Yale Bulletin and Calendar

October 5, 2007|Volume 36, Number 5

Peter S. Hawkins

Noted theologians to give
public talks during Convocation

Yale Divinity School (YDS) will host a series of public talks by renowned theologians during its annual Convocation and Reunions Monday-Thursday, Oct. 8-11.

The featured speakers will include religion and literature scholar Peter S. Hawkins of Boston University; theologian and writer Linda E. Thomas of the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago; liturgist Nathan D. Mitchell of Notre Dame; and British writer/lecturer Jane Williams. All lectures will be given at Sterling Divinity Quadrangle, 409 Prospect St. The public is invited.

“The Preacher’s Divine Comedy”

Hawkins, a popular professor at YDS and the Institute of Sacred Music (ISM) from 1976 to 2000, will deliver the Lyman Beecher Lectures on the topic “The Preacher’s Divine Comedy.” Currently a professor of religion at Boston University, Hawkins will return to campus on a more permanent basis in July 2008, when he will rejoin the YDS and ISM faculties as professor of religion and literature.

The three Beecher Lectures will be delivered in Marquand Chapel, Oct. 8, 9 and 10, at 4 p.m. The last lecture will be followed by a conversation with Hawkins in Niebuhr Hall.

Hawkins’ writing has long centered on Dante; his books include “Dante’s Testaments: Essays in Scriptural Imagination,” “The Poets’ Dante: Twentieth-Century Reflections” (co-edited with Rachel Jacoff) and “Dante: A Brief History.” His essays have dealt with such topics as memory and memorials, the NAMES Project Quilt, televangelism and the afterlife of the Bible in literature. In 2006, Boston University awarded him the Metcalf Award for Excellence in Teaching.

“Theology and Anthropology from a Womanist Perspective”

Thomas will deliver the Nathaniel Taylor Lectures on the subject “Theology and Anthropology from a Womanist Perspective.” Those lectures will also be given in Marquand Chapel, Oct. 9, 10 and 11 at 10:30 a.m. A conversation with Thomas will follow the last lecture, at 11:30 a.m. in Marquand.

Thomas has engaged students, scholars and communities for almost 20 years. She studies, researches, writes, speaks and teaches about the intersection and mutual influence of culture and religion. Her work is rooted in a womanist perspective.

Thomas’ first book was “Under the Canopy: Ritual Process and Spiritual Resilience in South Africa.” Her second book, “Living Stones in the Household of God,” is a collection of essays about black theology in the new millennium.

“Reimagining Liturgical Language Today”

The Aidan J. Kavanagh Lecture, sponsored by ISM, will be given by Mitchell on the topic “From Text to Tablature: Reimagining Liturgical Language Today.” The lecture will take place Oct. 9 at 1:30 p.m. in the ISM Great Hall.

Mitchell, the associate director for research and publications at the University of Notre Dame’s Center for Liturgy, also teaches in the Department of Theology at Notre Dame. His books include “Cult and Controversy,” “Mission and Ministry: History and Theology in the Sacrament of Order,” “Eucharist as Sacrament of Initiation; Liturgy and the Social Sciences,” “Real Presence: The Work of the Eucharist” and, most recently, “Meeting Mystery: Liturgy, Worship, Sacraments.”

“Sin and Salvation”

Williams will deliver Berkeley Divinity School’s Louis Wetherbee Pitt Lecture on “Sin and Salvation,” at 1:30 p.m. on Oct. 10, in Marquand Chapel.

She has worked in theological publishing and education, publishing, among other works, “Bread, Wine and Women” (with Sue Dowell), “Perfect Freedom,” “Lectionary Reflections,” “Approaching Christmas” and, more recently, “Approaching Easter.” She has also written a Sunday readings column for the Church Times newspaper and now works for Redemptorist Publications, as a visiting lecturer at King’s College, London, and as a lecturer at the St. Paul’s Theological Centre.

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