History of Luther Lecture
The Luther Lecture was established with the purpose of making a distinctive and stimulating contribution to the life of the University and the general community. Annually a distinguished scholar or leader of note is invited to present an address on a subject of significance. Although the speakers have included such outstanding minds as Northrop Frye, Helen Caldicott, John Ralston Saul, and Margaret Somerville, the lectures are aimed at a general audience, and feature topics of interest to communities in Saskatchewan and beyond. In this way, Luther College, University Campus, aims to express more fully its objective to encourage wise thinking and constructive action in the service of humanity.
Luther Lecture 2025 featuring The Right Rev. Dr. Carmen Lansdowne
Past Luther Lecturers
2023 – Dr. Regan Shercliffe, United Nations World Food Programme – “Humanitarian Aid Work: (Another) Impossible Profession”
2021 – Dr. Azza Karam, Secretary General of Religions for Peace – “Religions and the Pandemic: Sobering or Hopeful?”
2018 – Rev. Dr. Mitri Raheb – “Faith in the Face of Empire: A Palestinian Christian Perspective.”
2017 – Dr. Nicholas Terpstra – “Reframing the Reformation: Religious Refugees in the Early Modern World”
2015 – Dr. Pamela Dickey Young – “Sex, Religion and Canadian Youth: Identities Under Construction”
2014 – Dr. Cynthia Moe-Lobeda – “Climate Justice: Love as Ecological-Economic Vocation”
2013 — Dr. Martin E. Marty – “The Artful Liberation of the University: Practical Education for the Common Good”
2012 — Bishop Michael Ingham – “Finding the Postmodern Balance: evangelical, catholic, liberal”
2011 — Senator Lillian Dyck – “Following the footprints of my Cree mother: Dreaming of gender and racial equality”
2010 — Dr. Roland Miller – “Daring to be Global Citizens: De-radicalising Christian-Muslim Relations”
2009 — Larry Rasmussen – “Earth Healing for Justice-Minded Christians”
2008 — Don Franklin – “Bach to the Future: What we can learn from the past when performing Bach’s music today”
2007 — Margaret Somerville – “Challenging ‘The God Delusion’: The Search for a Shared Ethics”
2006 — George Elliott Clarke – “The Problem of Pluralism: Anti-Social Attitudes in African-Canadian Literature”
2005 — Stanley Hauerwas
2004 — Margaret Miles
2003 — Margaret Wertheim
2002 — Rudy Wiebe
2001 — Carol Meyers
1999 — Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen – “Faith, Feminism And Family In An Age Of Globalization”
1995 — Rosemary Radford Ruether
1993 — James Cone
1992 — Ursula Franklin
1991 — Reginald Bibby
1990 — Lois Wilson
1989 — John Polanyi
1989 — Edna and Howard Hong
1988 — Dr. Henry Taube
1987 — Wilfred Cantwell Smith
1986 — Hans Küng
1985 — Paul Wee
1984 — Helen Caldicott
1983 — George Forell
1982 — Northrop Frye
1981 — William Foege
1980 — Roland Bainton
1979 — Krister Stendahl
1978 — Dr. Martin E. Marty
1977 — Jaroslav Pelikan