Synopsis Purioris Theologiae Colloquium March 31-April 1

I also want to take an opportunity to give you more details about the special colloquium on Thursday, March 31-Friday April 1 on the Synopsis Purioris Theologiae as we have quite an array of scholars. You won’t want to miss that. Your support is helping to make this event possible. Also, if you do plan on coming to the Synopsis Purioris Colloquium, we do ask that you REGISTER ONLINE (for free) so that we can be certain we have enough seating and space for everyone. If you need to stay locally, we recommend the Prince Conference Center at Calvin College.

The Leiden Synopsis Purioris Theologiae (1625) and
Theological Disputation in the Era of Orthodoxy

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JI Spring Colloquium Schedule

This Spring we have an exciting array of scholars that are scheduled to speak in a variety of venues. We hope you will be able to join us either in person or online. Also, I wanted to take a moment to remind you and encourage you to consider a few things. Through our Colloquium series, since August 2015, we have had opportunity in person and online to present to about 2,500 attendees and viewers globally. That is simultaneously encouraging and daunting. It is tremendously encouraging because, as you may or may not know, the Junius Institute is fueled and funded overwhelmingly and primarily by the ardor, love, and zeal of its volunteers. These selfless volunteers have devoted their gifts, time, and effort to make this possible for the public good of a global audience of students, scholars, pastors, and the interested general public. It is daunting because as our reach has grown, our support has not kept pace. We are asking for your timely assistance. Please donate either by a one time gift or regularly. Your support builds people. Your support builds students, scholars, and pastors, globally. Your support makes the colloquium series into a rich conversation with scholars globally and helps academies, seminaries, and even churches. Your gift of whatever size helps us defray travel costs, meals, lodging, multimedia presentations, and so forth. It also reaches people. It keeps our projects and presentations free. That’s right, free to the public. So if you can give, please do, it helps scholars travel, eat, sleep, and speak. It helps students learn and scholars as well as pastors reflect. We also delight in providing a platform for students, new scholars, and established scholars to speak. I have the pleasure of receiving notes and e-mails from you–our viewers–from time to time thanking us for the content and the conversation. Your encouragement both in word and gift is necessary: it helps us keep going in so many ways.

Without any more adieu it is my pleasure to let you know about the colloquium schedule for the remainder of the Spring. The links below are to our presentations that have either already occurred or soon will.

I look forward to seeing you either here in Grand Rapids or online, and thank you for your support,

Todd Rester, Director

Junius Institute Colloquium
Spring 2016 Schedule

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Junius Institute Colloquium Schedule for Fall 2015

This semester the Junius Institute is pleased to announce that our monthly colloquium will be hosted at two seminaries in Grand Rapids, MI, Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary and Calvin Theological Seminary. The event is free to the public. We are also streaming the events live on YouTube. More details to follow, so stay tuned.  Below are our topics this Fall.

This Friday at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, Todd Rester will discuss the importance of recovering a body of theological and philosophical terms for the study of intellectual history, theology, and philosophy. We will also introduce the Lexica of Early Modern Philosophy & Theology project, a new tool that is a crowd-sourced project that employs elements of research methodology, historical theology, TEI (Text Encoding Initiative) standards, and Latin paleographical techniques to develop a resource for theologians, philosophers, historians, and graduate students.

Also, if you can’t make it in person to the events but would like to tune in via YouTube, we will stream the events online. You can reach the live stream by the links below:

When: Friday, September 18, 3:30pm
Presenter: Todd M. Rester
Topic: “Reformation of Terms: Mining & Building Lexica of Early Modern Philosophy & Theology”
Location: Room 118a, Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary

When: Friday, October 9, 3:30pm
Presenter: Michael Lynch
Topic: “Covenant Theology and Hypothetical Universalism? A Look at John Davenant’s Federal Theology”
Location: Auditorium, Calvin Theological Seminary

When: Friday, November 13, 3:30pm
Panelists: Richard A. Muller
Topic: “Calvinist Thomism Revisited: William Ames (1576–1633) and the Divine Ideas”
Location: Room 118a, Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary

When: Friday, December 4, 3:30pm
Presenter: Adriaan Neele
Topic: “Jonathan Edwards and the Definition of Theology: A Parting of Ways in the Reformed Tradition?”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MjZAfvBlWQ
Location: Auditorium, Calvin Theological Seminary

Free the Rare Books!

If PRDL had a rallying cry it would be “Free Rare Books!” Now with our fundraising campaign for the Junius Institute integrated into PRDL and the crowd-funding site Razoo, we have a mechanism to “Free the Rare Books!” This 4 minute video clip summarizes where PRDL has been and where we would like to go.

Please consider passing this information on to a friend or colleague who might be interested in the PRDL or has never utilized these resources. It is our user community that not only inspires and encourages us to keep providing innovative tools and resources to study theology, history, and philosophy, but also fuels and supports the mission to broaden access to digital sources to global academic and also church communities.

If you would like your academic institution to partner with the Junius Institute and its projects, please feel free to contact me for more information here.

The Junius Institute Digitization Initiative

The Junius Institute is pleased to announce its ability to digitize rare books. There are many far-sighted goals for this local digitization initiative. This initiative advances scholarship and critical study of the sources through the public use of early modern works via high quality digital images. Rare book digitization is a key strategic decision for research institutions, archives, and libraries as they grapple with preservation of rare sources and presentation of the same. Digitization allows both. Digitization also transforms a catalog database from a record to a venue. It is an opportunity to present rare book holdings seamlessly in the local library catalog, increasing access and deepening usability, even allowing institutions the ability to efficiently track usage and interest in rare sources. Thirdly, our ability to digitize rare books is a local initiative with global implications for students and scholars everywhere. Given the rise of tablet and mobile computing in developed and developing countries, the presentation of primary sources in a form that is easily accessible for a wide array of devices can form the basis of global institutional collaboration, expediting the goal of fostering a true exchange of learning. These points are not wishful thinking, we have already received requests and suggestions regarding the Post-Reformation Digital Library from universities, institutions, and academies around the world regarding the particular curricular needs of their students and faculty.

Isaac Junius, Antapologia (1640)

There is also the reality that there are treasures of early modern theology and philosophy tucked away in smaller institutions and private collections. A digitization initiative can be scaled to other institutions, archives, and private collections as a way to build a consortium of truly invaluable sources. One example that we are proud to present is a piece by Isaac Junius simply entitled the Antapologia, or thoughts on the 16 heads of the Remonstrants. Through the generosity of a private owner, we are able to make it available to you. According to Worldcat this piece is housed primarily in Europe and, as far as we are aware, is unavailable in digital form for free. We encourage you to take a moment and browse our version of it here. And yes you may download it in .pdf form.

At the core of the digitization project is an automated digital photography device developed over the past 24 months by an interdisciplinary team I had the privilege of spearheading (several specialists in engineering design, robotics, automation, and computer programming). In particular this device expedites the digitization of rare books while respecting the fragility of their age in a new and innovative way. You can see some of its initial results here. The presentation format is another testimony to David Sytsma’s programming wizardry and is the Junius Institute’s adaptation of a publicly available book viewer. Together we hope we have created a process and result that meets the needs of teachers, scholars, and students in a relatively cost-effective way.

Unprecedented access to primary sources through print media once changed the face of education and shaped all of society in early modern Europe. Now we live in an age where unprecedented access to primary sources through digital media is changing the face of education and all of society in ways only dreamed of a decade ago. We invite you to consider a few things. We are looking for individual and institutional partners who are interested in advancing initiatives of this nature. You might think that is way beyond your means or your contact list, but in my experience scholars and students are a creative and innovative bunch of people. You can be a part of this initiative in a variety of ways: (1) You can sign-up to receive our updates and e-mails. (2) You could fully or partially sponsor the digitization of a particular rare book. (3) You can be the link to put us in contact with individuals or institutions that have a similar vision and desire to advance scholarship through digital means.

We look forward to providing you updates on initiatives of this sort as well as displaying the results in the days ahead.