Whether religious or atheist, most Western people have a picture and a sense of the character of God: white robe, white beard, white man. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will trace the origin of this image and consider how it may differ from the way people envisioned God in Biblical times.

The ideas about the afterlife in heaven and hell are deeply ingrained in modern, popular culture, based on Christian doctrines and imagery from antiquity through the Middle Ages to the present. However, this concept of the afterlife is almost entirely absent from the Old Testament. In making his covenant with Abraham, God does not promise eternal life in heaven. Rather, Abraham is blessed with prosperity, long life, and a vast posterity. In this lecture, John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place briefly traces the development of our modern ideas about afterlife from its pagan origins to the present.

Abelard and Heloise are among the great scholastic philosophers of the 12th century. Their affair led to their secret marriage, which was discovered with terrible consequences for them both. Nevertheless their letters have kept the romance alive for centuries, and Abelard's philosophical ideas helped change the course Western thought.

Resurrection and eternal life in heaven has often been cited as a reason for Christianity's success against Paganism. To consider this proposition, we need to look in more depth at how different pagan religions envisioned the afterlife.

The story of the Pharaoh that introduced the worship of one God before the time of Israel. Fourteen hundred years before Christ, the Pharaoh Amenhotep IV rejected the old gods of Egypt and introduced the worship of one God above all: Atun. Although he was able to promulgate a new henotheist (possibly even monotheist) religion during his lifetime, after his death the traditionalists won out, reversed his reforms, and deleted his name from the king lists. We'll look at this remarkably early innovation and its echoes in later monotheistic religion.

Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) was one of the most brilliant theologians and philosophers of the Middle Ages and all of human history. Aquinas famously believed that the existence of God could be proved by reason alone and he provided five arguments to this effect. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will look at each of the five arguments alongside the counter-arguments and will also consider what Aquinas’ philosophy tells us about his conception of God.

By the end of the third century, most Christian leaders adhered to the paradoxical belief that the Creator is God, Christ is God, and the Spirit is God, whiles also insisting that there is only one God. However, they continued to be bitterly divided about how to explain the paradox. While some insisted that the one God simply appeared in three different forms (Modalism), an Alexandrian theologian named Arius articulated a different formula, by which the Creator was the sole uncreated eternal God, and Christ (while divine and unique as God’s Son) was nevertheless subordinate to the Creator. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will look at Arius’ understanding of the Godhead and the legacy of Arianism.

Artistic expression and religion have been intertwined since prehistory. From Antiquity to the Modern era religion has provided both inspiration and patronage for artists. Paintings of animals and hunts in caves may have related to Animism: calling upon their spiritual power. Classical sculpture and painting were focussed on depicting the gods and the stories of Greek and Roman mythology. In much the same way that casting an actor for a role in a film adaptation of a book tends to overwrite a future reader’s picture of a character (e.g., try envisioning Gandalf without seeing Ian McKellen), having a statue or a picture of a god affects the way a worshipper envisions the divine. Perhaps for this reason, religious reformers at various points in history have objected to picturing the gods, or especially picturing God. Ancient Israelites forbid graven images of Yahweh, a prohibition that expanded to any depiction or even saying his name aloud. Likewise, Islam forbids depicting God (Allah) and the prohibition has expanded to depictions of God’s prophet, and in some interpretations any human or animal forms. Christians too have a complicated history with religious imagery from the Iconoclasm which divided the Byzantine Empire to the Protestant destruction of statues and imagery during the Reformation. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will explore why artwork has been such a charged issue within the religions of the West from Antiquity to the present.

Before coming to understand Yahweh as their only God, ancient Israelites worshiped a pantheon that included the great goddess Asherah. In Canaanite religion, Asherah often appears as the consort of the chief deity El. Later, archeology and about 40 mentions of her name in the Hebrew Bible suggest she was sometimes seen as Yahweh’s wife. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will reconstruct the history of the worship of the Divine Feminine in ancient Israel from the Biblical texts and the contemporary historical and archaeological records, tracing how Asherah’s attributes and cult, like those of El, were ultimately absorbed into the figure and worship of Yahweh.

The great Medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas believed it was possible to prove that God exists by reason alone (i.e., without relying on scripture or revelation) and he assembled 5 arguments which he believed did just that. He was not alone. Christian theologians like Anselm of Bec and philosophers like René Descartes and Gottfried Leibniz have been similarly confident. Medieval Muslim theologians including Avicenna (Ibn Sina) and Averroes (Ibn Rushd) came to similar conclusions as did the Medieval Jewish theologian Maimonides. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will outline some of the major arguments proposed by these figures and consider their merits.

Jesus of Nazareth famously advised “if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also” and taught his followers to “love your enemies.” In the first centuries AD, Christians frequently questioned whether the role of soldier was compatible with their faith. Although the Emperor Constantine converted after winning a battle under the symbol of the cross, he delayed his baptism until his deathbed to wipe away the sins incurred as head of the Roman army. By the Middle Ages, however, Popes called upon Christian knights to attack the enemies of the faith: Muslims, pagans, Cathars, and Christian heretics alike. In the modern era, European Empires brutally conquered and colonized much of the world hand-in-hand with Christian missionaries. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will look at how Christianity got from point A to B and C and ask where Christians find themselves today?

What is mysticism in the Christian context, and how has it shaped this tradition from Jesus to the present? How does it compare with mysticism in other religions? Why did women’s voices become prominent in the Middle Ages and the Catholic “counter-reformation,” but mainly in mystical writings? And are the spiritual practices many churches embrace today rooted in Christian mysticism or borrowed from Buddhism and New Age spirituality?

Jesus taught his followers to love their enemies and declared “blessed are the peacemakers.” Nevertheless, Christianity has had an inconsistent relationship with war and peace, at times going so far as to sanctify wars such as the crusades as holy. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will look at the history of pacifism and nonviolence within the Christian tradition and contrast it with justifications of Christian militancy.

The modern Jewish nationalist ideology of “Zionism” traces its origins to a movement founded by Theodor Herl in 1897. The movement evolved considerably during the 20th century in the wake of the Holocaust and the establishment of the State of Israel in Palestine in 1948. As conflicts between Israelis, Palestinians, and their neighbors have evolved, so too have ideas about nationalism, imperialism/colonialism, rights to self-determination, and international law. The idea of Zionism is further complicated by Christians, some of whom support a “gathering of Israel” as a precursor for Armageddon and bringing about a literal end to the world. Before embarking on a trip to the West Bank of Palestine this November as a representative of Churches for Middle East Peace, John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will look at the history of “Christian Zionism” and its precursors.

Pharaoh Akhenaten promoted the exclusive worship of the Aten in ancient Egypt, rejecting all other gods centuries before monotheism developed in Israel. Was monotheism first invented during the Amarna period?

Are some sins unforgivable? In the late stages of the pagan Roman Empire, Christians were often persecuted for failing to support the state religion. However, after being arrested, most Christians at any time could escape punishment by performing a brief pagan ritual, offering incense to the genius of the emperors. Many took this option and were released. Others refused and were thrown to the lions. After the persecutions ended, the Christians whose family members and leaders had been martyred, refused to forgive those who had conveniently renounced their faith. In North Africa, the issue led to a substantial division in the church, where the purist party, the Donatists, refused to recognize sacraments performed by priests and bishops who had failed the faith. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will look at this history of this ancient version of “cancel culture,” including its institutional and theological implications for Christians today.

The Bible is not a single book speaking with a single voice. It is a library of books with different voices, with perspectives that are often in conflict. The Book of Ecclesiastes is a particularly interesting example. Like the Book of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes is part of the Hebrew Wisdom tradition; and while both books are attributed to King Solomon, neither was actually written by him. The perspective of Ecclesiastes is highly philosophical, rejecting most human concerns (including much of traditional religion) as meaningless “vanity”: “Vanity of vanities, all is futile!” he declares. Ecclesiastes rejects the idea of afterlife, and instead suggests that human beings should focus on simple pleasures of daily life, such as eating, drinking, and taking enjoyment in their work. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will look at the date, authorship, and perspective of Ecclesiastes, as it compares and contrasts with the rest of the Biblical tradition.

Don’t Read the Bible If You Don’t Know This

The Republic is one of the most influential works of philosophy and political theory. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place looks at the ideal state Plato outlines in its context and consider its ongoing relevance for understanding society and individuals today.

In the first centuries after Jesus, many Christian movements flourished, each with their own scriptures, beliefs, and practices. Over time, the “proto-Orthodox” Christians succeeded in defining their teachings as correct and establishing authority, while rival groups were suppressed or forgotten.

Stoicism was perhaps the most popular school of Greek philosophy in the Roman Empire, as exemplified by Emperor Marcus Aurelius, who lived his life as an actual Stoic philosopher-king. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place looks at the ethics and world-view of the Stoics and consider Stoicisms' value for individuals and its possible impact on later Roman society, as well as the degree to which Stoic virtues continue to be admired today.

Although Judaism is a monotheist religion, the Biblical book of Proverbs contains a long speech by a divine being who identifies herself as “Wisdom.” Wisdom states that “the Lord brought me forth as the first of his works” and that as he was engaging in the world’s creation, “I was constantly at his side” (Proverbs 8:22-30). In addition, the first century CE Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria identified God’s “Word” (Logos) as a separate hypostasis of God. These and other ideas about the nature of God were part of the immediate context with which early Christians understood the relationship between the ineffable Creator, God the Father, and his “only begotten Son,” Jesus Christ. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will look that the understanding of divine beings like Holy Wisdom and God’s Logos within the context of Second Temple Judaism generally and will track specific ideas about these figures among the diverse factions of early Christians, including the Gnostics, Ebionites, and Proto-Orthodox communities.

Dumuzi descends to the underworld, Baal is struck down by Mot, Osiris is dismembered, and Persephone is kidnapped by Hades—each myth cycles through death and return tied to the rhythms of nature. The Easter tradition shares this symbolic landscape, yet it also departs from it in key ways. In this lecture, Leandro Palacios of Toronto Centre Place examines how the Passion and Resurrection accounts of Jesus draw on ancient motifs of dying and rising gods, while reinterpreting them within a new theological and historical framework. We will also consider why modern scholars have questioned the old category of “dying and rising gods” and how the Easter proclamation offered something distinct that resonated with early Christian communities.

Did Zoroastrianism shape the way we think about good and evil, the afterlife, and the end of the world? How much of modern Judaism and Christianity can be traced back to this tradition? The reforms of the ancient Iranian religion by the prophet Zarathustra led to the foundation of Zoroastrianism, which many religious studies scholars identify as the first “world religion.” Zarathustra focused the faith on the worship of the supreme God known in the Avestan language as Ahura Mazda (“Lord Wisdom”). Ahura Mazda is nevertheless opposed by a cosmic devil named Angra Mainyu (“Evil Spirit”), which accounts for the existence of evil in the world. This struggle is predicted to continue until the end of the world, when a savior will appear, resurrect the dead for final judgment, and establish a new world where evil has no place. While ideas like a cosmic devil, resurrection of the dead, the Apocalypse, final judgment, and an afterlife in heaven and hell were absent in Judaism in the First Temple Period, they became central to many sects of Judaism in the Second Temple Period—after the Persian conquest of Babylon allowed the Judean exiles to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple under Persian rule. Nevertheless, dating Zoroastrian practices remains difficult due to limitations in historical sources. In this lecture, John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place surveys the available evidence to assess the extent to which Zoroastrian beliefs and practices influenced the development of Jewish and Christian traditions.

Early Christianity included a wide diversity of beliefs on ideas as central as who Christ is and what is Jesus’ relationship with the Father to whom he prayed. Gnostic Christians focused their attention on personal spiritual knowledge (gnosis) which they developed through elaborate philosophical mythologies. By the end of the Second Christian Century, bishops of the proto-orthodox establishment, increasingly identified Gnosticism as a deadly “heresy,” which they sought to purge from Christianity. One of the figures leading the fight was Irenaeus, bishop of Lyon from 177 until his death in 202, who wrote a book entitled “Against Heresies” that was largely focused on combating Gnosticism. In a presentation given from Lyon, France, John Hamer will look at the history and beliefs of the ancient Gnostics and consider why attacks by leaders like Irenaeus proved so effective.

The rise of atheism in modern Western societies is often treated as a rejection of religion—but what if this cultural trend is more accurately understood as part of Protestantism itself? In this live lecture, John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place explores how Protestant reforms—especially the rejection of Catholic tradition, the doctrine of sola scriptura, the emphasis on rational inquiry, and the rise of literalist interpretations of scripture—created fertile ground for natural religion and Enlightenment-era deism, and ultimately for an ethical framework devoid of spiritual or supernatural elements. We will also consider how modern atheism continues to engage in dialogue with Evangelicalism—another modern expression of Protestantism—echoing the way theologically opposing movements have remained in conversation throughout Christian history.

Just a view months before his death, Joseph Smith announced: “God Himself who sits enthroned in yonder heavens is a Man like unto one of yourselves — that is the great secret!” Fifteen years earlier, when dictating the Book of Mormon, Smith had espoused a trinitarian view of God. Likewise Smith’s earliest account of his “First Vision” of Christ fit into a kind of “Born Again” experience common to contemporary Christian revivals. The later version of the story that describes “two distinct personages,” reflects Smith’s later theological speculation, which seems to reject Western monotheism itself. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will look at Smith’s Nauvoo-era redefinition of God and its theological implications.

Written sometime between the mid-1st century and early 2nd-century AD, the Didache (or “Teachings of the Twelve Apostles”) is one of the most important early Christian writings to have been left out of the New Testament Canon. The text includes some of the earliest practical rules for the emerging institution of the church but describes a decidedly primitive stage in Christian development. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will review the text and consider the community that produced it. Why was it left out of the Bible and does it have anything to teach Christians today?

As early Christians were deciding which books belonged in the New Testament of the Bible, a long, enigmatic text called “The Shepherd of Hermas,” was on many of their lists. The text is included in the Codex Sinaiticus (one of the most important early Bible manuscripts) and Irenaeus considered it to be scripture. Dating from the beginning of the Second Century, the text was written in Rome and includes a series of visions granted to Hermas, a former slave and brother of Pope Pius I, followed by a list of twelve commandments, and a series of ten parables. The text appears pre-Trinitarian and may reflect a Binitarian or Adoptionist Christology. Moreover, the author seems to argue that Christians should follow Jewish law, that works and faith are both necessary for salvation, and may be our earliest source for the idea of “the Rapture” in Christianity. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will outline this fascinating lost book of the Bible and what it adds to our understanding of the diversity among early Christians.

All modern Christian sects are descended from the early "proto-Orthodox" Christians who successfully defined their doctrines and practices as correct. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place reviews the many early Christianities that lost out, including Jewish Christians who argued for the continued relevance of Mosaic Law and Gnostic Christians who rejected the Hebrew Bible altogether.

Christianity began as a small Jewish sect among the common people in the Galilean countryside. The religion’s first writers lacked the education and sophistication of contemporary thinkers in the much larger pagan Greco-Roman world. Around the year 170, the pagan philosopher Celsus wrote a devastating polemic against Christianity. For 70 years, Christians were silent in response, in part, as a strategy (hoping Celsus’ book would be forgotten), but also because they lacked a theologian with sufficient training to respond. That changed with the coming of Origen of Alexandria, arguably Christianity’s first native genius. Having composed Christianity’s first systematic theology in the 220s, Origen went on to write a point-by-point rebuttal of Celsus in 248. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will look at Origen’s background, life, thought, and influence, including his posthumous condemnation as a heretic.

Pope Francis, the Bishop of Rome, is today the unchallenged, supreme head of the Catholic Church, which includes about 1.3 billion baptized adherents, which is about half of the world’s Christians. But while Francis and his predecessors claim an unbroken line extending all the way back to St. Peter, Jesus’ leading apostle, the bishops of Rome have not always enjoyed unchallenged control of Christendom. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will explore the development of the institution of the Papacy, how the bishops of Rome extended their authority over their fellow bishops through ideology and political savvy, and how the Papacy ultimately defeated alternatives heads of the church: Emperors, ecumenical councils, and ultimately the political leaders of modern nation states.

Philo of Alexandria was a Hellenistic Jewish theologian and a contemporary of Jesus of Nazareth. Building on the works of Heraclitus and Plato, Philo interpreted the Bible allegorically and proposed that God’s Word (“Logos” in Greek) existed as an independent being—the demiurge. His writings share much in common with the Gospel of John’s portrayal of the Messiah or Christ as the Logos, an idea that prefigured the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. Philo’s Alexandria—home to the great Museum and Library—was the center of Hellenistic philosophy in the Greco-Roman world. The city housed a large Jewish diaspora community, where the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek, and Hellenism and Judaism were synthesized. In this lecture, John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place examines the works of Philo of Alexandria in the broader context of Alexandria’s history, the Jewish diaspora, and the Greek philosophical developments of his time, as well as his possible influence on early Christianity.

How compatible is the Hebrew Bible with Greek philosophy? As interpreted by the 1st century CE Jewish Egyptian author Philo of Alexandria, the two are one and the same. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place looks at how Philo recast Moses as a philosopher king work how his allegorical interpretations presaged and influenced later Christian understandings of scripture.

Many Christians view the Bible as the source of their religion. But to interpret any text, it has always been necessary to have an intellectual framework. While Christianity was founded many centuries after Plato, Christian thinkers built upon Plato and Neoplatonism to craft their theology.

In recounting his version of the story of Jesus’ birth, the author of the gospel of Matthew tells readers “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet.” But how well do the Christmas stories in Matthew and Luke align with prophecies about the coming Messiah in the Hebrew Bible (or Old Testament)? In this live streamed lecture John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will outline the prophecies cited by the evangelists and the insight they give into the creative and non-literalistic way the earliest Christians understood scripture. A Q&A will follow the lecture. Participants are encouraged to ask questions about this topic on the live chat. Tuesday, December 14, at 7 pm EST.

Can philosophy or theology prove that God exists? Anselm of Bec, a leading Medieval thinker believed he could Can philosophy or theology prove that God exists? Anselm of Bec, a leading Medieval thinker believed he could using what's known as the "ontological argument." We'll examine the ontological argument and look at its critiques contemporary and present-day.

Among the philosophers who most influenced Medieval Christian theology whose work provided the inspiration for stained glass windows in churches is an ancient thinker who was not the person he pretended to be. Dionysius the Areopagite was a minor character in the Book of Acts. In the 5th century, a Christian Neoplatonist impersonated Dionysius as a way to give his philosophical writings the aura of apostolic authority. He was further confused with the patron saint of Paris, a completely different Dionysius or “Denis,” who had been bishop of Paris in the 3rd century. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will untangle the histories of the different Dionysiuses and explain the scope and influence of Pseudo-Dionysius’ works.

For 2,000 years prior to Copernicus, astronomers believed that the Earth was at the center of a cosmos, surrounded by a series of celestial spheres. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will outline how the Ptolemaic system worked (and did not work), why it proved so durable, and why the Catholic Church remained invested in the system even after scientists like Galileo began to argue in favor of heliocentrism.

Aristotle is the most influential philosopher in the Western intellectual tradition. Our guest lecturer, Dr. Michael Adam Ferguson of Harvard Medical School unfolds the prescience of Aristotle's genius as illuminated by contemporary neural imaging. Attendees are invited to consider seriously the reanimation of soul by science.

How could an omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent God allow Job to endure unspeakable suffering? The authors of the Book of Job were troubled by the question: Why do the righteous suffer when the wicked prosper? We’ll consider and evaluate their proposed answers.

Many religious fundamentalists read the Bible literally, insisting that its stories occurred historically as written. While some take this to the logical extreme forcing them to reject science in favor of alternative theories like young Earth creationism others look for naturalistic explanations to preserve a literalistic historicist reading of the text. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will look at the modern development of these interpretative lenses and will consider how such readings radically distort the original stories and rob them of any meaning.

An early Christian group believed that Jesus had revealed secret knowledge about the meaning of life, the nature of God, and the universe. They became known as the Gnostics (meaning "having knowledge.) Gnosticism posed a powerful challenge to what would eventually become Christian orthodoxy. In this lecture, we will explore how the Gnostics imagined Jesus and what set their beliefs apart.

After the nativity stories in Matthew and Luke, the canonical gospels have precious little to say about the life of Jesus between his birth and the beginning of his public ministry as an adult. The infancy gospel of James and the infancy gospel of Thomas (not to be confused with the more important sayings gospel of Thomas) attempted to fill in some of the details with mixed results. Although both texts were left out of the New Testament, their narratives have had a significant influence on Christian tradition and doctrine and episodes from these apocryphal sources even found their way into the Quran. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will review both texts in light of our sources for these “lost years” of Jesus’ life.

Hell looms large in many Christians' beliefs about the afterlife, but the idea isn't found in the Old Testament. God doesn't warn Adam and Eve that the consequences of sin include confinement to hell. Moses and the prophets don't threaten the children of Israel with hellfire. Why not? Because the idea of hell had not yet been invented or brought into Judaism. We'll look at the origins of the idea.

Popularized by the Medieval philosopher and theologian William of Occam, the idea that simplest solution is better than more complex explanations (the principle of parsimony) has become an important tool in the scientific method, leading to great advances in the physical sciences. However, the simplest explanation is not always the most accurate explanation in fields like the humanities and history. In this lecture, John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place considers the philosophical basis for Occam's Razor as well as some of its consequences in the development of Western philosophy and theology.

Can two objects be the same color? Is it possible for both a t-shirt and a car to be red? If you agree that both objects can share the same redness, then this color red has an existence that is repeatable, it is what philosophers call a “universal.” But in what way can “redness” be said to exist other than in the particular objects that seem to be the same color? Isn’t the red of the t-shirt actually a different red than that of the car? John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will outline the philosophical problem of universals, how it was understood in Antiquity and the Middle Ages, and why the question remains open today.

Transubstantiation is the doctrine of the Catholic Church which teaches that the substance of the bread in the sacrament of communion is changed into the substance of the Body of Christ (and the substance of the wine into the substance of the Blood of Christ). Nevertheless the “outward characteristics” of the bread and the wine (the “eucharistic species”) remain unaltered --- which means that “transubstantiation” is not the same as “transmaterializion.” The theological term “substance” is also critical to the Christian idea of the Trinity, where three distinct “persons” of God are said to be “consubstantial” as the One. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will look at the development of these theological terms and propositions and consider what Catholics and other Christians mean when they talk about the “Body of Christ.

The Protestant Reformation is arguably the most important event in the history of the West. The upheaval affected not only religion but rather reshaped how people conceived of everything from politics to ordinary life. In this talk, Brian Carwana, from Encounter World Religions, explores the far-reaching impact of this tectonic shift and why today, all of us living in the West are to greater or lesser degrees, children of the Reformation.

Surveys find that nearly 7 in 10 adults in the US believe in angels. But what are angels supposed to be? What is the difference between angels, demons, genies, and ghosts? Why do cherubs look like the Roman pagan god Cupid? John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will explore early Biblical understandings of angels, evolution and elaboration of the idea in extra-Biblical apocalypses like the Book of Enoch, and later theological formulations by Christian philosophers including Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite.

The term "saint" carries varied meanings across Christian traditions, from martyrs and miracle workers formally canonized by the Catholic Church to ordinary believers living holy lives in Protestant contexts. But where did the idea of saints originate, and how has it evolved? Saints are not unique to Christianity—Jewish traditions celebrate tzaddikim (righteous ones), Greco-Roman cultures honored heroic figures, and Buddhism envisions Bodhisattvas, enlightened beings who guide others on the spiritual path. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will explore the concept of sainthood in Christian tradition, its relationship to these broader religious and cultural frameworks, and its enduring significance in the modern world. In this lecture, we’ll consider what it means to be a saint and how these figures continue to inspire faith and devotion across cultures.

Why did Medieval Christian knights at the end of the 11th century march some 2,500 miles from France (and elsewhere in the Latin West) to Jerusalem and how were they able to conquer and create viable states in the Middle East? John Hamer of Toronto Centre place will look at the historical context of the First Crusade and its logistics and consider how Christian religious practices including the Peace of God, Truce of God, and pilgrimage resulted in indiscriminate massacres. How did the First Crusade succeed and why did the Crusades ultimately fail?

Although he could not define the term “pornography,” US Supreme Court justice Potter Stewart famously declared “I know it when I see it.” Likewise, many of us think we know what religion is, but it turns out that we are not working from a meaningful definition. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will show how Western ideas about “religion” are fully rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition and have little relation to the experiences of non-Western cultures.

Christian theologians present God as a Trinity of three persons. However, many people associate the word “God” with the first person alone, the Father. This can lead to the heretical view of Jesus Christ as a superhuman figure separate from God, and the Spirit as some kind of ethereal, impersonal force or energy. Yet, Christianity affirms that the Spirit is a person and is God. So, who or what is the Holy Spirit?

Since the Council of Nicaea, 1700 years ago this year, the overwhelming majority of Christians have understood God through the lens of the Trinity: the doctrine that this is only One God, but that God consists of three “Persons.” And while each of the Persons is God, the persons are not the same as each other. Thus, when Jesus prays to the Heavenly Father, these are distinct Persons communicating: Jesus is not the Heavenly Father, even though the Heavenly Father is God and Jesus is also God. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will look at the development of the concept of the Trinity, and will attempt to explain its paradox without falling into heresies like Modalism.

What is spirituality and how does it differ from religion and philosophy? John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will attempt to unpack our many different uses of the word “spirituality.” The focus will be on: (1) concern with the interior life of individuals, (2) belief in the otherworldly, (3) mysticism and ecstatic connection with the divine, (4) Western elite esotericism and occultism, (5) Anti-clericalism, (6) Western folk magic, (7) 19th Century spiritualists, (8) Western appropriation of alien traditions, (9) New Age eclecticism, and (10) Neo-paganism.

In the wake of the fire in Notre Dame cathedral, John Hamer of Centre Place puts Gothic architecture into its Medieval context. Modern people use the word “Gothic” to describe a kind of architecture from the Middle Ages, even though it has nothing to do with the barbarian Goths. When the architecture was new nine centuries ago, it was called “modern” and it represented something very new. Although people of the Modern Era disparaged their immediate predecessors with terms like “Medieval” and “Gothic,” the Middle Ages were anything but backward. In fact, they anticipated the Modern Era which followed.

In the gospel accounts, Jesus’ ministry begins with his baptism by a figure named John the Baptist, whose own disciples continued to revere him after his execution. Many historians have argued that the historical Jesus was originally a disciple of John the Baptist. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will look at what is known about the historical John, his practice of baptism, and his legacy in both Christianity and also Mandaeism (a small, ancient religion which may trace its origin to John’s disciples).

A majority of Americans believe in angels, but what are they? Where did the idea of angels come from? John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place looks at the history of angels in the Western tradition. He will also take a deep dive into the way Medieval philosopher discussed angels. Although ridiculed by later thinkers in the Enlightenment for pondering abstruse questions like “how many angels can dance on the head of a pin,” Medieval thinkers actually used the idea of "angels" in thought experiments about philosophical questions like free will and determinism that are still relevant today.