Annual Bitar Memorial Lecture Series

2025 Bitar Memorial Lecture

Augustine on Friendship: The Ground of Civility

Featuring Dr. Robert Frazier
October 23, 7 p.m. at Geneva College (Skye Lounge)

Christian philosopher Josef Pieper wrote: “Philosophical thinking does not become easier when it ties itself to the norm of Christian Revelation, but - and this claim is simply self-evident to the Christian - it is more genuine and more in keeping with reality! It is a creative, a productive resistance that revealed truth sets in opposition to philosophical thought. It is a more rigorous prerequisite to which Christian philosophizing is subject.”

The Philosophy program at Geneva College seeks to engage the historic philosophical conversation, hone critical skills and passions, cultivate wisdom for service and for living, in submission to Jesus Christ, the Truth. Geneva College offers students the opportunity to cultivate the philosophical life essential to humanness and to professional excellence in all walks of life. Our program also equips its majors for graduate study and a lifetime of
professional philosophical service to the world and the church.

Lecture: Augustine on Friendship: The Ground of Civility

October 23, 2025

Reception at 6 p.m. (Skye Lounge)
- Register at Geneva.edu/homecoming
Lecture at 7 p.m. (Skye Lounge)

For additional information or questions, please contact the Geneva College Bible Department call 724-847-6700.

2025 Bitar Memorial Lecturer

Dr. Robert Frazier

Dr. Frazier is a Professor of Philosophy at Geneva College, Beaver Falls, Pa. He is a graduate of Gordon College, Wenham, MA, received a Master of Arts in Theological Studies with a concentration in Hebrew and Old Testament Studies, and received his Ph. D. from the University of Buffalo (SUNY). Bob has taught at Canisius College, Daemen College, University of Buffalo, and for the Consortium of the Niagara Frontier. Dr. Frazier published his book Responsible Belief: Limitations, Liabilities, and Melioration, plus articles on Kierkegaard, Nihilism and Polanyi, Pittsburgh Baseball and others. Bob and Marina just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary andfinds his children and grandchildren the joys of his life. Dr. Frazier also pastored for over twenty years with congregations in Massachusetts, New York, and in Western PA.

Dr. Byron I. Bitar Memorial Lecture

The Dr. Byron I. Bitar Memorial Lecture in Philosophy was endowed by the William C. Kriner Family in memory of Geneva College′s beloved professor of a quarter-century, in order to continue his legacy and vision for philosophy. The Lecture was inaugurated in 2004, a year after Dr. Bitar′s untimely death. Past Bitar Lecturers include renowned philosophers Stephen Evans, Paul Helm, Alvin Plantinga, Nicholas Wolterstorff, and Linda Zagzebski.

In addition to the lectures, the Bitar event includes a special by-invitation banquet for student and alumni Philosophy Majors, as well as to honor the Lectures′ endowing families, the William Kriners and the family of Byron Bitar. It features the announcement of the annual Bitar Cash Prize for best student philosophy paper, a gift from Mrs. Gail Bitar. Also there is a catered meal for the Lecturers and the Panelists.

Past Bitar lecturers include:

2024: Dr. Keith Martel - Ideology in the Age of the World Picture
2023: Dr. Partick Lee Miller - Plato on the Soul and Politics
2023: Dr. David Koyzis - It's all about me: How Right and Left have masked the dominance of liberalism in North American public life
2023: Dr. Mark Boespflug, '05 - Revolutions in Moral Knowledge
2022: Dr. Esther Lightcap Meek - Philosophy for Artistry: Beauty and the Artful Dance of Communion with the Real
2021-22: Dr. Kyle D. Bennett '03 - Disagreement as Spiritual Practice
Dr. Keith R. Martel '97, '04 MAHE - “Imagined Worlds, Imagined Word: A Phenomenology of Imagination for a Critical Pedagogy
Dr. John Buchmann '07 - Money as Metaphysical Monstrosity: Or, How to Do Christian Ethics in the Void
Dr. Jennifer Kiefer Fenton '07 - Jane Addams and Democracy as a Way of Life
2018-19: Dr. R. J. Snell/Dr. Matthew Kaemingk - "Political Theology: Classical & Reformed Approaches"
2017-18: Dr. D.C. Schindler - “Hans Urs von Balthasar on Beauty” and Dr. John F. Crosby -
“Dietrich von Hildebrand’s Defense of Beauty Against Its Detractors"
2016-17: Dr. Frances Howard-Snyder - "The Moral Risk of Trust: Learning from Fiction"
2015-16: Dr. Gregory R. Beabout - "Philosophical Wisdom for Business Savvy: The Character of the Manager"
2014-15: Dr. D.C. Schindler "A Pre-Modern Response to the Post-Modern 'Lonely Mind’"
2013-14: Dr. Merold Westphal – "Getting from There to Here: From Modernity to Postmodernity"
2012-13: Dr. Nancey Murphy – “Human Nature at the Intersection of Science, Religion and Philosophy”
2011-12: Dr. Alvin Plantinga – “Science, Religion and Naturalism”
2010-11: Dr. Paul K. Moser – “Expecting a Severe God”
2009-10: Dr. R.J. Snell – "Culture of Boredom, Culture of Death"
2008-09: Dr. James K.A. Smith – "A Liturgical Phenomenology for a Post-Secular Age"
2007-08: Dr. Linda Zagzebski – "Self-Trust and Religious Belief"
2006-07: Dr. Nicholas Wolterstorff – "Love and Justice"
2005-06: Dr. Paul Helm – “John Calvin′s Big Idea”
2004-05: Dr. Stephen Evans, Baylor University – “Can Love be Commanded?: Kierkegaard on the Foundations of Moral Obligation”

Philosophy at Geneva College

“Engaging the philosophical conversation, honing critical skills and passions, cultivating wisdom, for service, for living; in submission to Jesus Christ the Truth.”