Institute for Christian Studies

Héctor A. Acero Ferrer writes his latest piece for our Substack on land, belonging, and the geography of mattering in the context of Monday’s earthquake in Colombia.

Read the full article: https://instituteforchristianstudies.substack.com/p/when-land-refigures-us

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Letting-in. Letting-go. Letting-out. Letting-transform.

This fall Jim Olthuis teaches a Free to be Faithful course on the spiral of love and healing. Six Tuesday evenings, online, starting September 15. For more info and to register visit: https://f2bf.icscanada.edu/courses

This fall, we invite you to take one of two fully online graduate courses for Christian educators:

Cultivating Learning Communities of Belonging with Dr. Edith van der Boom. Built for instructional leaders and administrators, this course explores how school and classroom cultures form, with attention to restorative practices, Indigenous perspectives, and the daily choices that shape whether every student belongs.

The Craft of Reflective Practice with Dr. Gideon Strauss. Through storytelling about your everyday working life and practical research skills, learn to examine, articulate, and improve your own work as an educator. Experience becomes insight.

You don't need to be a program student. Teachers taking a single course for professional development are exactly who these are for, and cohorts are kept small so there's room for real conversation.

Learn more and register: https://education.icscanada.edu/courses

What if our standards for leaders were set by Psalm 72?

ICS President, Beth Green, asks this question in her latest reflection. She muses on how the absurdity of Count Binface should make us ask for more from our leaders.

Read Beth's reflection on our Substack: https://instituteforchristianstudies.substack.com/p/no-kings-please

In our latest Substack article, ICS Junior Member (and Comms Coordinator) Mark Standish reflects on "toxic empathy," considering how empathy's real toxicity isn't that it makes us vulnerability to others, but that it can quietly protect us from them.

Read the entire article at: https://instituteforchristianstudies.substack.com/p/toxic-empathy

In his new article on Substack, Ron Kuipers reflects on how the song "Read About It" indicts the wilful ignorance of the West. Proverbs 24 refuses the same alibi, then offers something something more: wisdom as honey for the soul, and a future for whoever finds it.

Read Ron's entire reflection on our Substack: https://instituteforchristianstudies.substack.com/p/so-what-am-i-to-know

Last week, Beth Green began her tenure as president of the Institute for Christian Studies. In this week's Substack article, she reflects on what it takes to leave one place well and arrive somewhere new, and what an institution's goodbyes reveal about it.

You can find the full article at: https://instituteforchristianstudies.substack.com/p/introductions-and-farewells

In his inaugural lecture at the Institute for Christian Studies, Neal DeRoo makes a bold claim: the crises stacking up around us, a warming planet, fraying democracies, the growing sense that we can no longer even talk to each other, aren't only problems of chemistry or politics. Underneath them sits a spiritual crisis, a crisis of the heart. And the inherited ways we think often can't even see it, let alone solve it.

Find the full excerpt here: https://instituteforchristianstudies.substack.com/p/philosophy-for-a-world-in-crisis

What does it mean to say, “Enough is enough”?

Tomorrow, join authors Matthew Bernico and Dean Dettloff for the launch of *Enough Is Enough: Degrowth, Capitalism, and Liberation Theology*—a thought-provoking exploration of economics, climate justice, faith, and the pursuit of a more humane and sustainable future.

This is a unique opportunity to hear directly from the authors, engage with their ideas, and join a timely conversation about the challenges facing our communities and our common home.

📅 Wednesday, June 24, 2026
🕡 6:30–8:30 PM ET
📍 Knox College, Classroom 4, Toronto

Can't attend? You can still continue the conversation by reading the book.

Purchase your copy here: bit.ly/Enoug-his-Enough

REMINDER: Tomorrow night ICS is hosting a book launch for Enough is Enough by Dean Dettloff and Matthew Bernico. Join us!

Wed, June 24
630PM ET
Knox College

RSVP: icscanada.edu/enough-is-enough