Plenary Presentations
PL-1 Globality: Its Implications for Research and Creative Scholarship at Andrews and Beyond
Øystein LaBianca, Department of Behavioral Sciences and Institute of Archaeology
“The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein” (Ps 24:1). It has been said that ‘globality’ is what comes after globalization. Unlike globalization, which to a large extent has been a one-way street of the West imposing its ways on the rest, ‘globality’ is the condition where ideas and commerce flow between all parts of the globe--in other words, a world without one or more dominant centers. It is the “flat earth” foreseen by the journalist Thomas Friedman in his book by the same title. “Globality” is also a new point of view—a new perspective from which to do research and creative scholarship. For example, whereas until recently, world history was essentially European history, the perspective of “globality” now challenges historians to re-imagine how history might be written when the story to be told is that of humanity in all parts of the world. Examples of such global history writing are Maps of Time by David Christian and The Human Web by J.R and William H. McNeill. The perspective of “globality” has implications for research and creative scholarship in many other disciplines as well, several examples of which will be briefly mentioned. I will conclude the presentation by explaining how my own research as an anthropological archaeologist working in Jordan at Tall Hisban is being re-purposed and re-designed with the concept of “globality” as a point of departure.
PL-2 The Adventist Sola Scriptura Research Project
Fernando Canale, Department of Theology and Christian Philosophy
My research has demonstrated the possibility, foundations, goal and method for a broad reaching, interdisciplinary research project grounded on the faithful application of the Seventh-Day Adventist sola-tota-prima Scriptura principle. The current presentation will explain how my work stems from the as yet unexplored connection between Scripture and philosophy. From this angle, and using current philosophical discoveries and the role of paradigms in scientific research, my studies suggest that during the last century science has moved from a classical-timeless to a hermeneutical-temporal scientific paradigm. This seismic shift calls for the deconstruction of classical, modern and postmodern theologies and requires rethinking the entire edifice of Christian theology from scratch, that is to say, from the things themselves rather than from tradition. Here the Adventist total commitment to Scripture provides the ground, data and perspective from which to understand a new theological paradigm from its philosophical foundations to its missiological applications. To investigate all the consequences of this macro paradigm shift for Adventist Theology and the Adventist University it is necessary to create an interdisciplinary team of specialists fully committed to the sola-tota-prima Scriptura principle. This project should work first within the area of the Theological Encyclopedia and then include all the disciplines taught in Adventist universities around the world.