WELCOME

to the

CHRISTIANITY AND CULTURE

WEBSITE

maintained by Rev. Ian D. Ritchie, Ph.D.

This site is dedicated to the relationship between Christianity and culture. This includes general areas such as Christian spirituality, ethics, the environment, economics, African culture, indigenous culture, religion and the body, religious pluralism, and religious liberty.

The site owner, Ian Ritchie, is currently Rector of St. Luke's Anglican Church in Kingston, Ontario, and is Inter-Faith Officer for the Anglican Diocese of Ontario, having previously served four years at St. John’s Portsmouth Anglican church in Kingston.

Some of his sermons are available at the Sermons page.

He taught in Nigeria from 1980 to 1985, He lived in the Middle East in 1985, and earned a Ph.D. degree at McGill University's Faculty of Religious Studies in 1993. From 1995 to '99 he was assistant professor of Religion and Culture at Winnipeg's Concord College. He has worked as an ethics consultant, and wrote a column on current topics in religion for the Faith Page of the Winnipeg Free Press.

Dr. Ritchie has taught the course "Spirituality and Religions of the World" (GENE 85) at Kingston's St. Lawrence College. To access course materials for that course click here: GENE 85 Course Homepage.

In 2005 Dr. Ritchie taught the course "Understanding Islam" for the Wycliffe College extension campus in Cobourg.

Queen's University Theological College Courses

In the Fall-Winter academic year 2004 - 2005 Ian Ritchie taught a reading course on Christian Moral Theology (THEO 663) at QTC. In August 2004 he taught Christianity in a Global Context: Ecumenism and Mission (THEO 606). In May, 2003 he taught Theological Approaches to Religious Diversity. To access course materials for any of these courses just click on the underlined link.

To see Ian Ritchie's current CV, click here: CV
  • CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALITY in CONTEMPORARY CULTURE: Some Resources - A site for resources for spiritual growth. Includes explorations of the recent thirst for spirituality, spiritual disciplines, sermons, and other links.
  • CREATION STEWARDSHIP - About Biblical understanding of ecology and Christian ethical responses. Also provides some practical help on ecological living.
  • GENETHICS - Is about the ethics of cloning, transgenic foods and the theory of genetic determinism, all controversial right now.
  • JUBILEE - A site for Biblical Economics: About the Biblical Jubilee concept, the current debt release campaign of the churches to cancel all debt held by the world's 50 poorest countries, and the Fair Trade movement.
  • RELIGIOUS PLURALISM - explores responses to religious pluralism, both as a fact and as an ideology.
  • AFRICAN RELIGION and CULTURE - About the religion and spirituality of Africa. Ian Ritchie lived in Nigeria from 1980 to 1985 and wrote a doctoral dissertation on African theology.
  • ABORIGINAL RELIGION and CULTURE - Aboriginal spirituality and Aboriginal culture in interaction with Christianity is the topic of these pages.
  • THEOLOGY of the BODY - Is about theological understandings of the physical body, with implications for sexuality issues, medicine and health, genetics, the arts, sport, and many other areas of life.
  • RELIGIOUS LIBERTY - Contains articles and links to organizations supporting religious liberty for all people, and material on the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church.
  • A BIBLIOGRAPHY WE CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT - A bibliography focused on developing a Christian perspective on all fields of learning. Particularly helpful for university students grappling with faith issues and their respective fields of study.
  • Winnipeg Free Press - All of Ian Ritchie's biweekly columns from the Faith Page of the Winnipeg Free Press are available here.

This page was last updated on December 17, 2008.