The Didier Seminar

In every age the Spirit speaks.

The Calvin W. Didier Annual Seminar on Religion and Contemporary Thought was endowed in 1993 as a retirement tribute to Reverend Didier in honor of a ministry mindful of the many voices of the spirit and the profound changes we continue to experience in contemporary thought and culture. This yearly seminar is dedicated to spiritual growth through the best comprehensive thinking in religion, the arts, letters and science. We seek to present inspiring and acknowledged leaders in their various fields.

 

The Didier Seminar with Caroline Oakes: Practice the Pause: The Good News of Neuroscience and the Gospels May 3 – 4, 2025 Register here. The event is free of charge. Donations to offset the cost of the event are welcome. You may donate at the seminar. Author of Practice the Pause: Jesus’ Contemplative Practice, New Brain Science, and What It Means to Be Fully Human, Caroline Oakes presents the benefits of contemplative practices on emotional, psychological, and physical health, highlighting the spark of the divine dwelling within us.  I study and follow luminaries of the perennial wisdom that underlies all religions and spiritual traditions.  – Caroline Oakes Saturday, May 3: 8:30 a.m. Coffee and Treats 9 a.m. Session One:  The Centering Pause: What New Brain Science Is Telling Us About the Power of Our Spiritual Practice Caroline Oakes will share the exciting dialog between neuroscientists and religious scholars about how the spiritual practices of mindfulness meditation, centering prayer, and other spiritual practices actually rewire the brain and reorient our heart toward greater compassion, empathy, and kindness allowing us how to learn how to live into our highest human potential. These findings are seen by some scholars as a spiritual evolution toward a “divine-human way of relating to ourselves, to others and to God. 10:15 a.m. Break 10:45 a.m. Session Two:  The Way Between Fight and Flight: The Revolutionary Way of Jesus of Nazareth Caroline Oakes will discuss how intentional and consistent meditation and silent prayer practices can equip us to see beyond our fight/flight reflexes and allow our innate inner wisdom to facilitate a creative and loving choice from fight and flight to a way of being that aligns our inner spiritual life with the life Jesus of Nazareth as our example. 11:45 a.m. Wrap Up and Q&A Sunday, May 4: Caroline Oakes will preach on Sunday, May 5 and lead our Enrichment Hour after worship. What Practice the Pause Is About — These days, many of us live in a state of chronic stress and fight-or-flight. The demands of our technological age and recent world events are pulling us in all directions, often impacting important relationships in our lives. But there is good news. New developments in brain science have recently proven that an intentional practice of pausing for a few minutes of meditation, prayer, or other contemplative practice actually rewires our brain in ways that make us calmer, less reactive, and better able to see the bigger picture — in our own relationships and in the world events of our lives. Oakes offers easy-to-understand explanations of how this new brain science is confirming what every spiritual tradition has been telling us for millennia: by practicing the pause, we become more self-aware and better able to understand others. Learn more on her website here.

 

Past Speakers and Topics:

2024      Stephen J. Patterson PhD and Elizabeth Schrader Polczer PhD:  Recovering Lost Voices from early Christianity

2023      Rev. Paul Raushenbush:  Building the Multi-faith Future:  Freedom of Religion in a Democracy

2022      Jeannine Hill Fletcher:  Christianity and Religious Diversity:  Challenges and Opportunities

2021      Jeannine Hill Fletcher:  Christian Entanglement in Racism: Facing the Past, Transforming the Future

2020      Theologian John Haught:  The New Cosmic Story: Inside our Awakening Universe

2019      Rev. Dr. Robin Meyers:  Progressive Christianity

2018      Dr. J. Andrew Overman:  When Stones Speak: Digging Deeper into Jesus Movements, Formative Judaism, and the Rise and Expansion of Islam

2017      Dr. Eddie S. Glaude, Jr.:  How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul

2016      Diana Butler Bass:  What Does It Mean To Say “I Am Spiritual But Not Religious”?

2015      Rev. Dr. Marilyn Salmon:  Jesus Then and Now

2014      Dr. Amy-Jill Levine:  Jesus, Judaism and Christianity

2013      Professor Paul Knitter:  Must My God be Bigger Than Your God? Moving Beyond Competition to Cooperation

2012      John Phillip Newell:  A New Harmony: The Spirit, The Earth, The Earth and the Human Soul

2011      Dr. Wilson Yates, Prof. Michael Dennis Browne, Dr. Stephen Paulus, and Rev. David Miller and Dr. Aaron David Miller:  Theology, Spirituality and the Arts

2010      Rev. Dr. Cynthia Bourgeault:  Meditation and Visionary Seeing in the Christian Tradition

2009      Dr. Imam Seyyed Hossein Nasr:  The Heart of Islam

2008      Dr. Philip Jenkins:  The Next Christendom

2007      Rev. Dr. Martin Marty:  Must Faiths Collide?

2006      Dr. Don Swearer:  Buddhism

2005      Dr. Dominic Crossan:  The Historical Jesus and the Kingdom of God Then and Now

2004      Rev. Dr. (Sir) John Polkinghorne:  Belief of God in and Age of Science

2003      Gordon Kaufman:  Do ideas of God change?

2002      Dr. Elaine Pagels:  The Challenge of the Gospel of Thomas. Different Views of Jesus and His Message

2001      Dr. Marilyn Salmon, Rev. Dr. Calvin Roetzel, Rabbi Barry Cytron:  What Have We Learned and What Does it Matter?

2000      Dr. Richard Horsley:  Jesus, Paul, and the New World Order

1999      Rev. Dr. Marcus Borg:  Jesus in Contemporary Scholarship

1998      Rev. Dr. J. Andrew Overman:  Jews and Christians: How Did We Start and Where Are We Headed?