The Loma Linda University School of Religion presents the annual Dalton Baldwin Memorial Lecture featuring Tihomir Lazić, DPhil, and his presentation titled 'Present Truth as a Communal Quest: Discernment, Otherness, and Faithful Improvisation'.
What does it mean to speak of the present truth today, and what kind of community does such discernment require? This lecture proposes that the challenge before us is not only identifying what the present truth is, but becoming the kind of community capable of discerning it faithfully. Present truth is not simply a set of correct beliefs to be defended, nor a private insight grasped by individuals, but a communal quest—discerned, tested, and embodied within a Spirit-formed community. If truth is richer than any single perspective can grasp, then difference and otherness are not threats but gifts: conditions through which deeper faithfulness to God's ongoing self-disclosure becomes possible. Drawing on practices of communal discernment, openness to otherness, and what might be called faithful improvisation, the lecture explores how communities remain rooted in Scripture while attentively responding to what God is doing in the present. The claim is simple yet demanding: to remain faithful to the present truth, the church must continually be formed into a community able to listen, discern, and live that truth together.
Tihomir Lazić is a Principal Lecturer in Systematic Theology at Newbold College and a former Director of Public Campus Ministry for the Trans-European Division of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. He has served as a youth pastor in Paradise (California), Chicago (Illinois), and Oxford (UK). He recently completed his term as President of the European Adventist Society for Theological and Religious Studies (EASTRS, 2023–2025) and currently serves as President of the Adventist Society for Religious Studies (ASRS, 2025–2026). Dr Lazić obtained his DPhil in Theology from the University of Oxford in 2017, specializing in contemporary ecclesiology, with particular attention to the identity, life, and mission of the church. His doctoral thesis was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2019 under the title Towards an Adventist Version of Communio Ecclesiology: Remnant in Koinonia. Over the past decade, his research has focused on how the church can be attuned to and effectively meet the needs of the 21st-century world, drawing on interdisciplinary perspectives including ethics, theological anthropology, pneumatology, biblical theology, apologetics, relational spirituality, and netnography.
February 28, 2026 at 3:00pm
Damazo Amphitheater in Centennial Complex (24760 Stewart St., Loma Linda)
For more information, call 909-558-7478 or email [email protected]