Distinguished Faculty Lectures

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

Selected audio and/or video recordings and other files for these events can be accessed through the GTU Archives in the Hewlett Library.

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
Watch the lecture
Click here to read the lecture
Click here to read the response from GTU professor, Naomi Seidman

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

November 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

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

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

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

November 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
 

November 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
 

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

November 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
 

November 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

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
 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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