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Winter 2012
Did You Know?
Free entrance counselling support and invaluable one-on-one academic advising are available for all programs at Luther College.
Wondering where to live? Our student residence, The Student Village at Luther College, is considered the best choice for first-year student accommodation. Individual private rooms mean you can stick to your own schedule and you never have to deal with roommate hassles.
Luther College is the first choice for high school to university transition. Enjoy all the benefits of a larger campus, without feeling lost in the crowd. Our community is full of caring mentors and peers to ensure a positive student experience.
Luther College participates in Admission on the Spot events which offer campus tours, reduced application fees, and the relief of finding out you are accepted to your program immediately!
The Luther Library has over 24,000 items in its collection, 5,000 books checked out per year, and 7,000 students who come through its door per month.
Eating better means studying better. The Luther Cafeteria offers fresh, healthy, nutritious meals seven days a week with a self-serve “all-you-care-to-eat” concept students prefer.
Luther College students are U of R students and receive all the same benefits. Upon graduation you will receive a U of R degree.
Luther College is recognized for its high standards of teaching, focused research, and one-on-one academic advising. We value and protect this heritage of excellence in scholarship, freedom of inquiry, and faithful seeking after truth.
Winter 2012
Introduction
By Yvonne Petry
How do people with divergent – sometimes mutually exclusive – religious beliefs and cultural practices figure out how to live together? In Canada, this question has been posed at numerous points in history and yet, given a new global context, it is one that is still needs to be asked. Lori Beaman, a professor in the Department of Classics and Religious Studies at the University of Ottawa and a Canada Research Chair in the Contextualization of Religion in a Diverse Canada, is one scholar who directly tackles this question and all that it entails.
In her essay, “Deep Equality: Moving Beyond Tolerance and Accommodation” Beaman begins by asking: “What is wrong with ‘tolerating’ others as the basis for dialogue? Why is accommodating someone problematic?” She notes that such concepts are laden with an implicit inequality and are therefore an imperfect starting point for dialogue. Rather than seeing equality as the goal of dialogue, she argues that it must itself become a starting point in order for genuine multicultural and inter-religious dialogue to begin. Her model of deep equality attempts to provide an alternative to merely “tolerating” difference and “accommodating” diversity.
Responses to Beaman’s essay have been written by three of Luther College’s faculty members: Mark Anderson (History), Dorothy Lane (English) and William Stahl (Sociology). Anderson draws on his background in the history of European colonialism to ask whether a notion of deep equality does not in some ways undermine our capacity to critique atrocity and exploitation, both past and present. Lane uses her expertise in post-colonial literature and criticism to reflect on how the language of imperialism is itself entrenched in our political and legal institutions. And Stahl questions whether deep equality goes far enough in addressing questions of social and economic inequality. In her response, Beaman reflects on the path that took her to her current intellectual stance and agrees that the pursuit of answers must go beyond the legal and political realm. This series of essays provides a thoughtful and challenging commentary around issues that are pressing both here in Canada and around the globe.