THOUSAND OAKS, CA - A prominent religious ethicist will speak at California Lutheran University’s Thousand Oaks campus and at its Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley as part of a state tour dedicated to addressing social issues.

Larry Rasmussen, the Reinhold Niebuhr Professor Emeritus of Social Ethics at Union Theological Seminary in New York City and past president of the Society of Christian Ethics, will present “God, Water and Human Responsibility” at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 8, in CLU’s Samuelson Chapel. He will discuss “God, Ethics and the Anthropocene” at 10 a.m. Wednesday, April 9, in the Chapel of the Cross at PLTS.

Rasmussen is the author of many books and articles, most recently “Earth Honoring Faith: Religious Ethics in a New Key.”

At CLU, he will explore whether water, the source and sustainer of life on the planet, is sacred. He will also discuss what that would mean for the western United States, where most inland water is dammed and diverted for human use.

Rasmussen’s PLTS talk will focus on what some geologists have christened the Anthropocene, the epoch dominated by human activities. This geological time division has not been officially adopted as the current age but it is moving toward a vote. Rasmussen will discuss what such an epoch would mean for how we conceive of God’s power and presence, or theology, and our power and presence, or ethics. After his PLTS talk, he will speak at a worship service at 11:30 a.m.

Following the Thousand Oaks and Berkeley talks, Rasmussen and Sam Thomas, an associate professor of religion at CLU, will continue on to Sacramento and Davis to meet with lawmakers, activists, pastors and scholars.

The free talks and the tour are sponsored by the Segerhammar Center for Faith and Culture at CLU in conjunction with the Lutheran Office of Public Policy in California. The Segerhammar Center is dedicated to bringing academics, community members and people of different faiths together to address issues facing society today.

Samuelson Chapel is located at 165 Chapel Lane in Thousand Oaks. Chapel of the Cross is located at 2770 Marin Ave. in Berkeley.

For more information, contact Sam Thomas at sthomas@callutheran.edu or 805-493-3693.