Department of Philosophy and World Religions, UNI


Hindu and Muslim Violence in India
Sunday, April 22, 2018

Dr. Louis E. Fenech
Department of History, UNI


Abraham, Moses, and Jesus in the Qur'an:
The Biblical Heritage in Muslim Scripture

Sunday, March 26, 2017
Dr. John Burnight
Department of Philosophy & World Religions, UNI


The Mormons
Sunday, March 23, 2014
Dr. Betty DeBerg
Head (ret.), Department of Philosophy & World Religion, UNI
 

The Messiah Myth:  

The Jewish Perspective
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Dr. Hal Wohl
Emeritus Professor of History, UNI
 

Muslim Women and the hijab:  

Minority Religious Freedom in France
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Dr. Emily Machen
Department of History, UNI
 

Jewish Law:  

A Rabbi’s Perspective
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Rabbi Stanley Rosenbaum
Sons of Jacob Synagogue, Waterloo
 

Islam, Judaism, and Christianity:  

An Imam’s Perspective
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Dr. Mohammed Fahmy
Imam of Masjid Al-Noor, Waterloo
 

A Rumor About the Jews:  

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Dr. Hal Wohl
Emeritus Professor of History, UNI
 

Tibetan Buddhism and the Dalai Lama
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Dr. James Robinson
Department of Religion, UNI
 

The Sikhs and Sacred Martyrdom
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Dr. Lou Fenech,
Department of History, UNI
 

Sunni, Shi’a and More:  

Diversity Within Islam
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Dr. Ken Atkinson
Department of Philosophy and World Religions, UNI
 

Judaisms in America
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Dr. Hal Wohl,
Emeritus Professor of History, UNI
President, Sons of Jacob Synagogue,
 

Enhancing Interfaith Effectiveness
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Rabbi Stanley M. Rosenbaum
Sons of Jacob Synagogue, Waterloo
 

Living among Christians:  

The Muslim and Jewish Perspective
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Dr. Mohammed Fahmy, Imam of the Cedar Valley Muslim Community
Rabbi Stanley Rosenbaum, Sons of Jacob Synagogue, Waterloo
 

Do We Really Understand Muslims and Islam?
Sunday, August 20, 2006
Prof. Mohammed Fahmy
Department of Industrial Technology, UNI
Imam of the Cedar Valley Muslim community



Jesus in History, the Bible, and Culture       

 
Does the Bible Present 

a Historically Accurate View of Jesus?
Saturday, October 11, 2014
Dr. Bart D. Ehrman
Department of Religion, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
 

Understanding Jesus Today
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Rev. Dick Clark
St. Timothy’s United Methodist Church
 

The Jesus of History and the Jesus of Popular Culture
Sunday, December 11, 2005
Dr. Ken Atkinson
Department of Religion, UNI



Peace, Social Justice, and Ethics        
 

 

How To Be An Anti-Racist: 

Reflections from a Community Book Read 

Sunday, October 25, 2020

Rev. Abraham Funchess

Pastor, Jubilee United Methodist Church, Waterloo


Our Epidemic of Gun Violence

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Rev. Abraham Funchess

Pastor, Jubilee United Methodist Church, Waterloo

Human Rights Director, City of Waterloo

​

The Poverty on Our Doorstep

Sunday, September 29, 2019

Tom Marrah

Operation Threshold


Liberation Theology:
The Fight for Social Justice in Central America
Sunday, March 31, 2019
Dr. Fernando Calderon
Department of History, UNI


Exploring "Personhood"

Sunday, October 28, 2018

Dr. Francis Degnin
Department of Philosophy and World Religions, UNI


Anti-Catholic Violence in 19th-Century America
Sunday, September 30, 2018
Dr. Biff Rocha
Director of Campus Ministry
St. Stephen the Witness Catholic Student Center


Sexual Trafficking in Iowa
Sunday, August 28, 2016
The Coalition against Human Trafficking Tri-State Area (Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin):
Sr. Irene Lukefahr, BVM
Sr. Diane Rapozo, BVM
Dr. Kim Hilby, Department of Socioology, University of Dubuque
 

​The Church and the Rwanda Genocide: 

Collusion, Cooperation, and Power
Sunday, April 3, 2016
Dr. Donna J. Maier
Department of History, UNI
 

Decolonizing Christianity: 

Native Americans and Western Religion
Sunday, February 28, 2016
Dr. Leisl Carr-Childers
Department of History, UNI
 

Same-Sex Marriage: 

The Landmark SCOTUS Decision Obergefell vs. Hodges
Sunday, August 30, 2015
Dr. John Johnson
Department of History, UNI
 

Death Panels and the Nanny State: 

Truth and Fiction in Health Care Reform
Sunday, October 26, 2014
Dr. Francis Degnin
Department of Philosophy & World Religions, UNI
 

Reducing Distance: 

Building Solidarity and Relationship with Persons in Prison
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Dr. Jenny McBride
Department of Religion and Regents Chair in Ethics, Wartburg College
 

Workplace Spirituality and Social Entrepreneurship
Sunday, August 25, 2013
Dr. Tim Ewest
Department of Business Administration, Wartburg College
 

Iowa’s Diversifying Peoples and Religions
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Dr. Mark Grey
Department of Sociology, UNI
Director of Iowa Center for Immigrant Leadership and Integration
 

Torture:  Ethics and Pragmatism
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Dr. Francis Degnin
Department of Philosophy & World Religions, UNI
 

Discipleship and Community: 

Breaking Down the Walls That Divide Us
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Rev. Maureen Doherty
Director, New City Ministries
 

Alzheimer’s, Ethics, and Faith
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Dr. Francis Degnin
Department of Philosophy & World Religions, UNI
 

Theodicy:  Why Does God Allow Suffering?
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Dr. Brian Jones
Department of Religion, Wartburg College
 

Love Thy Neighbor:  

A Parkersburg Tornado Documentary
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Dr. Jay Lees
Department of History, UNI
 

When Peace and Justice Appear in Conflict:  
Hard Choices in the Prosecution of Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity, and War Crimes
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Stephen J. Rapp
Prosecutor, United Nations Tribunal for Sierra Leone
 

Immigration and Faith:  Lessons from Postville
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Dr. Mark Grey
Department of Sociology, UNI
Director of Iowa Center for Immigrant Leadership and Integration
 

Torture and America:  

Moral, Legal, and International Implications
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Congressman Bruce Braley (IA-01)
 

Building Bridges between Iran and the United States
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Dr. Patricia Shelly
Professor of Bible and Religion, Bethel College (Kansas)
Past Director, Mennonite Central Committee Palestine Program
 

Just War: Moral Guide or Oxymoron?
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Thomas Kessler
Peace & Justice Center of the Cedar Valley
 

The Idolatry of the Marketplace
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Rev. Dr. Dave Wood
First Presbyterian Church, Waterloo
 

A Prophetic Voice for Peace:  Rabbi Abraham Heschel
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Prof. Harold Kasimow
Grinnell College
 

The Soul of Society:  Teaching Social Justice
Sunday, June 18, 2006
Fr. George Karnik
 

​​ 

               Perspectives within Christianity          

The Baptists: A Study in Diversity

Sunday, August 25, 2019

Rev. Joe Greemore
Waterloo First American Baptist Church


The Few, the Proud, the Saved:
Limited Atonement in the Reformation--and Today!
Sunday, May 1, 2016
Dr. Charlotte Wells
Department of History, UNI
 

The Jesuits and the First Jesuit Pope
Sunday, February 23, 2014
Dr. Charlotte Wells
Department of History, UNI
 

Celtic Sacred Space and Irish Christian Pilgrims
Sunday, March 24, 2013
Dr. Tom Connors
Department of History, UNI
 

Sharing the Gospel in a 

“Spiritual but not Religious Age”
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Rev. Brian Beckstrom
Campus Chaplain, Wartburg College
 

Christian Broadcasting:  An Insider’s Perspective
Sunday, February 10, 2013
Doug Smith
Station Manager, KNWS Radio
 

Contemplative Christianity:  The Proof Is in the Practice
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Bill Witt
Cistercian Lay Associate
 

The Amanas:  From Religious Commune to Tourist Attraction
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Dr. Brian Roberts
Department of History, UNI
 

The Blood of Jesus:  Cinema Looks At the Black Religious Experience
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Dr. Gloria Gibson
Executive Vice President, Provost, and Professor, UNI
 

Diversity Within the Black Church
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Rev. Dr. Michael Blackwell
Director, Center for Multicultural Education, UNI 



     Religion and Culture         


Religion and Popular Culture

Sunday, August 26, 2018

Rev. Nate Nims

Waterloo First United Methodist Church



          Religion and Science          


The Religious Significance of Geology 

Sunday, September 27, 2020

Dr. Lynn Brant

Emeritus Professor of Geology, UNI 


 Cosmology: The Universe through Biblical Eyes
Sunday, September 27, 2015
Dr. Brian Jones
Department of Religion, Wartburg College
 

Evolution: Teaching the Controversy
Sunday, April 26, 2015
Dr. Bob Dise
Department of History, UNI
 

Personal Piety and Scientific Inspiration
Sunday, September 28th, 2014
Dr. Daniel Black
Chair, Department of Biochemistry, Chemistry, and Engineering,
Wartburg College
 

God and Evolution
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Dr. John Haught
Senior Fellow in Science and Religion, Georgetown University
 

Creationism, Intelligent Design, and Evolution
Sunday, November 20, 2005
Dr. Dave McCalley
UNI Emeritus Prof. of Biology, UNI

 

           Religion, Gender, and Sexuality             
 

Feminine Images of God
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Rev. Dr. Judith Jones
Department of Religion, Wartburg College
 

Somaphobia:  Gays and Lesbians in the Black Church
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Rev. Dr. Michael Blackwell
Director, Center for Multicultural Education, UNI
 

The Bible, Mary Magdalene, 

and Mary the Mother of Jesus
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Prof. Susan Hill
Department of Philosophy and Religion, UNI
 

Women in the Church: A clergy panel
Sunday, May 21, 2006
Rev. Pam Ulffers, United Methodist Church
Rev. Linda Pflugfelder, Presbyterian Church, USA
Rev. Maureen Doherty, Episcopal Church, USA
 

Gays, Lesbians, and the Church:  

A clergy panel discussion
Sunday, April 23, 2006
Rev. Anne Lippincott, United Methodist Church
Rev. Diane Dardon, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Rev. Brad Braley, Presbyterian Church, USA
Rev. Ben Webb, Episcopal Church, USA
 

Homosexuality and the Bible
Sunday, March 26, 2006
Rev. Dick Clark
St. Timothy’s United Methodist Church



Religious History      
 

Holy Warriors:
Four Fighters for Emancipation before the Civil War

Sunday, April 28, 2019

Dr. Wally Hettle

Department of History, UNI


The Wars of the Reformation:
Why They Still Matter
Sunday, February 25, 2018

Dr. Charlotte Wells

Department of History, UNI


Luther, the Catholic!

Sunday, October 29, 2017

Dr. Charlotte Wells
Department of History, UNI


Heresy and the Church in the Middle Ages:
The Spiritual and Conventual Franciscans

Sunday, September 24, 2017

Dr. Jay Lees

Department of History, UNI


Religious Conflict in Early Christianity

Sunday, August 27, 2017

Dr. Bob Dise

Department of History, UNI


Religious Dissent in Ancient Judaism

Sunday, April 30, 2017

Dr. Ken Atkinson

Department of History, UNI


The Origins of Heaven and Hell
Sunday, October 25, 2015
Dr. Ken Atkinson
Department of History, UNI
 

The Temple in Jerusalem: 

From Solomon to the Arab Conquest
Sunday, March 29, 2015
Dr. Ken Atkinson
Department of History, UNI
 

Calling All Crusaders! 

Understanding the Calls for the First Two Crusades
Sunday, February 22, 2015
Dr. Jay Lees
Department of History, UNI
 

Sodom and Gomorrah:  

Myth, Legend, and History
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Dr. Brian Jones
Department of Religion & Philosophy, Wartburg College
 

Where Did Jesus Sit At the Last Supper?
The Sites, Smells, and Sounds of Early Christian Worship
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Dr. Ken Atkinson
Department of History, UNI
 

Crucifixion, Burial, and Resurrection in Jesus’ Time
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Dr. Ken Atkinson
Department of Philosophy & World Religions, UNI
 

Why Them?  Why Then?  The Great Witch Craze
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Dr. Charlotte Wells
Department of History, UNI
 

From Tents to TV:  

 Religion, Gender, and Sexuality
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Dr. Robert Martin
Chair, Department of History, UNI
 

When Christianity Was Jewish
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Rev. Dr. Judith Jones
Department of Religion, Wartburg College


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