Lectures offer wide variety of topics

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Three different lectures are to take place Thursday on campus. Dallas Denergy, John Welch and John Nagl will speak in different locations on campus that evening.

A guest lecturer for the David M. Kennedy Center, Associate Professor Dallas Denergy, will speak to students about life in pre-modern Europe.

Denergy, a history professor at Bowdoin College, will give a lecture Thursday at 2 p.m. in 238 Herald R. Clark Building. “Flatterers, Wheedlers and Gossip-Mongers: The Importance of Lying in Pre-Modern Europe” is his topic.

He will speak on the difference between the religious Middle Ages and the nuance for justifying lies in the Renaissance.

“Denergy is an interesting historian that has an alternate view about the transition between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance,” said Stan Benfell, coordinator of European Studies. “He sees a lot more continuity between the two time periods than most histories allow.”

Denery recieved a bachelor’s degree from UC-Berkeley in philosophy. Additionally, he received a master’s degree in philosophy from the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology and a doctorate in history from UC-Berkeley. Denery specializes in medieval and early modern intellectual and religious history, and has published two different texts: “Christine de Pizan on Misogyny, Gossip and Possibility,” and “Seeing and Being Seen in the Late Medieval World: Optics, Theology and Religious Life.”

Also on Thursday, the Harold B. Lee Library has invited John W. Welch, a religious scholar and law professor, to speak. Welch will discuss the difference between religion and science and how they go hand in hand. The lecture will be held in 1080 HBLL at 7 p.m. He was invited to speak for the Department of Physics and Astronomy’s annual Summerhays Lecture, dedicated every year to the topic of religion and science.

Welch will give insights on the relationship between religion and science based on his experience of more than 30 years of law and knowledge from religious research. He will be discussing numerous successful LDS scientists and how these two topics have come together to work in their lives. The title of the lecture is “Forging a Friendly Alliance between Mormonism and Science.”

“Forging a successful alliance often means putting two things together that really seem to have nothing to do with each other but in the end are necessary in order for both to advance,” Welch said in a news release.

Welch is the editor-in-chief of BYU Studies, a journal that publishes articles in which professors connect their academic disciplines with their religious beliefs. He will use examples from BYU Studies along with other examples from recent publications.

“We have always had strong encouragement as Latter-day Saints to have every reason to believe that science and religion co-exist and work together in certain ways in this world that can be both religious and scientific at the same time,” Welch said.

Students as well as the public are invited to attend the lecture.

Also being held Thursday at 7:30 p.m. is a lecture by John A. Nagl in the Madsen Theater, located in the Harris Fine Arts Center.

Nagl will speak on his recently published book titled “Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife: Counterinsurgency Lessons from Malaya and Vietnam.” Nagl has been involved with the U.S. armed forces since he attended the U.S. Military Academy in 1988. He served as an armor officer for 20 years, earning a Combat Action badge and the Bronze Star.

Nagl is president of the Center for a New American Security and a visiting professor in the War Studies Department at Kings College of London. He has been invited as a distinguished lecturer for international affairs. All are invited to attend.

 

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