Fall - Spring Lectures

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Fall & Spring Lectures

Fall Lectures

The Edwards-Presler Lectures on Justice and Mission

It has been a long-debated issue within the church whether to give priority to ministries of peace and justice on the one hand or to ministries of evangelism on the other. Former Presbyterian Church Moderator Clinton Marsh suggested that such a debate was like asking which was more important in an automobile– the alternator or the battery. One without the other will not keep the car running for very long.

Louisville Seminary is delighted to bring together these vital ministries of the church into a new fall lecture series. By combining the popular Edwards Lectures on Peacemaking with the new Henry H. and Marion A. Presler Lectureship on Mission, Louisville Seminary offers an exciting fall event in which we can hold justice and evangelism where they belong—side by side in the passions of the church.

Every year usually in the fall, you can listen to and interact with two outstanding thinkers and writers who will focus on the reconciling work and study of missions, peace, and justice.

The Edwards Lectures on Peacemaking

The Edwards Peacemaking Lectureship honors Dr. George Edwards and his wife, Jean. Dr. Edwards, an alum of Louisville Seminary (BD ‘51), also served the Seminary for 27 years as Professor of New Testament. Dr. Edwards died June 2, 2010. Together, Dr. and Mrs. Edwards shared a ministry that was active in Christian efforts for peace and social justice.

The Edwards Peacemaking Lectureship honors Dr. George Edwards and his wife, Jean. Dr. Edwards, an alum of Louisville Seminary (BD ‘51), also served the Seminary for 27 years as Professor of New Testament. Dr. Edwards died June 2, 2010. Together, Dr. and Mrs. Edwards shared a ministry that was active in Christian efforts for peace and social justice. Established in 1986, the Edwards Peacemaking Lectureship endowment supports a visiting lecturer to teach a special course or programs in continuing or lay education. Edwards Lecturers have included Terry C. Muck, Dean of the E. Stanley Jones School of World Mission and Evangelism at Asbury Theological Seminary; Delores S. Williams, professor emerita at Union Theological Seminary in New York; peace educator and jazz musician Harry Pickens; Dr. James B. McGinnis of the Institute for Peace and Justice in St. Louis, Mo.; Dr. J. Alfred Smith of Allen-Temple Baptist Church in Oakland, Calif.; Dr. Charles Marsh, Professor of Religious and Theological Studies Director of the Project on Lived Theology, University of Virginia; Rev. Eileen W. Lindner, Ph.D., Deputy General Secretary, National Council of Churches of Christ, USA; and professor and theologian J. Milburn Thompson.

The Henry H. and Marion A. Presler Lectureship

The Henry H. and Marion A. Presler Lectureship was established to honor the couple’s missionary service and to inspire the Louisville Seminary community and its wider Continuing Education community about issues of global mission and the role of American denominations in their historical and present witness to mission. The topics of the lectures vary, but the overall theme is Jesus Christ’s commission to the church in Matthew 28:19-20, to "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you."

Dr. Henry Presler studied for two years at LPTS and then transferred to Boston University School of Theology. In his later years he remembered his formative time at Louisville Seminary and left a bequest for this lectureship. Lecturers have included Dr. Dana L. Robert, leading historian of Christian mission at Boston University School of Theology; Carlos Cardoi-Orlandi, Associate Professor of World Christianity, Columbia Theological Seminary; Alice Winter, Missionary and Professor at the Reformed University of Colombia, South America; Frances S. Adeney, William A. Benfield Jr. Professor of Evangelism & Global Mission; and Canon Titus Presler, an Episcopal missiologist, writer, and consultant.

The Katie Geneva Cannon Lectureship

The Katie Geneva Cannon Lectureship is an annual program of the Women’s Center at LPTS, established in 2006 to honor the first African-American woman ordained to the ministry of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church. The Lectureship seeks to invite a woman scholar who belongs to a racial ethnic minority in the United States and who raises a critical voice against dominant oppressive structures and ideologies of the era. Lecturers have included: The Rev. Dr. Katie Geneva Cannon, Professor of Christian Ethics, Union Presbyterian Seminary; Dr. Stacey M. Floyd-Thomas, Associate Professor of Ethics and Director of Black Church Studies at Brite Divinity School of Texas Christian University.; Dr. Wil Gafney, Associate Professor of Hebrew and Old Testament, The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia; Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas, Elizabeth Connolly Todd, Distinguished Professor of Religion at Goucher College; and Dr. Gay Byron, the Baptist Missionary Training School Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins at Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School in Rochester, N.Y.

The Katie Geneva Cannon Lectureship is an annual program of the Women’s Center at LPTS, established in 2006 to honor the first African-American woman ordained to the ministry of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church. The Lectureship seeks to invite a woman scholar who belongs to a racial ethnic minority in the United States and who raises a critical voice against dominant oppressive structures and ideologies of the era. Lecturers have included: The Rev. Dr. Katie Geneva Cannon, Professor of Christian Ethics, Union Presbyterian Seminary; Dr. Stacey M. Floyd-Thomas, Associate Professor of Ethics and Director of Black Church Studies at Brite Divinity School of Texas Christian University.; Dr. Wil Gafney, Associate Professor of Hebrew and Old Testament, The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia; Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas, Elizabeth Connolly Todd Distinguished Professor of Religion at Goucher College; and Dr. Gay Byron, the Baptist Missionary Training School Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins at Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School in Rochester, N.Y.

Spring Lectures

The Greenhoe Lectures

Dr. Theodore M. Greenhoe was a member of the Louisville Seminary class of 1934. In 1966, a lectureship in his honor was established by his congregation, Memorial Presbyterian Church in Midland, Michigan.

Recent Greenhoe Lecturers have included Dr. Joretta L. Marshall of Brite Divinity School, Dr. Robert M. Franklin, Professor of Social Ethics at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University, Jim Wallis, founder of Sojourners and editor-in-chief of Sojourners magazine, Dr. Nancy Ammerman of Boston University, acclaimed author and lay theologian Katherine Paterson, Dr. Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen of Eastern University, Dr. Albert Winn, President Emeritus (1966-1973) at Louisville Seminary, Dr. Eugene Peterson of Regent College in British Columbia, Dr. Melva Costin of the Interdenominational Theological Seminary, poet/hymn-writer Dr. Brian Wren, Rev. Otis Moss III, pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, and authors Diana Butler Bass, Marcus Borg, and Brian MacClaren, Professors Kathryn L. Johnson and Clifton Kirkpatrick of Louisville Seminary, and Teresa Fry Brown of Canderl School of Theology.

The Caldwell Lectures

The Caldwell Lectures honor former Louisville Seminary President Frank H. Caldwell who served from 1936 through 1964.

Recent Caldwell Lecturers have included Dr. Nicholas Wolterstorff, the Noah Porter Professor Emeritus of Philosophical Theology and Fellow of Berkley at Yale University, Dr. James Hudnut-Beumler, Professor of American Religious History at Vanderbilt University and dean of the Divinity School, missiologist Dr. Elizabeth S. Tapia, professor at Ecumenical Institute of Bossey, Dr. Luke Timothy Johnson of Emory University, Dr. Rick Nutt of Muskegum College, Dr. Craig Dykstra of the Lilly Endowment, Dr. Patrick D. Miller of Princeton Theological Seminary, Dr. W. Eugene March of Louisville Seminary, Barbara Wheeler, Director of the Auburn Center for the Study of Theological Education, Dr.
Jacquelyn Grant of the Interdenominational Theological Center, Prof. Emeritus John Dominic Crossan of DePaul University, Prof. Dorothy Bass of Valparaiso University, Dr. Anna Carter Florence, Professor of Homiletics at Columbia Theological Seminary, and authors Diana Butler Bass, Marcus Borg, and Brian McLaren, South African activist Rev. Dr. Allan Boesak, and New Testament scholar and theologian Rev. Dr. Brad Braxton.

The Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Religion

The Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Religion is made possible by the creative generosity of the late H. Charles Grawemeyer. The purpose of the Award is to honor annually the most significant contributions to religious and spiritual understanding. Louisville Seminary, jointly with the University of Louisville, awards the $100,000 prize to honor and publicize creative and significant insights into the relationship between human beings and the divine. The award also recognizes ways in which this relationship may inspire or empower human beings to attain wholeness, integrity, or meaning, either individually or in community. Competition is open to persons of all religious and cultural world views and traditions for works presented or published within eight years of the award date. Visit www.grawemeyer.org for more information.

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