Lecturers- -RZIM-Academy.Pdf
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
11/27/2017 Lecturers | RZIM Academy MENU LECTURERS Ravi Zacharias Ravi Zacharias is Founder and President of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM), which celebrated its thirtieth anniversary in 2014. Dr. Zacharias has spoken all over the world for 43 years in scores of universities, notably Harvard, Dartmouth, Johns Hopkins, and Cambridge. He has addressed writers of the peace accord in South Africa and military ofcers at the Lenin Military Academy and the Center for Geopolitical Strategy in Moscow. At the invitation of the President of Nigeria, he addressed delegates at the First Annual Prayer Breakfast for African Leaders held in Mozambique. Mr. Zacharias has direct contact with key leaders, senators, congressmen, and governors who consult him on an ongoing basis. He has addressed the Florida Legislature and the Governor’s Prayer Breakfast in Texas and Louisiana, and has twice spoken at the Annual Prayer Breakfast at the United Nations in New York, which marks the beginning of the UN General Assembly each year. As the 2008 Honorary Chairman of the National Day of Prayer, he gave addresses at the White House, the Pentagon, and The Cannon House. He has had the privilege of addressing the National Prayer Breakfasts in the seats of government in Ottawa, Canada, and London, England, and speaking at the CIA in Washington, DC. Born in India in 1946, Ravi immigrated to Canada with his family twenty years later. While pursuing a career in business management, his interest in theology grew; subsequently, he pursued this study during his undergraduate education. He received his Master of Divinity from Trinity International University in Deereld, Illinois. Well-versed in the disciplines of comparative religions, cults, and philosophy, he held the chair of Evangelism and Contemporary Thought at Alliance Theological Seminary for three and a half years. Dr. Zacharias has been a visiting scholar at Ridley Hall, Cambridge (then afliated with Cambridge University, now more recently allied with Cambridge and afliated with Durham University) where he studied moralist philosophers and literature of the Romantic era. He has been honored with the conferring of six doctoral degrees, including a Doctor of Laws and a Doctor of Sacred Theology. Mr. Zacharias has authored or edited well over twenty books including the Gold Medallion winner Can Man Live Without God (Word, 1994), Walking from East to West (Zondervan, 2006), The Grand Weaver (Zondervan, 2007), Has Christianity Failed You? (Zondervan, 2010), Why Jesus, (FaithWords, 2012), and Beyond Opinion (Thomas Nelson, 2007), which includes contributions from RZIM’s global team. His latest books are a graphic novel version of The Lamb and the Fuhrer (Kingstone Media: June 2014) and Why Suffering?, coauthored with Vince Vitale and released by FaithWords in October 2014. Several of his books have been translated into Russian, Chinese, Korean, Thai, Spanish, and other languages. Ravi has appeared on CNN, Fox, and other international broadcasts. His weekly radio program, “Let My People Think,” airs on 2152 outlets worldwide, his weekday program, “Just Thinking,” on 721, and his one-minute “Just a Thought,” on 488. Various broadcasts are also translated into Romanian and Turkish, and “Let My People Think” airs as the Spanish-language program “Pensemos” on over 250 outlets in sixteen countries. Additionally, his television program, “Let My People Think,” is broadcast internationally in several countries including Indonesia. RZIM is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, with additional ofces in Canada, India, Singapore, the United Kingdom, the Middle East, Hong Kong, Romania, Turkey, Austria, Spain, and South Africa. Dr. Zacharias and his wife, Margie, have three grown children. They reside in Atlanta. Andy Bannister Dr. Andy Bannister is the Director and Lead Apologist for RZIM Canada. He speaks and teaches regularly throughout Canada, the US, Europe, and the wider world. From churches to universities, business forums to TV and radio, Andy regularly addresses both Christian audiences and those of all faiths and none on issues relating to faith, culture, politics, and society. With a background in youth ministry before studying theology and philosophy (focusing especially on Islam), Andy was previously based in Oxford, where he worked with churches and organizations across the denominational spectrum. http://rzimacademy.org/lecturers/ 1/9 11/27/2017 Lecturers | RZIM Academy Andy holds a PhD in Islamic studies, a topic on which he has taught extensively. He has spoken and taught at universities across Canada, the US, the UK, and farther aeld on both Islam and philosophy and is an Adjunct Research Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Islam and Other Faiths at Melbourne School of Theology. Andy is the author of An Oral-Formulaic Study of the Qur’an, a groundbreaking and innovative study that reveals many of the ways the Qur’an was rst composed. His latest book, The Atheist Who Didn’t Exist (or: The Terrible Consequences of Really Bad Arguments), is a humorous engagement with the New Atheism. When not traveling, speaking, or writing, Andy is a keen hiker, mountain climber, and photographer. He lives in Toronto and is married to Astrid; they have two children, Caitriona and Christopher. Jill Carattini Jill Carattini is managing editor and principal writer of A Slice of Innity, a daily reading considering themes from theology and culture to philosophy and the arts. She holds a degree in religion from Hope College, a masters of divinity from Western Theological Seminary, and a Th.M from Duke University, where she studied sacramental theology and the arts. Jill is ordained as a specialized minister in the Reformed Church of America, where she serves on the theology commission. She is a frequent speaker and panelist on the subject of theology and the arts, teaches workshops in creative writing, and is leading the charge in RZIM’s growing emphasis on the arts and imagination as a critical means to engage contemporary culture with the person of Christ. Jill has lived and worked in diverse ministry settings, including urban ministry and university campus ministry. She has spent time in a Native American community working within a local mission church in Oklahoma, and has studied in the Middle East, participating in a program aimed at understanding the culture, history, and politics of the Middle Eastern conict. She enjoys reading widely in areas of theology, aesthetics, culture, and reconciliation. Among her favorite writers are John Calvin, Jeremy Begbie, Flannery O’Connor, Marilynn Robinson, Wendell Berry, and many of the early church pilgrims, though an early love of the writings of C.S. Lewis was most formative in her own faith and writing. Jill is a native of Pentwater, Michigan, and currently resides with her husband, Tony, and their son in Atlanta, Georgia. John Dickson John Dickson is co-director of Centre for Public Christianity, an independent research and media organization promoting the public understanding of the Christian faith. With a degree in theology from Moore Theological College and a doctorate in ancient history from Macquarie University, he is a senior research fellow of the Department of Ancient History, Macquarie University, where he teaches courses on Christian origins and the world religions. John is also the Senior Minister at St. Andrews Roseville, an innovative Anglican community on Sydney’s North Shore. He has a wealth of experience as a local church pastor, public evangelist, and media presenter. He is the author of more than a dozen books and the host of two major television documentaries on the life of Jesus. He lives in Sydney with his wife, Elizabeth, and their three children. Sharon Dirckx Sharon Dirckx (pronounced ‘Dirix’) is an Academic Tutor at the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics. Originally from a scientic background she has a PhD in brain imaging from the University of Cambridge and has held research positions at the University of Oxford and in the US. During its founding year in 2004/5, Sharon graduated from the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics. She has since been invited to speak and lecture in a variety of contexts and has also appeared on BBC Songs of Praise, Premier Christian Radio and BBC Radio 2 Good Morning Sunday with Clare Balding. Her topics of interest include the interface between science and faith, and suffering. Her Why?: Looking at God, Evil and Personal Sufferingwon the prize for best book at the 2014 Speaking Volumes UK Christian Book Awards (presented by Pam Rhodes). Why?interweaves the stories of people who have suffered, with a practical look at some ‘Why?’ questions on suffering. Sharon lives in Oxford with her husband and two young children. Os Guinness Os Guinness is an author, a social critic, and member of the RZIM speaking team. Great-great-great grandson of Arthur Guinness, the Dublin brewer, he was born in China in World War Two where his parents were medical missionaries. A witness to the climax of the Chinese revolution in 1949, he was expelled with many other foreigners in 1951 and returned to Europe where he was educated in England. He completed his undergraduate degree at the University of London and his DPhil in the social sciences from Oriel College, Oxford. Os has written or edited more than thirty books, including The Call, Time for Truth, Long Journey Home, Unspeakable, A Free People’s Suicide, The Global Public Square, and Renaissance. His latest book is Fool’s Talk: Recovering the Art of Christian Persuasion, which was published by InterVarsity Press in June 2015. http://rzimacademy.org/lecturers/ 2/9 11/27/2017 Lecturers | RZIM Academy Before moving to the United States in 1984, Os was a freelance reporter with the BBC. Since then he has been a Guest Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Studies, a Guest Scholar and Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution, and Senior Fellow at the Trinity Forum and the EastWest Institute in New York.