Online Faculty Lunch & Learn Series

Dr. David Stark’s forthcoming book, Moving Mountains: Preaching that Confronts Confederate Monuments, examines the ways these monuments (mis)construe the past and proclaim a troubling vision for the future. In this session, he will offer an analysis of the preaching strategies written into Confederate monuments, highlight best practices from case studies of monument counter-proclamations, and offer insights drawn from naming commission reports and clergy interviews about the values and leadership needed to work for change.

David Livingstone called upon the British Church to help end slavery and the slave trade in Central and East Africa, but left open the question of what would become of freed slaves. In response, freedom villages were established and provided a missionary springboard. The stories of Mbweni, Freretown, and Rabai give us a glimpse into that missiological paradigm, offering a compelling example of the Church's witness. 

This session will explore several of the remarkable women whose lives have shaped the nature of the church, as well as how the church has responded to the lives and vocations of women. We will look at the remarkable number of women named in Romans 16, and at Paul’s complex rhetoric concerning women in church. We will look at the North African prophet and martyrs Perpetua and the pregnant slave Felicity, who died in Carthage at the beginning of the third century. Next, we will explore the remarkable life and career of the Empress Pulcheria, who presided over the Council of Chalcedon. In the western church, we will examine the remarkable English abbess Hild of Whitby, instrumental in the conversion of Northumbria, and the twelfth-century religious woman Christina of Markyate. Finally, we will conclude with that most underestimated of Henry VIII’s wives, Catherine Parr, who against all odds, “survived” to shape the church in the English Reformation. 

Dr. Andrew Thompson's recent book, Reconsider the Lilies: Challenging Christian Environmentalism's Colonial Legacy, addresses the problem of whiteness in the Church's environmental work. In this session, he will discuss the main arguments and proposals of the book, as well the importance and challenges of white Christians engaging responsibly with the voices of scholars of color.