LA MIRADA, CALIF. — Theologians from across the world will gather for the fifth annual Los Angeles Theology Conference [LATC] at Biola University from Jan. 12-13, 2017 to discuss the task of dogmatics together.

LATC is an intentionally ecumenical project, with theologians from a wide range of Christian denominations and traditions converging at an evangelical school — either Biola University or Fuller Seminary — to work together on a common Christian doctrine.

“This is the fifth year for the Los Angeles Theology Conference, which has established itself as a well-regarded international conference for academic theology,” said Fred Sanders, professor at Biola’s Torrey Honors Institute and co-founder of the LA Theology Conference. “We have hosted conferences on four of the central doctrines of Christian theology in previous years — Christology, Trinity, atonement, and Scripture — and in this fifth year, we are looking at the subject of systematic theology itself.”

The conference is sponsored by Biola University, the Torrey Honors Institute, Fuller Theological Seminary, and Zondervan Academic and seeks to bridge denominational boundaries and work constructively towards systematic theology. A selection of the papers will be published within the year by Zondervan Academic, as the fifth volume in the LATC series.

2017 Conference Theme: The theme of LATC 2017 will be the work of theology itself: the task of dogmatics.

Where: January 12-13, 2017

Goal: The fifth annual Los Angeles Theology Conference seeks to have theologians speak programmatically and prescriptively about how Christian theology is to be done.

Speakers: Presenters coming from as far away as Paris, Amsterdam, London, and Edmonton, Alberta as well as Orlando, Chicago, Detroit, Seattle, Spokane, and Alexandria, Virginia in addition to more local speakers. There are five primary speakers this year:

  • Michael Allen, Reformed Theological Seminary, Orlando
  • Henri Blocher, Faculte Libre de Theologie Evangelique, Vaux-sur-Seine, France
  • Katherine Sonderegger, Virginia Theological Seminary
  • Scott Swain, Reformed Theological Seminary, Orlando
  • Kevin Vanhoozer, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

Cost: Conference entry is $110 for general entry and $90 for students. Conference fee includes access to all sessions, exhibits, and conference materials.

About: The Los Angeles Theology Conference will be held annually in different locations in southern California. Each year it will focus on a different doctrine, with the first three years being devoted to the incarnation (2013), the Trinity (2014), and the atonement (2015). The fourth year of the conference was devoted to discussing the voice of God in Scripture. The conference is the west coast's premiere conference in academic systematic theology. The annual conference is a collaboration between two professors and a publisher. Fred Sanders, Biola University Torrey Honors Institute professor, and Oliver Crisp, Fuller Theological Seminary professor, are partnering with Katya Covrett from Zondervan to establish a better climate for academic theology in the western region of the United States. A book of conference proceedings will be published each year.

Written by Erin Wilson, public relations intern. For more information, contact Jenna Loumagne, media relations specialist, at (562) 777-4061 or jenna.loumagne@biola.edu.