2026 Lectures

Dr. Michael Horton will deliver the 2026 Kistemaker Academic Lecture Series. He will explore the alternative theology of transhumanism as a parody of the Christian hope.

Learn More & Register

Learn More & Details

Two lectures will be offered at at 11am & 1 pm on both March 25 & 26 in the Fellowship Hall on the RTS Orlando campus. On March 26th , a Lunchtime Q&A will be open to the community at noon in the Dining Hall

 

About the Lecture & Speaker

While most of our apologetics is directed toward the 4% of atheists in the US, the clear trend among the “Spiritual-but-Not-Religious” (SBNR) and “Nones” is toward pantheism.  Nowhere is this more evident than in the transhumanist movement that sees AI as its way of salvation from death.  The ultimate goal is to upgrade human consciousness into divinity.  In these talks I explore the alternative theology of transhumanism as a parody of the Christian hope.

Lecture Titles:

  • Eranos: The Mountain of Truth
  • Transhumanism, AI, and Gnostic Utopia
  • A Better Story: Apologetics in a Neo-Pagan Era
  • Against Enchantment

 

MICHAEL S. HORTON (Ph.D.,Wycliffe Hall, Oxford and Coventry University) is the J. Gresham Machen Professor of Systematic Theology and Apologetics at Westminster Seminary California and Founder & Editor-in-Chief of Sola Media.

 

Dr. Horton has written and edited more than forty books, including award winning titles such as Justification (2 vols) and The Christian Faith, as well as many popular titles, including Recovering Our Sanity: How the Fear of God Conquers the Fears that Divide Us; Ordinary: Sustainable Faith in a Radical, Restless World; and Calvin on the Christian Life: Glorifying and Enjoying God Forever.

 

His most recent book is Magician and Mechanic: The Roots of “Spiritual but Not Religious” from the Renaissance to the Scientific Revolution, the second of three volumes in his “Divine Self” series, an intellectual history of “spiritual but not religious” as a phenomenon in Western culture
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About the Lectures

Since 1994, The Kistemaker Academic Lecture Series has provided a venue where distinguished scholars can address the seminary community on a wide array of subjects related to biblical, systematic, and practical theology.

The series is comprised of four lectures held in the Fellowship Hall. They also include a Community Lunch with Q&A held in the Dining Hall. The lectures are held on a given Tuesday and Wednesday during the spring semester depending on the lecturer’s availability.

This lecture series was established in 1994 and was renamed in honor of New Testament Professor Emeritus Simon J. Kistemaker, Ph.D. in 2003.

Past Speakers

2025 | Dr. John Barclay
Paul, Solidarity, and the Circulation of Grace

2024 | Dr. Lewis Ayres
How Should we Think? On the Place of Christian Theology in Seminary and University

2023 | Dr. David Sytsma
Virtue Ethics in the Reformed Tradition

2022 | David Yeago, Ph.D.
In the Kingdom of the Beloved Son: Justification and the Risen Christ

2019 | Fred Sanders, Ph.D.
Blessed Trinity: The Beatitude and Triunity of the Christian God

2018 | Grant Macaskill, D.Phil.
I No Longer Live, But Christ Lives in Me: The Reformed Self in Paul

2017 | Timothy George, Th.D.
Retrieval for the Sake of Renewal: The Witness of Four Reformers

2016 | Diane Langberg, Ph.D.
Culture, Christendom and Christ

2015 | Richard B. Gaffin, Jr., Th.D.
Life-Giving Spirit: The Exaltation of Christ and Salvation in the Theology of Paul

2014 | Kevin J. Vanhoozer, Ph.D.
Doctrine for Disciples: Acting Out What Is in Christ

2013 | Michael Goheen, Ph.D.
The Church and Religions Pluralism: Living Faithfully Amidst the World Religions

2012 | Michael J. Kruger, Ph.D.
The Origins of the New Testament Canon: Issues, Problems, and Possibilities

2011 | Richard Bauckham, FBA, FRSE
The Gospels as Histories: What Sort of History Are They?

2010 | Eugene Peterson, Ph.D.
Prayer & the Practice of Resurrection

2009 | Herman Selderhuis, Ph.D.
The Rediscovery of John Calvin

2008 | Miroslav Volf, Ph.D.
Love of God – Love of Neighbor: A Conversation Between Christianity and Islam

2007 | Gregory K. Beale, Ph.D.
A Biblical-Theological Approach to Understanding the Book of Revelation

2006 | Anthony Campolo, Ph.D.
Sociology Looks at the Church

2005 | David F. Wells, Ph.D.
Christ in a Post-Modern World

2004 | Roger Nicole, Ph.D.
Reflections on the Atoning Work of Christ