Wade Center Events

The Wade Center plans to record all events and upload them to our YouTube channel unless otherwise noted and barring any technical difficulties.

• APRIL 10, 2025 @ 7PM, BAKKE AUDITORIUM
  "C.S. Lewis, the End(s) of Desire, and the Construction of Hope" with Aubrey Buster
  Respondent: Esau McCaulley, Jonathan Blanchard Associate Professor of New Testament and Public Theology
  In the third and final lecture in the 2025 Hansen Lecture series “C.S. Lewis and the End of the World,” Dr. Buster will argue that both Lewis and the writers of ancient Jewish apocalypse used the construction of endings to shape communal desire and to motivate communal hope. Lewis’s repeated appeal to “longing” and “desire” as primary religious categories reveal an orientation to the end shared with the apocalyptic tradition. The apocalyptic scenario has been used to influence a community’s imagination of the ideal world, and to encourage its readers and hearers to act collectively towards this future of flourishing.
  Watch the “Hansen Lecture #3” Event Livestream
• MAY 9, 2025 @ 1:30PM, Alumni Weekend Event, BAKKE AUDITORIUM 
  "Recreating Mary Magdalene: Her Story through the Eyes of the Wade Authors" with Dr. Jennifer Powell McNutt - talk and book signing for The Mary We Forgot: What the Apostle to the Apostles Teaches the Church Today (Brazos Press, 2024)
  Dr. Jennifer Powell McNutt, Franklin S. Dyrness Professor of Biblical and Theological Studies, will offer a lecture based on her recent book, The Mary We Forgot. Across the centuries and traditions, Christians have struggled to convey a clear, biblical account of Mary Magdalene and her significance for the Christian faith. How might C.S. Lewis, Dorothy L. Sayers, and George MacDonald inform a faithful retrieval of her? Dr. McNutt will explore how the Wade authors reflect the complexities of reading the biblical narratives about Mary Magdalene and help the church to see her significance for today.
• JUNE 5, 2025 @ 7PM, BAKKE AUDITORIUM
  Dr. Crystal Downing – talk and book signing for The Wages of Cinema A Christian Aesthetic of Film in Conversation with Dorothy L. Sayers (IVP Academic, 2025)
  More details forthcoming!