1. Click here for all the speakers sessions for 2010: 

• WCPPC 2010 Audio

1. Click for the audio for individual speakers:

• Dale Bruner 2010 – The Gospel of John
• Todd Johonson 2010 – What Is Worship?

Jerry Sittser specializes in the History of Christianity, Christian Spirituality, and Religion in American Public Life. His course on the history and practice of Christian Spirituality meets over January Term in the wintry beauty of  Tall Timber, a Christian camp located in a remote area of the Cascade mountain range. Students live together for three weeks, follow a modified Benedictine Rule, and explore various spiritual traditions that have emerged throughout the history of Christian spirituality. He is also chair of the MA in Theology program at Whitworth and director of the Certification in Ministry program. He has written seven books, too. He is currently doing research on the history of “catechesis,” which refers to how the church has trained people in the faith over the past 2,000 years. He enjoys music, literature, hiking, woodworking, and he attends the Oregon Shakespeare Festival every year with his family. Sittser is also known as “dad” to two Whitworth alums; his youngest son attends SPU.

Education:

• Ph.D. University of Chicago
• M.Div. Fuller Theological Seminary
• B.A. Hope College

Areas of Specialization / Expertise:

History of Christianity; history of Christian Spirituality; history of catechesis; religion in American public life

Selected Publications / Presentations / Honors:

Sittser is the author of Love One Another: Becoming the Church Jesus Longs For (IVP, 2008); Water from a Deep Well: Christian Spirituality from Early Martyrs to Modern Missionaries (IVP, 2007), which won the Logos Book Award; When God Doesn’t Answer Your Prayer (Zondervan, 2003), which won the 2005 Gold Medallion Award in the Christian Living category, from the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association; The Will of God as a Way of Life (Zondervan, 2000); A Cautious Patriotism: the American Churches and the Second World War (U. of NC Press, 1998), and The Adventure (IVP, 1985). He is best known for his bestseller, A Grace Disguised: How the Soul Grows Through Loss (Zondervan, 1996), which has been translated into more than 15 languages.

Sittser has written many book reviews and papers. Most recently he has authored “The Battle Without and Within: The Psychology of Sin and Salvation in the Desert Fathers and Mothers,” in the Journal of Spiritual Formation and Soul Care (2009), “From Mountaintop to Mundane Life: The Purpose of Spiritual Retreats,” in Conversations (2009), “Protestant Missionary Biography as Written Icon,” in Christian Scholars Review (2007), as well as several review essays, including “Faithful Citizens,” in Christian Century (2007) and “The Civil War Letters of Joseph Hopkins Twichell: A Chaplain’s Story,” in Books & Culture (2008). He also speaks at numerous conferences and on college campuses, most recently Westmont College, Hope College, and Northwestern College.

Sittser won the Hope College Distinguished Alumni Award in 2009. He has also been voted Most Influential Professor seven times by the Whitworth senior class. During graduate school he also won the Jacob K. Javits National Graduate Fellowship award. Finally, he serves on the Camp Spalding Board, the Global Neighborhood Board, and the Northwestern College Board of Trustees.

You can listen to past sessions from Jim here:  Jim Edwards Audio

Education:

• Ph.D. Fuller Theological Seminary
• New Testament Studies, University of Zürich, Switzerland; University of Tübingen, Germany
• M.Div. Princeton Theological Seminary
• B.A. Whitworth University

Areas of Specialization / Expertise:

Old and New Testament; the Gospels and life of Jesus; Biblical Hebrew; Koine Greek; history of early Christianity; Reformation; German church struggle, communist East Germany; the Holocaust.

Selected Publications / Presentations / Honors:

Books include: The Hebrew Gospel and the Development of the Synoptic Tradition (Eerdmans, 2009); Is Jesus the Only Savior? (Eerdmans, 2005); The Divine Intruder (NavPress, 2000).

Commentaries include: commentary on Hebrews in Renovare Study Bible (Harper, 2005); commentary on Romans in New Interpreter’s Study Bible (Abingdon, 2003); commentary on The Gospel of Mark, PNTC (Eerdmans, 2002); commentary on Romans, NIBC (Hendrickson’s 1992).

Also publishes numerous articles in scholarly and popular journals, and is a frequent speaker at churches, conferences, and lectureships.

Member of the Center of Theological Inquiry, Princeton, N.J. (2007). Recipient of several teaching awards, including Outstanding Professor at Jamestown College and Whitworth University; former scholar for North Dakota Humanities Council; recipient of Templeton Grant in Science and Religion (1996); recipient of Deutsche Akademische Austausch Dienst Award (1993).

Leader of study programs to Luther’s Germany; church struggle in Germany; ancient Christian sites in Turkey; historical geography of Israel and Palestine.

Ordained minister, PCUSA. Contributing editor of Christianity Today. Climbed the Mittellegi Ridge of the Eiger in 2003.

Dale Bruner

Retired George & Lyda Wasson Professor of Religion – Whitworth
Teacher at Hollywood Presbyterian Church

Dale Bruner returns in 2010 to teach our morning Bible Sessions.  Dale is a popular veteran teacher at WCPPC.

Bruner graduated from Occidental College in 1954; he then earned his M.Div. at Princeton Theological Seminary and his Ph.D. (Dr. theol) at Germany’s Hamburg University. After teaching for 11 years at Union Theological Seminary in the Philippines, he came to Whitworth College in 1975.

During his years as George & Lyda Wasson Professor of Religion at Whitworth, Dr. Bruner touched the lives of countless students. His passion for teaching the biblical narrative, for scholarship and for church renewal made him one of Whitworth’s most influential professors. His influence extended far beyond the generation of students he taught and mentored at Whitworth. In fact, during his tenure at the college, he spoke and taught at hundreds of churches all over the country. Here, too, his passion for the gospel and his utter belief in the healing power of the church was infectious, and he became one of the most sought-after speakers in the Presbyterian Church. He continues to have a vital teaching ministry in the PCUSA.

Upon retirement from Whitworth, in 1997, Dale and his wife of 46 years, Kathy, moved to Pasadena, California, where he embarked on new studies at Fuller Theological Seminary. “On weekdays I walk an hour to the seminary,” he says, “where I am now quietly doing research toward a commentary on the Gospel of John.”

Dr. Bruner is the author of A Theology of the Holy Spirit: The Pentecostal Experience and the New Testament Witness (Eerdmans, 1970) and Matthew: A Commentary (2 volumes; revised and expanded edition, Eerdmans, 2004). He also co-authored, with William Holdern, The Holy Spirit: Shy Member of the Trinity ( Augsburg, 1983).

AUDIO ON THE WEBSITE: 

If you head over to the website, there is now a link called “Audio.”  We will be posting past WCPPC Conference Sessions (usually requested ones) which will be available to listen to only in the website.  If you would like a hard-copy of the talks, you will still need to order them through the Mount Hermon audio department.  Their information is posted on the Audio page.  I am told that there are shortcuts around this process, where one could illegally capture the sound file and burn their own disc – but Christians wouldn’t do such things, would they?  At any rate, from Mount Hermon’s perspective, if someone is desperate enough to do such a thing, they probably desperately need to hear what’s on those cd’s and be moved to repentance.

USING THE AUDIO ON THE WEBSITE:

1)  Listening – you can listen to the audio in the audio page, or even click on individual titles to a more detailed, individual audio description page.  Click play to listen.  Pausing the audio will keep your current place and you can resume at any time after the pause.  Note:  if you navigate away from this page, your place will be lost, so open multiple windows.  You do not always have to start at the beginning every time, however.  You can manually move the status bar to any point on the audio spectrum, effectively become a fast-forward or rewind.     Allow time for the audio to load.

2)  Individual Pages – the software used for the audio is meant for sermons.  I’ll make adjustments to them in the future when they become available.  As it is now, the biblical text available for the individual session page is in the ESV version.  When other versions become available, we can use them.  Not all talks have biblical texts associated with them yet.  But, as it is, you can listen to the text read to you if you’d rather not read it!

3)  Search – on the main page, clicking on the “show filter” link will allow you to see the speakers, series, and dates.  You can click on any speaker, or series, etc. and all of the talks under such a designation will be filtered for you below.  Again, adjustments will be made in the future to the filter so that you don’t read “Preacher” or “Sermon.” 

MOUNT HERMON

Again, the availability of these talks are given by the gracious permission of Mount Hermon.  We still encourage you to purchase CD sets for individual use this year and in subsequent years.  But the posted audio is available so that pastors can continue to have access to great biblical teaching at any time they’re in front of a computer, particularly great material that is effectively buried in a sound-vault.  Enjoy listening – and tell your friends.  But if you want it in your iTunes or in your car – order the discs. 

Thanks
Troy Onsager