Distinguished Faculty Lectures

Each November, the GTU faculty honors a distinguished professor who embodies the scholarly standards, teaching excellence, and commitment to ecumenism and interreligious dialogue that define the GTU. Nominations are considered annually by the Council of Deans, who then select the year’s Distinguished Faculty Lecturer.

48th GTU Distinguished Faculty Lecture with Rev. Dr. Dorsey Odell Blake

Howard Thurman: Seeking, Queering, and Transcending

November 7, 2023

Rev. Dr. Dorsey Odell Blake
Faculty Associate, Leadership and Social Transformation at Pacific School of Religion

Please enjoy this preview of the 2023 Distinguished Faculty Lecture. Watch the full lecture on GTUx.

2023 GTU Distinguished Faculty Lecture with Rev. Dr. Dorsey Odell Blake

47th GTU Distinguished Faculty Lecture with Dr. Richard Payne

The Consequences of Taking Nondualism Seriously

November 15, 2022

Dr. Richard Payne
Yehan Numata Professor of Japanese Buddhist Studies
Core Doctoral Faculty

Please enjoy this preview of the 2022 Distinguished Faculty Lecture. Watch the full lecture on GTUx.

2022 GTU Distinguished Faculty Lecture with Dr. Richard Payne

46th GTU Distinguished Faculty Lecture with Dr. Valerie Miles-Tribble

Our Pedagogical Charge: Weaving Hope and Justice into the Gossamer-thin Fabric of Religious Democracy

November 17, 2021

Dr. Valerie Miles-Tribble
Professor of Ministerial Leadership and Practical Theology at Berkeley School of Theology (BST)
Core Doctoral Faculty

2021 GTU Distinguished Faculty Lecture with Dr. Valerie Miles-Tribble

45th GTU Distinguished Faculty Lecture with Dr. Eduardo Fernández, SJ

Haciendo Memoria: Revisiting Our Blessings at the GTU

November 13, 2020

 Eduardo C. Fernández, SJ
 Professor of Pastoral Theology and Ministry
 Core Doctoral Faculty at the GTU since 1997

2020 GTU Distinguished Faculty Lecture with Dr. Eduardo Fernández

44th GTU Distinguished Faculty Lecture with Munir Jiwa 

Liberal Inclusion or Liberal Conversion? Islamophilia, Islamophobia, and Islamic Studies in Interreligious Contexts

November 12, 2019

  Munir Jiwa
  Founding Director of the Center for Islamic Studies, GTU
  Associate Professor of Islamic Studies and Anthropology  

2019 GTU Distinguished Faculty Lecture with Munir Jiwa

43rd GTU Distinguished Faculty Lecture with Marianne Farina

Follow the Women: Freeing Dialogue

November 13, 2018

  Marianne Farina, CSC
  Professor of Religion and Philosophy
  Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology

 

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2018 GTU Distinguished Faculty Lecture with Marianne Farina

42nd GTU Distinguished Faculty Lecture with Naomi Seidman

When Jesus Spoke Yiddish: Translating the New Testament for Jews

November 7, 2017

  Naomi Seidman
  Koret Professor Jewish Culture
  Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish Studies, GTU

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2017 GTU Distinguished Faculty Lecture with Naomi Seidman

Past Lectures

November 10, 2016
Academic Life and Scholarship as Spiritual Practice
Elizabeth Liebert
Professor of Spiritual Life
San Francisco Theological Seminary

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Read the lecture
Read the response from CTNS/GTU professor, Robert Russell

November 5, 2015
A Terrible Beauty: Reimagining Human Rights
William O'Neill
Associate Professor of Social Ethics
Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University

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Read the lecture
Read the response from DSPT professor, Marianne Farina, C.S.C.

November 6, 2014

Reformations that Matter (and Some that Don’t)
Christopher Ocker
Professor of Church History
San Francisco Theological Seminary

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View the lecture slides
Read the response from DSPT professor, Augustine Thompson, O.P.

November 5, 2013
From Paris to Alcalá: The Franciscan School and the University, 1219-1533
William Short, OFM
Dean and Professor of Christian Spirituality
Franciscan School of Theology

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Read the response from SFTS professor, Christopher Ocker

November 8, 2012

Black Religion in the Atlantic World During the Age of Revolution: Excavating the Sublime 
James Noel
H. Eugene Farlough Jr. Professor of African American Christianity
San Francisco Theological Seminary

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Read the response from GTU professor, Naomi Seidman

Mary Ann TolbertNovember 8, 2011
What Does Scholarship Have to Do with Activism? Reflections on 15 Years in the Trenches
Mary Ann Tolbert
George H. Atkinson Professor of Biblical Studies
Pacific School of Religion

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Read a response from GTU professor, Judith Berling
 

November 9, 2010Arthur Holder
Will Spirituality Have a Past?
Arthur Holder
John Dillenberger Professor of Spirituality
Dean and Academic Vice President
Graduate Theological Union

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Read a response from JST professor, Mary Ann Donovan, S.C.
Read a response from NCB professor, Susan Phillips
Read a response from PSR professor, Joseph Driskill

 

November 17, 2009Wickeri DFL
Awkward and Alive: Secularization and Religion Reconsidered
Philip L. Wickeri
Flora Lamson Hewlett Professor of Evangelism and Mission
San Francisco Theological Seminary

Read a response from JST professor, Eduardo Fernández.

November 11, 2008fumitaka
Learning to Speak a New Tongue: Imagining a Way that Holds People Together
Fumitaka Matsuoka
Robert Gordon Sproul Professor of Theology
Pacific School of Religion
Executive Director, Institute for Leadership Development
and Study of Pacific and Asian North American Religion (PANA)

Click here for a response from GTU professor Judith Berling.

November 13, 2007
Who Do You Say I Am? The Fundamental Question for the Moral Life
Richard Gula S.S.
Professor of Moral Theology
Franciscan School of Theology

Also available are Dr. Gula's handout and a response from PLTS professor Martha Stortz

November 2, 2006
When God's Friend Becomes God's Problem: The Punitive Elijah and the Loving God According to St. Romanos the Melode
L. William Countryman
Sherman E. Johnson Professor in Biblical Studies
Church Divinity School of the Pacific

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Gina Hens-PiazzaNovember 9, 2005
Supporting Cast or Supporting Caste: Reading Minor Characters in Biblical Narrative
Gina Hens-Piazza
Professor of Biblical Studies
Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley

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Photos of the event

November 10, 2004
Fruitful Flailings: Reading the Anger of the Prophet Jonah
Barbara Green
Professor of Biblical Studies
Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology

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Also available are Dr. Green's lecture handout, and a response from JSTB Professor Sandra Schneiders.

Lewis S. MudgeNovember 19, 2003
The Gift of Responsibility: Fostering Global Social Contracts
Lewis S. Mudge
Emeritus Professor of Theology
San Francisco Theological Seminary

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Alejandro Garcia-RiveraNovember 13, 2002
The Sense of Beauty and the Talk of God
Alejandro Garcia-Rivera
Associate Professor of Systematic Theology
Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley

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Robert J. RussellNovember 1, 2001
Christian Theology and Natural Science: Accomplishments and Challenges
Robert J. Russell
Professor in Residence of Theology and Science, Founder and Director of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences
Graduate Theological Union
 

Judith BerlingNovember 1, 2000
Entering Other Worlds: Theological Learning and Non-Christian Religions
Judith Berling
Professor of Chinese and Comparative Religions
Graduate Theological Union

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Archie SmithNovember 1, 1999
Invisible Forces That Determine Human Existence: The Middle Passage
Archie Smith
James and Clarice Foster Professor of Pastoral Psychology and Counseling
Pacific School of Religion

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Martha Ellen StortzNovember 1, 1998
Discerning the Spirits, Practicing the Faiths: The End of the Millennium Quest for Spirituality
Martha Ellen Stortz
Associate Professor of Historical Theology and Ethics
Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary

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Read full text of article (opens in a new browser)

November 1, 1997
Lost and Found in California: Religious Historians Discover the Pacific
Eldon Ernst
Professor of American Church History
American Baptist Seminary of the West

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Rebecca LymanNovember 1, 1996
Love and Violence: Languages of Christian Intolerance
J. Rebecca Lyman
Professor of Church History
Church Divinity School of the Pacific
 

John Coleman, SJNovember 1, 1995
Deprivatizing Religion and Revitalizing Citizenship
John Coleman, SJ
Professor of Religion and Culture
Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley

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November 1, 1994
The Pacific: Lake or Cauldron?
John Hilary Martin, OP
Professor of Theology and Philosophy
Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology

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November, 1993
Salvation of the Flesh: Contradictory Starting Points
Mary Ann Donovan, S.C.
Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley

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November, 1992
The God of Jesus in the Gospel Sayings Source
Antoinette Wire
San Francisco Theological Seminary

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November, 1991
Visions of an Interfaith Future
Durwood Foster
Pacific School of Religion

November, 1990
Scientific Research and the Christian Faith
Ted Peters
Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary

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November, 1989
The Hesitant Pilgrim: Catholic Biblical Scholarship Approaching the 25th Anniversary of Vatican II
John R. Donahue, S.J.
Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley

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November, 1988
Varieties of Mystical Nothingness: Jewish, Christian and Buddhist
Daniel C. Matt
Center for Jewish Studies, Graduate Theological Union

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November, 1987
Biblical Interpretation and Spirituality: Towards a New Testament Hermeneutics of Transformation
Sandra M. Schneiders, I.H.M.
Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley

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November, 1986
The Abundant City
Clare Benedicks Fischer
Starr King School for the Ministry

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March, 1986 (1985 Lecture)
Dogmatics in Process
Benjamin A. Reist
San Francisco Theological Seminary

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March, 1985 (1984 Lecture)
From the End of the World to the End of World: Apocalyptic as a Social Hermeneutic
William R. Herzog
San Francisco Theological Seminary

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March, 1984 (1983 Lecture)
1984 -- Orwell and Barmen
Robert McAfee Brown
Pacific School of Religion

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November, 1982
An Unwanted Legacy?
Claude Welch
Graduate Theological Union

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November, 1981
Luther and the Heart's Native Language
Robert J. Goeser
Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary

November, 1980
Ecumenical Theology: Its Possibilities and Limitations
Kenan B. Osborne, O.F.M.
Franciscan School of Theology

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November, 1979
Toward a Feminist Ethic: A Schizophrenic Witness
Karen Lebacqz
Pacific School of Religion

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November, 1978
Atheism and Contemplation
Michael J. Buckley, S.J.
Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley

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November, 1977
The Size of God
Bernard Loomer
Graduate Theological Union

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November, 1976
Dante's Comedy: A Vision of 'What Is and Was and Is to Come'
Massey H. Shepherd, Jr.
Church Divinity School of the Pacific

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