What’s happening at PSC
Spring 2023
Guest lecture: Why Boredom Matters
February 25 at 7pm, All Souls Presbyterian Church
Hear from Dr. Kevin Gary, Professor of Education at Valparaiso University, as we examine the pervasive problem of distraction and boredom as a hindrance to human flourishing and consider ways to connect to richer moral and spiritual practices.
Free and open to all!
Paideia reading group
February 2, March 9, April 13 at 7pm, All Souls Presbyterian Church
Do you want to engage with classic Christian texts alongside other believers? Join Pascal Study Center’s Paideia reading group! This spring, we are reading On the Cosmic Mystery of Jesus Christ by Maximus the Confessor.
Organized through the Paideia Center for Theological Discipleship, this reading group is open to all Champaign-Urbana community members. Space is limited and registration is required. Contact us for a code for free registration.
Student reading group
Wednesdays at 4pm starting February 8, University Baptist Church second-floor classroom
Do you want to learn not only what to think but also how to think? We can all learn to think better, but improving our thinking requires both practice and community.
This spring, Pascal Study Center’s student reading group is discussing How to Think: A Survival Guide for a World at Odds by Alan Jacobs. This reading group is open to all university students. Free book for all participants!
Director’s office hours
Wednesdays 1:30–3:30pm, third floor of University Baptist Church
Have a question about the Christian faith in relation to learning or vocation? Want to suggest a future reading group, speaker event, or other program for PSC? Just want to chat? Come to Director Emily Wenneborg’s office hours! Anyone is welcome to stop by Dr. Wenneborg’s office at Urbana Theological Seminary on Wednesday afternoons. To schedule a meeting with Dr. Wenneborg at another time, please contact us.
Fall 2022
Paideia reading group
September 29, October 27, December 8 at 7pm, All Souls Presbyterian Church
Do you want to engage with classic Christian texts alongside other believers? Join Pascal Study Center’s Paideia reading group! This fall, we are reading Athanasius’ On the Incarnation. Concerning Athanasius, C. S. Lewis wrote, “It is his glory that he did not move with the times; it is his reward that he now remains when those times, as all times do, have moved away.” Come join us in discussing this book that has truly stood the test of time.
Organized through the Paideia Center for Theological Discipleship, this reading group is open to all Champaign-Urbana community members. Space is limited and registration is required. Contact us for a code for free registration.
Student reading group
Wednesdays at 2pm starting September 14, University Baptist Church second-floor classroom
Do you believe that you are your own person, belonging to no one else? Whether this leaves you feeling free from all restraints or anxious and overwhelmed, you are probably used to assuming that you are responsible for making your own identity and your own path through the world. But what if the most life-giving truth is that you are not your own?
This fall, Pascal Study Center’s student reading group is discussing Alan Noble’s You Are Not Your Own: Belonging to God in an Inhuman World. With self-deprecating humor and all-too-relatable examples, Noble considers the ways we all try to navigate the Responsibilities of Self-Belonging and the unexpected comfort of belonging to God.
This reading group is open to all university students. For a preview of what to expect, read Director Emily Wenneborg’s review of You Are Not Your Own.
If we are not our own but belong to Christ, then we are not free to belong wherever and to whomever we choose. We have limits and obligations. But we also can never be lost. No matter how uncertain, disorienting, and alienating the world may become, we can never be lost.
—O. Alan Noble, You Are Not Your Own