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Renita J. Weems and Marvin Ellison to deliver lectures at Episcopal Divinity School
Weems, an ordained elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and a Hebrew Bible scholar, will deliver the Joanna Dewey Lecture in Feminist Biblical Studies at 4 pm. Her talk is titled “Baking Cakes to the Queen of Heaven: God, Goddesses, and Growing Up Black and Female in America.”
After a short reception and light supper, Ellison, a Presbyterian minister and William S. Bass Professor of Christian Ethics at Bangor Theological Seminary in Maine, will deliver the Carter Heyward lecture at 7 pm, titled “Is Marriage a ‘Must’ or a ‘Bust’? Enlarging the Justice Agenda.”
The Rev. Dr. Renita J. Weems is noted for her scholarly insights into biblical text and the role of spirituality in everyday lives. She was for many years a professor of the Hebrew Bible at the Divinity School of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Her recent published works have focused on the subject of women’s spirituality, but she has also written on various topics such as race and gender ideology, marriage and sexual violence imagery, and African American women readers and the Bible. Her published works include Just a Sister Away (2005, 2nd ed.) and What Matters Most: Ten Passionate Lessons from the Song of Solomon (2004).
The Joanna Dewey Lecture in Feminist Biblical Studies was created as a tribute to Dr. Joanna Dewey, the Harvey Guthrie, Jr. Professor Emerita of Biblical Studies and former academic dean, to assure the continuation of her life work in theologies of liberation. Dewey is known for her many contributions to the women’s rights movement, particularly her work in developing women’s liberation theology. Dewey teaches during EDS’ June term and continues to promote a critical approach to biblical interpretation and an understanding of feminist liberation theology.
The Rev. Dr. Marvin M. Ellison lectures widely on ethical issues relating to human sexuality, health care reform, and economic justice. He co-chairs Maine’s Religious Coalition Against Discrimination, is co-chair of the Maine Interfaith Council for Reproductive Choices, member of the Board of Directors of Planned Parenthood of Northern New England and also of the Human Rights Campaign’s Advisory Board for the Out in Scripture Project. His published works include Heterosexism in Contemporary World Religion: Problem and Prospect, edited with Judith Plaskow (2007) and Same-Sex Marriage? A Christian Ethical Analysis (2004). Dr. Ellison taught a course at EDS titled “Sexuality and the Social Order” in June 2007.
The Carter Heyward Scholars Program was created to honor the Rev. Dr. Carter Heyward, Howard Chandler Robbins Professor emerita of theology and one of the first women ordained in the Episcopal Church.
Each lecture will last about 45 minutes and be followed by a question-and-answer session and a short reception. There is no fee to attend either lecture, but pre-registration is requested. The lectures will be webcast live and recorded for future viewing on the EDS website (for information, click here). For more information or to register, contact Priscilla Burns at pburns@eds.edu or visit the EDS website. The EDS campus is handicap accessible. Guests are encouraged to take public transportation as parking is extremely limited.
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