The School of Theology at the University of the South announces guest lecturer Dr. Mark Jordan of Harvard Divinity School will speak on Wednesday, Sept. 28. His series, "The Word after Babel—Writing Theology Here and Now," will be held in Guerry Auditorium on the campus of the University of the South. The lectures are free and open to the public. All are welcome and encouraged to attend.
The lecture times and titles are as follows:
9 a.m.: Theological Style and Beauty’s Revolutions
1 p.m.: Theological Prophecy and the Risk of Slogans
3 p.m.: Theological Silences or the Smallness of Writing
For more information, visit alumnilectures.sewanee.edu.
“We are excited to welcome Dr. Jordan to the University of the South. His lecture series is greatly anticipated by our faculty, students and alumni, many of whom will be in attendance,” says the Very Rev. James Turrell, vice provost and dean of the School of Theology. “I believe Dr. Jordan's presence on campus will have a wide appeal. I’d personally like to encourage members of our local and regional community to attend these thought-provoking lectures.”
In this three-part lecture series, Dr. Jordan will make plain the basic questions about how to write Christian theology. “On the one hand, it shouldn’t be reduced to just another word-product, turned out against a strict deadline. On the other hand, it shouldn’t be raised up into unattainable remoteness, restricted to geniuses and Saints,” said Dr. Jordan about the perceived styles of theological writing.
In the lectures, Dr. Jordan will answer the question, “What kinds of writing are possible between these two misconceptions?” Using half a dozen recent examples, Dr. Jordan will explore theological writing that “brings the divine otherness of theological writing within our reach.”
Dr. Jordan is a scholar of Christian theology, European philosophy and gender studies. At Harvard Divinity School, where he is Richard Reinhold Niebuhr Research professor of divinity, he taught courses on the western traditions of Christian soul-shaping, the relations of religion to art or literature and the prospects for sexual ethics.
"Dr. Jordan will guide us through the ways in which the Anglican and Episcopal tradition shapes our common language and our understanding of God," organizers said.