Lecture

Arthur Holder, GTU Dean, Vice President for Academic Affairs, and the John Dillenberger Professor of Christian Spirituality, will speak on Religious Experience as Sacred Text at the Flora Lamson Hewlett Library's Annual Reading of the Sacred Texts.

What makes a family and who decides? Is family best understood as a social contract, a biological accident, or a reflection of Divine love? How did the idea of “nuclear family” emerge as the dominant paradigm when so many of our historic and scriptural models present alternative arrangements? How do our concepts of racial identity, sexuality, and gender influence how we approach our familial roles? How do we better serve religious families or those with multi-faith backgrounds?

People of diverse religious backgrounds encounter each other daily in coffee shops, hospitals, classrooms, and around the dinner table. What might these encounters teach us about ourselves, our neighbors, or about God? Drawing on stories from My Neighbor’s Faith (Orbis, 2012), this year's Singh Lecture will explore what these encounters tell us about the nature of transformative interfaith work today.