Material Spirituality: Rethinking Religion

This course will make the case that religion must be understood as shaping how we experience the world and not simply as a distinct kind of experience (e.g., religious experience v. artistic experience v. ethical experience). In doing so, the course will bring together work in religious studies, phenomenology of religion, phenomenological philosophy, secularism studies, and Continental philosophy of religion to show that religion is both constituted within historical and material conditions and is partly constitutive of those conditions. In that way, what it offers is not simply a materialist account of religion, but an account of material spirituality in which religion can be located and contextualized. Please note that the course will not assume prior familiarity with phenomenology.

Dr. Neal DeRoo

223001 W27

Online Synchronous

Wednesday, 2pm - 5pm ET

(MA, PhD)

Syllabus

*Attention TST students: you have to contact the ICS Registrar to complete your registration. 

Religion, Life and Society: Reformational Philosophy

An exploration of central issues in philosophy, as addressed by Herman Dooyeweerd, Dirk Vollenhoven, and the “Amsterdam School” of neoCalvinian thought. The course tests the relevance of this tradition for recent developments in Western philosophy. Special attention is given to critiques of foundationalism, metaphysics, and modernity within reformational philosophy and in other schools of thought.

Dr. Neal DeRoo

1107AC / 2107AC F26

Remote (Online Synchronous)

Tuesdays, 6:00-9:00pm ET

(MWS, MA, PhD)

Syllabus

Required Books:

Vollenhoven, D. H. T. Introduction to Philosophy. Sioux Center, Iowa: Dordt College Press, 2005. ISBN 978-0-932914-65-1. [ICS Library Reserve Shelf: BD28 .V65a 2005].  Must be purchased. 
Purchasing links: Amazon CA
* Also available through 21five website, or
* Chapters/Indigo website.

Enrolment Notes:

To register for this course, email academic-registrar@icscanada.edu. Last date to register is September 11. ICS reserves the right to decline registrations. 

What's Christian About Christian Education?: Reformational Philosophy

This course will offer you an opportunity to reflect about what it means to teach or educate “Christianly.” It will situate a Reformational understanding of Christian education within two distinct types of “context”: first, the “spirits of the age” that are at work influencing our shared modern, Canadian society; and second, the local context of the school you work at. The ‘spiritual’ context will help us see Christian education as an alternative, not simply to “secular” education, but to other patterns of spiritual formation, like consumerist education or workaholic education. The ‘local’ context will then allow us to discuss how Christian education can be ‘put to work’ in your day-to-day activities as a teacher or administrator. The goal is to give you time, space, and resources to develop a clearer understanding of how faith impacts education in general, and how your faith shapes what you do as an educator more specifically.

Dr. Neal DeRoo

1107AC / 2107AC S26

Remote (Online Synchronous/Asynchronous)

(MWS, MA-EL)

Dates/Time

Thursday, April 23, 2026, 6:15 - 9:15 pm ET

Thursday, May 7, 2026, 6:15 - 9:15 pm ET

Thursday, May 21, 2026, 6:15 - 9:15 pm ET

Tuesday, August 11, 2026, 1 - 4 pm ET

Wednesday, August 12, 2026, 1 - 4 pm ET

Thursday, August 13, 2026, 1 - 4 pm ET

Syllabus

Enrolment Notes:

To register for this course, email academic-registrar@icscanada.edu. Last date to register April 17, 2026. Maximum enrolment of twelve (12) students. ICS reserves the right to decline registrations.

*NOTE: Approved for Area 2 of the CSTC

IDS: The Post-Truth, the Un/Truth, and Nothing but the Truth: Contemporary Anxieties and Present Possibilities

From what was the Oxford Dictionary’s “international word of the year” in 2016 to a term

that allegedly defines an era in which we now live, this course will seek to understand

and evaluate the phenomenon that is “post-truth” and the anxieties—but also the

possibilities—that it represents. We will take a close look at works in the Western

philosophical tradition often thought to be responsible for the undermining of “truth”

alongside key texts that some believe can help us think critically about truth once

again—even as their critics worry that these same works “thin out” our view of truth

thereby contributing to the problems we face!

Figures and approaches covered include: Parmenides, Plato, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche,

Heidegger, Derrida, Baudrillard, feminist theory, the Gospel of John, Jeff Dudiak,

Hendrik Hart, Michel Henry, and Lambert Zuidervaart.

Neal DeRoo and Nik Ansell
2400AC W26
Online Synchronous
Tuesdays, 6pm - 9pm

(MA, PhD)

Syllabus

Required Books

1. Walt Anderson, The Truth about Truth: De-Confusing and Re-Constructing the Postmodern World

Amazon CA (paperback) | Indigo (paperback) | Barnes & Noble (paperback)

2. Jeffery Dudiak, Post-Truth? Facts and Faithfulness

Amazon CA (paperback, Kindle) | Indigo (paperback, Kobo) | Wipf & Stock (publisher website) | Barnes & Noble (paperback)

3. Michel Henry, I Am the Truth: Toward a Philosophy of Christianity

Amazon CA (paperback) | Indigo (paperback) | Barnes & Noble (paperback)

Issues in Phenomenology: Life

The theme of this year’s “Issues in Phenomenology” seminar will be ‘life’. As a concept, life figures prominently in the most basic tenets of phenomenological thought (lived experience; lifeworld; etc.). Yet it is itself rarely thematized as a key phenomenological concept. This course will examine this theme–the meaning of life (in phenomenology)--  drawing especially on the works of Renaud Barbaras, Jacques Derrida, and Michel Henry. The goal will be to uncover how to talk about what lies at the very basis of our experiencing of the world, and ultimately to put that into conversation with related themes from Reformational thought like spirituality, ground motives, and world view. 

Note: This course does not require any prior familiarity with phenomenology.

Dr. Neal DeRoo

ICS 223001 W26

ICT5791

Online Synchronous

Wednesdays, 4pm - 7pm ET

(MA, PhD)

Syllabus

Required Books:

1. Jacques Derrida, Voice and Phenomenon: Introduction to the Problem of the Sign in Husserl's Phenomenology -  

 * Amazon CA, print and Kindle editions available. 
 * Publisher website, paperback and ebook options available.

2. Renaud Barbaras, Introduction to a Phenomenology of Life
 * Amazon CA has both paperback and Kindle editions available. 
 * Publisher website, paperback and ebook options available. 

3. Vernon W. Cisney, Derrida’s Voice and Phenomenon
* Amazon CA has both paperback and Kindle editions available — please note, there may be shipping delays if purchasing the print edition. 
* Publisher website, paperback and ebook options available. 

Enrolment Notes:

To register for this course, email academic-registrar@icscanada.edu. Last date to register January 9, 2026. ICS reserves the right to decline registrations.

*Attention TST students: you have to contact the ICS Registrar to complete your registration. 

Religion, Life, and Society: Reformational Philosophy

An exploration of central issues in philosophy, as addressed by Herman Dooyeweerd, Dirk Vollenhoven, and the “Amsterdam School” of neoCalvinian thought. The course tests the relevance of this tradition for recent developments in Western philosophy. Special attention is given to critiques of foundationalism, metaphysics, and modernity within reformational philosophy and in other schools of thought.

Dr. Neal DeRoo

ICS 1107AC / 2107AC F25

Remote (Online Synchronous)

Tuesdays, 6:00-9:00pm ET

(MWS, MA, PhD)

Syllabus

Required Books:

Vollenhoven, D. H. T. Introduction to Philosophy. Sioux Center, Iowa: Dordt College Press, 2005. ISBN 978-0-932914-65-1. [ICS Library Reserve Shelf: BD28 .V65a 2005].  Must be purchased. 
Purchasing links: Amazon CA
* Also available through 21five website, or
* Chapters/Indigo website.

Enrolment Notes:

To register for this course, email academic-registrar@icscanada.edu. Last date to register is September 12. ICS reserves the right to decline registrations. 

What's Christian About Christian Education?: Reformational Philosophy

This course will offer you an opportunity to reflect about what it means to teach or educate “Christianly.” It will situate a Reformational understanding of Christian education within two distinct types of “context”: first, the “spirits of the age” that are at work influencing our shared modern, Canadian society; and second, the local context of the school you work at. The ‘spiritual’ context will help us see Christian education as an alternative, not simply to “secular” education, but to other patterns of spiritual formation, like consumerist education or workaholic education. The ‘local’ context will then allow us to discuss how Christian education can be ‘put to work’ in your day-to-day activities as a teacher or administrator. The goal is to give you time, space, and resources to develop a clearer understanding of how faith impacts education in general, and how your faith shapes what you do as an educator more specifically.

Dr. Neal DeRoo

ICS 1107AC / 2107AC S25

Remote (Online Synchronous)

Dates/Time TBA

(MWS, MA, PhD)

Syllabus

Enrolment Notes:

To register for this course, email academic-registrar@icscanada.edu. Last date to register April 18, 2025. Maximum enrolment of twelve (12) students. ICS reserves the right to decline registrations.

*NOTE: Approved for Area 2 of the CSTC

Material Spirituality: Rethinking Religion

This course will make the case that religion must be understood as shaping how we experience the world and not simply as a distinct kind of experience (e.g., religious experience v. artistic experience v. ethical experience). In doing so, the course will bring together work in religious studies, phenomenology of religion, phenomenological philosophy, secularism studies, and Continental philosophy of religion to show that religion is both constituted within historical and material conditions and is partly constitutive of those conditions. In that way, what it offers is not simply a materialist account of religion, but an account of material spirituality in which religion can be located and contextualized. Please note that the course will not assume prior familiarity with phenomenology.

Dr. Neal DeRoo

ICS 223001 W25

Remote (Online Synchronous)

Tuesdays, 6pm - 9pm ET

(MA, PhD)

Syllabus

*Attention TST students: you have to contact the ICS Registrar to complete your registration. 

Religion, Life, and Society: Reformational Philosophy

An exploration of central issues in philosophy, as addressed by Herman Dooyeweerd, Dirk Vollenhoven, and the “Amsterdam School” of neoCalvinian thought. The course tests the relevance of this tradition for recent developments in Western philosophy. Special attention is given to critiques of foundationalism, metaphysics, and modernity within reformational philosophy and in other schools of thought.

Dr. Neal DeRoo

ICS 1107AC / 2107AC F24

Remote (Online Synchronous)

Tuesdays, 2:00-5:00pm ET

(MWS, MA, PhD)

Syllabus

Enrolment Notes:

To register for this course, email academic-registrar@icscanada.edu. Last date to register is September 13, 2024. ICS reserves the right to decline registrations. 

What's Christian About Christian Education?: Reformational Philosophy

This course will offer you an opportunity to reflect about what it means to teach or educate “Christianly.” It will situate a Reformational understanding of Christian education within two distinct types of “context”: first, the “spirits of the age” that are at work influencing our shared modern, Canadian society; and second, the local context of the school you work at. The ‘spiritual’ context will help us see Christian education as an alternative, not simply to “secular” education, but to other patterns of spiritual formation, like consumerist education or workaholic education. The ‘local’ context will then allow us to discuss how Christian education can be ‘put to work’ in your day-to-day activities as a teacher or administrator. The goal is to give you time, space, and resources to develop a clearer understanding of how faith impacts education in general, and how your faith shapes what you do as an educator more specifically.

Dr. Neal DeRoo

ICS 1107AC / 2107AC S24

Remote (Online Synchronous)

Dates/Time TBA

(MWS, MA, PhD)

Syllabus

Enrolment Notes:

To register for this course, email academic-registrar@icscanada.edu. Last date to register April 19, 2024. Maximum enrolment of twelve (12) students. ICS reserves the right to decline registrations.

*NOTE: Approved for Area 2 of the CSTC

Issues in Phenomenology: Spirituality

This semester’s version of the “Issues in Phenomenology” course will centre on the issue of spirituality. Drawing on its German roots in Hegel and Husserl, the phenomenological notion of spirituality [geistigkeit] is understood to be a (perhaps THE) constitutive factor in all human social activity. The course will look at the introduction of this notion of spirituality in Hegel and its crucial re-development in Husserlian phenomenology. It will then trace the development of that term through Derrida’s reading of Heidegger in Of Spirit and into Michel Henry’s use of spirit in his notion of a “barbaristic” culture that he finds to be currently dominant in Western culture. We will end by examining the implications of this account of spirituality for our understanding of religion and of oppression (especially sexism and racism). 

Dr. Neal DeRoo

ICS 223001 W24

Remote (Online Synchronous)

Thursdays, 2pm - 5pm ET

(MA, PhD)

Syllabus

Enrolment Notes:

To register for this course, email academic-registrar@icscanada.edu. Last date to register January 12, 2024. ICS reserves the right to decline registrations.

*Attention TST students: if you are interested in taking this course for credit, you must petition your college of registration to count the course credit toward your degree program. 

Philosophical Inquiry and the Practices of Everyday Life: An Interdisciplinary Seminar on Philosophizing in a Time of Crisis (IDS)

In the first chapter of his little book Edith Stein: A Philosophical Prologue 1913-1922 (2006), Alasdair MacIntyre asks, “What would it have been in that period of German history in which Heidegger grew up, served his philosophical apprenticeship, and became the most influential of twentieth century German philosophers to have lived quite otherwise as a philosopher, to have consistently taken seriously both the implications for one’s life outside philosophy of one’s philosophical enquiries and the implications for one’s philosophy of one’s other activities?”

In this seminar we will explore the implications of philosophical inquiry for the everyday practices of philosophers as well as the implications of our everyday concerns for our philosophical practices, with particular attention to the relevance of our political circumstances for this exploration. We will do so with particular attention to the diverse examples offered by the early careers of three philosophers living through what Husserl called the ‘crisis’ of European thought and culture in the 1920s and 30s: Edith Stein, Martin Heidegger, and Herman Dooyeweerd. Both in our seminar conversations and in our written papers for this seminar we will consider what we may learn for our own practices from comparing these examples.

Dr. Neal DeRoo, Dr. Gideon Strauss

ICS 2400AC W24

Remote (Online Synchronous)

Tuesdays, 2pm - 5pm ET

(MA, PhD)

Syllabus

Enrolment Notes:

To register for this course, email academic-registrar@icscanada.edu. Last date to register January 12, 2024. ICS reserves the right to decline registrations.

*Attention TST students: if you are interested in taking this course for credit, you must petition your college of registration to count the course credit toward your degree program. 

Religion, Life and Society: Reformational Philosophy

An exploration of central issues in philosophy, as addressed by Herman Dooyeweerd, Dirk Vollenhoven, and the “Amsterdam School” of neoCalvinian thought. The course tests the relevance of this tradition for recent developments in Western philosophy. Special attention is given to critiques of foundationalism, metaphysics, and modernity within reformational philosophy and in other schools of thought.

Dr. Neal DeRoo

ICS 1107AC / 2107AC F23

Remote (Online Synchronous)

Tuesdays, 2pm - 5pm ET

(MWS, MA, PhD)

Syllabus

Enrolment Notes:

To register for this course, email academic-registrar@icscanada.edu. Last date to register is September 15 (Note that the first class for this course takes place on September 12). Maximum enrolment of nine (9) students. ICS reserves the right to decline registrations.

Foundations and Implications of Phenomenology

This course will look at the philosophical foundations of, and contemporary issues in, phenomenology. We will explore key features of the phenomenological method—including the reduction, the bracketing of the ‘natural attitude,’ the first-person methodology, intentionality, and givenness. We will also look at how the current conversations on these questions have implications for fields as diverse as psychology, religious studies, sociology, music, and more.

Dr. Neal DeRoo

ICSD 223001 W22

Remote (Online Synchronous)

Tuesdays, 7pm - 10pm ET

(MA, PhD)

Syllabus

*NOTE: This course is only available to ICS Junior Members

Foundations and Implications of Phenomenology

This course will look at the philosophical foundations of, and contemporary issues in, phenomenology. We will explore key features of the phenomenological method—including the reduction, the bracketing of the ‘natural attitude,’ the first-person methodology, intentionality, and givenness. We will also look at how the current conversations on these questions have implications for fields as diverse as psychology, religious studies, sociology, music, and more.

ICSD 223001 W20
Dr. Neal DeRoo
Tuesdays, 7pm - 10pm
Hybrid (Video)
(MA, PhD)

Syllabus