2023 Laing Lectures
Curt Thompson MD
Psychiatrist, speaker, and author Curt Thompson MD connects our intrinsic desire to be known with the need to tell truer stories about ourselves and shows us how to form deep relationships, discover meaning, and live integrated and creative lives.
With a keen instinct for making complex topics relatable, Dr. Thompson integrates the science of interpersonal neurobiology with Christian anthropology to help us re-establish and deepen our relationships—leading to healthier, more meaningful lives. By combining his deep insights into how brain function affects our connections with one another with practical methods for application, he helps us break free from old patterns that no longer serve us to start us on the journey toward purposeful living.
Curt Thompson MD is the author of The Soul of Desire, The Soul of Shame, and The Anatomy of
the Soul. His works explore how neuroscience relates to the ways we experience relationships
and deep emotions.
Lectures: Watch Now
Lecture 1
Wednesday, March 8, 2023
Watch Lecture 1
Lecture 2
Thursday, March 9, 2023
Watch Lecture 2
About the Laing Lectures
The Laing Lectures began at Regent College in 1999 in cooperation with Roger and Carol Laing and in honour of their father, William John Laing. The purpose of the lectures is to encourage persons recognized for scholarship, wisdom, and creativity to undertake serious thought and original writing on an issue of significance for the Christian church and to promote the sharing of such thoughts through a series of public lectures.
The material presented by Laing Lecturers is intended to move beyond an analysis of historic and current concerns to provide proposals for alternative action for the Christian church. In doing so, lecturers are invited to explore in an interdisciplinary way the relationship between Christianity and culture, and to suggest ways in which that relationship might lead to greater flourishing of the church, the larger human household, and the whole community of creation.
The following speakers have delivered Laing Lectures: Neil Postman (2000), Charles Taylor (2001), Peter Berger (2002), Margaret Visser (2004), Miroslav Volf (2006), Nicholas Wolterstorff (2007), Walter Brueggemann (2008), Susan Wise Bauer (2010), Albert Borgmann (2011), Rex Murphy (2012), Ellen T. Charry (Spring 2014), Ross Douthat (Fall 2014), Iain McGilchrist (2016), Marilynne Robinson (2017), Stanley Hauerwas (2018), Malcolm Guite (2019), John Milbank (2022), Curt Thompson (2023), George Yancey (2024), and Janet Martin Soskice (2025).
