MacKinnon Lecture Retreat

Join us at Manitoba Pioneer Camp on MacKinnon Island this September 25 – 27 for our annual Fall Lecture Series Retreat. Dr. Nate Wall-Bowering will lead sessions on Saint Augustine’s seminal text Confessions.

A thinker steeped in St. Augustine’s writings once said, “The art of salvation is but the art of memory.” But memory turns out to be a tricky art. Introspection can sink into the quicksand of narcissism. Self-analysis gets lost in the fog of self-delusion. If your own self feels like a whirlpool, or a mystery, can “the art of memory” really help? The Confessions of St. Augustine say, “Yes.” In his mid-life memoir, Augustine set out to interpret a life that was still in-the-making, to collect the driftwood of his past and see what sense he could make. At this year’s retreat, we’ll join Augustine in seeking to read the self—in all its puzzling imperfection—as a sign, a communication, even an invitation.

BIO: Nate Wall-Bowering writes about the Hebrew Bible and its literary afterlives. The poet-preacher John Donne, called the “second Augustine” of 17th century England, has been a special interest. Nate teaches at Providence Theological Seminary and lives in Winnipeg with his wife Julia and their two small kids.