The annual “Faith in Life” series returned to campus this week to discuss the deepest longings of the human heart in a set of lectures hosted by the Hillsdale College Religion and Philosophy Department.
This year’s series, entitled “Our Deepest Desires: How the Christian Story Fulfills Human Aspirations,” will feature Gregory E. Ganssle, professor of philosophy at Talbot School of Theology at Biola University.
It is one of the biggest events of the year, typically attended by more than 300 students annually.
Ganssle will dive into how faith is the deepest longing of the human being and how Christianity fulfills innate, deep human desires to pursue goodness, truth, and beauty.
Having delivered three other lectures on both Wednesday evening and this morning, Ganssle will finish the series Thursday at 7 p.m. in Plaster Auditorium with his final lecture, entitled “The Christian Story and Prospects of Personal Freedom.”
“It is a way to annually integrate theology and faith into life and culture,” said John Studebaker, lecturer in religion and philosophy at the college and a host of this year’s series.
Studebaker described Ganssle, his friend for 20 years, as a “lively, guitar-playing Christian philosopher.”
Assistant Professor of Religion Don Westblade, who has been involved with the “Faith in Life” lecture series since its inception, explained its purpose as a way “to stir thinking about the relevance of our faith in the choices we make.”
“These lectures have contributed to students’ thinking more intentionally about their faith,” Westblade said, “not as a mere set of convictions to be expressed on Sundays, but as a foundation upon which we build our relationships and make our decisions.”
