A Couple of Questions

I received this email today and thought I'd answer it here on the blog just in case others have similar questions. Here's the email:

"Just curious who put this together and why, which one of the speakers you jive with, if this is part of something bigger/ongoing or a one-off event, if there are other such dialogues taking place elsewhere, etc, etc...basically, whatever you've got! :)"

Here's my answer:

The Duke Socratic Club is the primary organizer of this event. The Duke Socratic Club exists to bring together various perspectives in dialogue on a range of topics for the sake of the Gospel. Last year we brought together Richard Hays and Bart Ehrman for an event on issues raised by the daVinci Code. We were approached after that event by an individual who was willing to fund bringing some different scholars in to dialogue with Duke from a more "conservative" perspective. I put "conservative" in quotes because in a number of ways, I suspect that these "conservative" scholars and Duke have more in common than dissimilar. We chose Gary Habermas because he is a well respected scholar in NT studies and one of our group members was friends with him. We choose Joel Marcus as a Duke representative based on a suggestion from Richard Hays (none of us had yet had Joel Marcus in class). We think there will be enough commonality between Marcus and Habermas to provide a common language for dialogue but enough difference to make the conversation interesting and fruitful. Most of us don't know enough about either Marcus or Habermas to know whether we "jive" more with one over the other. We will probably all find aspects of both to be helpful. Our events try not be pre-judged or polemic. We attempt to provide space for real dialogue and learning from one another. This is not to say that we attempt to ignore differences. Real differences exist between people and views. But we believe that the most constructive thing to do is to have conversation around the differences.

We try to plan a number of events each semester. Here is a schedule of events coming up:

Two Views on the Resurrection
Joel Marcus (Duke Divinity School) & Gary Habermas (Liberty University)
February 20 @ 12:20-1:20 – Gary Habermas: “The Resurrection of Jesus and Recent Scholarship”
February 20 @ 7:00-8:30 PM – Two Views on the Resurrection Dialogue (Marcus & Habermas)
Blog: http://resurrectiontwoviews.blogspot.com/
RSVP at resurrectiontwoviews@yahoo.com

Homosexuality Discussion Group Series
Sacred Worth & Socratic Club Co-Sponsors
February 14 @ 12:20-1:20 – Eugene Rogers:
February 15 @ 12:20-1:20 – Discussion Groups

March 7 @ 12:20-1:20 – Richard Hays: What Makes for Peace and Upbuilding? Dealing with Our Differences in the Homosexuality Debate
March 7 @ 1:30-2:30 – Discussion Groups Part I
March 8 @ 12:20-1:20 – Discussion Groups Part II

April 11 @ 12:20-1:20 – Organizer’s Dialogue
April 11 @ 1:30-2:30 – Discussion Groups

The Jesus Seminar?
March 27 @ 12:20-1:20 – Mark Rutledge (Associate Member of the Jesus Seminar)

Sacraments & The Emerging Church Movement
March 20 @ 12:20-1:20 – Ed Phillips & Tim Conder

Race and the Divinity School
BSU (Black Seminarians Union) AME Connection (African Methodist Episcopal) & Socratic Club Co-Sponsors
February 22 @ 6:00-8:30PM – Dinner & Discussion Groups