Contributor

Ray Pennings

Ray Pennings co-founded Cardus in 2000 and currently serves as Executive Vice President, working out of the Ottawa office. Ray has a vast amount of experience in Canadian industrial relations and has been involved in public policy discussions and as a political activist at all levels of government. Ray is a respected voice in Canadian politics, contributing as a commentator, pundit and critic in many of Canada’s leading news outlets and as an advisor and strategist on political campaign teams.

Ray completed a degree in History at McMaster University and obtained a Master of Arts in Religion degree from Puritan Theological Seminary. He has led a number of large research projects at Cardus over the years and was lead author on Death is Natural: Reframing the End-of-Life Conversation in Canada. In addition to authoring Cardus reports and columns he has also written chapters in several publications including Church and Caesar (RHB, 2004), Living for God’s Glory (RHB, 2011), Calvin the Revolutionary (RHB, 2010), Religious Liberty and the Law (Routledge, 2017), and The Handbook of School Choice (Wiley-Blackwell, 2017).

Ray’s grasp of applied public theology is evident not only through his writings, but through his volunteer efforts as well. He was founding president of EduDeo (formerly Worldwide Christian Schools) and has served as Chair on the board of Redeemer University College, and as a board member for the Civitas Society and the Rosebud School for the Arts. Ray currently sits on the adjudication committee for the Redeemer Centre for Christian Scholarship and on the Champions Circle for Compassionate Ottawa. Ray and his wife, Kathy, have one adult son.

Leadership, Forgiveness, and Our Loves

An exchange of letters.

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More From This Contributor

Ray Pennings Apr 7, 2016

A Toolbox for Changing the World

Cardus, the think tank that publishes Comment, shares a few tips on renewing social architecture and influencing culture.

Ray Pennings Sep 30, 2011

Finding Nuance in the Practice of Politics

I wish Jonathan Chaplin’s recently published book had been available to me twenty years ago. Understanding Dooyeweerd’s distinctions and frameworks would’ve come much more easily with Chaplin’s aid.

Ray Pennings Dec 3, 2010

We Are the Public

Faith is personal, but it is never private.

Ray Pennings Aug 27, 2010

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Necessary for Life

Talking about death is uncomfortable and painful. But, ultimately, it helps us truly live.

Ray Pennings Jun 25, 2010

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Embracing the Paradox

Charles Colson, Andy Crouch, and James Davison Hunter debate our calling to live faithfully. None is entirely right nor entirely wrong. But all three are contributing nuance to the crucial question of how Christians must serve in the public square.

Ray Pennings Oct 16, 2009

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Satisfied by Edwards’ God

Jonathan Edwards would argue that both saving souls and saving the world are important ends—but secondary to the world’s primary purpose of bringing glory to God.

Ray Pennings Sep 18, 2009

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The Whole and Heart of the Gospel

There are at least four distinct Reformed approaches to balancing proclamation of the gospel with seeking the peace of the city.

Ray Pennings Jun 6, 2008

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Vocational Calvinism

The intrinsic dignity, the vocational purpose, and the worshipful nature of work—all themes of John Calvin’s teaching.

Ray Pennings Aug 25, 2006

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Two minutes for elbowing: Competing for influence and cultural change

As unidealistic and undemocratic as it sounds, the reality is that social change is as much an elite as it is a grassroots endeavour, and without the acquisition of democratic values and tastes on the part of various elites, the achievement of desired objectives will prove difficult.

Ray Pennings Mar 1, 2006 City & country

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Replacing the Pan-Canadian Consensus

The 2006 election may prove to be the beginning of a political realignment, making a decisive shift away from what the authors term the “pan-Canadian consensus,” which has governed Canada since the 1960s. Ray Pennings and Michael Van Pelt propose a most interesting theory: revisiting “the very idea of a ‘Canadian consensus’ and ‘Canadian values,’ and asking whether there really is a homogeneous mainstream that represents, whether with a right or left emphasis, a clear path on which to govern.”

Ray Pennings Feb 17, 2006

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Capitalism at the Crossroads: a review essay

Seeing reality through a single lens, be it the old one of profits or Stuart Hart’s emphasis on sustainability, simply won’t do. Stuart Hart ably analyzes and critiques contemporary capitalism, yet Hart’s framework is his book’s fatal flaw.

Ray Pennings Dec 1, 2005 What is to be done?

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What is to be done… in the public square?

Domesticated religion isn’t for Ray Pennings. Not for him, Christian faith that “knows its place” . . . as a private, highly individualized religion of the prayer closet and the cloistered chapel. Instead, Pennings calls Christians out of the cloister and the closet to pursue a strategy of cultural change as a public religion working together across disciplines, through institutions, over the span of generations.

Ray Pennings Aug 1, 2005 The best of Comment

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Beyond Unions?

The real question, then, may not be the question of union decline and revival, but rather the question of how to adapt our structures and public policy to accommodate the emerging forms of worker organization.

Ray Pennings Jul 15, 2005

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Building Institutions: The Work Research Foundation

Think tanks are in the business of influencing culture. It was when a few of my friends and I realized that trying to work for cultural change only within our personal spheres of influence was too limiting that we decided to try and develop the Work Research Foundation into the think tank it is today.

Ray Pennings Jan 1, 2005

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The Naked Public Squares Revisited

Usually twenty years isn’t that long of a time as far as political history is concerned, but much has changed since this book first appeared. It was written in the nadir of late twentieth century secularism. Those who spent their teens and twenties in the anti-authoritarian social movements of the sixties were beginning to assume leadership positions in society.

Ray Pennings Nov 1, 2004

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Learning from the Journey

In his presentations in the Work Research Foundation’s Leadership Is an Art program, Dr. Walter Wright regularly makes use of mountaineering stories. One, drawn from his own experiences on a Himalayan trek a few years back, is quite poignant in that some of the obstacles encountered make the objective of reaching the summit an open question.

Ray Pennings Sep 1, 2004

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Collective Representation: A Conservative Defense

For eleven years, when asked my occupation I responded “Union Representative.” This usually made my conservative political friends and business acquaintances squirm uncomfortably. They knew me well enough to know I advocated a different type of labour relations than the stereotypical adversarial relations that are associated with contemporary unionism.

Ray Pennings Jun 1, 2004

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The Value of Values-Talk

Values talk is in. Ever since Enron, business leaders trip over themselves to ensure that values are more prominent in their materials. Political leaders sell their program on the appeal of the values they represent. Feature stories highlight successful business people who adjust careers in order to find balance in life, or work for a cause rather than for a profit.

Ray Pennings Apr 1, 2004

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Can Bad People be Good Leaders?

For the record, I believe the answer is No. However, discussing the question has as much merit as answering it. In an age where declarations of morality are considered impolite, if not outright suspect, the question highlights the significant challenges faced by those who would be our leaders.

Ray Pennings Mar 1, 2003

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Guilds from the Dot-com Ashes?

Remember the talk that preceded the dot-com bust? You recall those predictions about an economic model in which almost every worker was a free agent, running Me Inc., making a profitable living from orders that somehow would magically appear in e-mail in-boxes through...

Ray Pennings Mar 1, 2003

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Human Rights, Union Changes

Roy Adams, professor emeritus of industrial relations at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, has a distinguished publishing history emphasizing workers' rights to form or join a union. He has persuasively pointed out that the development of North American...

Ray Pennings Jan 1, 2003

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Kuyper’s Sphere Sovereignty and Modern Economic Institutions

On October 20, 1880, Dr. Abraham Kuyper gave the inaugural lecture at the founding of the Free University of Amsterdam. Entitled "Souvereiniteit in Eigen Kring" (literally, "Sovereignty in its Own Circle") and presented to a mixed crowd representing academia,...

Ray Pennings May 1, 2001

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Has Harris Really Changed Things?

"I also want to begin by pointing out the absolute hypocrisy of the title of the bill, calling it the Economic Development and Workplace Democracy Act. Why don't you just 'fess up and come clean and call the act exactly what it is: Further Gutting Ontario's Labour...

Ray Pennings May 1, 2001

Civic Entrepreneurialism

In the recent federal election, the Canadian Alliance campaigned on the premise that Canadians are tired of activist, in-your-face over-government from Ottawa. And, since in their view the Liberals are the "More Government Party," the Alliance tried to forge...