PROGRAMS

"The Holy Hunger: Encountering Beauty as the Engine of Creation" 

Thursday September 12th at 7:00 p.m. at Faith Presbyterian Church

How does Beauty matter in our time of growing violence, confusion, and despair? In this inspiring talk led by writer Paul J. Pastor and fine artist Emily Pastor, we will explore the essential nature and purpose of Beauty in the Christian tradition, ask what holds us back from encountering the Beautiful, and begin to understand the high and wonderful stakes that true Beauty holds for our lives.

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"The Great Thanksgiving: Befriending Beauty in the Creative Life" 

Friday September 13th at 7:00 p.m. at the Christian Study Center

Beauty is an eternal  invitation to join a life far larger than our own. But what holds us back from this belonging, and how can we live in light of this Beauty in a world that is often ugly and profoundly painful? In this insightful talk led by fine artist Emily Pastor and writer Paul J. Pastor, we deepen our understanding of how we can meaningfully “befriend” Beauty in our lives, participating joyfully in the goodness and truth of creation according to our giftings and for the good of the world.

In our times of political and cultural polarization, the word “Christian” has often been either hijacked (thus making it unrecognizable from its original meaning) weaponized (thereby serving the self-aggrandizing aims of domination). So, what does it actually look like to be a Christian and follow the King whose kingdom was not of this world? How do we seek the greater good of humanity while seeking to serve the Lord of grace and glory?

By juxtaposing perspectives from Augustine’s City of God, Aquinas’s exitus-reditus doctrine, and Jesus’ teaching on double-belonging, Professor Lim presents a pathway for faithful flourishing for Christians.

Augustine’s City of God was written as a philosophy of history, to rebut the accusation from the Roman cultural elites that the sack of Rome was caused by the “Christian captivity of the Roman Empire.” His incisive critique of the two cities will bring to the fore of the Question of Citizenship. The overall governing principle for Thomas Aquinas’ theology was exitus-reditus: that all comes from and return to God: Father, Son, Holy Spirit. We will explore how this idea has deep contemporary resonance. The writer of Hebrews spoke of the fact that we do not have an enduring city here, but are looking for the one to come as we follow Jesus “outside the camp.”

This will also highlight the strategic significance of Christian Study Centers such as the one in Gainesville by presenting a more authentic and credible fabric of a “Christian plausibility” of love and truth.

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Paul is new to Gainesville (as of 1 August!), as he has taken a position as Professor of Humanities at the Hamilton Center for Classical and Civic Education at the University of Florida. Prior to UF, he taught at Vanderbilt University, both for the Divinity School and for the Departments of History, Religious Studies, and Asian Studies between 2006 and 2023. He has also taught at the University of Chicago, Gordon-Conwell Seminary, and Cambridge University. He is an award-winning historian of early modern European religious and political debates. His most recent book Mystery Unveiled: The Crisis of the Trinity in Early Modern England (Oxford) offered a detailed account of how the debates about the doctrine of the Trinity shaped the intellectual fermentation regarding philosophical-theological language about Self, Savior, and Society. Professor Lim is currently working on two books projects. First is entitled The Forgotten God? Jesus in Enlightenment England which is an exploration of the philosophical, political, and theological discussions on the person and work of Jesus between 1650-1750. The second one is a theological account of the relationship between Christianity and Prisons.

He has received his undergraduate degree from Yale, theological training at Princeton Seminary, and the doctorate at Cambridge. He and his wife love good Italian food, Korean dramas, and following their son’s baseball career. He is also an avid cyclist and golfer, neither of which he is particularly good at, but loves to do. Go Gators!!!