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The Project on Lived Theology frequently hosts scholars and practitioners of religion to lecture on various topics in lived theology. In addition to independent presentations, there are lectures from these three series included in the list below:

The Capps Lecture in Christian Theology
This annual series brings eminent Christian thinkers to the heart of the University of Virginia with public lectures that explore the relationship between faith and responsibility. These events were hosted by Theological Horizons and co-sponsored by the Project on Lived Theology. To browse the resources available for these lectures, click here. For more information on this lecture series, click here.

Theology and the Third Reich Speaker Series
This series invited scholars to give public lectures that helped identify and analyze the differing theological responses to Hitler, to trace doctrinal commitments and scriptural practices as they shaped perceptions of Jews, other non-Aryans, homosexuals, and persons with physical and mental disabilities, and, more generally, to understand the relation between religion and race. To browse the resources available for these lectures, click here.

Thursday Nights: Conversations in Lived Theology
Each gathering invited undergraduates, graduate students, and community members into a conversation about the meeting of faith, academy and community, centered around a particular theme or speaker. These conversations were designed to introduce the discipline of lived theology to those who may be unfamiliar with it and to deepen the engagement of those already acquainted.

You can browse all the resources (papers, audio clips and videos) by clicking on the blue button or see our comprehensive list below.

Browse all available occasional lecture resources

Occasional Lectures Listed by Year

Find links to information about our lectures in reverse chronological order below. Click on the speakers’ names to read their biographies and click the links below each title to access each resource. Unless otherwise noted the lectures took place at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia.

2022

October 19 – Martin Luther on the Couch: The Enduring Thrill of Erik Erikson’s Young Man Luther  – Carlos Eire

September 21 – Kierkegaard on Anxiety and Freedom  – Clare Carlisle

September 7 – Theological Reflections on the Practice of Clinical Psychiatry  – Warren Kinghorn

2021

March 25 – God with Us: Lived Theology and the Freedom Struggle in Americus, Georgia – Ansley L. Quiros

April 27 – The Golden Age of the Religious Left: New York City and the Neglected Part of the American Left – Isaac Barnes May

Sept. 15 – Wisdom to Know the Difference: Why Reinhold Niebuhr Isn’t the Theologian We Need Today – Eugene McCarraher

Sept. 22 – Evangelical Theology in the 19th Century: Thinking after Karl Barth on the Story of Modern Protestant Thought – Charles Marsh

Sept. 29 – “A Theological Miracle”: The Awkward Brilliance of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Sanctorum CommunioCharles Marsh

Nov. 3 – Letters and Papers from Montgomery, Alabama: The Formation of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Theological Imagination – Charles Marsh

Nov. 10 – Kingdom Come: King and the Third Way of Nonviolence – Guy Aiken

Nov. 17 – Writing Blackness: A Conversation with Danté Stewart on Theology and Memoir – Danté Stewart

Dec. 1 – Thinking Theologically after Dorothee Soelle on the Future of Christian Faith and Practice – Charles Marsh

2020

Feb. 22 – Capps Lecture: Parting Words on Race and Love – John M. Perkins

Sept. 16 – Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Witness of the Black Freedom Church – Nathan Walton

Dec. 2 – Asian Americans and the U.S. Civil Rights Movements – Jane Hong

Dec. 11 – Globalizing Non-Violence: Before and After King – Isaac Barnes May

2019

May 1 – Keeping the Mystery in the Digital Age – Charles Marsh

2018

Feb. 8 – On Simone Weil – Christopher Yates

Oct. 18 – Capps Lecture: Speaking God: The Death and Rebirth of Sacred Speech – Jonathan Merritt

Oct. 30 – Something Is Happening in Memphis: Martin Luther King Jr.’s Last Campaign – Greg Thompson

2017

Feb. 28 – The Mountaintop as the Valley of the Shadow: Martin Luther King, Jr. and Prophetic Visions from Below – Larycia Hawkins

March 14 – Do Guns Make Us Free? A Christian Critique of the Gun Movement – Firmin DeBrabander

May 2 – This Worldwide Struggle: Religion and the International Roots of the Civil Rights Movement – Sarah Azaransky

Sept. 20 – Bonhoeffer’s Reception of Luther – Michael P. DeJonge

Oct. 11 – Bonhoeffer and Niebuhr: Why They Still Matter- Stanley Hauerwas and Eugene McCarraher

2015

Jan. 26, Berry College, Mount Berry, Georgia – A Christian for Our Time: Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Courageous Protest Against the Nazis – Charles Marsh

Oct. 13 – Reinhold Niebuhr as Christian Critic: Public Theology and the American Century – Eugene McCarraher

  • Listen to the lecture.
  • Read the transcript of the lecture.

Nov. 1 – Capps Lecture: Has the Dream Become a Nightmare? Prospects for Reconciliation in the Wake of the New Racism – John M. Perkins

Dec. 3 – Lived Theology on Death Row: The Story of Kelly Gissendaner –Jennifer M. McBride

  • Listen to the lecture.
  • Read the transcript of this lecture.

2014

March 4 – A New Era of Bonhoeffer Interpretation – Victoria Barnett

March 20 – Theology, Modernity, and the German University –Tal Howard

  • Watch the lecture.
  • Read the transcript of the lecture.

March 25 – The Experience of God: Being, Consciousness, Bliss – David Bentley Hart

May 8 – Parnassus Books, Nashville, Tennessee – Lecture on Strange Glory: A Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer – Charles Marsh

Sept. 24 – Civil Rights Movement in Charlottesville – Paul M. Gaston

Nov. 5 – Open Friendship in a Closed Society: Racial Reconciliation in Mississippi after the Civil Rights Movement – Peter Slade

2013

Feb. 28 – Thursday Nights: Conversations in Lived Theology – The Politics of Church: Examining How Churches Engage and Avoid Politics – Kris Norris and Sam Speers

March 21 – Thursday Nights: Conversations in Lived Theology – Demons, Angels, and the Search for Reconciliation in South Africa – Allan Boesak

April 18 – Thursday Nights: Conversations in Lived Theology – Civil Rights and the Habit of Autobiographical Theological Reflection – Heather Warren

Sept. 17 – History is Lunch series, Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Jackson, Mississippi – History is Lunch: The Life and Work of John Perkins – Peter Slade and Kelly Figueroa-Ray

Oct. 24 – A White Southerner in the Civil Rights Movement: The Ed King Story – Ed King

Nov. 1 – Capps Lecture: Leaving Church? Generation Next and the Future of Faith – Diana Butler Bass

Nov. 19 – Led into Mystery: Faith Seeking Answers to Life and Death – John de Gruchy

2012

Jan. 24 – Theology and the Third Reich Speaker Series: Martin Luther, the Bible, and the Jewish People – Brooks Schramm

Feb. 14 – Theology and the Third Reich Speaker Series: Karl Barth and the Struggle against Fascism – Paul Dafydd Jones

Feb. 28 – Theology and the Third Reich Speaker Series: Dietrich Bonhoeffer Confronts Nazi Eugenics and Euthanasia – LeRoy Walters

March 21 – Theology and the Third Reich Speaker Series: The Nazi Conscience – Claudia Koonz

April 10 – Capps Lecture: Writing About God – Lauren Winner

April 13 – Wheaton College – Under the Constraint of Grace: The Story of Bonhoeffer’s Conversion – Charles Marsh

April 17 – Theology and the Third Reich Speaker Series: Constructive Christian Theology after the Holocaust – J. Kameron Carter

April 24 – God First Loved Us: Reflections on the Theological Grounds of Liberation – Roberto Goizueta

  • Read the transcript of the lecture.

Oct. – Sustainability, Social Justice, and Christian Ethics – Willis Jenkins

Oct. 4 – Thursday Nights: Conversations in Lived Theology – Seeking the Divine in Mississippi: A Visual Documentation – Cindy Brown

Nov. 8 – Thursday Nights: Conversations in Lived Theology – Community Organizing as Spiritual Discipline – Perry Perkins

2011

March 28 – Capps Lecture: Daring to Invent the Future of Africa: On Modernity, Politics and the Madness of Christian Faith – Emmanuel Katongole

Oct. 21, Lilly Fellows National Conference, Samford University, Birmingham, Alabama – Are We Still of Any Use? The Audacious Hope of the Engaged Scholar – Charles Marsh

Dec. 2 – Spiritual Ideas and Spiritual Journey – Darcey Steinke

2010

Feb. 18 – Thursday Nights: Conversations in Lived Theology – Challenging the Culture of Debt: Religious Voices and the Financial Crisis – Rachel Anderson

March 11 – American Academy in Berlin – From the Phraseological to the Real: Bonhoeffer in America – Charles Marsh

March 18 – Thursday Nights: Conversations in Lived Theology – From the Mountains to the Shore: Immigrant Labor and the Search for Justice in Virginia – Tim Freilich

2009

Jan. 19 – Abundant Life Speech – Martin Luther King Jr. Day – Charles Marsh

  • Read the transcript of the lecture.

Oct. 29 – Thursday Nights: Conversations in Lived Theology – ONE: A Theological Reflection on Sabbath and Action to End Extreme Poverty – Adam Phillips

Nov. 4 – Capps Lecture: Holy Ordinary: Locating the Sacred in Literature and Life – Albert J. Raboteau

  • Listen to the lecture.
  • Read the transcript of the lecture.

Nov. 4 – Albert J. Raboteau on “American Salvation” and Other Writings – Albert J. Raboteau

Nov. 19 – Thursday Nights: Conversations in Lived Theology – Is Healthcare a Human Right?: Theological Reflection on the Health Reform Debate – Rick Mayes

2008

Jan. 15 – Capps Lecture: Honest Patriots: Loving a Country Enough to Remember its Misdeeds – Donald W. Shriver

  • Listen to the lecture.
  • Read the transcript of the lecture.

Feb. 21 – The Rise and Fall of the Confessing Church – Victoria Barnett

  • Read the transcript of the lecture.

April 4 – Redemption, Reconciliation, and Creation of Beloved Community: Dr. Martin Luther King’s Christian Vision – Charles Marsh

2007

Nov. 6 – Capps Lectures: Christian Humanism against Fundamentalism and Secularism, and Christian Identity Amidst Global Contradictions – John de Gruchy

  • Read the transcript of Christian Humanism against Fundamentalism and Secularism.
  • Read the transcript of Christian Identity Amidst Global Contradictions.

2005

April 27 – Capps Lecture: Control is Good – Trust is Better: Freedom and Security in a “Free World” – Jürgen Moltmann

  • Listen to the lecture.
  • Read the transcript of the lecture.

2003

March 7 – Remembering Vinegar Hill and Its Troubling Legacy – Renae Nadine Shackelford and James Robert Saunders

  • Part 1 – Watch the lecture.
  • Part 2 – Watch the lecture.
  • Part 3 – Watch the lecture.

March 26, University of Southern Mississippi, Oxford, Mississippi – Imagining a World without Guns: Lesson in Nonviolent Peacemaking from the American Civil Rights Story – Charles Marsh

  • Read the transcript of the lecture.

2002

Feb. 27, Bonhoeffer House, Charlottesville, Virginia – Religion and the Civil Rights Movement – Ed King

  • Read the transcript of the lecture.

Sept. 7, Montgomery, Alabama – Montgomery Bus Boycott – Johnnie Carr and Fred Gray

Oct. 6 – UVA Bioethics Seminar: Do We Need a New Morality? Christian Faith and Bioethics – Wolfgang Huber

  • Read the transcript of the lecture.

Oct. 8 – Capps Lecture: Truth, Guilt, Reconciliation: Christian Faith in a Violent World – Wolfgang Huber

  • Read the transcript of the lecture.

2001

Jan. 23, Union Theological Seminary and Presbyterian School of Christian Education, Richmond, Virginia – Holy Beauty: A Reformed Perspective on Aesthetics within a World of Unjust Ugliness – John de Gruchy

  • Read the transcript of the lecture.

Feb. 8 – Capps Lecture: Forgiveness, Reconciliation, and Justice: A Christian Contribution to More Peaceful Social Environments – Miroslav Volf

  • Read the transcript of the lecture.