St. Andrew's College Winter Refresher 2013
St. Andrew's College looks forward to welcoming you at our annual Winter Refresher conference Feb. 11-13, 2013, a time for gathering around the thought-provoking theme "Do We Still Need The Social Gospel?" with an engaging speaker, faculty, students and participants from near and far.
The history of Western Canada cannot be told apart from the influence of the Social Gospel – a movement that began in the late 19th century and shaped the theology and social witness of Christian churches in various parts of the world. It was progressive and optimistic. It believed that the "Kingdom of God," announced by Jesus in the gospels, was indeed possible and at hand and that human economic structures could be reformed to help bring it about.
Members of the mainstream Protestant churches in North America caught this vision, and it reshaped their theology and their action. It found its way into political life, and strands of social gospel thinking emerged in both the "social credit" ideology of Alberta's William Aberhart and, in more pronounced form, the founding vision of the Cooperative CommonwealthFederation (CCF), forerunner of the New Democratic Party (NDP).
It may seem a bit provocative to ask, "Do we still need the social gospel?" Yet the social gospel movement, for all its energy, did meet with strong opposition and distrust. Some Canadian Methodist clergy, for example, found themselves gradually alienated from their churches because of their social gospel stances. Prominent theologians of the mid-20th century deemed it naïve and irrelevant. Many historians claim it was "eclipsed" by other theological concerns.
Our speaker for this year's Winter Refresher, Dr.Christopher Evans, is one of North America's leading historians of the Social Gospel movement. He is Professor of Christianity and Methodist Studies at Boston University School of Theology. His teaching and scholarship focuses on the history of Christianity, American religion, Methodist studies, and ministry studies.
Dr. Evans is the author of several books, articles, and reviews including "The Kingdom is Always but Coming: a Life of Walter Rauschenbusch" that received an Award of Merit for the best work inhistory/biography from Christianity Today magazine in 2005. His most recent work, "Liberalism without Illusions: Renewing an American Christian Tradition," was published by Baylor University Press in 2010.
He will engage us with history, reflection, and discussion about the Social Gospel'shistory and its possibilities in a world that in many ways is quite unlike the one that birthed the movement ... or is it?
Register online at: 
Download the Winter Refresher 2013 Brochure (PDF)
Download the Winter Refresher 2013 Schedule (PDF)
Download the Suggested Accomodations List (PDF)
