Originally called the “Stob Lectureship”, the Stob Lecture Series was signed into being in 1985 as a collaboration between Calvin College and Calvin Theological Seminary. The annual Stob Lectureship was designed to bring to the campus in either the fall or spring semester of each year an established or promising scholar for the delivery of two “Stob Lectures” to a campus audience consisting of professors, students and other interested persons. The chosen lecturer would have a notable academic reputation in the fields of philosophy, ethics, and/or theology; resonate with the Reformed and Christian perspectives embodied by the life and work of Dr. Henry Stob; and have the ability to communicate effectively to a general audience.
In 2017, the annual Stob Lecture was incorporated for the first time within the lineup of speakers of the January Series of Calvin College. Instead of two public lectures, there would now be one public lecture suitable for a general audience of undergraduates, seminaries, Calvin alumni and friends, community members and other educated citizenry and one internal, non-public evening colloquium hosted by select faculty of Calvin Theological Seminary and Calvin College’s Philosophy Departments and would include invited students of these professors. Historically, the lectures are, though not necessarily, in the fields of ethics, apologetics, and philosophical theology.
Read more about the Stob Lectures on the Stob Family website.
Or read about the Stob Lecturers from 1986 to 1998 in the book Seeking Understanding: The Stob Lectures, 1986-1998.