Kitchen Table Theology with Rev. Dr. Tracy Sprowls Exploring and developing a faith practice is critical to faith formation and spiritual growth and grounding in a chaotic world. And yet, most of us do not take the time to explore the rituals and practices available to us, right in our own kitchens. We’ll talk a little, practice a little, and have plenty of ideas to take home. Rev. Tracy is the Assistant Minister of Lifespan Faith Formation.

Marketing or Manipulation? with Rev. Audette Fulbright Facebook has been in the news lately, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg being called to answer about Facebook's policy to allow political ads with lies to be disseminated. But are you familiar with Facebook's data collection & microtargeting practices? There are entirely new vistas in psycho-sociological profiling and marketing/consumer manipulation. As the holidays approach and you may be shopping more, join Rev. Audette in this conversation about new challenges in the media landscape, and how to have a more peaceful, soul-nurturing holiday season. Rev. Audette Fulbright is the Associate Minister of All Souls.

Bach Against Modernity with Michael Marissen Many scholars and music lovers hold that Johann Sebastian Bach is a "modern" figure, as his music seems to speak directly to the concerns of today’s listeners. These two lectures will suggest that by 18th-century standards of what was considered modern — to exalt reason, to exalt human achievement, to exalt religious tolerance, to exalt cosmopolitanism, and to exalt social progressiveness — Bach actually promoted pre-modern views. We should therefore be on the ethical alert for a kind of cultural narcissism in which we miscast Bach in our own ideological image and put forward that image in support of our own agendas. Michael Marissen is Daniel Underhill Professor Emeritus of Music at Swarthmore College, where he taught from 1989 to 2014. He has also been a visiting professor on the graduate faculties at Princeton University and the University of Pennsylvania. His publications include "The Social and Religious Designs of J. S. Bach's Brandenburg Concertos" (Princeton, 1995), "Lutheranism, anti-Judaism, and Bach's St. John Passion" (Oxford, 1998), "Tainted Glory in Handel's Messiah" (Yale, 2014), "Bach & God" (Oxford, 2016), and essays in "Harvard Theological Review," "The Huffington Post," "Lutheran Quarterly," and "The New York Times."